"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
- Anais Nin
Friendship has been an important theme in all of my novels – it’s been the basis of all the romantic liaisons, the backbone to support someone through a tough situation, and the reason for trust.
Friendship is tried, tested, questioned and demonstrated many times throughout Hyphema.
Matt Garratti moves his family away from their New York friends to a small town in North Carolina when he gets a job as a flight medic. His wife Sudah is a Pakistani-born Muslim and greeted with suspicion and rudeness. Matt’s coworkers and their families are a tight knit group despite the hostility Sudah receives from one of the wives because of her religion. Then there is Raja, Sudah’s cousin, whose self-centeredness presents just one more obstacle to making friends.
When strange things happen that scare and threaten Matt’s family, it is friendship that helps them, lends them a shoulder, strength and courage.
(excerpt)
Raja argued with them about going to the bowling alley with everyone. She insisted that she had to stay home and take care of Aden, but Matt had already arranged for Dory to come over and babysit.
Matt wanted to get Sudah out of the house for some fun. It had been a while since they did anything socially. She had been making friendships before Raja got there and now it seemed all she did, except for her classes, was spend time pampering her cousin.
“But I do not feel in comfort around your friends. They are not fun.”
“Raja, they are very nice people. You will have fun.”
“I do not know anything about bowling. I will not enjoy it.” She averted her eyes away when Matt looked at her.
“Come on Raja,” Matt forced a laugh. “This really sounds like a lot of fun.” He turned to his wife. “Babe, according to Laurie it’s nothing like the bowling we did up in New York. She says that was ten-pin bowling. We’re going duckpin bowling.”
“What is the difference Matt?” Sudah was curious.
“Well as I understand it the balls are much smaller, the pins are smaller, and you get three shots each frame instead of two.”
“The ball is smaller?” Sudah laughed lightly. “This is good. I was afraid I was going to drop the ball and it would roll back and hit you last time.” She turned towards Raja. “Oh please Raja, you must come. Dory will watch Aden. Come have fun with us.”
Trisha told her husband who told Matt that the girls had been trying to get Sudah and Raja to come out with them, but every time they stopped by Raja complained that she was too tired or had too much to do. Matt was sure the women were also just plain curious what Sudah’s cousin was like.
“I will go, but it will not be fun for me.”
Matt wasn’t going to waste any time. He wanted to rush them out to the car right away before Raja could change her mind again. As soon as Dory got there he did push the two women out the door.
It was a lot of fun. Even Donna was on her best behavior, she still wasn’t very friendly to Sudah but at least she was polite. As for the game Matt felt like he should be pitching the balls towards the pins instead of just rolling them down the alley. Maybe this version wouldn’t replace the good old fashioned ten pin bowling he was raised on as a kid, but the group couldn’t stop laughing and having serious fun. Even his normally reserved wife was laughing out loud.
He was irked that Raja made a point of not enjoying herself and staying out of the main group. She was being stupid, this was a great chance to make friends and have fun. She was blowing it. Fortunately Matt could tell by some of he looks he shared with his friends that everyone understood what Raja was doing. No one paid her temper tantrum any extra attention.
Matt’s last ball of the game knocked down the remaining two pins still standing.
“One-oh-six. That was a very good game.” Ginny looked at the score sheet.
“Hmmph. Next time we’ll have to see if you are any good at ten pin.” Frank was busy laughing.
After missing the pins completely in the first two throws of that frame, Sudah finally knocked all ten down with her third ball. She squealed with delight when she saw that she scored forty-two.
My website is http://ChelleCordero.com and my blog is http://ChelleCordero.blogspot.com
A video trailer is at http://youtu.be/8IcK1NN7P2E
You can purchase Hyphema for the
Kindle from Amazon (http://amzn.to/fEYUR7) or through
Smashwords for multiple e-book formats (http://bit.ly/epqtjy)
You can read a sample of Hyphema at http://bit.ly/ezia8N
Comments (2)
Charmaine, thanks so much for hosting me here today.
~Chellehttp://ChelleCordero.comMy pleasure, dear Chelle.