Rarity From the Hollow by Robert Eggleton
A Blurb About the Book
Lacy Dawn's father relives the Gulf War, her mother's teeth are
rotting out, and her best friend is murdered by the meanest daddy on Earth.
Life in The Hollow isn't great. But Lacy has one advantage -- she's been
befriended by a semi-organic, semi-robot who works with her to cure her
parents. He wants something in exchange, though. It's up to her to save the
Universe.
Will Lacy Dawn's predisposition, education, and magic be enough
for her to save the Universe, Earth, and, most importantly, protect her own
family?
Rarity from the Hollow
is adult literary science fiction filled with tragedy, comedy and satire. It is
a children's story for adults, not for the prudish, faint of heart, or easily
offended.
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Excerpt from Chapter
13, “Mom
I’d Like to Introduce You to My Fiancé”
Scene
Prologue: At this point in the story, Lacy Dawn, the protagonist, is twelve
years old. An android named DotCom (his name is a recurring pun throughout the
novel) installed a port in her upper spine and has directly downloaded data
into her brain for the last several years. His ship is hidden in a cave in the
Woods behind the family’s house in the hollow. DotCom was sent to Earth to
train and recruit Lacy Dawn to save the universe from an imminent threat, but
was recalled due to slow performance. In this scene, DotCom has returned to
Earth and Jenny, the mother, meets him for the first time.
*****
…..…Jenny (the mother) walked up the hill to Roundabend. She called Lacy
Dawn's name every few yards. Her muddy tennis shoes slipped and slid.
I hear her voice. Why won't she answer me?
“Sounds like she’s talking to someone,” Jenny said to the Woods.
Nobody responded. The trees weren't supposed to since Jenny was no longer a
child. Her former best friends had made no long-term commitment beyond
childhood victimization. They had not agreed to help her deal with domestic
violence in adulthood. She hugged the closest tree.
I will always love you guys.
Jenny
quickened her pace, stopped, and listened for human voices. A few yards later,
she stopped again.
Now it sounds like she’s behind me instead of in front.
Jenny looked to the left of the path.
There ain't no cave Roundabend, but there it is.
She walked toward the entrance. The voices grew louder and she looked inside.
Lacy Dawn sat on a bright orange recliner. Tears streamed down her face.
Jenny ran to her daughter through a cave that didn't exit and into a blue light
that did.
“All right, you mother f**ker!”
“Mom!” Lacy Dawn yelled. “You didn’t say, ‘It’s me’ like you're supposed to (a
traditional announcement mentioned earlier in the story)."
DotCom (the android) sat naked in a lotus position on the floor in front of the
recliner. Jenny covered Lacy Dawn with her body and glared at
him.
"Grrrrr," emanated from Jenny. It was a sound similar to the
one that Brownie (Lacy Dawn's dog) made the entire time the food stamp woman
was at their house. It was a sound that filled the atmosphere with
hate. No one moved. The spaceship’s door slid shut.
“Mommmmmy, I can’t breathe. Get up.”
“You make one move you sonofabitch and I’ll tear your heart out,” Jenny
repositioned to take her weight off Lacy Dawn.
Stay between them.
“Mommy, he’s my friend. More than my friend, we’re going to get married when
I'm old enough -- like when I turn fourteen. He’s my boyfriend -- what you call
it -- my fiancé.”
“You been messin’ with my little girl you pervert!” Jenny readied to
pounce.
“MOM! Take a chill pill! He ain’t been messing with me. He’s a good
person, or whatever. Anyway, he’s not a pervert. You need to just calm down and
get off me.”
Jenny stood up. DotCom stood up. Jenny’s jaw dropped.
He ain't got no private parts, not even a little bump.
“DotCom, I’d like to introduce you to my mommy, Mrs. Jenny Hickman. Mommy, I’d
like to introduce you to my fiancé, DotCom.”
Jenny sat down on the recliner. Her face was less than a foot from DotCom’s
crotch and she stared straight at it. It was smooth, hairless, and odor
free.
“Mrs. Hickman, I apologize for any inconvenience that this misunderstanding has
caused. It is very nice to meet you after having heard so much. You arrived
earlier than expected. I did not have time to properly prepare and receive. Again,
I apologize.”
I will need much more training if I'm ever assigned to a more formal setting
than a cave, such as to the United Nations.
“Come on, Mommy. Give him a hug or something.”
Jenny's left eye twitched.
DotCom put on clothing that Lacy Dawn had bought him at Goodwill. It hung a
little loose until he modified his body. Lacy Dawn hugged her
mother…
…(scene of Dwayne, the father, overheard by those in the spaceship while talking
to himself)… “Besides, the transmitter was part of Daddy’s treatment. There're
a lot of other things that he did to help fix Daddy. DotCom is like a doctor.
You can see that Daddy has gotten better every day. And no, there ain’t no
transmitter in you. DotCom figured you out like a good doctor and the only
things wrong are a lack of opportunity and rotten teeth that poison your body.
