Jimmy
Parker is a typical high school student. Unpopular with the girls and picked on
by the boys, he’s just trying to survive long enough to escape the tiny
Pennsylvanian town of Knorr. With Jimmy and his friend, George, heading to the
school dance, they expect nothing but the usual ritual humiliation from their
peers. But when a girl in a brilliant blue dress enters their lives at the side
of a lonely old bridge…everything changes.
Her name is Sapphire, and she is
the most alluring girl that Jimmy has ever met. Yet, there is something strange
about her; something different. Why has he never seen her at school? Why does
she only want to meet up near the bridge? And why does everybody keep warning
Jimmy to stay away from her?
Before long, Jimmy is plunged
into a decades-old mystery. The town of Knorr has many secrets; some held by
powerful men. Men that would do anything to keep them from getting out.
Something dark happened one night in Knorr, and now Jimmy is a part of it
whether he likes it or not.
And Sapphire holds the key to
understanding it all.
Jimmy discovers that his bond
with the mysterious girl creates a unique power between them. A power that
bridges time, space, and even dimensions. It is the one thing that could save
them both.
Because sometimes the most
powerful force on Earth is love.
Praise for
Sapphire:
“A
superb, well written story with a 50 year timeline. Initially a ghost story
that turns into a mystery that becomes adventure and investigation turns again
into a whodunit.” ~Robert Drake, Amazon Reviewer
“I was drawn to this
book for the cover and it had been recommended to me by friend who knows my
love of Western PA. I thought this book really captured the rural feel of a
teenager's life and just as I was feeling a little complacent about it, Jimmy
and George meet up with Sapphire on the river bank and the story really takes
off.” ~Mary H., Amazon Reviewer
“A story of mystery
and murder. A chilling, ghostly tale. An account of the pains and joys of
youth, a romance, a love story like no other.” ~Daniel Cheely, Amazon
Reviewer
Bryan W. Alaspa is a freelance writer
and professional author of both fiction and non-fiction. Having lived in
Chicago almost his entire life, he spent a few years living in St. Louis.
Bryan's writing first began when he sat down and wrote a three -page story on
his mom’s electric typewriter in the third grade. It’s been all up-hill since then!
With over 20
books in both fiction and non-fiction genres available, you can find most of them at Amazon.com with
few books just for your Kindle and iPad users.
Be sure to check them out.
A blogger for
some time, you can learn about upcoming books as well as various author events
Bryan is involved in.
had given him as a kid
when he wanted a toy that was just too expensive. It was the same look she had given him when
he begged her for a cell phone. And he
saw the exact same look from her whenever he talked about needing a car.
Sapphire (excerpt)
by
Bryan W. Alaspa
1
Jimmy stood in front of
the full-length mirror and did not like what he saw. The sleeves were too short. The white cuffs of his shirt stuck out from
the sleeves of his jacket. Any dork
could see that. Unfortunately, most of the student body at Knorr High School
already thought of him as a dork. The
last thing he wanted was feeling that way during his senior prom. However, here he was, looking at an image
that could only be described as “dork.”
“No one will notice,”
said his mother from behind him. She was
hovering over his shoulder like a specter. She was smiling and proud. “You can take it off once you get there, and
no one will even be paying any attention.
Everyone will be too busy having a good time to care what you’re
wearing.”
Jimmy sighed and tugged
uselessly at the jacket’s sleeve. “Mom,
you just have no clue.”
She came forward and
hugged him. Then she leaned in and
kissed him on the cheek. Jimmy felt even
more like a geek.
“I’m not supposed to,”
she said. “Mothers are not supposed to
have a clue.”
“Why couldn’t I have
rented one?” Jimmy asked for the
nine-hundredth time that afternoon.
“You know why,” she said,
turning her back and fussing with something out of his sightline. “We can’t afford it. Your uncle had this perfectly serviceable
tuxedo and it’s a shame not to use it.”
She reappeared beside him in the
mirror, her hand on her hip. Her mouth
was a tight line. Jimmy knew that poking
at the nerve that they were not a family of means was a low blow. He had seen that look before. This was the same look she
“I spent a lot of time
getting the shirt and pants to fit you,” she said. “I did the best I could with the jacket. If you want, you can spend the night at home
with me instead of going at all. So,
either deal with this situation the best you can or don’t go. I really don’t care.”
She cared. Jimmy knew she cared. She and his father had worked their fingers
to the bone to provide for Jimmy. The
family had never gone hungry. They had
never been without clothes. They may
have shopped for their new school wardrobe at Goodwill, but they had
clothes. They may have eaten more
macaroni and cheese than others, but they were never hungry. Their car may have been rusted through and
coughed out oily blue smoke, but they always got where they needed to go. The house may have been run down and it may
have been in the part of town most of the other kids avoided, but they always
had a roof over their heads. Then his
father had died, suddenly, a few years ago.
The pain was always there, behind Jimmy’s eyes, lurking around every
corner. His dad had done what he could
to make sure his family was cared for, but it had not been easy. His mother worked very hard.
Jimmy smiled his crooked
smile. “Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I
appreciate it, Mom. Come on, it wouldn’t
be a weekend if I didn’t complain about something.”
His mother’s face
softened and then her smile returned.
Jimmy managed to turn away, searching for the bow tie, before she could
plant another kiss on him. He was only
willing to be gracious up to a certain point.
He found the tie and fiddled with it for a moment. When he turned back toward the mirror his
mother was fiddling with something behind him again. He affixed the tie and straightened it. He took another look. His image still said “dork,” but he had lived
with that image for a long time.
