I just found this writing fragment, which eventually became the backbone of my new novel, The Recluse Storyteller. I wrote the following in December 2011. It wasn’t until June of 2012 that I actually wrote the entire novel, so this is a just an unvarnished glimpse into what started it all. It’s completely unedited and lacking in structure and purpose, but it’s an interesting starting point to what became a very unexpected novel for me. The following eventually became part of Chapter 1. At the point of writing this, I didn’t know that Red Hat would be inspired by Margaret’s (the storyteller) real neighbor from across the hallway, Michael Cheevers. Margaret sees glimpses of her neighbor’s lives from behind discretely cracked doors and uses those images to create elaborate stories. What I also didn’t know at this point was that the stories that she tells would impact the lives of her neighbors, whom she spent an inordinate amount of time trying to avoid at all cost. Please don’t judge my novel from this piece of writing. haha! It was merely the point of germination. I do hope you’ll check out the the full novel upon release. 

“Red hat.”

She heard him shuffling his feet in the hallway, and she quickly scampered to the door, put her ear flush against it, and listened intently as he plodded down the steps.

“tttu, ttu, ttu,” she mimicked the sound of his footsteps descending the wooden staircase.

“Out the door, out the door.”

She ran to the window and waited for Red Hat to exit. A few seconds later, he stood on the street corner, computer bag strapped over his shoulder, and hailed a cab.

“Red hat takes flight.”

She placed her face up against the window pane and squinted northward as the cab onto Birch about a block down and drove out of sight.

“Red had takes flight.  Delta team. Do you copy?”

“Copy. From the roof of the Hetchworth Building, we have a clear visual.  Do you want us to take the shot?”

“No.

“Are you sure?  We may never…

“I said ‘no’.”

“He had never spoken with such conviction.  He had to be tough on this one.  Every piece of flesh and bone in his body called out for him to give the order.  It would have solved a lot.  It would have solved everything. But he knew it would have been the wrong thing to do.

“Delta team lowered their weapons and watched as Red Hat traveled the seven blocks of Birch and disappeared in the tunnel.  It was over.
“’What’s going on?’ Delta’s commander

“Just come back.”

“’But….’”

“’Just come.’”

“Williams stood at the window almost shaking his head himself that he refused to give the order.  They will have his head for this.  He knew it.  He didn’t care, except he worried for his wife who would not understand why he chose to do what he did.  But little Meagan walked in with Agent Morris just as he pondered his wife’s response.  Meagan had taken a liking to Williams and boldly came over to him as he continued to stare out the window.

‘”Mister Will,” she looked far up at Williams’ face not unlike a well-trained puppy forbidden to jump.  She chin stuck out like a …..

“Yes, sweetheart.”

“Was my Daddy a bad man.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Before he left, he said he was never coming  back.”

“I suppose that’s true.  I don’t think he’ll be back.”

Williams knelt down on one knee and put his right hand behind her head.

“But you are going to be fine.”

“I’m scared.  I want my Daddy to be here.”

“I know.