Bricks
Release
Date: 02/03/15
Anaiah
Press
Summary
from Goodreads:
Sixteen-year old Cori Reigns learns that
not all tornadoes take you to magical places. Some take your house, your
school, and life as you knew it. Struggling to put the pieces of her life back
together, Cori learns to rebuild what the storm destroyed by trusting family
she didn't know she had and helping friends she never appreciated.
Excerpt:
In the eerie glow from the
lantern, I sat in a ball with Slim’s long arms wrapped around me.
Only our synchronized breathing and the drum of my heartbeat
disturbed the silence.
The pizza boy screamed as the TV
flew upward. We ducked, and it slammed into the locked steel door. A
roar like a jet-powered locomotive swept over us. Wind raged through
a crack in the rattling door like the screech and cackle of a
tempest-tossed witch, fluttering the lantern’s light. Slim caught
the set as it dropped. The cord flopped at my feet, severed like it’d
been bitten by a wild animal.
Mr. Hawkins mumbled. Mrs.
Lassiter spoke to Jesus. The Mangino’s driver sat near me, his
rocking horse motion powered by gentle sobs. I forced my hand to stop
shaking long enough to reach around Slim and squeeze the boy’s hand
in mine. Mrs. Lassiter always said there are no atheists in foxholes.
There are no strangers either.
My heart passed the next few
minutes of external silence by banging like a sledgehammer against my
ribcage. Finally, Mrs. Lassiter slid past us. “Would you mind
giving me a hand, young man?”
She had to be talking to Slim.
The Mangino’s guy was still a sobbing mess.
“You okay?” he asked me.
I think I nodded.
At the top of the steps, the
metal latch clanged. Then a grunt and a shard of light.
The sounds repeated.
“I can’t get it open,” Slim
said. “It must be jammed.”
My sledgehammer heart banged
louder.
“Not jammed,” Mrs. Lassiter
told him. “Blocked.”
And louder.
Crazy thoughts and images raced
through my mind. The tiny enclosure seemed to have suddenly shrunk by
half. I couldn’t take it any longer. Being trapped in a tiny
underground bunker that smelled of perspiration and pepperoni made me
want to puke. I squeezed the pizza guy’s hand a final time and
pushed to the top of the steps to wedge myself between Slim and Mrs.
Lassiter. No one objected. It wouldn’t have mattered.
I didn’t wait for three. I
threw my shoulder into the metal door, and it slowly creaked
upward—six inches, a foot. With both feet on the steps and our
shoulders against the door, we pressed upward to provide more
leverage.
“A little more,” Mrs.
Lassiter said. “There.” She extended the metal bar to hold the
door open. My shoulders relaxed as the brace clicked into place. I
rubbed my arm and stepped into the eerie gray light.
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About the Author
Married to my bride for twenty-four years, I have an amazing
son and a wonderful daughter.
Born and raised in central Oklahoma, I work in education,
first as a teacher now in technology curriculum. I write. I read. And in the
summer I make snow cones.
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