KERES

I took another stab at writing the beginning on Leonie's story arc for my novel Keres. This is at least the FOURTH attempt and I think I might be getting closer to a keeper. This may not be the one that ends up in the book, but it's better than the first three tries.

The prologue is available here: http://www.simple-assault.com/Stories/KERES.doc

The chapter I started writing, which eventually will not be chapter one of the novel, but Leonie's first chapter, I will post here:

(Go easy on me, it's the first draft.)

Ten Years Later

Chapter One

Joel Stipes had a problem with authority, which was this: He hated it. Senior faculty, mostly men, in tweed suits sitting behind a table, glaring at him over their stupid bi-focal lenses, he hated that. Each one of them had a framed piece of paper in their offices that gave them the right to squander his dreams with a simple “No, Joel, we don’t find it appropriate for you to take your vocal jazz class to the Southwest this summer.” Screw ‘em. If Utah meant pulling the vocal jazz band tighter together, he’d be damned before a room of fuddy-duddies could stop him. No more than one week after school let out, he was on that plane with five of his students, and no one was the wiser.

“Where the hell is Amber?” he asked.

The stewardess motioned to his seat. “Sir, will you please sit down? The plane is about to take off.”

“Wasn’t talking to you.” He pointed at Leonie, his star alto. “Leo, Amber, where?”

Leonie gave a dramatic shrug from across the aisle. “Don’t think she’s coming, Duke.”

Keys leaned over Leonie, stretching her seat belt to its limit. “Oh yeah, Amber called me and said she can’t come.”

“What? When was this?” Joel Stipes, affectionately known as Duke by his students, nudged the stewardess aside to get a full view of Keys.

“I dunno. When we were standing in the gate.”

Duke grabbed at his hair. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Keys sat back in her seat and proceeded to suck from her soda straw. “Forgot,” she said out of the corner of her mouth.

He put out his hand. “Give me your phone.”

The stewardess tried gently to put his hand down. “Sir, we’re about to take off. The use of any electronic devices is prohibited at this time. I urge you to take your seat and buckle…”

Duke pointed a finger in her face, feeling his authority redeemed. “No, you listen. I’ve got a plane of high schoolers that I’m responsible for. I got one kid who’s not on the plane and I need to talk to her to find out what’s going on. Keys, give me the goddamn phone!”

Leonie scooted down in the seat, trying really hard to keep from smiling. She loved it when Duke made a mess of things, at least when it didn’t harm her directly. Those phony flight attendants had no idea who they were dealing with.

Keys obediently handed over her pink cell phone.

“How do you work this thing?” Duke mumbled to himself, repeatedly punching little plastic buttons. “Make it work!”

Keys sighed and unbuckled her belt. She leaned over Leonie, who looked at the stewardess. She had her hand on her hip and was glaring at Leonie, not sure how to deal with this. Leonie mouthed “Sorry.”

A moment later, Duke was yelling at a teenage girl twenty miles away. “Grounded my ass! We need that soprano part or we’re nothing. Get your mom on the phone, Amber.”

That’s when the stewardess snatched the phone away. “I’ll give this back at the end of the flight,” she said and stalked away.

“Hey!” Duke shouted back. He opened his mouth to say more, but another stewardess came up behind him and helped him back into his seat. She didn’t leave until she knew for certain he was safely buckled.

Once she’d gone, Keys, having returned to her seat, leaned over Leonie again and whispered, “Way to go. That’s my phone.”

“Well, you should have told me Amber called when we were still in the airport. You know, the punishment goes with the person that actually did the screwing up.”

She put her hand up to keep him from lecturing further. “Yeah, yeah.”

“You know what this means, right? You’re promoted to lead soprano.”

“I don’t sing.”

“You do now.” He turned and looked down the aisle. “Hey, can I get something to drink?”

Keys sat back in her seat and put her headphones on. “Psycho,” she muttered.

Leonie dug around in her backpack and pulled out her paperback. Ignoring Duke’s pleading with the airline employees, she engulfed herself back into her book. It wasn’t long before she found herself reading the same paragraph three times without comprehension. Her mind kept drifting back to the field trip at hand.

Firstly, she’d been amazed that it had actually come into affect what with Duke’s unorganization and the low budget of her school district. She couldn’t believe the board of directors had actually given him the okay to take the jazz band to Utah, but then again, the whole thing with permission slips and fundraising had been a little sketchy. With putting the program under the alias of Wintercabin Bookclub and fundraising only off school property, she had to wonder how many corners he’d cut to get them this far.

Secondly, she was no musical prodigy like Keys. Keys had been playing piano since she was like three years old. She wasn’t even really part of the jazz band, but Duke insisted on bringing her along as the teacher’s assistant because he needed an instrument to get them in tune, and he sure didn’t know how to play anything. Even the three boys sitting on the plane somewhere behind her either had a good decade of vocal training or natural talent. She felt she’d been an accident. She’d been placed in choir class because her art class had been canceled. There, Duke had discovered her skill and recruited her in the after school club, Vocal Jazz Band I. This caused some resentment among the other musicians, especially Amber. She wouldn’t admit it to Duke, but she was glad the prissy soprano had gotten grounded.