Eye of the Storm

By Xlibris US

Rafael Devereaux is a successful proposal developer in corporate America. In his early thirties, Rafael is a fiercely handsome black Creole man with smooth, light caramel skin with jet-black curly locks who turns heads of both sexes and is secretly envied by many. He followed the plan set forth by his pious Southern parents: great career, nice home, cars, and marriage. He has it all! So why does he feel so empty?

Haunted by his unresolved sexual identities of the past, Rafael begins an introspective quest for truth and self-acceptance.

Cherie is an attractive, pretentious, and calculating woman, who is self-absorbed and married to two thingsRafael and her career. She followed the plan too and married the most eligible suitor she met while an undergraduate in Cal. Everything goes according to the plan until she is confronted with her ex-boyfriend, Kelvin, a retired athlete who holds a shattering secret that will eventually shake up the perfect world that Cherie has erected.

Michael is a deep-brown and physically solid man who grew up in the parishes surrounding New Orleans. As a search and rescue specialist, he witnesses firsthand the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and suffers the loss of his friend and endearing grandmother. He is deeply affected, impacted by the storm that displaces his parents and other family members as he sets out to locate them. In the process of his journey, he is also discovering things about himself, questioning the traditional values he was raised on. His character provides us with a deeply spiritual and thoughtful commentary on how Katrina forever changed the lives of its victims on every levelphysically, socially, emotionally, economically, and politically.

One girl will bring them all together in an unforgettable way!

Fast moving and an easy read, Eye of the Storm poses the philosophical questions about our place in the universe, our relationship with God, and the circumstances that define who we truly are.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781499081749

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Thomme Webb.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2014918061

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4990-8172-5

                Softcover       978-1-4990-8173-2

                eBook            978-1-4990-8174-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This novel is a work of fiction. Any references to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. Other names, characters, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, as are those fictionalized events and incidents that involve real persons.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 03/12/2015

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Hotter Than July

Chapter 2 Landfall, Few Standing

Chapter 3 We Interrupt This Broadcast

Chapter 4 Who Will Save You?

Chapter 5 Hard Times For A Monkey

Chapter 6 Last Night He Cried

Chapter 7 Run To The Water

Chapter 8 St. Michael, Pray For Us

Chapter 9 What’s Wrong With You?

Chapter 10 Never Let Me Down

Chapter 11 Acts Of God

Chapter 12 Melancholy Blue

Chapter 13 Unforgettable Fire

Chapter 14 The Cleaners

Chapter 15 The Brotherhood

Chapter 16 Dialing The Right Code

Chapter 17 Back Door Santa

Chapter 18 Friendly Flying

Chapter 19 Please Come Home For Christmas

Chapter 20 Choices

Chapter 21 Excuse Me, Is This Seat Taken?

Chapter 22 Don’t Be Upset With Me, But…

Chapter 23 The Sky Is Falling

Chapter 24 More Monkey Business

Chapter 25 Baby New Year, I Presume

Chapter 26 Shoo Fly Pie

Chapter 27 Shock The Monkey

Chapter 28 The Black Forest

Chapter 29 Doors And Watchtowers

Chapter 30 Retribution

Chapter 31 The Accused

Chapter 32 Bird Nest

Chapter 33 Not My Boy

Chapter 34 Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler (Let The Good Times Roll) And Epilogue

This book is dedicated to my mother, the late Gloria Lee Webb, whose life inspired this book.

I share this book with the many survivors of Hurricane Katrina who suffered displacement and great emotional and material loss. In the face of adversity, your lives are a continual testament of faith and courage.

CHAPTER 1

Hotter than July

I t was a sobering end to a long, hot, and dry summer. Rafael sat beside the brook, wringing out his sweat-drenched tank over a bed of rocks. The sun was excruciatingly hot and unforgiving, and he wondered why he had decided to go on the trail alone. There was so much to settle once he returned to civilization, and he needed this time to reflect. Rafael wiped the dripping sweat from his brow, rubbing most of it into his light-complexioned skin. By now it had turned red from the heat and began to ache across his cheekbones and shoulders. He reached into the tattered green backpack, unzipping the bottom compartment to retrieve a small tube of sunblock. He was lost in thought for a few minutes as he mechanically applied the lotion to the top of his shoulders and shook his head as if to awaken from a trance. Next, he reached down again into the middle section of the backpack and took a few sips of water from a canteen. The water was cool and refreshing as it trickled down his throat. The young muscular frame of a man gazed intently into his reflection on the water. He reminded himself of the myth of Narcissus, who too once gazed so long at his own reflection in deep adoration and awe that he gave up the ghost. Rafael suffered from vanity, and on this blazing afternoon, there was the slight possibility that he might suffer a similar fate.

