The Ticket
by Debra
Coleman Jeter
GENRE: YA Suspense
BLURB:
The Ticket
She hoped winning the
lottery would solve her problems.
Her problems have
just begun....
It is 1975, an
ordinary year for an ordinary Southern family. TRAY DUNAWAY, like thousands of
other teenagers around the country, longs to be part of the popular set at
school. Tray’s mother, EVELYN, lies in bed most days with a headache, and her
bipolar tendency toward extreme highs or desperate lows veers more and more
often toward depression. Tray’s grandmother GINNY, who lives with the family,
still grieves the loss of her husband, Brook. She believes it’s time for her to
move out, if she could afford to, and find a place of her own, maybe even a new
romance. This doesn’t look likely, given the state of the family’s finances.
Then something
extraordinary happens. A down-and-out friend of the family, PEE WEE JOHNSON,
buys an extra lottery ticket. He gives it to Tray’s dad as a thank-you for
driving Pee Wee to Hazard, Illinois, where he purchased the tickets. And what
do you know?
When Johnson demands
his cut, Tray’s dad refuses. As Evelyn’s illness spirals toward madness,
Johnson turns threatening, and Tray makes some poor decisions, what initially
seems like a stroke of good fortune suddenly triggers a disturbing chain of
events.
EXCERPT:
A corner of my brain registers that
PeeWee’s grammar isn’t usually so bad. Or is it? Maybe he’s posturing for the
camera, too? Silence falls, and the cameras point once more at Jesse. “Is that
true?”
Dad hesitates for just an instant
before nodding.
The cameramen glance at each other.
Then a tall man in a tee-shirt and jeans makes a brief motion with his
forefinger. At this signal, they all move toward Pee Wee. Quickly. As if
capturing an action sequence in a war zone. One of them asks Pee Wee, “Tell
us—tell us everything.”
Pee Wee talks, his expression a
little smug. I notice, as I have not noticed before, that he speaks with a
strong southern twang. There’s no question now: we will all surely come across
as a bunch of loony hicks. Longing to escape to my room, I instead remain
frozen in place, listening to Pee Wee’s story. It has the ring of truth.
“See, I always buy the numbers from
my mother’s birthday for myself,” he explains. “Usually my buddy Jay-bird
drives me and him to Hazard, Illinois, to buy our tickets. But Jay-bird’s car
was in the shop, so we asked Jesse—he’s Jay-bird’s brother-in-law—to drive us
over. I don’t drive m’self. A lousy couple of tickets and they’ll take your
license away, you know? Anyway, riding my bike keeps me fit. To make a long
story short, ole Jesse said okay, he’d give us a lift. But when we git there,
Jesse says he’ll just sit in the car. He don’t even want to go in and buy a
ticket. Are you sure, I ask him, not believin’ my ears. He says he is, he don’t
believe in throwin’ his money away on no lottery ticket. So to thank him an’
all, I bought him a ticket. But for Jesse’s ticket, I just changed one number
on my mother’s birthday, making her a year younger as it were. So when I heard
the winnin’ number announced, I knew right off it was the one I bought. So I
called ole Jesse right away—he never would-a even knowed he
won if I hadn’t, not bein’ a lottery
man hisself—and I told him the good news. I ain’t thinkin’ he believed me at
first. But I just told him, like I’m a-telling all of you out there in
television land … I only want a little share.”
Pee Wee pauses and looks imploringly
from one cameraman to another. “It’s only fair,” he says. “Don’t you agree?”
Okay, I have to admit it does sound
fair. Mama lets out a small sound, her mouth round. I’m not sure, but I think
it is the word “no”—or maybe it’s “oh.” Her face is about to crumple into
tears, and the cameras are all over her now. The cameramen are intent, but
there is a hidden smile in their busyness. They are eating this up.
I move quickly to Mama’s side,
taking her arm and pulling her out of the line of flashing cameras. “Excuse us,
please,” I mutter. Then, with as much dignity as I can muster—not just for me,
but for Mama too—I escort her from the room.
AUTHOR BIO:
The Ticket is Debra Coleman Jeter’s first novel. It
was a finalist for a Selah Award in two categories: Young Adult Fiction and
First Novel. A Vanderbilt University professor, Debra Coleman Jeter has
published fiction and nonfiction in popular magazines, including Working Woman,
New Woman, Self, Home Life, Savvy, Christian Woman, and American Baby. Her story,
“Recovery,” won first prize in a Christian Woman short story competition, and
her nonfiction book “Pshaw, It’s Me Grandson”: Tales of a Young Actor was a
finalist in the 2007 USA Book News Awards. She is a co-writer of the screenplay
for Jess + Moss, a feature film which premiered in 2011 at the Sundance Film
Festival, screened at nearly forty film festivals around the world, and
captured several international awards. She lives in Clarksville, Tennessee,
with her husband.
Buy Link:
Giveaway:
$10 Amazon/BN GC
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.
6 comments:
Thanks, Nancy, for hosting an excerpt from The Ticket on your website today. Also, my thanks to everyone who reads, comments, or poses questions. Don’t forget to click and view the trailer. I really appreciate every comment I get!
Thanks Lisa and good luck. Don't forget to view the trailer.
Sounds like a great book, thanks for sharing the excerpt :)
An interesting concept.
Thanks Victoria for following the tour.
Thanks Mary for the comment.
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