Excerpt from the Book Tenth Year in the Sun

Tenth Year in the Sun! Coming Soon…2017!

Tenth Year in the Sun weaves together the lives of four diverse best friends as they journey into the fullness of womanhood while endeavoring to honor their ten-year commitment to reunite in a faraway land.

Prologue

As Adoma approached the harbor, she realized their promise had come true. An offhanded comment during a girls’ night out in their twenties sparked a remarkable proposal. Adoma suggested that ten years from that evening they drop everything they were doing and reunite somewhere in the world.

Adoma recalled spinning the large globe, trying to focus her alcohol-laden eyes on the orb as it revolved beneath her finger; wherever it landed would be their destination. She lightly pressed the surface as oceans and land masses spun past, wondering what they would do if her finger landed in Siberia or some other remote destination. As friction caused the globe to stop, the four best friends leaned in to see their destination.

“Ladies,” Adoma exclaimed, peering at a small dot off the east coast of Africa, “ten years from this date we meet in the Seychelles!” Giggling like teenagers, they clapped in drunken stupor. In time and distance, it had all seemed so far away, and in the back of her mind, Adoma questioned where they’d be and what they’d be doing www.tenthyearinthesun.com

in a decade. Or whether any of them would even remember their promise Ten years later, they had.

As her driver pulled the car to a stop, Adoma looked up at the sleek yacht and realized how much her life had changed in those years. Chirping seagulls greeted her as she stepped onto the shiny redwood deck. Entering the cabin, Adoma smiled in gratitude. After years as a struggling songwriter, she finally made it when Sasha Pierce, one of the biggest stars in music, released her song, ‘Drop It’. The sexy lyrics had not pleased her devout father, but the song provided financial freedom, with the means to maintain the luxury boat she now inspected before her friends’ arrival. At present, she had everything she’d always wanted, a booming career, a loving husband, and plans to have children.

As Adoma continued to prepare, she wondered, with her friends’ busy schedules and with each of them arriving from different destinations around the world, who would be the first to arrive, Casey, Mya, or Genna? Each of the women was so distinct. She marveled at how they had become friends, and even more amazing, how they remained so close. In the passing years, life hadn’t stood still for any of them.

Mya

‘I got a pocket full of sunshine‘ roared through the speakers of Mya’s convertible as she and Adoma drove to the shopping mall on a gorgeous spring day. The new leaves shimmered under puffy clouds that hung lazily in the azure sky. The song that Mya loved so much and played repeatedly reflected her personality to a ‘t’. ‘Being around www.tenthyearinthesun.com

Mya feels like being in the sunshine,’ Adoma thought. ‘She makes you feel so warm and so loved.’

Mya had that effect on everyone, especially men. ‘Why wouldn’t the men like her?’

Adoma often thought as she observed both men and women stare at her strikingly beautiful friend. But Mya was affectionate with everyone, giving kisses on the cheek, and generous hugs for greetings.

“Isn’t it such a lovely day?” Mya asked in her soft, melodic voice as she lightly brushed her wind-blown scarf from her flushed burnt-sienna-colored cheeks. Mya’s mannerisms and regal disposition suggested former privilege, reminding Adoma of her own mother. But Adoma knew little of Mya’s family, which she spoke of elusively and with reservation.

In general, other than at the onset of their friendship, Mya rarely discussed her past.

So, Adoma had to construct Mya’s former life in her imagination, building from pieces of information shared during glasses of wine, when each sip loosened Mya’s reserve. In those moments, Adoma received glimpses into her friend’s past. What Adoma had determined was that while Mya had escaped her former world, she had not healed from its scars.

Adoma met Mya after Genna and Casey, but instantly shared a deep kinship with her. Mya, like Adoma, had been born in Africa, but in East Africa, thousands of miles apart in physical and cultural distance. And though their respective ancestral lands differed greatly, between them they shared an unspoken and inexplicable closeness as African women in a western world that often felt unkind toward their heritage.

With time, Adoma and Mya’s connection grew and, as such, so did their affection. In turn, Mya disclosed more of her past.

“Adoma,” Mya said softly one evening.

“Yeah?” Adoma responded gingerly, sensing Mya wished to share something profound.

“I don’t look exactly like other women ‘down there’,” Mya revealed. www.tenthyearinthesun.com

Adoma, never at a lost for words, gulped and stared at Mya with widening eyes Mya, suddenly hesitant to clarify, decided against sharing her secret. To Adoma’s relief, she stood up from the sofa, and pretended to check her phone. The tears brimming in Mya’s eyes indicated a deeply painful memory, one that Adoma did not feel prepared to hear.

That moment of near-revelation gave Adoma another hint of their difference in upbringing. The more Adoma learned of Mya’s past, the more she marveled at how Mya, who had been through so much, remained so full of love. Mya never seemed bitter, but rather, acted with generosity and affection toward everyone, friends and strangers alike.

Adoma smiled as she thought of her beautiful friend, and looked forward to being engulfed in her hug.

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