Weaker Sex

By J.T. Cummins

When a handsome drifter rents a room in a sleepy southwestern border town hotel, his secretive behavior attracts the unwanted attention of the owner’s inquisitive teenage daughter. With a bent for forensics and an obsessive need to redeem herself from a past sin, the girl insinuates herself into the tenant’s dark world and exposes a deadly secret that threatens her and those she loves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.T. Cummins
• Release date: Jan 31, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452302102

J.T. Cummins

J.T. Cummins (aka James Cummins) is an American suspense author and screenwriter who utilizes internet distribution to micro-publish his fast-paced, short enovels directly to econsumers everywhere.By coupling the active voice and minimal exposition of the screenplay with the narrative conventions of the novel, Cummins produces lean, mean, mind’s eye movies designed to be read in about the same time it takes to watch a feature length motion picture. This technique provides digital consumers with an exciting reading experience specifically geared to their electronic devices, and busy, modern day lifestyles.THE MOVIE YEARSCummins studied art and film/video at the California Institute of the Arts under the only full character animation scholarship awarded by the Walt Disney Company during the institute’s 1978-79 academic year.J.T. Cummins’ early career was as a conceptual illustrator, sculptor and special make-up effects artist for film and television, notably The Thing, House, Strange Invaders, and Enemy Mine. Frustrated by the way his work was being presented on film, Cummins left the effects industry in 1990 to establish himself as a screenwriter and director with the horror movie classic The Boneyard, followed by Dark:30, and Harbinger.A CAREER DETOUREarly in 2002, Cummins’ life took a dramatic turn as a direct result of open heart surgery to replace a defective mitral valve. During his recuperation, and in recognition of the debt he felt he owed the Los Angeles branch of the American Heart Association for providing information that helped save his life, Cummins wrote and illustrated the inspirational picture book for all ages Good Things to Share. Through book sales, bookstore signings, school appearances, and special AHA fundraising events, Cummins raised and donated proceeds to benefit the organization’s venerable children’s health education program Jump Rope For Heart. JRFH reaches over 5 million elementary school children every year, and since its inception 25 years ago, has raised over $325 million for research against heart disease and stroke.THE eBOOK REVOLUTIONA prolific writer with a D.I.Y. aesthetic, Cummins carved out a niche for himself early in the ebook revolutioin by self-publishing efiction exclusively for the digital market. His extensive backlist includes the bestselling mystery Cobblestones, and the horror-adventure The Jitters. His suspenseful enovels are all available for digital download in the most popular formats for a wide range of ereading devices at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.WHAT READERS ARE SAYINGCompulsive reading -— Debbi Mack, Identity CrisisFast-paced —- Scott Nicholson, The Red ChurchEntertaining —- Red Adept, Amazon ReviewEasy and fun -— Kelley Sweet-Jensen, ReaderBlazing fast -— Kevin LeVick, Reader

Book preview

WEAKER SEX

by

J.T. Cummins

and

Douglas Nabors

Smashwords Edition

Published by PopPix Press

Los Angeles, California

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE NOTICE

Weaker Sex Copyright © 2010 James Thomas Cummins. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should purchase your own copy at Smashwords. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

CONTACT

Author and rights holder J.T. Cummins may be contacted at: [e-mail] or online at: www.jtcummins.com

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Baptized in the Hollywood trenches, author and screenwriter J.T. Cummins began his career as a special make-up effects artist on such films as House, Strange Invaders, Enemy Mine, and The Thing, and later as a screenwriter and director of The Boneyard, Dark:30, and Harbinger. He is the author of the suspense thrillers Cobblestones, Minus Four, and The Jitters.

Douglas Nabors was a producer on the Emmy-award winning television show Monk for seven seasons, and was involved in early development of Sci-Fi’s re-imagination of Battlestar Galactica.

