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    Something Noble
    Something Noble
    Something Noble
    Ebook75 pages1 hour

    Something Noble

    By William Kowalski

    4.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Linda is a young, hardworking single mom struggling to get by from paycheck to paycheck. When she learns that her son Dre needs a kidney transplant, her family's already precarious financial situation takes a turn for the worst. Then she discovers that the only one who can help Dre is his half-brother LeVon, a drug-dealing gangbanger who thinks only of himself. Somehow Linda must get through to LeVon in order to save her son.

    Though she is deathly afraid of LeVon and the world he lives in, Linda knows she must conquer her fear and meet him on his own turf if she is to have any hope of success. Linda is finally able to teach LeVon the value of doing something noble with his life. And to her surprise, she learns she has room in her heart for one more kid, a boy from the streets who never had a chance.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOrca Book Publishers
    Release dateMar 1, 2012
    ISBN9781459800151
    Something Noble
    Author

    William Kowalski

    William Kowalski is the author of Eddie's Bastard, Somewhere South of Here, and The Adventures of Flash Jackson. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1970 and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania. He lives in Nova Scotia with his wife and daughter.

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    • 4/5
      This engaging hi-lo features a vividly rendered, strong-willed mother in the 'hood doing what she can to care for her teenage son Dre who needs a kidney transplant. Urban fiction that captures the realities of the lower class without relying on bad language to make its point. Representative line from gangbanger LeVon: "Nineteen in the projects is like 90 in the rest of the world."

    Book preview

    Something Noble - William Kowalski

    SOMETHING

    NOBLE

    WILLIAM KOWALSKI

    Copyright © 2012 William Kowalski

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

    Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

    Kowalski, William, 1970-

    Something noble [electronic resource] / William Kowalski.

    (Rapid reads)

    Electronic monograph.

    Issued also in print format.

    ISBN 978-1-4598-0014-4 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-4598-0015-1 (EPUB)

    I. Title. II. Series: Rapid reads (Online)

    PS8571.O985S65 2012           C813’.54           C2011-907749-3

    First published in the United States, 2012

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2011943697

    Summary: In order to save her son’s life, a single mom must try to convince a selfish drug dealer to donate one of his kidneys to his half brother. (RL 3.0)

    Orca Book Publishers is dedicated to preserving the environment and has printed this book on paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council®.

    Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

    Design by Teresa Bubela

    Cover photography by Getty Images

    www.orcabook.com

    Printed and bound in Canada.

    15  14  13  12  •  4  3  2  1 

    To all those who need a second chance

    CONTENTS

    Chapter One

    Chapter Two

    Chapter Three

    Chapter Four

    Chapter Five

    Chapter Six

    Chapter Seven

    Chapter Eight

    Chapter Nine

    Chapter Ten

    Chapter Eleven

    Chapter Twelve

    Chapter Thirteen

    Chapter Fourteen

    Chapter Fifteen

    Acknowledgments

    CHAPTER ONE

    Ijust want to tell you straight up that this story has no happy ending.

    But it doesn’t have a sad ending either. It’s a story about being a mom, so it has a lot of happy and sad in it. Like motherhood itself, it has no ending at all.

    That’s because you never stop being a mom. You don’t stop when your kids go to sleep at night. You don’t stop when they grow up and move away. Being a mom is not just a job. It’s an identity. Maybe you already know what I’m talking about. If not, you will by the time you’re done hearing my story.

    My life has never been boring. I’m not an important or exciting person, but sometimes some pretty wild things happen to me. Usually they don’t come right on top of each other like this though.

    This is the story of one remarkable year that was full of one wild thing after another. It was a year that changed my life and the lives of everyone I cared about. And it starts in my least favorite place of all: a doctor’s office.

    Let me take you back to that doctor’s office right now.

    * * *

    My son, Dre, is sixteen years old. He’s been feeling sick for a while. We’ve been having a lot of tests done. Now we’re sitting and waiting for the doctor to come talk to us.

    Dre feels too sick to be nervous, so I’m nervous for both of us. He lies on the exam table with his arm over his eyes. He’s so tall that his feet hang way down off the end of the table. I still can’t believe how big my baby is. I carried him on my hip for so long sometimes I can still feel him there. Now look at him. He’s a giant with dreadlocks. So handsome the girls can’t take their eyes off him.

    I was only sixteen myself when I had Dre. I try to imagine him becoming a father at this age. It’s a horrible thought. I didn’t know a damn thing when I was sixteen. For the millionth time, I think about how amazing it is that we even survived. I was so stupid when I was that age. So young and stupid.

    But here we are. We made it through a lot of bad times. Only now my baby is sick, and I have this horrible feeling that more bad times are around the corner.

    When I get nervous, I talk. So I keep on chattering away to Dre, even though he isn’t answering me.

    After a while he says, Mama, give it a rest. I’m too sick for small talk.

    So we sit and wait in silence.

    Finally the door opens. A new doctor walks in. He stops and looks at Dre, then at me. Then he looks at his chart, like he’s making sure he has the right people. We get that a lot. That’s what it’s like when your kid’s skin is a different color from yours. I guess people wonder if you’re just borrowing him or something.

    Señora Gonzalez, says the doctor. "Buenos días. Me llamo Doctor Wendell."

    I get that a lot too. People think I don’t speak English just because I look

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