Afterburn: a novel

by Zane

  For all the sisters and brothers out here currently wasting time, please stop. I am not just talking relationships that obviously are headed in the wrong direction. I am talking about those of you who have given up on your hopes and aspirations; deciding to settle for whatever comes your way. You have to learn to be proactive and not reactive. Life waits for no one and this is the only chance you will ever get to make a difference.

  If you are not happy with your job, don’t quit—you still have bills to pay—but start to get your game plan together to do something that will make you happy. You do not have to remain in a dismal situation—no matter what others may tell you. Trust me when I say that there are many dream stealers and reality stealers lurking around you. Eight out of ten of them will say something negative or attempt to dissuade you when you discuss your life goals with them. Ignore them. Let them go. Surround yourself with positive people who have positive thoughts and you will be amazed at how quickly things will change.

  In my life, God has closed a lot of doors in my face because He knew I was headed in the wrong direction. The good part is that He opened the right doors and steered me that way. If your gut feeling tells you that you are headed in the wrong direction, turn around before it is too late.

  Many readers have asked me how do I come up with my stories. I always say the same thing. Yes, I have always been blessed with a vivid imagination but more importantly, I am one of those people who truly loves life. I take something positive away from every experience; good ones and bad ones. Everything happens for a reason. The main thing is to bring closure to anything that you begin. I love creating characters because I love human nature; how we act, how we love, how we show our emotions. I am extremely observant and it brings me joy to see people happy. It saddens me to see people in stress; especially my sisters. For one period of about six months last year, everywhere I seemed to go, sisters were being hostile to one another. Whether I was in a department store or a restaurant or just walking down the street, I would see women fussing; even though they did not know one another. I reasoned that it could not be because they disliked one another since most of them did not even know each other’s names. We are just a society of “superwomen” dealing with too much stress. Stress can do a lot of things to you—none of them good—to both your physical and emotional being. Do not let it defeat you.

  No matter how bad things seem, they could always be worse. It amazes me to see people worried sick over a flat tire or a broken nail, when there are other people living with disabilities who cherish every single moment they have on this earth. Earlier this year, I lost a dear friend who had been sick his entire life. He was not supposed to live past his tenth birthday but he almost made it to thirty also. The one thing about Kevin was that he never complained, even though he was always in severe pain, he never once complained. Even though he was in and out of the hospital throughout the years, he never complained. I only wished he had lived long enough to attend the Prince concert I had purchased tickets for him to go see. The concert was in August, but he was gone in July. His parents attended the concert in his place.

  My brother went out to a party when he was nineteen years old and never came back. My daughter lived exactly five months and five days. As I sit here typing this, my Aunt Jennie has just died on the very day I completed this novel. We all must remember:

  Life is like a coin.

  You can spend it any way you wish,

  but you can spend it only once.

  —Author Unknown

  Table of Contents

  One Rayne Waters, Age 15 Birmingham, AL June 1990 I was lying in my bed dreaming about Prince laying

  Two Yardley Brown, Age 16 White Oak, MD September 1990 I wanted my sixteenth birthday to be special;

  Three Rayne Waters, Age 19 University of Alabama Thanksgiving Day 1994 I’d decided to stay at school

  Four Yardley Brown, Age 20 North Carolina Central University October 1994 “Big Brother Smooth Operat

  True, we love life, not because we are used to living,but because we are used to loving.There is alw

  Five Rayne, Age 28, Bank Administrator Washington, DC October 2003 I should have known. I should hav

  Six Yardley, Age 29, Chiropractor I hadn’t taken three steps out of the bank when my cell phone star

  Seven Rayne If I’d had the slightest suspicion that my mother would call me on a Friday night, I wou

  Eight Yardley Felix, Dwayne, and Mike were already on the basketball court when I pulled up on Satur

  Nine Rayne Nine-fifty. Conquesto was late. If ten came around and he wasn’t there, I was planning to

  Ten Yardley I never made it into the bank that Monday. My intentions were to head that way and find

  Eleven Rayne Three Months Later The praise service was off the hook. People were stomping their feet

  Twelve Yardley “Roxie, hold up! I need to get a glass of water.”Roxie was pulling another rough ride

  Thirteen Rayne Luckily, Black Sex Goddess offered rush delivery on orders over fifty dollars. I ende

  Fourteen Yardley Super Bowl Sunday. All my boys were in the hizzzhouse! I had fools up in my penthou

  Fifteen Rayne Basil and I had a ball at the ESPN Zone. The plush leather seats and walls full of tel

  Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.—Leo Buscaglia

  Sixteen Yardley I couldn’t believe I’d done that. Then again, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t done it so

  Seventeen Rayne I decided to save Chance the trouble of ringing my phone off the hook and called her

  Eighteen Yardley I wanted to call Rayne so badly that night and tell her what a good time I’d had sh

  Nineteen Rayne The Playground Arena was packed, as usual. Adults love the chance to act like childre

  Twenty Yardley Roxie wouldn’t give up. She was still sweating me and trying to get me to commit to s

  Twenty-one Rayne Valentine’s Day Yardley and I had been seeing each other for a couple of weeks. Eve

  Life is just one damned thing after another.—Elbert Hubbard

  Twenty-two Rayne There are times in life when you wish you could crawl into a hole and drown everyth

  Twenty-three Yardley I got to Rayne’s apartment at nine o’clock on the dot that night. I was feeling

  Twenty-four Rayne We arrived at the Iron Gate Inn Restaurant on N Street in the Dupont Circle area a

  Twenty-five Yardley She’d actually made me do it. Rayne Waters had made me cry during sex. It wasn’t

  Twenty-six Rayne “Okay, I’ll bite. I know what naps are but what the hell are baps?”My mother had be

  There’s nothing in this world so sweet as love,And next to love the sweetest thing is hate.—Henry Wa

  Twenty-seven Yardley The Warner Theater was packed—orchestra section, balconies, box seats, and all—

  Twenty-eight Rayne One month later, April 2004 “Chance, what’s the emergency?” I asked, having answe

  There are two ways to live your life.One is as though nothing is a miracle.The other is as though ev

  Twenty-nine Yardley Two Months Later, June 2004 I wanted everything to be absolutely perfect for my

  Thirty Rayne “I know you don’t want to talk, but we have to.”Momma was rubbing my back while I laid

  Thirty-one Rayne August 2004 “How’s my girl, Arjay?” Boom asked me as she put the finishing touches

  Thirty-two Yardley September 2004 There’s nothing like birthday sex. Rayne and I brought my thirtiet

  You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough.—Joe Lewis

  Thirty-three Rayne October 2004 I hated it when the weather lived up to my name. It had been gorgeou

  Thirty-four Yardley As I sat there, listening to Chance deliver Rayne’s eulogy, I found it difficult

 

 

 
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