Over the next few weeks I will be posting quality content from the many different genres in which I love to write. Today I am sharing an snippet from a historical fiction novel I have been working on over the past year. It is a story set in the 1920's in southern Missouri. The main scenes take you inside the walls of the Missouri State Sanatorium revealing the abhorrent conditions and challenges associated with tuberculosis. I hope you like it!
“'Absolutely not!'
Those were the words that echoed through the living room and inside her head. Her father stood over her, glaring with an anger that cinched his sunburned face with a deep disgust. His hands were firmly placed on his hips and his right foot tapped the wooden floor impatiently. She knew when he started doing that, it meant business.
'But daddy, I love him,' she pleaded desperately.
'Like hell you do,' he retorted, a few drops of spit flying from his angry lips. 'You will never see him again! I forbid it!'
'Calm down, dear,' her mother stepped forward with her arms laid gently on his shoulder. 'You’ll give yourself a heart attack carrying on like this.'
'Do you want your father to die of a heart attack?' Catherine asked, turning to her daughter. “Just, please, stay away from him. He’s nothing but trouble.'
Ruth had no intentions of following their stupid rules. She and Edgar had fallen madly in love months ago at a local dance. She wasn’t supposed to attend the dance either, but she had decided to rendezvous with him after she had told her parents that she would be staying at a friend’s house. Sylvia, her friend's mother, had stood up for her when her mom had called her house to ask a question about what they were bringing to the Sunday Mass dinner. Since then, Ruth’s mom and dad had lost trust in her and were constantly trying to keep her trapped in the house. She wasn’t swayed then and she wouldn't be now."
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