Description

This is an excerpt from a novel I’m writing about a homicide in a small town in the Florida Everglades in the United States. The novel is based on stories a prison inmate told me. The inmate spent most of his adult life in prison for rape and physical assault of children. I believe he also killed at least one child, but he was not convicted for that. The novel is the man’s life as it could have been. I did not want to write this story, but the story haunted me. The inmate did, too. I could imagine what he was like as a child, appealing, bright, loving, and hungry for love. I rewrote his life so that he got what he needed to fulfill his potential and to contribute to the social good.