You don’t need no transmitter. He just gave you a few shots of ego boost. I
don’t know what medicine that is, but I trust him. You ain't complained since
the shots started -- not even with an upset stomach.”
"He's a doctor?" Jenny asked.
“What's your problem anyway?” Lacy Dawn asked. “I know. You’re
prejudiced. You told me that people have much more in common than they do
that's different -- even if someone is a different color or religion, or from a
different state than us. You told me to try to become friends because sometimes
that person may need a good friend. Now, here you are acting like a butt hole
about my boyfriend. You’re prejudiced because he’s different than us.”
“Honey, he’s not even a person – that’s about as different as a boyfriend can
get,” Jenny said.
“So?”
Mommy's right. Maybe I need a different argument.
A fast clicking
sound, a blur of motion, and a familiar smell assaulted them.
"What's that?" Jenny asked.
She moved to protect her daughter from whatever threat loomed. Brownie, who had
been granted 27 / 7 access to the ship, bounded over the orange recliner,
knocked DotCom to the floor, licked DotCom’s face, and rubbed his head on
Jenny’s leg. He then jumped onto the recliner and lay down. His tail wagged
throughout. Jenny sat down on the recliner beside Brownie and looked at Lacy
Dawn.
“But, you were crying when I first came in. That thing was hurting you.” Jenny
shook her finger at DotCom to emphasize a different argument against him.
“Mommy, I'm so happy that I couldn’t help but cry. My man just came home from
an out-of-state job. I didn't talk to him for a whole year. Before he left, he
told me that he wasn’t even sure if he'd be able to come home. I still don’t
know what happened while he was gone. We ain't had no chance to talk. All I
know is that he's home and I'm sooooo happy.”
“Your man came home from an out-of-state job?” Jenny patted Brownie on his
head, some more and some more….
It's unusual for a man to promise to come back home and ever be seen again.
Brownie likes him and that's a good sign. Maybe she's right about him helping
Dwayne. Something sure did and it wasn’t me. It is a nice living room. They've
been together for a while and I ain't seen a mark on her. That's unusual
too. He ain't got no private parts and that's another good thing. Hell,
if I get in the middle, she’d just run off with him anyway. I'd better
play it smart. I don't want to lose my baby.
“What about his stupid name?” Jenny asked.
“I’ve got a stupid name, too. All the kids at school call me hick because my
last name is Hickman.”
“My name was given to me by my manager a very long time ago. It represents a
respected tradition -- the persistent marketing of that which is not
necessarily the most needed. I spam…,” DotCom said.
They both glared at him.
"Dwayne is sure to be home. I don’t want him to worry. Let’s go,” Jenny
said.
“Okay, Mommy.”
“I love you, DotCom,” Lacy Dawn stepped out the ship’s door, which had slid
open. Brownie and Jenny were right behind her.
“I love you too,” DotCom said.
Lacy Dawn and Jenny held hands and walked down the path toward home. The trees
didn’t smile -- at least not so Jenny would notice. On the other hand, no
living thing obstructed, intruded, or interfered with the rite.
Jenny sang to the Woods, “My little girl’s going to marry a doctor when she
grows up, marry a doctor when she grows up, when she grows up. My little
girl’s going to marry a doctor when she grows up, marry a doctor when she grows
up, when she grows up….”
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Robert Eggleton has served as a children's advocate in an
impoverished state for over forty years. He is best known locally for his
nonfiction: investigative reports about children’s programs, most of which were
published by the West Virginia Supreme Court where he worked from 1982 through
1997; nationally distributed models of serving disadvantaged and homeless
children in the community instead of in large institutions; research into
foster care drift involving children bouncing from one home to the next --
never finding a permanent loving family; and statistical reports on the
occurrence and correlates of child abuse and delinquency in West Virginia.
Dozens of his works have been archived by the West Virginia Division of Culture
and History.
Today, he is a recently retired children's psychotherapist from a
mental health center in Charleston, West Virginia, where he specialized in
helping victims cope with and overcome physical and sexual abuse, and other
mental health concerns. Two of Eggleton's poems were published in the 1970s and
another won first place in 2015 international poetry competition managed by the
WSC Science Fiction & Fantasy Club/WillyCon. His debut novel, Rarity from
the Hollow, was named one of five best reads in 2015 by a Codices, has been
awarded Gold Medals by Awesome Indies and Readers' Favorite, and has been so
well received by prominent book critics and reviewers that it is scheduled for
republication by Dog Horn Publishing, a traditional small press, in 2016. Three
of Eggleton's short stories have appeared in magazines: Wingspan Quarterly,
Beyond Centauri, and Atomjack Science Fiction.
Author proceeds from
Eggleton's Lacy Dawn Adventures project have been donated to a child abuse
prevention program operated by Children’s Home Society of West Virginia.
http://www.childhswv.org/ Robert continues to write adult literary science
fiction with new adventures based on a protagonist that is a composite
character of children that he met when delivering group therapy services. The
overall theme of his stories remains victimization to empowerment.
