The floating book shop was surrounded by bustling activity today. 40 yards away, at the juncture of Avenue Z & Sheepshead Bay Road, Con Ed workers were installing a telephone poll, two huge rigs hampering traffic. 30 yards into East 13th, another crew was filling a large excavation in the garden of the apartment building with a 5' x 8' cement bunker. The repair of the damage done by Hurricane Sandy is near completion. The corner apartment is being painted. Soon the ground floor flats of the entire block will again be available to rent.
My thanks to the Russian gentleman who bought a stack of books in his native tongue, to the young man who overpaid for one on music, and to the guy who did a one for three swap.
Here are the opening passages from my first novel, Five Cents, which is unpublished. I began it on a November night in 1975 when I’d determined that coaching and teaching were not going to be my life. The original manuscript was filled with a young man’s know-it-all opinions -- before I learned to allow the reader to reach his/her own conclusions. When I first acquired a computer and began transferring hard copies into digital files, I made many changes to my works. The book in question was pared considerably, perhaps by as much as half. Its original bias was decidedly liberal. If it still has one at all it leans right. It’s about a Vietnam veteran readjusting to civilian life. It is not the stereotypical tale of an ex-soldier on the brink of explosion. It’s a love story and a portrait of those troubled times. Many are nostalgic for the late 60's and early 70's. I am not. The biggest difference between Five Cents and my other novels, published and unpublished, is that there are no Italian-American characters at the forefront. In fact, there is only one very minor goombah character. It is populated by what Frankie "Five Angels" Pentangeli dubbed "Waspises" in The Godfather Part II (1974). It’s set in a college town I patterned after Kalamazoo, Michigan. The excerpt is equivalent to one page:
A bead of sweat trickled down Tom’s back, accelerating as it descended, sending a chill down his spine. The warm, gentle breeze stirred the grass, casting a sweet scent into the air. He could see far beyond the open field to where the trees in the distance seemed to touch the sky. He was reminded of early morning on a campus a zillion miles away. His throat was dry, but the rest of his body was soaked with perspiration. He would not reach for his canteen for fear that it would break his concentration. He sensed trouble.
The men moved cautiously. They were ordinary young Americans from all walks of life bound by duty. Tom was exhausted, dogged by the stillness. He heard the squirming in his stomach and the squishing of his boots in the soft earth.
Suddenly there was a roar to his right, then an all too familiar bloodcurdling scream. His weapon flew from his grip. His entire life, 20 odd years, flashed before his eyes. He fell forward, right arm and nose absorbing the impact.
He lay face down, unable to move, body numb. He did not know if he’d even lost consciousness. He could not see. He knew only that he was alive. He heard gunfire and explosions in the distance. He noted a ringing in his ear.
Someone turned him over. The face was a blur.
“Hang on, big guy,” said the man.
Tom could barely hear him. He was soon hoisted onto a stretcher. He clung to a medallion. He lay helpless. He was afraid, should the fighting resume, that he would be left to die, although he knew of no one who’d been abandoned by his comrades in arms. He’d always wondered if he would make a hypocrisy of his disbelief in time of peril. He did not pray, but he wasn’t proud of himself, either. There was a person in whom he believed, but she seemed as far removed as God. He feared he would never see her again and he stifled the urge to cry out at the pain it caused him.
Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Horror Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
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