Before too long he would
be elsewhere, and all of the things he had gone through in high school would be
over. He could live with looking like a
dork for another night. Besides, he was
going with his best friend George, anyway, so things couldn’t get too bad.
“When is George getting
here?” his mother asked.
“About five more
minutes,” Jimmy said.
“I wish you two had
managed to find some nice girls to ask,” his mother said.
“Mom, there isn’t a girl
in Knorr High School that would be caught dead attending the senior prom with
Jimmy Parker or George Howell,” he said as he adjusted his tie one more
time. It immediately went crooked again,
and he decided that the tie really didn’t matter.
“I’m sure that’s not
true,” his mother said.
Jimmy turned to face her. “Mom, trust me on this one. George and I are not the most popular kids in
school. In fact, we are far from it.”
She reached out and
pinched his cheeks. This was the one
thing worse than the kiss on the cheek.
One thing was certain: his mother had some kind of cheek fetish.
“But you’re such a smart,
nice kid,” she said.
Jimmy snorted. “Mom, even in your day the smart and nice
kids were not the popular ones in school, were they?”
She put her hands on his
shoulders. “I found your father in high
school. He was smart and nice.”
“He also played
football,” Jimmy said.
“He was the kicker,” she
said. “You know, back in the old days
when dinosaurs walked the Earth, and your father and I were young.”
“Kickers still wear
uniforms,” Jimmy said. He paused to make
sure his hair looked OK one more time.
The cowlick towards the back of his head was still there despite the
industrial strength hair gel he had put in there.
Just then, the phone
rang. Jimmy’s mother vanished into the
kitchen and Jimmy turned back to the mirror and adjusted his tie for the
millionth time. He also tried to plaster
his hair down, but to no avail. He sighed. He was always going to look this way, right?
“Jimmy,” his mother said,
returning to the bedroom. “It’s Jesse.”
Jimmy smiled. Jesse was the town’s librarian. The library was small, but filled with
wonder, as far as Jimmy was concerned.
It overlooked a river and was surrounded by touristy attractions, but
inside it was all books and musty smells.
Jimmy had buried himself there when his father died and Jesse had taken
a kind of liking to him. It may have
been a stretch to say that Jesse was a father figure, but their relationship
was pretty close. Jimmy ran to the
phone.
“Hey, Jimmy! Are you
looking sharp in your suit?” Jesse asked.
Jimmy laughed. “Jesse, I would not look sharp wearing a suit
full of razor blades.”
“Come on, you know that
isn’t true,” Jesse said. “I’m sure you
and George will have a good time. Maybe
try to get up the nerve to ask a girl to dance.”
“I wouldn’t put money on
that,” Jimmy said. “I’m betting most of
the girls there arrive with dates.”
“You just never know,”
Jesse said. “I had a pretty amazing time
the night of the big dance when I was your age.
And I ended up going with a beautiful girl, to boot. You need to be a bit more positive.”
A honk came from
outside. This was followed shortly by a
sound that was only slightly quieter than a Howitzer shell going off in the
living room. George had arrived with his
car. The engine settled into a low
rattle as the car set about trying to shake itself to pieces again.
“Yo, Jimmy!” came the
bellow from the car. That could only have been George leaning out the driver’s
side window. George was not known for
being subtle.
“That sounds like
George,” Jesse said.
“Yeah, that’s him,” Jimmy
said.
There was a pause. It seemed like there was more to say, but
anything else would have crossed some line between them and that line was still
held by Jimmy’s father, even though he was gone.
“You be careful tonight,
Jimmy,” Jesse said. “Come by the library
when you can and tell me all about it or give me a call tomorrow.”
“I will,” Jimmy said, and
paused, then added. “Thanks for calling.”
“You bet,” Jesse said.
Then he was gone, and
Jimmy ran back to the bedroom. His
mother was there with her hands to her throat in an unconscious anxious gesture
she often did, looking as if maybe she had been crying. His mom appreciated how Jesse looked after
him, but the pain of losing his father was still there. Jimmy smiled and gave her a kiss on the
cheek. Another honk came from outside,
so Jimmy had to move.
Jimmy tried to move past
his mother, but she grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him back and looking
him full in the face again. She smiled,
and, much to Jimmy’s consternation, he saw tears swimming in her eyes. She was about to give him some sort of speech
about how proud she was of him. It would
be similar to one she had given him when he had first gotten the scholarship to
attend Clark University.
“Be careful,” she said
instead, her voice quavering. “And have
fun.”
Jimmy smiled. This time, he leaned in and kissed her on the
cheek. He left quickly just because he
did not want to see her cry. He ran down
the hall and through the living room.
Jimmy bolted through the
door and heard it bang shut behind him. George was hanging out the window of
his car, his tuxedo jacket already tossed in the backseat. He had a huge grin on his face, his hair
already wild and windblown from driving with the window down.
“Come on, the party
awaits!” he yelled in the rather odd way of speaking that George had and that
so marked him as an outsider, and leaned back into the car, reaching over the
passenger’s seat to unlock the door.
“What’s it waiting for?”
Jimmy asked as he opened the large, rusty door with a loud screeching sound.
“Us, my man,” George said
as Jimmy planted his ass on the passenger seat and slammed the door. “It is waiting for us.”
Jimmy laughed. “You do live in an amazing fantasy world.”
George leaned around the
passenger seat to peer out the back window as he shifted into reverse. “You should move into my world, my friend,”
he said. “Plenty of room, and the fun
never stops.”
Jimmy laughed again. He thought that maybe it would be a night to
remember, after all. Once Jimmy was situated in the passenger seat, as often
happened when he was with George, Jimmy’s own form of speech slipped into the
oddly formal way that George spoke.
“Then lead on, sir,” he said. “Lead on!”
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