Sparkle

by David Reichart

By the time Linda Heller witnesses a murder in a boxcar rolling through Alabama, the runaway teen, known on the road as Sparkle, has long since given up her false dream of freedom and adventure on the rails. Now all she can think about is escaping from her fellow “train hoppers” with her life.

The young drifter makes a run for it when the train stops in Mobile and is given refuge in the “Hobo Hilton” by homeless veteran Johnny Egan. Having been assured by Egan and his friends that she is safe and that the two thugs chasing her are the ones in trouble, Sparkle thinks she finally got a lucky break. But before the night is over, the police raid Egan’s camp and haul him off on a murder charge. So much for good luck.

But it’s Johnny Egan’s luck that Jesse Yates is worried about. Yates has been hired by the public defender assigned to Egan’s case. He needs to find this vagabond girl, who, despite her dubious personal background, can give Egan an alibi.

Yates is certain that his fellow warrior is innocent, and he's determined to prove it. He takes a giant step in the right direction when he manages to find Sparkle. Since she’s being hunted by a killer and his accomplice, Yates arranges to have the girl boarded at World Headquarters (the Palm Court Motel), where the crew is charmed by the young runaway, now officially identified as Linda Heller of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

It’s a move that may prove costly to the Palm Court detectives when forces working to implicate Johnny Egan turn their sights on Sparkling Linda Heller, who turns out to be a much different teenage fugitive than anyone could have imagined.

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Published April 22, 2019

About the author

My writing career included several years in the newspaper business as a reporter, copy editor and managing editor and five years as a freelance copywriter. While trying to make a living in the traditional sense, I managed to do a lot of writing in my spare time--work I wanted to do, things I wanted to write, things I never got paid for.

Eventually, my spare-time creative writing began to pay off. I signed with an agent in Los Angeles and later one in New York, and I managed to option my screenplay, Big Sandy, to a Hollywood producer and make some money.

I mention those close calls and moral victories because I think there are thousands of people with those kinds of experiences--writers who have studied their craft and paid their dues and who will now provide material for the exploding digital publishing revolution. I’m talking about writers who didn’t have the time, contacts, opportunity (okay, maybe talent) to succeed in the world of traditional publishing, but who, given the opportunity, just might find a market for their fiction.

I’ve enlisted in the Independent Publishing Revolution, and I’m a gung-ho soldier. There’s no doubt in my military mind that the best is yet to come, and I'm still dreaming about the day I'm finally proclaimed an overnight success.