By Tonya Christine Hewitt

Different Colored Dreams

Best friends Monica and Lacey have been friends for years. With all the racism happening in the news lately, will they let that affect their friendship?

Excerpt:

Chapter One

Secret Writer

Let me introduce myself. To the world, I am shy, meek Lacey Donovan. I am not anything special. But I have a secret that I have been hiding. Nobody knows it. No, this is not one of those superhero stories where the mild, meek mannered girl goes out and saves the day. This is one of the stories, where this mild, meek girl still hides even in plain sight away from the world. You see, I am a writer. And words are at my mercy as I speak out against subjects such as abortion, or tax fraud. Not that my opinion matters but in the edition of the morning paper, one can read my letter to the editor and know this brave girl means business, even though she signed the letter anonymous. Because this brave girl is not so brave as you chip away the edges, and you are left with a girl to speak what is on her mind. If only, hiding behind words.

Well, the subject today, folks, is racism. See about a month ago, the world fell apart. In 2020, the pandemic of coronavirus started plucking away at people’s fragile hearts, making them go into panic mode. And already at a fragile delicate time, the incident where George Floyd was killed by a police officer by placing his knee on his chest so he could not breathe inspired cries of protest and debate around the world. The world suddenly went crazy with riots and protests and we were taken back to the racism of the past where the future should have just moved passed that.

People were suddenly filled with hatred, blaming all police for one cop’s mistakes. Black people were blamed for riots when it was a just a few that were just as racist as some white Americans. Everything became offensive, even statues of history that stood for the past. The soulless statues hardened people’s hearts, making them forget that these monuments were just reminders of not to make the same mistakes again.

Suddenly, saying All Lives Matter was deemed inappropriate because it made the words Black Lives Matter as if the blacks have lost their voice. I could see how it was fear talking because people are judgmental and size you up before you even speak. You can’t hide the dark skin or ivory skin people have. Their hearts are hidden by their outward appearance. Some embrace who they are and some want to be wrapped up in the sidelines.

The world went chaotic and we were the victims. Every race. To me, I felt, God created everyone and He loved all races. There is no way Jesus had the light pale skin that I did. He lived in Asia underneath the hot sun. We do not even know exactly what Jesus looked like but the stories we read about Jesus tell us what was in His heart. He died for us. All of us. And he taught us to love one another. So I am just going to leave you with this thought, You Matter. No matter what race you happened to be. The world is made out of complex beauty, let’s marvel at one another and not chip and tear at one’s soul.

They featured my article right there on the front page of the editorial section. Even though, it said anonymous, I felt pride as I read the words I had written.

I wonder if Monica had read it yet. Monica Malinowski is my best friend. And she happens to be a beautiful chocolate brown compared to my pale skin. We never have let the fact that we were two different races, bother us. We have been best friends since the first day of kindergarten, when we discovered we had the same lunch box, just a different color. Kind of like us. There used to be a real popular show called Star and Uni, about a girl and her unicorn. My lunchbox depicted her on the unicorn and it was a bright yellow and Monica’s was purple, showing the same scene. We became best friends ever since.

So our families were quite familiar with one another. We would always hang out at each other’s house all the time. So our families never knew each other as that white girl’s family or the black kid’s family; we were each other’s family. It is now eleven years later from the day we met. So instead of bright-eyed children, we were in the mist of 2020 as sixteen year olds. Though the world did seem like it had went nuts, we hadn’t let it plagued us any.

My dad is a cop and Monica’s family never hated him for it. Even when this craziness happened. They knew he was never racist, and he put his life on the line all the time. That is what scared me the most. Losing him.

My mom worked at the library. Maybe that is where I got my love for reading and writing…her. But like I said no knew I wrote. I always signed everything Anonymous. So even though, I had tons of stuff published, no one knew I wanted to be a writer. It was more of a pipe dream than anything. I was an only child but with my parents always working, it was easy to blend into the background, undetected.

As for Monica’s family, she was one out of six kids. The twin boys were the babies at age four. Levi and Jedi were little cutie pies with their curly brown hair and dimples. Her little sister, Lexi, was six. Fast forward a few years at ten, was Ann-Marie. Then, Monica, at sixteen, was the second eldest. Her older brother, Marcus, was actually about to turn twenty and he worked with my dad. He just graduated from the police academy, top of his class. He also happened to be valedictorian of his high school, as well.

As for her parents, her mom was a seamstress who worked at home and her dad worked as a computer programmer. I guess that is where Marcus got his smarts from. Monica, on the other had, could care less about school. But she did have big ambitions, she wanted to be a chef. She really wanted to go to culinary school but she was afraid her parents could not afford it, having so many kids to feed and raise. See, Marcus had won scholarship after scholarship being Mr. Big Brain so his college was basically paid for and my dad had helped him get into the police academy.

