PROLOGUE-1953
Susan clenched her fists and dreamt of lunging at Larry. He entered her room in his pajamas, wearing his horn-rimmed glasses like a nerd, and when he took off his spectacles, he put them on her night table and climbed on top of her. Larry was tall and sinewy, with long legs and hair the color of an apple. His body was soft because he never did anything athletic. Spreading his long legs on either side of Susan's ten-year-old body and bending down like a jockey, Larry started rocking back and forth, resembling a hobby horse. She pretended to be sleeping, but he got harder and harder. Susan felt him pressing into her. The bed began to rattle and shake. Her crayons fell to the floor. She hoped they didn't break. A new box with assorted colors, berry red, mustard yellow, deep indigo, copper, honey, gray, jet black, baby blue, and pink, had been at the end of her bed.
She took her hands and tightened her fingers around his neck. She wanted to give him a chokehold and compress his neck, but he tried to break free. Then she let go and struck his head with her left fist, her best hand. She flew at him, her fingers like claws, punching and kicking, pulling his hair, scratching his face. She wanted to strangle him to death, to slap his face and quickly closed her grip back around his neck. Not confident that she could complete this task, she removed the weapon from under her pillow and plunged a large, shiny butcher blade into his doughy side. Larry groaned in pain. Sticky blood covered both his hands and the blanket.
Susan broke her grip on Larry's body and pushed him off of her. She didn't care if he was dead because she wanted justice. Larry won't take away her life. Her eyes misted up, and relief flooded her core. And then Susan woke up.
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About the author
Patricia Striar Rohner was born in New York, New York, where her mother spent New Year’s Eve in the Doctors Hospital. She spent her childhood in South Orange, NJ, and attended Kimberley Academy, an all-girls high school in Montclair, New Jersey. She loved to paint and write and continues those endeavors today. Rohner graduated from Brandeis University, where she majored in theater arts. She later received a Masters’ in Social Work from Simmons College and a master's in Creative Writing from Lesley College in Boston.
She worked as a clinical social worker and owned and ran a gourmet kitchen shop in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Rohner has published ten short stories in literary journals, two novels, and a children's book, which she also illustrated.
Rohner has four wonderful children, a daughter and three sons, and twelve grandchildren, all of whom bring her great pleasure. She also plays golf, paints in oil, and loves the Boston Red Sox. She lives half the year in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and the other half in Boca Raton, Florida.
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