Sometimes I write little bits of narrative that I love. I can see the people, feel their emotions and hear the fear or the joy in their voices.

And then I chop it out. No mercy because the lovely little scene doesn’t do my story any good. It stops the action or doesn’t fit the characters or the story has changed so significantly it doesn’t belong.

But I still love them and decided you might like to read a couple of them. And so….

A Story: Courage Before the Enemy

The girls slowed their steps near the town’s crossroads as an angry voice punctuated the stillness. They sought refuge in the shadow of  a white clapboard house, out of the view of a shoeless man in a Confederate jacket.

“Take it down, I said,” roared the man with a distinct southern drawl.

He threw his cap on the ground and stalked toward a front door where a hand-stitched American flag had been hung…. MORE