Chapbook1: Lauren’s Quartet of Love, Sunny

By B.L Wilson

Lauren Parker, a Black police lieutenant, is going back to the city from a police conference in upstate New York. She picks up a young, cute, white female hitchhiker, Sunny York, who is escaping from an intolerable situation at home. As they head toward the city, Lauren finds herself attracted to Sunny and angered by her circumstances. Little does the lieutenant know that this chance meeting will be the catalyst to start her on a ten-year journey of self-discovery.
Sunny is the first in a series of four chapter books, Lauren’s Quartet, each highlighting a strong woman that shapes Lauren’s destiny.

• Language: English
• Publisher: B.L Wilson
• Release date: Feb 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005027759

B.L Wilson

B.L. has always been in love with books and the words in them. She never thought she could create something with the words she knew. When she read ‘To Kill A Mocking Bird,’ she realized everyday experiences could be written about in a powerful, memorable way. She wasn’t quite sure what to do with that knowledge so she kept on reading.Walter Mosley’s short stories about Easy Rawlins and his friends encouraged BL to start writing in earnest. She felt she had a story to tell...maybe several of them. She’d always kept a diary of some sort, scraps of paper, pocketsize, notepads, blank backs of agency forms, or in the margins of books. It was her habit to make these little notes to herself. She thought someday she’d make them into a book.She wrote a workplace memoir based on the people she met during her 20 years as a property manager of city-owned buildings. Writing the memoir, led her to consider writing books that were not job-related. Once again, she did...producing romance novels with African American lesbians as main characters. She wrote the novels because she couldn’t find stories that matched who she wanted to read about ...over forty, African American and female.

Book preview

ChapBook1:

Lauren’s Quartet of Love,

Sunny

by

B.L. Wilson

Lauren’s Quartet of Love, ChapBook1:

Sunny

Brought to you by

Patchwork Bluez Press

Lauren’s Quartet of Love, ChapBook1: Sunny

Copyright 2022 by B. L. Wilson.

All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition

No part of this e-book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the author.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity in name, description, or history of characters in this book to actual individuals either living or dead is purely coincidental.

Please respect the rights of the author and do not file share.

Edited by BZ Hercules

www.bzhercules.com

For all those women who have suffered abuse at the hands of somebody who claims to love them. My wish for you is that you become your own warrior and fight for the right to begin your healing process.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them.

~Psalm 127:3-5~

Family quarrels are bitter things. They don’t go according to any rules. They’re not like aches or wounds, they’re more like splits in the skin that won’t heal because there’s not enough material."

~F. Scott Fitzgerald~

Chapter 1: Sunny needed a ride, so I gave her one.

The driver of the unmarked NYPD car noticed the hitchhiker. She’d stuck out a thumb as she stood on the lonely road’s dirt and gravel shoulder. The driver thought the hitcher was a female. It was difficult to tell. The hitchhiker wore baggy, worn blue jeans tucked into black combat boots laced halfway up. They wore a black hood pulled up underneath several layers: first a short jeans jacket and then a dark overcoat that reached the hitchhiker’s knees. All the clothes looked too large for the medium-framed hitchhiker that wore them.

The driver of the unmarked police car was on the way back to the city after attending a crime seminar all weekend. She’d been debating whether to stop when she’d first seen the hitchhiker on the horizon. The road was a bad choice for picking up rides this time of year. It was winter, just after Christmas but before New Year’s Day. Most of the first snow of the year had melted on the road but remained as patchwork in the open fields along the side of the road.

Farmland and roofs of farm buildings and some of the equipment such as tractors, trailers, bins, mowers, and sorters left in the fields were covered in the white stuff. The animals didn’t seem to mind the snow. She’d driven by cows and horses quietly eating the hay and grass they’d uncovered. She didn’t see the humans that owned the animals. In fact, she hadn’t seen anybody on the road for several miles; just the tall, medium-size hitchhiker. She sighed. There was no more debating. Of course, she’d pick up the hitchhiker when she got down to the bottom of the hill.

Passing the hitchhiker, she slowed down then pulled over to the shoulder. She rolled down the window and stuck her head out. Hey, do you want a ride?

The hitchhiker grabbed the backpack at her feet then nodded. She studied the driver’s face first for a long moment before she walked to the car. Yeah, but understand I gotta knife. You’d better not try anything with me. I just want a ride into the city. Okay?

Okay. The driver smiled then raised her hands in surrender. Hey, I’m on my way back to the city too. Hop in and I’ll give you a ride. She waited while the hitchhiker climbed into the car’s bench seat and placed the backpack that she’d carried between her booted feet then pulled the door closed. You can lock your door if you’d like or leave it open if you’re still worried about me.

The hitchhiker narrowed her eyes but didn’t say a word as one hand stayed inside her coat near her waist while the other stayed on the door handle.

That must be where she keeps her weapon, the driver thought as she pulled away from the shoulder and back onto the road. Are you on your way back to the city for the holidays?

The hitchhiker sighed. Why do you want to know that?

The driver smiled at the young woman when she pushed her hoodie back to reveal spiked blond hair and cornflower blue eyes in a peaches and cream complexion. She wore a tiny nose ring in one nostril and two rings pierced each ear lobe. I guess I’m just making conversation. You look like you could be in college. I figured you were coming back to the city after a visit home or something.

The hitchhiker pointed to her nose ring and several tats on her arms. Dressed like this, you, like, think I could be in college, huh? She rolled her eyes and snorted in disbelief. You’re older than I first thought.

I guess you’re not from the city. If you were, you’d know how you’d fit in perfectly with the college crowd. The hitchhiker looked at the driver strangely and the driver laughed. No, I’m not a freak or some woman who hangs out with half-grown adults or something. It’s a job requirement for me to know this stuff.

Being a freak is a job requirement? What kind of job do you have? Are you like a madam or something? Is this, like, the way you pick up girls for sex?

The driver looked at the young woman then groaned. God no, I’d never do anything like that! That’s not what I do.

The hitchhiker turned to study the driver’s profile. Like, what do you do?

The driver sighed. In my coat pocket, you’ll find my ID. I hope after you see it, you won’t hop out of the car while it’s still running. I hope you’ll let me take you to the nearest bus depot and let me buy you a ticket to anywhere you want to go.

The hitchhiker’s curiosity was aroused now. She grabbed the coat lying on the seat between them to search the pockets.

Meanwhile, the driver had wisely locked her gun in the small safe in her trunk as she always did when she attended seminars. She was one of those police officers who felt she could resolve situations better with her mouth and her brain than she ever could