Swallowing Stones | The First Chapter

The following is an audio reading of the first chapter of Swallowing Stones by Joyce Macdonald.

Narrated by J. Geronimo Herrera
SoundFX and Music by Motion Array

Excerpt:
There is no stopping it; the bullet rips through the hot summer haze, missing trees, houses, unsuspecting birds, coming to roost, finally, like an old homing pigeon.
Jenna Ward’s hand hangs above her brow, a visor blotting out the sun. Above her, on the roof, her father squeezes the steel staple gun, aiming for the shingle beneath his fingers. The sun ricochets off the shining steel, pelting Jenna’s eyes. She can barely make out her father’s face. He is a dark shadow, moving about clumsily like a squatting troll traversing rooftops.
For a single moment the sun dips behind the cloud. Jenna drops her hand from her forehead. Her father lifts his hand to wave, but it flops suddenly, the knuckles thudding against the new shingles. His eyes widen like dark coals, his mouth falls open, a silent black zero. Slowly his body folds over itself, and over, plunging to the porch roof below, rolling like a heavy log over the side, coming to rest, finally, by Jenna’s bare feet.

Somewhere on the other side of Briarwood, over a mile away, in th woods behin d his house, Michael MacKenzie gently strokes the silky stock of his .45-70 Winchester rifle while he holds it out for Joe Sadowski’s admiration. And because he could not wait to feel the smooth curve of the trigger beneath his finger, he has fired one shot into the air. It is the Fourth of July, Michael’s seventeenth birthday, and the rifle is a gift from his grandfather. His parents are throwing an all-day barbecue and pool party to celebrate. Before the sun sets, he will eat six hot dogs, four hamburgers, and a half pound of potato salad; he will sneak in to the garage with Amy Ruggerio—even though his girlfriend, Darcy, is at the party — because Amy is the “babe” and wants him; he will drive the neighbors crazy with heavy metal blasting from his stereo. He will, in fact, think this is the best day of his life, because in that moment he does not know that he has accidentally killed a man.

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