Lloyd’s Song

By Dezaree Pines

Hazel Morgan is a movie star, desperately unhappy with the glittering cesspool of Hollywood. Overwhelmed by the sex, drugs, and betrayal, she leaves the fancy life behind before it devours her whole. She returns to her Connecticut hometown. There, she lives quietly in her late mother’s house but still finds no joy.

Hazel is unhappy and even contemplates suicide until the arrival of Lloyd: a poor, white ragammufin of a boy. Hungry and neglected, he shows up at her back door in need of refuge from his dysfunctional life. First, Lloyd finds his way into her home. Next, despite their differences, he finds his way into her heart.

Hazel begins to realize that her new path is much more important than her past. This burned out and jaded superstar learns, with the help of a young boy, that God is indeed a God of second chances, and He loves her no matter what.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Mar 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781480876217

Dezaree Pines

Dezaree Pines lives in a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut. A graduate of Howard University’s School of Communications—with a degree in radio broadcast production and a minor in journalism—Dezaree is an ordained minister who works as an editor for a major insurance company. Writing is her true passion, and Christian themes dominate her fiction.

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Copyright © 2019 Dezaree Pines.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-7620-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-7621-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019903447

Archway Publishing rev. date: 3/22/2019

Contents

Preface

Prologue    Los Angeles, California, 2018

Chapter 1    You Can Always Come Home

Chapter 2    Can You Keep Me?

Chapter 3    Praise Him!

Chapter 4    For Love of Amber …

Chapter 5    Real Love and Baseball

Chapter 6    Cookies for College

Chapter 7    So Amazing

Chapter 8    High School Days

Chapter 9    College Bound

Epilogue    Oscar Night

Preface

The inspiration for this story stems from my early childhood. When I was the age of six years or so, my mom left Alabama, for reasons that are not mine to share, to live with her sister, Alice, in Cleveland, Ohio.

An only child, I had four cousins: Nathan, Shirley, Gwen, and Larry. My beautiful, dear, fierce, but sweet, beyond intelligent cousin Shirley was murdered back in 1993. I was thirty-nine years old at the time, and Shirley would have been a few years younger than me. It’s a sad commentary about violence against women and the world we live in. I think of her often. She was killed on Valentine’s Day by her ex-boyfriend just after returning from an evening out with friends. He broke into her home and shot her, making his threat to kill her reality. She had everything to live for, but this man, with a demented soul, determined that if he could not have her then no one would.

We lived in an apartment off of Superior Avenue, and my cousin Nathan and I attended the Hart School. It was in this neighborhood that a little Caucasian boy named Lloyd found Nathan. Lloyd was probably about five years old. Upon seeing Nathan, Lloyd decided that Nathan was going to be his friend. Lloyd stuck to him like glue.

While we knew that Lloyd lived somewhere in the neighborhood, none of us knew anything about his family. It was like he was just there one day and blended into our family. He absolutely adored Nathan. We often found Lloyd at the breakfast or dinner table. If the breakfast meal consisted of government cheese, grits, and spam, so be it. If dinner was Southern-style greens, meat, and cornbread, so be it. He ate what we ate, not to mention the fact that Aunt Alice, whom I affectionately call Tee, is the best cook I have ever known. I still talk about the time I visited her one summer and she devised a way to foil wrap of a whole side of ribs in her awesome sauce from Crow’s Barbecue, named for the owner, for me to fly back home with on the plane. Not a drop of sauce was lost. Aunt Alice, who was the cook, made that restaurant famous.

Usually, when it was time for school, Lloyd would be outside waiting to meet us and walk up to Superior Avenue, to be crossed by the crossing guard further up the avenue.

I was about seven years old. The year would have been about 1961. Both Nathan and Lloyd were younger than me. We were all too young to understand very much, but it was on one such day that, as we stood on the designated corner of Superior Avenue waiting to cross, Lloyd darted out into oncoming traffic. I will never know why Lloyd did not wait for the traffic guard. I had no clue what I was looking at as the huge Mack truck picked Lloyd up and tossed him off the hood like a little doll. I remember seeing him being bounced and tossed onto the windshield and hood of the gigantic truck. He looked so tiny. I can still hear the thumping sounds of the impact.

I went on to school and remember being asked many questions by the teachers. I was too young to comprehend it all, but I am sure that Lloyd must have died that day. As I look back on it, I am grateful that Nathan did not follow him into traffic. I think I told the teachers that I held Nathan back, but in my heart of hearts, I don’t know if that was true or just my little fanciful self saying something.

When I told this story to a sister at my church recently, she said that Lloyd could have been a guardian angel for Nathan. Wow! That statement brought chills to both of us—holy chills, not scary chills—when she said it. There are more things in heaven and earth …

Some may believe and some may not, but on the day that his spirit called to me, I began to write this story. Having prepared Thanksgiving dinner, I was sitting in my living room waiting for my family to arrive. Unhappy about my family’s tardiness and lack of appreciation after I had done so much work, I began to pray. I was led to pick up my pen, and the story began to flow out of me. Writing has always been a sort of therapy for me. It was not so much that there was a presence, but it was almost like I could see this little boy, Lloyd. Though he died fifty-seven years ago, the memory of him came to the forefront of my mind. In the time I have taken to make this story a reality, I believe that he may even have found his way back again to this earthly plane. I believe he is in a good place now. Some may criticize me for my belief, but I think that souls evolve and that reincarnation is real. Spirits also exist.

I asked Nathan if he remembered Lloyd or any of what happened. He did not remember Lloyd, but he remembered the neighborhood and said that he thought it was the Hodge School that we attended. I remembered the school as the Hart School. Nathan remembered that the community was a mixed, ethnically diverse community at that time.

I also asked my Aunt Alice, Tee, if she remembered this tragic event, and she did not remember anything either. I don’t know why I am the only one who remembers Lloyd. I can’t say that I remember my earliest childhood friends either.

Time has blown away memory to dust, but a little boy left too long on his own without a hand to hold lost his life one fateful day. As I look back, I wonder why Lloyd was able to just wander around the neighborhood unsupervised. He was not homeless and was dressed okay, as I recall, but it seemed that no one was keeping tabs on where he went or with whom. We never saw him with a family. He was always alone, and no one seemed to be looking for him or calling him home for supper. That was too much freedom for one so young. There’s no one to blame really, but it is still so very haunting even to this day.

I have gone online to see if there is any record of Lloyd’s death on that ill-fated day. I guess I will find the answers I need at some point.

In any event, this book and its main character, Lloyd, is my fictitious attempt to give him the life he was never privileged to have. I have never forgotten him.

I have to send out a sincere thank-you to my friend and coworker Liz Cook. Liz was so intrigued by what I told her about Lloyd that she went out to search Ohio school and death records to solve the mystery of who this child was.

I also have to send my gratitude to my sorority sister Dr. Gloria F. Perry. Soror Gloria, an author extraordinaire, reached out to mentor me in bringing this, my first novel, to fruition. Thank you, my dear sister and friend. What honor you bestowed upon me. You signed my copy of your first novel with these words: People come into our life for a reason. I am so glad you came into mine. You are awesome. Back at you, Gloria!

A special thank-you goes to all of my cheerleaders. Thank you, Lori Carra, for believing in me and giving me a prophetic word just when I needed it most. My blue-eyed sister from another mother, you are a very special fount of spiritual connectedness. Thanks to my ministry fellow and sister cousin Linda, big little brother Eric, and daughter-in-law LaToya for all of your support and encouragement through the years along the way. A special thank-you also goes to Sharon, my clinical social-working confidant and sister in