Book Five of Fate Laughs

By Janus Kane

Fate Laughs is a study of what happens when the hate, bigotry and racism that a person puts out into the universe comes back to them with a vengeance.

Book Five is told from the perspective of Amelia Gardner, a young transplant from NYC. She and her father moved to Altuna after her mother was murdered by a mugger. In his grief and anger, her father, Randy Gardner has chosen to fill himself with hate against all those who he associates with the man who killed his wife. The white supremacist environment in Altuna is the perfect breeding ground for his hatred, leaving Amelia to mourn the father she once loved and respected.

Fate Laughs is a dark and disturbing story about a Southern family that gets caught in the backlash of their own hatred and bigotry. The story is set in the late 1900's in the fictional town of Altuna, Georgia.
WARNING: this story contains graphic language and content that some, nay most, will find offensive, but I assure you it is not gratuitous and lessons are learned.
Wanda hates 'niggers and Jews.' She doesn’t have much choice, given her upbringing. Wanda is the 15-year-old by-product of life in the Whitaker household. It is a life that revolves around hatred and the teachings of a local white supremacist group. ‘Fate Laughs’ is a contemporary story that follows the tragic events that befall a Southern family that has made hate the cornerstone of their lives. As perspective cycles between the members of the Whitaker family, they learn what can happen when fate laughs at everything you believe to be true.
Jim Whitaker is the unquestioned patriarch of the family. Life has dealt him some rough blows and he spends a lot of his time trying to forget a very troubling childhood. Now, as an adult, he believes knows just who they are supposed to hate and he steers his family in that direction, with a firm hand. Betty Whitaker loves her husband and children but time has not been her friend. She is broken and resigned to living with Jim’s verbal abuse – until that abuse finally turns physical. Shooter is Wanda’s 17-year-old brother. It is his task to hold the threads of their family together after their father tears it apart. Maimed and bitter, he realizes that ‘The Purity League’ (the white supremacist group that runs their beloved town) may not be the panacea he's been taught to revere.
With the help of their new friends; Amelia – the outsider from the big city and Calub – the son of a local black couple, the Whitaker children tackle the arduous task of rebuilding their lives and holding what’s left of their family together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Janus Kane
• Release date: Aug 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9781935367659

Janus Kane

Marchbooks is a small publishing company located in Tennessee. We strive to offer books that are fun, interesting and thought provoking. We currently have two authors: Janus Kane who writes for adults and M.J. Claire who writes for tweens and young adults. Janus Kane makes his primary residence in New York City. Would-be lawyer, sales rep for a multi-line distributor, telemarketer, bartender and Kirby vacuum cleaner salesman are a few of the career paths that Kane has followed. Interesting as they were, they were all dead ends. Ultimately, fate put a pen in his hand. His first novel, 'The Little Insanity' was the result. It is a novel that shines a spotlight on the complexities of relationships and addictions. With the fast pace of a literary soap opera this first novel will be sure to please readers who follow these characters on their path of self-discovery or destruction. The 'Fate Laughs' series is another foray into the lives of a very dysfunctional group of people. This southern family is ruled by an authoritarian husband/father and his philosophy of hate. This toxic environment blows up in their faces in very short order, leaving the children to pick up the pieces. When Janus wrote this novel, we feared that it might be too 'out there', too far fetched, given the themes of bigotry and white supremacy. Unfortunately, we were all to be proven wrong as each day shows us more examples of this kind hatred in our current world. M.J. Claire is a quiet, middle-aged woman who has always had a passion for books, adventure, magic, fantasy and animals. You will find that most of her stories embody at least some of those themes. .

Book preview

Book Five of Fate Laughs

Amelia

by Janus Kane

Published by Marchbooks

Distributed by Smashwords

Copyright 2016 Elizabeth Marchand

This is a pure work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

****

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook 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 recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Other Titles by Janus Kane

Books I II, III & IV of Fate Laughs - Available through Smashwords

Book VI of Fate Laughs - Coming Soon

The Little Insanity - Coming Soon

Contents

Prologue§

Book Five - Amelia§

Other Books by Janus Kane§

Get Book Four of Fate Laughs§

Get Book Six of Fate Laughs§

Connect with March Books§

March Books Blog

Fate Laughs

by Janus Kane

Sometimes, fate laughs. Sometimes, life looks you dead in the eye and has a good old belly laugh at your expense. Sometimes, everything we think we know about ourselves, everything we believe about ourselves; our values, our beliefs, what we want, who we are, is proven to be a lie.

Sometimes Fate Laughs at the hate you send out into the universe and sends it back to bite you in the ass?

back to top

Amelia

Try as you might to hold onto what you think is yours; fate will always have the final say.

This town was so screwed up. Amelia had never seen so much hate in one place. She walked around the car again. "How do you know that it was a black kid that took your car?

I saw him. I was in the Gas n’ Go, paying from some stuff this morning. The coon came out of nowhere and jumped in my car, her father said.

Was he arrested?

Nah. Pete Stark and me followed him. We found the car, about 10 miles down the road. The nigger was long gone.

You were lucky he didn’t take anything, Amelia said, looking at several crumpled bills sitting in the center console.

I told you, those niggers are stupid.

And I guess they’re all lousy drivers too. Amelia looked at the large dent on the front fender. She knew there was more to this story, she just had no idea what it was. Amelia loved her Dad, but the death of her mother had changed him. He was working overtime to fit in with the hate mongering members of the ‘Purity League,’ but he didn’t really have the soul for it. And he was a terrible liar.

Randy Gardner never could not look his daughter in the eye even if he was telling the most harmless of lies. Amelia doubted that there was anything harmless about the lie he was telling today.

I’m going to take it to Bill’s shop. He’s going to tell me what it’ll cost to fix it. Do you want to come?

No. I have things to do around here. What time do you want to have dinner?

Don’t worry about me. I have to meet with some League members. We’ll grab something to eat in town.

Dad! Oh never mind. They had argued about this so many times. What was the point of getting into it again? Randy Gardner knew exactly how his daughter felt about his membership in the ‘Purity League.’ It wasn’t as if they had even agreed to disagree. Each of them firmly held onto the hope that the other would eventually come around to their way of thinking.

Amelia was no bible-thumping zealot, but every night she prayed for the return of the sweet and gentle man her father had been, before her mother’s death.

She watched as her father backed the Camaro out of the driveway. As Amelia turned to go back into the house, she heard a noise coming from the trees running alongside the drive. She watched silently, as Shooter emerged from the brush, pushing his bike. Hey, Thumbs, what are you doing lurking in the woods?

I wanted to talk to you, Shooter said, but not with your father around.

Amelia knew it must be serious. Her use of his nickname, ‘Thumbs’, had never before failed to get some kind of reaction out of him. Okay. Put your bike on the side of the house and come on in.

It’s about your Dad, Shooter said, as he took