SFR Brigade Presents

Excerpt from Work-In-Progress (WIP), This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, Volume II, The Spanners Series, by Sally Ember, Ed.D.

from CHAPTER SNAPSHOT #9

Snapshots of Clara’s Daily Life: Fourteen Octobers, 1963 – 2017

October, 2012

I switch abruptly to full-on engagement mode, energetically zapping him. I ask, gently, to counterbalance the zap: “Do you love me?”

“What?” His mouth gapes at me, looking with wide eyes, his nose scrunched up, disbelieving what he hears and sensing the energy surge. “‘Do I love you?’ You just told me aliens are coming and you’re going to be a central figure in some science-fiction drama, but the main thing you want me to respond to is ‘Do I love you?’? Are you insane?”

He stands up and starts pacing around the patio.”Are you drinking? Taking drugs? Off some medication I didn’t know you’re taking? What the hell is going on with you, Clara?”

I can’t help it. I start laughing. A few giggles, then guffaws, then uncontrollable, hysterical whooping. Tears are running down my cheeks and I almost pee my pants.

Fanio stops and stares at me as my hilarity escalates. He sits down to wait for it to subside, viewing me the way a doctor views a mental patient in residential care.

Probably wishes he had a straitjacket somewhere close by. The image of his running to get that and trying to put it on me makes me laugh even harder.

Finally, my amusement wanes. How do I convince him? “No, Fanio. I’m quite sane and unaltered. I swear. I know it sounds crazy. Believe me, I do. But, everything I am telling you is about to happen. It’s all true.”

I decide to try a different tactic.”Pretend for a few minutes that you could suspend your skepticism about my story and my sanity to answer my question. Do you love me?”

“How can I believe any of this, Clara? Really? Who would believe you?”

I shrug, I shake my head. “Everyone, Fanio, in about three weeks. I’m telling you, giving you a chance to be an ‘early adopter.'”

Cover reveal for Volume II on April 15.

Cover and logo art by Willowraven.

Pre-orders for Volume II start 4/18/14. Links on author’s site. On sale everywhere ebooks are sold June 9, 2014, $3.99. Volume I, This Changes Everything, already available everywhere. Buy links on author’s site.

http://www.sfrcontests.blogspot.com for more snippets of other SFR Brigade Members’ Works-in-Progress