A Sackful of Quarters

Book excerpt: A SACKFUL OF QUARTERS is a collection of short stories set throughout the twelve months of the year. Each story is a seasonal account of one particular character's life experience. The glue that holds them all together is that each woman or girl originally perceives herself through familial or societal eyes, and comes to a better understanding of who she really is as a result of the incidents that occur within the story. January: FRESH SLATE, USED CHALK This story recounts the liberation of the abused wife of a prominent doctor, and how she leaves him only to discover that she is immediately drawn to an individual who, although outwardly the complete opposite of her husband, has the potential to do her harm. How she deals with the revelation establishes the foundation for a new life filled with promise. FEBRUARY: ETUDE FOR A WINTER'S AFTERNOON A fifth grade girl spends the Valentine season learning about unselfish love and class prejudice in this fifties piece set in Chicago neighborhood. The great melting pot is not as advertised. The reflection she sees in the mirror is not necessarily how others view her and she has miles to go before she sleeps. MARCH: ERIN GO BRAUGH! A prostitute in a seedy motel considers how she came to such an end. She recalls how she started out with high expectations and remembers her first real love, a mechanic in the town garage. She comes to terms with her past finally resolving the conflicts that caused her fall. APRIL: GOT THOSE AIN'T WHERE YOU ARE, PARK BENCH BLUES Once great blues singer, Jonna Knight finds herself past seventy, penniless and at the bottom of the barrel, living homeless on the streets of New York City. After spending the night under a blanket of newspapers on a Central Park bench, she encounters aspiring songstress Mona. The young Jewess joins her after dropping her portfolio, scattering its invaluable contents in the early morning wind. Mona vents her frustrations, almost oblivious of the old black woman who seems most interested in her diatribe. She's tired of "paying her dues", exhausted from daily rejections from prospective employers more concerned with her obvious ethnicity than her talent, and depressed enough to call it quits and retreat to the comfort of her affluent home. A morning chat with the legendary vocalist teaches her an invaluable lesson and earns her a surprise to boot. MAY: BLOSSOM TIME FOR MAUDE ROSE Maude Rose, a spinster who spent the fruitful years of her twenties and thirties traveling the globe with her widower father, enjoys an early summer evening on the porch with her gentleman caller. They sip lemonade. She offers him cookies, shares gossip and makes observations about the flawlessly beautiful but barren apple tree in her front yard. Her caller never speaks, but as Maude Rose rambles on his silence reveals some meaningful insights about herself and others in their small Southern community. JUNE: GEMINI WITH SCORPIO RISING Twins, one plain and one fair, come to terms with their individuality in the liberated seventies. They are both dating the same man who is equally attracted to them for different reasons. As the story unfolds, the plain sister falls deeply in love, and her beautiful counterpart learns something about her own emergent sexuality that she is both frightened and eager to share with her twin. JULY: AN ANATOMY OF THE AMERICAN DREAM GONE ASKEW A newlywed in June, pregnant in July, and far too soon for a yuppie husband who has their storybook life planned down to the last white picket in the fence that will surround their custom built house. But times have changed, and she's come a long way baby, to where