BOOK PREVIEW: Escape to Molokai
Chapter
1: Night
Maui, 1946
George lit
a candle on his bedside table and examined his thigh in the dim
flickering light. The burn was the size of a fried egg and felt like it was
still on fire. He frowned. Sometimes it felt like everything he did backfired.
Pulling a
torn shred of aloe from his pocket, he squeezed the tuberous leaf until its
juice dripped onto the burn. It stung and soothed it at the same time. One
thing for sure, he wouldn’t pretend to be a fire-dancer again anytime soon. He
didn’t like looking stupid, not even in front of his best friend, Jonathan.
He smiled.
Jonathan had looked pretty stupid tiptoeing across the neighbor’s yard for the
aloe. When Mr. Kim drove up, Jonathan had bolted like he was being chased by
zombies.
Still
grinning, George squeezed the leaf one last time and covered the burn with a
bandage he'd filched from his grandmother’s medicine cabinet. The last thing he
needed was for it to get infected. Then he’d have to tell his grandmother, and
he was already in enough trouble for one day.
Footsteps.
He blew out the candle, stripped off his shirt, and leaped into bed; sandy
shorts, dirty feet and all.