Tags:
Narration
Horror
Fiction
Audiobooks
Publishing
Female
Suspenseful
Intense
Dramatic
Adult
20s
30s
Pregnancy
Survival
Murder
Script:
The first time she kills another human being, all she can think afterward is that it was nothing like the rabbit. It is the first week of December, and some of the people in town, most likely the ones with kids, are already starting to put out Christmas decorations. Moony is a week away from completing her first semester of college, and although she's technically four months pregnant, she looks like she's a lot farther along, six months at least. She hasn't gone back to see Dr. Guerin, but she isn't feeling good anymore either. She's eating fairly decently. Her belly isn't affecting her ability to catch small animals at all. And she's not nauseous, exactly, but she's something. It's a feeling that's in her head and her heart. It grows a little day by day, and nothing she can think about will shake it off. Then she wakes at a quarter to four in the morning, with the complete certainty that if she doesn't change how things are going, the child inside her is going to die. When she looks back on it later, there was never any question about what she needs to do. Months ago, she mastered the art of moving silently without even trying. The trailer is in total darkness, but she slips on some clothes and is out the door without so much as making the old floor creak. There is a three-quarter moon outside, but the changes in her DNA have enhanced her night vision. It's as if God himself has flipped a light switch on the desert. She sees everything, in every direction, from the peeling paint on the wood siding on the north end of the trailer, to the faint movement of the scrub grass up the road and to the right that signals a scavenging coyote. In fact, even though it's at least 300 feet away, she can smell it. It has blood on its muzzle from something it killed and ate, probably a peck rat, only a few minutes before. But the coyote holds no interest for Moony tonight. She has gone beyond that. Driven by need and guided by instinct, she moves into the cold desert night, circling behind Mother Gossel's trailer and heading southwest. The Mexican border is only slightly over 20 miles away, but she feels no fear as she eases through the winter dead grasses, slipping from mesquite tree to mesquite tree, passing like a shadow despite her size. It takes 20 minutes at the most, and then she catches the scent of humans. It drifts on the still, chilled air, simply because it is so out of place to creatures like her who can pick up such things. There are two of them, and they are heavy with the smells of unwashed flesh, dirty clothes, and cheap snacks. The kind that can be carried easily, but in reality, give no nourishment to a weary body, and only serve to drive a man's thirst to maddening proportions. Moony lifts her head and inhales more deeply. They have run out of food and water, and now they are sluggish with the cold, surprised by the elevated climate that drops the nighttime temperature to only a few degrees above freezing. When Moony strikes, she goes for the mail.
Tags:
Narration
NonFiction
Ladybird
FirstLady
History
TexasMonthly
Script:
On a rainy day in November 1994, I visited Lady Bird Johnson at her home in Northwest Austin to interview her on the occasion of her upcoming 82nd birthday. We met in the kitchen, where she made coffee, leaning on a steel cane. Her hair was completely gray, her face creased with lines, and even though it was overcast and we were indoors, she wore a pair of sunglasses with large white frames. To be in her presence that day was both moving and unnerving. She was clearly arthritic and going blind from macular degeneration, and these ailments made her seem vulnerable. Yet, as she stood at the stove, dressed in a pleated navy skirt, cotton blouse, and black lace-up shoes with crepe soles, it was impossible not to feel intimidated. Sam Rayburn called her, the darn greatest woman who ever lived, and Lady Bird Johnson's was indeed a remarkable life. Many 21st century Texans have no memory of Lady Bird at the height of her power, and those who do may be inclined to think of her as belonging to the past, a woman who brought her husband coffee and newspapers in bed, ironed his shirts, and quietly tolerated his excesses. But one of the secrets to Lady Bird's success was that she always dealt from strength, never weakness. Publicly, she pretended to be a traditional stay-at-home wife and mother, but nothing could have been further from the truth. During the 38 years she spent as Mrs. Lyndon Johnson, married life in America underwent several upheavals, and Lady Bird's public image can be seen as a bridge from the less visible roles inhabited by wives of the 40s and early 50s to the era of women's liberation. Though her demeanor and style may now seem faintly anachronistic, she was remarkably effective as a first lady, more so than some of her modern successors. Ever the warm and generous host, she quickly set me at ease that day in her kitchen. ''Do you take your coffee black or with sugar?'' she asked. And the way she rolled that velvety R, not disguising her Texas accent but proudly flaunting it, completely won me over. Like her, I was born and raised in East Texas. Her traditional appearance and slow, southern speech reminded me of all the women I'd grown up with. The fact that she felt no need to feign sophistication made her immediately real to me.
