"UPROOTED" THIRD DRAFT - CHAPTER 7 OPENER

Third draft of novel "Uprooted," now at about 112,000 words -- opening of Chapter 7 of 77 short chapters (for now) -- 

Next morning, Stephens drove his truck to the village square, parked it near the Roosevelt Courier, opened the weekly newspaper’s door, strode past the piles of editions stacked on whatever available space would hold them, and stood in front of the worn oak desk where Todd Redding sat, flushed and surprised to see him.

“What’s up, old friend,” Redding asked, turning back to his computer.

“Nice try,” Stephens said.

“What are you talking about?”

“Rodney Sharpe. You tipped him off.”

Redding swiveled back to face Stephens directly.

“It was just a professional courtesy,” he said.

“Sharpe shoved me and threatened me,” Stephens replied. “You could extend a little of that courtesy to me as well.”

“You always have that,” Redding said, his composure regained.

“Here’s mine to you,” Stephens said. “I’m done stringing here.”

“Suit yourself,” Redding said. “By the way, here’s a little more courtesy. I asked Sarah Nelson at the aging office who Alicia Stewart contacted in her little campaign. She told me, so I’ve done a little preemptive work. You could have figured I wouldn’t print this. We don’t need this kind of crap spread around.”

“I thought you had a shred of integrity left,” Stephens said. “Preemptive? Does Alicia know?”

“She will now. You’ll tell her,” Redding said, turning back to his computer. “Have a nice day, Gil.”

Stephens shivered in anger as he left the office. Redding watched him walk to his truck through the window, sighed, and mused on the notion of integrity.

“It’s situational, isn’t it?” he asked himself. “Just like everything?”

"Uprooted" is a novel that journeys with its principal character, an aged and injured former journalist, who is uprooted from a semi-reclusive state into new investigations, altered associations and dangerous encounters among those close to him, in the U.S., Spain, The Netherlands, Mexico and Morocco…