Excerpt from Up the Devil's Belly, page 152
"How a person grows up, how the family treats a little youngun – that's awful important. Makes all the difference in the world. The older you get, the more you realize that your roots are what's holding you up, not tying you down." Piddie Davis Longman
-----
Excerpt from Up the Devil's Belly, page 210
Hank Henderson stood beside the king-sized bed with his crossed arms propped on his distended belly. Two large Pullman suitcases lay opened on the burgundy comforter.
"This time tomorrow, counselor," he announced to the silence of the tomb-like bedchamber, "you'll be strolling down Miami Beach."
No more Chattahoochee with its small town politics. No more obligatory social functions, mind-numbing church services, or dip-shit secretaries with beans for brains. No more Daniel H. Henderson, attorney at law.
Hank allowed himself to slip into the well-rehearsed daydream. His tanned, lean body cushioned in a chaise lounge beside a kidney-shaped pool. Tropical plants dripping with exotic blooms. Young, fresh-faced, well-paid servants catering to his every need. He stroked his chin. Perhaps, he'd grow a beard to accentuate his face.
Hank smiled. Truly, money could open any door. The years of planning and scheming -- now all coming together. The time had finally arrived -- better than any Christmas morning he had ever dreamed of when he was a kid. He could put aside the shady business contacts and child-fondling perverts who grappled like vultures for his homemade videos. He could ditch the gut-wrenching worry over his idiot cousin's inept philandering.
Tomorrow morning, September 12, 2001, would be a day he'd stamp in his memory as the date of his official rebirth. He'd leave the office for a routine business meeting, never to return. Hank chuckled to himself as he chunked a stack of underwear into one of the suitcases. Wouldn't that get them all going in this town? Did you hear? Hank Henderson just up and disappeared! By the time the authorities started to search, he'd be on his way to his new home, deep in the tropical jungle paradise of Costa Rica.
The man leaving Miami airport would no longer answer to Hank.
ISBN: 978-0-9743039-2-5
Publisher: Rabid Press, Austin, Texas
Date of Publication: September, 2005
List price: $14.95
Order Up the Devil's Belly on Amazon
Book excerpts and cover art reprinted with expressed permission
of Rabid Press, Austin, Texas.
©2006 Rhett DeVane