As writers, J.T. Cummins and Douglas Nabor’s diverse creative backgrounds manifest themselves in an aggressive narrative style that merges the immediacy of the screenplay and the intimacy of the novel. Utilizing an active voice and minimal exposition, Cummins and Nabors have created a lean, mean, mind’s eye movie geared to a busy, modern audience that enjoys reading smart, fast paced, exciting fiction — all in about the time it takes to watch a feature length motion picture.

ONE

On the outskirts of a dying desert border town, a weather-beaten, three-story Victorian era hotel squats lizard-like against the arid, dusty landscape. Eerily, a hot wind kicks up, and a dust devil roams with a life of its own across the front porch. Caught in the turbulence, a posted metal sign that reads Rooms to Let - Short or Long Term, rattles in the breeze. As if in response, a stray dog barks in the distance.

Inside a sorry, second-story efficiency unit, handsome, thirty-year old Kevin Trent lies prone on the kitchen floor. Clad simply in T-shirt, Levis, and cowboy boots, Trent rolls onto his washboard stomach with a groan, and considers his latest sin.

Beside him, flat on his back lies Jaime Rodriega Hoover. Thirty-six-years old, the beefy, Hispanic man sports a long brown pony-tail, a gold tooth, and an open pocket knife — which protrudes incongruously from his right temple.

With a grumble, Trent untangles his limbs from Hoover and moves to his knees. With difficulty, he wrenches a lunch-size thermal cooler from beneath the dead man’s body and stands to his wobbly feet. Oddly pleased with his meager acquisition, Trent takes a step through the kitchen threshold and his boot heel unexpectedly skids in a spatter of blood. The man staggers and catches himself, but he inadvertently drops the cooler. His eyes wide, Trent watches in horror as the container hits the floor, pops its lid, and ice cubes spill everywhere. Amidst this impromptu landscape of miniature frozen crags rests a small, flat, round container.

Trent quickly kneels and gingerly checks the tin’s biohazard seal for damage. The seal intact, he utters a sigh of relief and stows the container back inside the cooler — totally unaware that he has left a bloody handprint on its side. Upset by his own clumsiness, Trent viciously flips a helpless straight-back chair across the room.

~~~~

In the manager’s three-bedroom apartment below, scantily clad, eighteen-year-old looker Danielle Danny Dixon, hears the soft strike from above and she glances from her ironing to the ceiling. Cora, there it is again.

At the dining room table, clad in a baggy military jacket and torn jeans, fourteen-year-old grunge kid Cora Dixon ignores her sister and continues to read the morning paper and chow down on a bowl of Cap’n Crunch.

I knew I heard something, Danny reiterates as she folds a work shirt that bears the logo Food Bag. Do me a favor, Cora. Grab Trent’s rent before he’s off to work?

You do it, Cora mumbles, her mouth full of cereal. You’re the one who thinks he’s ‘hot.’

I’m not dressed.

Since when has that mattered? Strangely, Cora unscrews the cap off a bottle of Pepto-Bismol and adds a neon pink dollop to her cereal.

"C’mon Cora, be a pal?

You do it," Cora says and shovels a spoonful of the Cap’n into her mouth.

Danny scowls. You know the rules Cora, when Mom’s doing her stewardess thing, I’m in charge of everything here. That includes you, your ulcer... Abruptly, Danny bolts to Cora’s side, reaches into her jacket pocket and yanks out a diary. And any secret diaries I happen upon.

Hey, Cora protests and makes a grab for her book.

Danny giggles and jumps atop a chair to avoid Cora’s clutches.

Give me that back!

Danny holds the diary out of Cora’s reach and recites an imaginary passage. ‘May 12th. Dear Diary, I had my first period today. It was a real gusher!’

It’s not a diary stupid, it’s a journal!

Angry, Cora kicks the chair out from under Danny, who loses her balance and tumbles to the floor — miraculously unhurt. With Danny earthbound, Cora jumps on her sister, straddles her waist, and begins to tickle her ribs. Give, Danny! Give it up!

Cora,