We were juniors in high school who had missed half the semester due to the coronavirus but when school came back in the fall, we were going to fast forward to being seniors. But Monica, would never advance her grades high enough to qualify for a scholarship. She was a straight C average student at best. I made A’s and B’s. I wanted to be a writer but I kept my dream hidden, even from her.

But something happened one day, where I saw it. A contest featured in the paper. It was only for African-Americans but it was for writing, something I could do. No, I wasn’t black, but the first prize was for a scholarship, anywhere you wanted to attend. I had to show this to Monica. I tore the clipping of the paper. It was called Black Lives Matter. You were to write a short story how you felt black lives matter and how racism affected you to this day. The article would be featured in a magazine.

When I saw her, I gave her the clipping to read. “Lace, you know I couldn’t write anything like this.”

“But Monica, you have to try. You can go to culinary school like you always wanted to do.”

“Lacey, I am just not a writer. And really, racism hasn’t really affected us.”

“Come on, you don’t feel like people judge you, without knowing you, just by what you look like.”

“No,” Monica said, hoarsely. I knew she was lying. But we never saw each other as different, so even though, I was white and she was black, only our friendship mattered. I think she thought she would hurt my feelings if she acknowledged, there were white people who judged us differently. I dropped the fight but I kept on going back to it over in my mind.

She had a date with her boyfriend later that day. I liked Kingsley Haddock. He was a nice guy. He was a college freshman, just barely turned eighteen. But he was studying music and playing the violin and he sounded terrific. He was hoping to get into a Music Arts program in the fall.

I had just broken up with my boyfriend, who in fact, was racist. I never told that to Monica. I would never ever want to hurt her feelings but when he found out my best friend was black, he basically told me to choose. It was either him or her. That was not a hard choice at all. I only went out with him to have a date to the prom so it was not like I was broken-hearted or anything. Simon Nivens was just a jerk. I told Monica, we were just too different. She agreed saying he was like fish sticks and I was filet mignon. She compared everything to food items. I guess being an aspiring chef.

I decided I would give Monica a chance at being a chef, no matter how wrong it was. I started writing and could not stop the words that flowed onto the paper. I pretended to be my best friend. It was easy to put myself in Monica’s shoes. I had grown up with her as my family. Her family was my family. That is what I am great at with my writing skills, is empathy. I just had to think like Monica did. And feel like she did. I closed my eyes, trying to imagine myself as black and people’s judging eyes, always sizing you up before you even spoke.

So I wrote and mailed off the entry to the contest, putting Monica’s name instead of my own. What could go wrong? Um, plenty.

All I wanted to do was give my best friend a chance to go the school of her choice. She could finally get to go to culinary school and not worry about the cost. I was not thinking about what if I won. I was thinking if Monica won, she can get into the cooking program she wanted to be in. In August, when we were back in school, Monica was going to be in the food service program. Something, I knew she would excel at. All my life, I had just tagged along with her in classes but this year, I got to take creative writing.

But, I had no idea what I was in for as they announced the winners of the contest. It had been a month ago. I had almost forgot about the entry. But I was about to find out what was about to happen.

Different Colored Dreams

 

Release Date: Sep. 15, 2020

Number of Pages: 43

Self-Publish through Amazon KDP

Language: English

ISBN-13: 979-8661204646

Meet The Author

Tonya Christine Hewitt

I have wanted to be a writer ever since I was 8 years old. I grew up a Navy brat, moving around A LOT! I lived on the navy base in Norfolk, Va, Groton, Ct, Mobile, Al and probably numerous other states as well, so it was hard making friends, being as shy as I was. I did have a close friend in Norfolk named Jennifer. We became friends because just like my characters in Different Colored Dreams we had the same lunch box of Rainbow Brite. We were huge fans of the cartoon. But then, once, again I had to move.

  But we moved to Cleveland, TN and that is where my grandparents and cousins lived. I started going to Hopewell Elementary and I got to stay long enough where I had a favorite teacher, Mrs. Armour. She read us books from Judy Blume and E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web. She introduced me to my love of books. My dad finally retired and we got to stay here!

  But it was not till my teacher took us to the library for reading time, we got to listen to the librarian read us a book. This was no ordinary book. It was a 12 year old girl who wrote her dad a story for being in the army. I felt a connection to her. This girl was four years older than me but I felt I could write a book, even at my young age. I was hooked. I read and wrote all I could. I was determined to accomplish my dream. I promised my mom I would dedicate my first book to her and that I did. A Mystical Journey, the first book I ever self-published, came out in 2009 and six years later, I reformatted it and then, I felt like I had to write all I could!

  God gave me my talent and inspires me each and every day and blesses me with so much. My mom will always be my number one fan but sadly, she passed away in 2013. Many books I have written are dedicated to her memory. Lots of my ideas come from wanting to make presents for people and seeing them smile from the story I have written. The words always seemed rather magical to me and I love that writing can take me wherever imagination roams.

 I co-write a series with my best friend, Trisha King under the pen name Larissa Moon. We love that you stopped by our site to find out more about us and our writing!