Edge of Escape, now $.99 on Kindle

Here's another excerpt from chpt. 1 of EDGE OF ESCAPE:

Eddie had a crush. Becky was the cutest girl in the school. He couldn’t remember when he didn’t like her. He named all of his cats after her. There was Rebbie, Becker, and Lil Beck. Sometimes he would just watch his cats out by the tool shed as they pounced on mice and played with them. He could sit as still as they did and he mimicked their movements, snatching imaginary victims and swatting paws, slowly devouring helpless rodents. Eddie, of course, didn’t eat mice but he would pretend that he was catching a certain girl and kissing her.

At the bus stop he just stared at his shoes but his peripheral vision was extraordinary and he was aware of Becky looking at him as well as the yellow of the school bus drawing nearer. His heart began to pound harder. He could feel it in his neck and he could hear it in his ears. He would be a cat now; what would Rebbie or Becker do? If Becky was his mouse this morning could he stay still enough to catch her? The Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland grinned a lot, maybe he should smile. He raised his eyes, turned his head slightly and smiled at Becky.

Time stood still for Eddie. He looked into her eyes in that first quarter of a second and just knew that she would one day be with him. The next quarter of a second played on his mind’s eye like a tiny television showing reruns of every moment that Becky had ever shown an awareness of him. But that last half a second sent his heart rocketing down through his stomach as Becky turned away without smiling back. Eddie was crushed.

copyright 2010 by Debra Chapoton