Rewrite -- Chapter 3
(Billy Gives Tommy Wayne the Side-Eye; Paul and Maxey Hit the Road to Iowa)
*** Hello, my favorite people in the entire universe — other than my wife and kids and my dad and my sister (sometimes — just kidding). Also, the cute little character Rocky in Project Hail Mary. Here is Chapter 3 of my unpublished novel that was actually up for publication, except the publishing house had fallen on tough times.
If you have not read Chapters 1 or 2, here are the links. Enjoy!
https://hatcherfictionwriter.substack.com/p/michael-hatchers-unpublished-novel. (Chapter 1A)
https://hatcherfictionwriter.substack.com/p/rewrite-chapter-1b (Chapter 1B)
https://hatcherfictionwriter.substack.com/p/rewrite-chapter-2 (Chapter 2)
Paul and Maxey on the way to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop Reunion. One is having more fun than the other. Guess which one.
3.
During the drive to Trenton, Billy noticed Tommy Wayne studying him out of the corner of his eye.
“You ever been to Trenton?” Tommy Wayne said.
Billy nodded. “Yeah. Lots of times, actually. My parents took me and Terry here when we were kids.”
Tommy Wayne flashed a smile. “You’re still a kid.”
“Well, yeah. I meant a little kid.”
“Oh … gotcha.” Tommy Wayne winked at Billy. “They took y’all to the big city, huh?”
Billy cut his eyes at Tommy Wayne and grinned back at him. A grin he didn’t quite feel.
Yeah, it was a blast. Sitting in that car by ourselves while my folks went off to take care of “business.” Came stumbling back after. Mama with that dazed look in her eyes. Her clothes always looking different than when she left. All messed up and just off, like she’d put them on in a hurry. People staring at my folks like they were trash blown down the street. Me sitting close to Terry for protection.
Yeah, good times.
I used to ask Terry what they were doing, what was taking so long. She got this look in her eyes, like she was ashamed.
While we were waiting, crouching down, hoping none of the folks lurching by like Frankenstein would spot us, Terry would distract me with stories about villains and damsels in distress and the good guys who rescued them. As she was telling these tales, she’d get a gleam in her eye — like she was waiting for her own knight to take her away from the hell of this life.