Tags:
Narration
Suspense
Fiction
dialogue
Audiobooks
Male
Female
Officer Pedro Guerrero
Rosemary Stallworth
Suspenseful
Dramatic
Serious
Adult
30s
40s
Abduction
Marriage
Family History
Script:
Guerrero decided to swing by the Stallworth home on his way back to the office. Jolly had visited earlier in the week to introduce himself to Rosemary Stallworth. But something in the old man's words convinced Guerrero that he should meet the wife in person. Rosemary answered the door and took a half step back. Officer Pedro Guerrero, ma'am. He held up his badge. I work with Detective Jolly. Rosemary raised a hand to her mouth. Is it, do you know anything new? No, ma'am, I'm sorry. What happened to Detective Jolly? The tone of this question affirmed something they both understood. Rosemary Stallworth expected to deal with a white officer. He's working on something else right now. Something else? Another aspect of the case. I'm sorry to drop by unannounced. I had a few more questions. Despite the careful burnishing of makeup, Mrs. Stallworth looked drawn. I must say, and I mean no offense, but I don't understand why they keep sending new people. I spoke to the one in uniform, then a sheriff, and then Detective Jolly at some length. It's been a week now. Rosemary Stallworth struggled to control her voice. I have children. I have to tell them something. She had refused to move out of the doorway. I'm very sorry, ma'am. I know it's confusing. We all have different roles. Mrs. Stallworth led him into a living room bright with lace and throw pillows. She ripped a Kleenex from a pewter box and pinched her nose silently, then seated herself on a crushed velvet couch. I've been trying to piece together the details of your husband's biography, Guerrero said tentatively. Part of what we have to consider involves family history, relatives with whom he might have had issues. Mrs. Stallworth issued violent little shakes of her head. My husband has no contact with his family, none. He was practically an orphan when we met. There was an aunt whom he mentioned once or twice. She didn't even come to our wedding. I never met anyone else. Once he left Indiana, that was it. Where does she live now? The aunt. I have no idea. What about your family? My family? What have they got to do with anything? These are questions we have to ask, ma'am. My husband has been abducted, officer. Do you think my family is responsible for that in some way? Is that what you're insinuating? Not at all. The polite smile remained pasted to Rosemary Stallworth's face, but any trace of goodwill drained from her eyes. I'll thank you to leave my family out of it, both my parents and my children. Guerrero stared down at his notepad. He was unaccustomed to dealing with witnesses this self-possessed. Had she chosen to speak candidly, Rosemary Stallworth would have conceded that her parents had disapproved of Marcus rather forcefully. They represented the merger of two mainline families with considerable fortunes. Their daughter's decision to marry Stallworth had been a crushing disappointment. He was from a troubled family, and they believed that character was inherited as well as instilled. They also continued to provide an allowance to Rosemary, which subsidized the pittance Marcus earned as an academic. I realize this is a trying time. Do you? You told Detective Jolly that you and your husband had been happy in recent months, Guerrero continued quietly. Have there been periods of unhappiness in the marriage? Mrs. Stallworth was glaring at him now. It seems to me you came here to discuss my marriage. Is that right? It's hard to find a man unless we know as much about him as we can. Mrs. Stallworth's mouth curled, as if it's some private joke. Are you married, officer? No, I didn't imagine so. No one who is would ask such a thing. Of course we struggled. Marcus and I have been together for nearly 20 years. We are, as you may have already deduced, distinct in our temperaments. Marcus is a quiet man, a scientist. I am more outgoing, but we love each other very much. And if the next question in your little notebook is whether we ever cheated on one another, or rather whether he ever cheated on me, I could only tell you that Marcus is an orderly man. He likes things neat, not messy. You can ask around about that.
