Between fear, longing lies Naomi and Chaz seem to have No Other Choice. As the author, I think this might be why a filmmaker and I are talking about movie rights at this point. I do know that whether you're looking for a great read, or want to see why some have said 'the book reads like a movie', watching this trailer and reading the opening of chapter of my bestselling novel will let you know if Naomi's journey one you want to take. And since the Kindle in only #99cents, I hope you get and gift this read to many.
Please watch this book trailer before you read the first chapter of No Other Choice
Please watch this book trailer before you read the first chapter of No Other Choice
Chapter 1 : What Now
Seeking oblivion she closed her eyes, hoping
that when she opened them, she would find this was a horrid nightmare. Her mind
brought her back to the moment fear had taken control of her life once more.
She heard herself screaming, “Abuela Sosa, please do not be dead!” Her Madre’s
training took over because she heard her say, mi hija, think of something else.
She tried, but as if things could not get any worse, the image of the old
woman’s daughter-in-law packing her meager belongings into her suitcase flashed
before her, and she heard herself demand, “You have no need of me anymore? I
gave you a year of my life! Your esposo…your husband promised he would help me
enter America and search for my uncle if I took care of his madre!”
Aware that the kindhearted old woman had
treated her as if she were her very own kin, her sorrow increased. Yet knowing
that her daughter-in-law had never visited the old woman during their voyage,
and was only there now because it was necessary, Naomi was not surprised that
this woman appeared unfazed by her charge’s death as she dispassionately closed
the lid to the teenager’s suitcase and stared at her. Instead of demanding that
the woman fetch a doctor, as she had insisted an hour ago when she fetched her,
all Naomi could think of was, what do I do, now what do I do? Then she
corrected herself, Naomi, it is not what do you do…it is what can I do to
convince them to let me stay? She watched the woman eyeing her and wondered why
is she in a hurry to rid herself of me before the doctor examines Abuela Sosa
and declares her dead? Only then did she remember the woman’s secretive
responses to an odd phone call that came moments after she followed Naomi into
the estate room. Maybe the family discovered the last name I gave was not…she felt
a knot in her stomach, and knew her worst fears were going to come true.
Opening her eyes to see who was sitting beside
her, Naomi was not surprised to find no one there for fear, she had learned,
does funny tricks to one’s mind. She closed her eyes again, certain that at one
point there had been an official sitting next to her. At least that is what
she…Her mind drifted back to the moment they had meet, that is if being taken
off the grand ship awaiting entry to New York harbor by an immigration official
could be called a meeting. Reliving the moment that culminated when she sat
where she was, Naomi knew it was all true. She was on Ellis Island and would be
deported. She knew that because it being her first time sailing, she had
listened to the other servants talking amongst themselves and learned many
things…amongst them, the fact that no immigrants had disembarked at Ellis
Island since the end of World War I unless… When she questioned those who
spoke, she learned that immigration would remove a passenger from a ship
because of a problem with their paperwork. Though when she sat where the man
pointed, she had refused to believe her situation was as dire as it appeared,
her heart had told her otherwise.
Trying to convince herself that her situation
was not as bad as it seemed, she told herself, this is a mistake! My entry into
America should have been easy. I took care of everything at the American
Consulate before we left Spain. My documents, medical history… I filled each
paper out very carefully!
Agitated,
she opened her eyes. She was alone. Aware of the stories of the chosen few
allowed to enter the country; she tried to think of anything but the future she
feared. Now what? Now what? her mind repeated, demanding an immediate answer.
Think of something else, her mamá had often told her when she worried too much.
And now just as she had when her mother told her what to do, Naomi nodded and
whispered, “Sí, mi mamá.” Scanning the room, she remembered reading that a fire
had reduced the original buildings to cinders and nonflammable materials were
used when the facility was rebuilt. It must have been an awful fire…still…
She heard the door to the office open, looked
at the wall clock, and realized an hour had passed. An official took the man
they had interviewed away. The door was left open at another man’s request. She
leaned forward in her chair hoping to hear the men she assumed would decide her
fate.
“Sad that the grandmother died,” the large man
said, his voice filled with what she prayed was sympathy for her plight.
The smaller man nodded. “And, just before the
boat she was on was to enter the harbor.”
“The girl has no sponsor. We must send her
back to Spain.”
“But she says she has no people,” a man she
could not see said.
“Sad yes, very sad….but it’s not our—”
Paula Rose Michelson's bio & books are at: http://amzn.to/1z8ydzA
