NOVELLA
The Trial Of Summary James — Chapter Twenty
A great African nation has risen in North America. But something is… wrong: Chapter 20 of 20 in the novella.
Check out the links at the end of this story under “Notes” for additional chapters.
Chapter Twenty
“Lordy it’s hot down here,” said Sonata Holmes, taking a drink of a cool pineapple and seltzer water through a straw. A wooden bat delivered its magical sound into the stands as it struck a baseball and lofted it far over the outfield fence, which sent Thériault Mawlings’ hands clapping high into the air as he rounded the bases in triumph. Sonata and I had taken it upon ourselves to bring a very special guest to a playoff game in Port-au-Prince.
“A lady from Texas complaining about the heat,” I said, stricken as always by her company. I clapped my hands, too, as I watched Mawlings greeted at home plate by three others who scored in front of him, all of them jumping up and down like happy children.
Mawlings had finished the regular season hitting .327. I was obviously not destined to win any bets, especially now that the gambling operation had been taken out by Hiawatha. And especially, too, now that the federal government was pouring resources into what it considered congregational warfare. There was a long way to go, I knew, before all the truth would be found, and I had no idea what my role might be in finding it.
Summary James, sitting on the other side of me, jumped up and spilled his drink all over his pants while cheering on the next batter, who also hit a long home run, which all elicited a loud laugh from Sonata.
I took Sonata Holmes’s hand in mine and kissed it, comfortable with the uncertain future, but glad to be away from congregational politics, if only for a day.
— — — The End — —-
You can purchase the full novella for 99 cents here:
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20
FINAL NOTES
There have been a few grammatical changes made in this series of posts from the Kindle edition. I will be updating the Kindle version soon with these changes. They are very minor.
This short novella was unplanned. I wrote it under my legal name way back in 2021. Side note: The pen name Charles Bastille originated after the publisher of MagicLand convinced me my name would not be SEO-friendly — I’m no longer convinced that matters and haven’t decided yet if I should publish additional works under the Bastille pen name.
The novella takes place in an alternative North America that celebrates diversity, avoided genocide, and corrected the mistakes of slavery as a side-effect of a failed Revolutionary War. As such, although no human endeavor can avoid tragic error, it takes place on a much less dystopian continent than our current experience.
The world represented here is much larger than can be conveyed in such a short book. This world is more fully represented in a trilogy called Restive Souls, which begins in the late 18th century. The first book is still in final edits.
But the main character of this novella, Longman Jones, told me he wasn’t willing to wait for me to finish that longer, more serious novel. Maybe that is in part because he makes no appearance at all in the larger work.
But he is a restive soul, and he needed to get out of my head. So I took a couple of weeks off from the main novel way back in 2021, and wrote this, in hopes he’d shut up. I never really promoted it, but I’m starting to now a bit.
If you enjoy this novella, please let your friends know that for 99 cents they can spend a couple of hours with Longman in a more egalitarian world than what they may be used to. It will make him very happy if you do.
For updates on the Restive Souls series, visit https://medium.com/restive-souls. Or subscribe to my newsletter fiction here (this takes you to a site off the Medium platform).
Consider this short novella a teaser for the broader work. And if enough people like it, I suspect Longman Jones will also make another appearance or three. Whereas this is what I’d call a “potboiler,” Restive Souls is more serious business (which is why it’s taken so much longer to get out the door).
Thanks for reading!
This story was written by a human, not by AI or Grammarly GO (More Info).
Copyright © 2020–2023 Charles White
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
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Published in the United States of America