Tags:
Spanglish
Narration
Fiction
Chicano Lit
Audiobooks
Hermana
Dina
Maggie
Marisol
Girls
Conversational
Emotional
Dramatic
Adult
30s
40s
Family
Relationships
Illness
Guilt
Script:
Once they are in the house, and without being invited to, the sisters sit down on the velvet couch in the sala, the ornamental sitting room to the left of the front door where no one actually sits. Though Maggie is younger than Marisol, she has always been the spokeswoman. She says, Hermana, we have something good to tell you. Dina sits on the matching armchair facing the window, where she can see Lalo is still focused on something in his explorer. Dina decides to speak first, to take control of the conversation. Because she knows that once her older sisters start, she won't be able to get a word in, either in English or Spanish. I know what you are going to say, Hermana. While Dina is still speaking, Maggie says, yes? Well then, what am I going to say? You're coming to try and take me to eat, or to take me to get my hair done. Instead of saying, you think I'm chisquiada, and you're here to extricate me from my locura. Dina finds these words much easier to speak. No, Hermana, that is not it, even though we could do those things too. Marisol interjects, we have something to give you. She begins to rummage through her purse, but Maggie rests her hand on Marisol's, and shakes her head that it is not time to present Dina with whatever it is they want her to have. Dina turns her head, and without breaking eye contact with her sisters, calls to the girls in their rooms to come and give their saludos. Dina does this because she wants her daughters to be respectful, but also because it will give her sisters someone else to focus on. And perhaps maybe the conversation will turn to pleasantries. Marisol says, ay, chulas, I'm glad you're here too, you are a part of this. The girls hug and kiss their tias, then sit on either side of them on the couch. And though it is not their intent, they are all facing Dina, who sits by herself across from them. The sisters remain quiet, as they can sense the gravity of the situation. And like their cousins, they have been taught to hold their tongues when the adults are talking, interrupting only when an adult has acknowledged them, as they stand or sit in silence waiting to speak. Maggie notices their sitting arrangement and says, ay, Dina, I'm sorry, pero esa intervencion, it's not like that, all daytime talk show style. This is her sister Maggie, never holding back what she knows the others are thinking but are too civil to say. Well then, what is it, hermana? I love that you are here, but I can tell you got something on your mind. It is the fear of Contreras' malice and his curses by proxy that are driving her curtness, and she hopes they will just leave. Dina manages to stay strong, unfaltering in her belief that today is not the day her sisters will win. Maggie says, apá is not doing well, hermana. I mean, he has his good days and he has his bad days, but for the past couple of weeks he has been asking for you. He goes, dónde está mi hija? And we all know he's talking about you, he misses you big time. At this, Dina breaks, and the tears start to flow, and she tries to wipe them away with the backs of her hands. She feels guilt come over her for all the time she has been absent. Dina says, apá, but can say nothing else. Her dry lips are stuck together. Te extraña mucho, Maggie says. I don't mean to guilt trip you, sister, because believe me, that's the last thing I want to do. You know I only like to edify or drop a word of knowledge here and there when the Holy Spirit me da la gana, but this has to be said.
Tags:
Fiction
Fariy Tale
African American Voice
Narration
Audiobooks
Cousins
Auntie
Baby
Warm
Storytelling
Engaging
Child
Tween
Young Adult
African American Culture
Family
Food
Cookout
Friendship
Betrayal
Script:
While waiting for Grandmama Jojo to call us outside to warm the food, Cheyenne napped on the bed alone, too relaxed for our liking. Over walkie talkies, we reached the rest of us in the other cabins and came to our own understandings. Cheyenne would no longer decide for us what we was meant to do. We're not kids anymore. We remembered our names. Fifi stood over Cheyenne. She lifted a book high in the air and dropped it. Baby Rashad pooped. You need to change him. Cheyenne nodded to wakefulness. His mother is right there, said Cheyenne. His mother is sleeping, Tamika motioned to Auntie Marietta's back. And why can't one of you do it, Cheyenne said. Because baby Rashad wants you to do it, said Fifi firmly. Baby Rashad crawled onto the bed and hugged Cheyenne. Cheyenne sat up from bed with baby Rashad clutching her waist. And the cousin Spice refused to fall out of her hair. The seasoning seemed to be glued within the folds of her curls. The pair walked over to baby Rashad and little Miriam's bunk bed, where baby Rashad laid