Rafael was a young, virile man in his early thirties. Time had always been kind to him, and he didn’t appear to be his actual age. He was often admired for his fiercely handsome good looks that appealed to both sexes. Often, men close to his age shunned him and were jealous because they felt betrayed by their own feelings of inadequacy when they were around him. It was for this reason that male friendship did not come easily. And in the event that such platonic opportunities did occur, people gravitated to him for the wrong reason. Some men and women feigned making eye contact when they looked into his deep bluish-green eyes. His light caramel skin was smooth, and his jet-black curly locks were the substance of things hoped for! In high school, he was an all-around athlete who went out for gymnastics, wrestling, and track. Although his school days had passed, the benefits of severe body conditioning and training were still evident in his musculature. For Rafael, exercise made him feel calm and grounded. It was a spiritual experience that made him feel one with everything around him. As an adult, he continued a regimen of hiking, running, and hitting the gym a few times a week. Hiking, in particular, cleared his mind, and he preferred to do it alone.

From a half-squatting position, he pressed one palm on his thigh, securing his backpack with his other arm, and looked down the rest of the path alongside the brook. He was almost at the end of his trek and would soon approach the camping grounds where he parked his truck earlier that morning. He said under his breath, We’re almost there . . . Keep pushing.

Suddenly, he paused by the brook. His vision became distorted from the glare on the water, causing him to turn his head away slightly. He thought about her. How did things get to this point in the relationship? He assured himself that he did all the right things and played by the rules. Rafael gave Cherie everything she wanted. However, she had become so distant in their marriage, and her physical actions all indicated that she was slowly pulling away from the man she once championed as her prize.

It was just earlier in the week that Rafael had retrieved the mail that arrived at the house on Tuesday. He sorted the junk mail and monthly bills. Upon a careful review of the phone bill, he noticed that several calls were made to the same phone number. He dismissed it as being one of Cherie’s clients thinking, This must be someone she’s helping to locate a house for. Why couldn’t he believe this? It was her business to set up appointments with prospective buyers, and right now, the real estate market was in a boom. Yet Rafael was bothered by the fact that this particular number had been dialed during rather unusual and unconventional times. Could she be? Nah. He dismissed some grave doubts that shot through his cerebellum like a darting lightning bolt.

What if his worst thought was true? What if a divorce was imminent? Luckily, there were no children involved to complicate a legal separation of home and property. Rafael wiped his sweaty forehead as a few tears escaped down his left cheek and into the water. Cherie would not have the pleasure of seeing him cry. And he wasn’t ready to confront his wife about all the mysterious phone calls. It would be premature, and he needed other signs and proof. Cherie was selfish and withdrawn at times but too self-absorbed to possibly be seeing another man.

Rafael thought about how strange life had been up until this point. No one would suspect how empty he was starting to feel inside. He had done well professionally and was a proposal developer in corporate America, working with other project managers. Work was fast-paced and challenging. He graduated magna cum laude, receiving a bachelor of arts in business administration from UC Berkeley, and later attended Stanford, where he completed an MBA program. He grew up in the Bay Area in a house that his parents owned in an upper middle-class section of the Oakland Hills where he continued to reside until he came of age. He and Cherie continued this legacy by purchasing their own home in Montclair after they were married. Yes, Rafael was a young man of privilege who had never experienced hard times firsthand. He vicariously heard of such hardships through some of the friends he associated with in high school and college. However, he also knew how blessed and fortunate he was, coming from a strict and pious family that attended church services on a weekly basis. Rafael Devereaux was grounded and rooted in The Word. It was for this reason that the blueprint of his life already seemed to be laid out in front of him, yet emotionally, something in his life seemed so wrong. Did he marry the wrong woman?

After the nature walk that afternoon, Rafael returned to his truck rejuvenated. He turned the key in the ignition, and the motor thunderously revved up. He rolled his shoulders back and let down the visor on the driver’s side. The dashboard and seats were hot, causing him to shift slightly from side to side until he found a level of comfort. He headed home.

CHAPTER 2

Landfall, Few Standing

T he entire downtown area of New Orleans was a dark, apocalyptic spectacle of biblical proportions. God had sent His wrath upon the earth, many thought, and no one could make sense of it. Many of the local residents had not made it out in time before the floodwaters came, unleashing death and destruction in its path. Emergency evacuation and search and rescue teams labored tirelessly in what seemed to be an endless sea of debris and collapsed buildings surrounded by floating bodies—some already dead and others desperately holding onto their final breaths of life. Some of these corpses were human, while others were pets belonging to their displaced owners.

Jacque and his partner, Michael, trudged the thick oily waters of St. Bernard Parish and Lower Ninth Ward, two severely affected areas ravaged by the storm that were left pungent in human blood and bodily waste. A major breach in the Industrial Canal caused water levels ranging from six to eight feet deep. Each man wore a mask tightly around the face, unable to escape the foul smell of the water and air while in search of any signs of life.

As the two men walked through the debris, both assessing the structural damage in search of victims who were still trapped, Jacque heard a cry. Or what is a voice? It came from one of the buildings nearby.

I’m gonna go check this out, he told Michael and waded over in the direction of the noise. It was customary for search and rescue members to work in pairs, and against his better professional judgment, Jacque ventured off alone. He was a handsome, energetic native who suffered from an invincible hero syndrome. He thought that being from the Big Easy gave him an advantage during these dangerous operations. He was stubborn.

Okay! Michael responded over the noise. But I’ll be within an earshot if you need me. I’m gonna stay the course outside and wait for a boat to come along. There