Bondi Beach: Blog

Rogelio de la Vega (Jaime Camil), the father of Jane (Gina Rodriguez), on the essential element of a classic rivalry: "The best rivalries are not about the rival; they're about the insecurities your rival brings out in you-preferably in the fifth act."

-"Jane the Virgin," S3E14, "Chapter Fifty-Eight"

PROLOGUE

We're in the departure lounge. Flight about to be called. I'm remembering a conversation Sarah and I had a long time ago.

"I don't think I've met very many red-headed Sarahs."

She laughed.

"Mom told me she was going through her Old Testament phase when I was born. I guess she liked the name. I don't have much in common with the original Sarah. My family is Irish, I'm Catholic, and I'm not going to wait until I'm ninety years old to have children, that's for sure.''

For sure, that not-waiting thing. Four children in our household now, and that's probably as many as we can handle. Not to mention two dogs, three cats, and one turtle. And a snake. Jesus. Why did we ever let Allison have a snake?

It was twenty-five years for us last month, and we're heading for the island where we first met to celebrate. We still swim nude whenever we can, the kids, too, but Sarah isn't going out on that little beach alone this time. She's more gorgeous now than she was that first morning I saw her, which is why I'm going to be right there to make sure everyone knows she's taken.

****

We have a five-hour flight, a long layover in Miami, and three more hours to the island after that. The whole gang is with us, it's a splurge. Sarah and I can wrangle four kids, we're expert wranglers, but it's still going to be a tough day, even if two of the "kids" are twenty-something adults now.

There's time for me to remember and reflect.

NANOWRIMO 2018 is over, and I have a cover and over 51K words to shape into a coherent story. It's in there somewhere, I'm sure, but it will take a little while to tease it out.

A man believes the young woman came into their perfect marriage to steal his wife away, and he fears his wife will go willingly.

That's the story.

Fred is something of a sequel to Sarah's Honeymoon, but it will stand on its own.

In case the cover isn't clue enough, "Fred" is short for "Fredericka."
~JBB

I updated Amélie to fix a couple of glitches and smooth some things out. It's now available from Lulu in ePub format, and soon from the other usual places.

Amélie also has a new cover, apparently more acceptable than the original one to Lulu and its retail partners.

It's a free download, and the story as posted here with the original cover will remain here. I'm working on a print edition, too.

~ JBB

Many thanks to Lazeez for his revision to Amélie to add the three section divisions, I. SUNRISE, II. OXFORD, and III A BRIEF JOURNEY, plus the corresponding epigraphs. It looks exactly the way I had envisioned. Take a look. Thank you also to those who've commented on the story.
~ JBB