back, awaiting a diaper change. When Cheyenne bent down to retrieve a new diaper from his bag, a glimmer of green flashed, loosening from her hair. Cheyenne's hand snapped up to fasten it. Tamika nudged little Miriam forward. Give me a horseback ride. Little Miriam jumped on Cheyenne's back, get off of me. Little Miriam held on tighter to Cheyenne's shoulders, refusing to be shaken off. Baby Rashad jumped up and peeled out of the bed screaming. When the cousin Spice slipped out of Cheyenne's hair and smacked onto the ground, Cheyenne was too distracted to notice. We formed a phalanx around the cousin Spice. Lisette in the center reached down to grab it, while Lupita spoke in code into the walkie talkie, signaling all of us in the other cabins to come to cabin five to help. We slipped outside of cabin five one by one to join the rest of us. Auntie Marietta already told us she would make sure Cheyenne wouldn't come outside, and we believed her. She was the one who came up with the plan to get her children involved in keeping Cheyenne out of the way. Auntie Marietta had winked at us from bed, then proceeded loudly snoring to fool Cheyenne. In the rising sunlight, we divvied up the powder. In a circle, we held open our palms, and Lisette poured the cousin Spice as evenly as she could into our hands. The cousin Spice felt smooth and fine, sand-like grains that would rid Grandmama Jojo of her issues for good. We split off into pairs to make sure that there was always someone keeping watch in case any cousin had questions about what we was doing. Everything had to be covered, the greens, the beans, the rices, all the meats. It was not a small amount of food that would feed over 150 people, and we needed to move quickly. We felt it was only fitting that the last meal the cousins would eat at the cookout would be what was made by Cheyenne. That taste alone should make them not want to come back. The cousin Spice would guarantee it. We sprinkled cousin Spice into collard greens, mixing and mixing and mixing. We doused it into the broth of the peanut butter stew, hoping the other flavors would mask the taste. We folded it into arroz con pollo and prayed. We sprinkled it on top of salads for good measure. We lit the furnaces to heat up the meals, letting the waft of food call the cousins over.
Tags:
Business
Generation X
Non Fiction
Narration
Audiobooks
Professional
Clear
Engaging
Adult
30s
40s
Non-Fiction
Cultural Experience
Demographics
Tech Revolution
Globalization
Script:
Now, I'd like to make a few notes about the term Generation X, which is both more and less than an age group. People who identify with the label, and even those who don't, generally speaking were born in the mid-1960s through the 1970s, and grew up mostly in middle-class suburbs during the 1980s, but Gen X demographics are notoriously fluid. As the Census Bureau puts Xers as those born between 1961 and 1981, other demographers say Gen X was born between 1964 and 1979. But perhaps Groucho Marx's sentiment sums up the American Gen X attitude best. I would not join any club that would have someone like me for a member. And yet here we are. Even though the term Generation X has been overused and reviled, it still seems to stick. People have tried to rename this generation without success. In the early 1990s, one author came up with the Free Generation. New York Magazine tried to coin the term Grups, because we never seemed to grow up. But these terms don't convey anything about the shared cultural experience of this demographic. Like it or not, we're pretty much Generation X for the duration. So if you know the lyrics, sing along. Xers were the original latchkey kids. Our mothers went off to work, and or our parents divorced in unprecedented numbers. We ate sugary cereals and watched after-school specials until MTV came along. Extreme sports for most of us meant riding bikes over homemade three-foot ramps without helmets, a la Napoleon Dynamite. Xers renounced bra-burning feminism. There was little awareness of homosexuality among our peers. And although there were the beginnings of hip-hop rap crossover hits, black and white youth cultures were still pretty distinct and separate. We went to college in huge numbers and maybe went on to earn graduate degrees. We were notoriously disdainful of politics. On the one hand, Xers are practical and cautious. On the other, we have a tendency to roll the dice, which has paid off at times, but other times not so much. We're skeptical, individualistic, and downright distrustful of groupthink. We're ambitious rather than careerist, seeking to balance work and family, security and fulfillment. But most of all, we bridge the analog and digital generations. Some of us didn't touch a computer until college, and few of us grew up on them. But all of us found ourselves on the front lines of the tech revolution and globalization, whether we were ready or not.