Words Unspoken, Things Unseen

Words Unspoken, Things Unseen tells the story of Reverend Stephen Bentham, founder and director of the Settlement, a homeless shelter that is about to be demolish. The pastor draws on the loyalty of Jósue Félix Guzmán also known as Molca (his assistant), Dr. Manfred Saul Reese (the house physician), and Rhoda Bart (a visiting archeology professor) to save the hundred beds of the shelter. Juanito Andrés Téllez, a school-age boy also joins the effort.

While Rhoda secretly searches for artifacts within the confines of the Settlement, the Alliance of Churches and Developers led by James Hannity wants them evicted. The city wants the property and the college as well. Fending off the bulldozers tests each character of this story. Their own troubled histories compel them to help. One of the toughest challenges is burying the house physician when he succumbs to cancer during their fight to preserve the shelter.

Growing the American Way

Silence dinned in the glare, profound as the vacuum on the planet Mars. Their starship had crash-landed, and there was nothing to drink. These badlands had canceled their scheme to coax prime cannabis to grow, concealed in the middle of nowhere. Back in the city, a pound of trimmed buds sold for four thousand dollars. One ounce cost three-fifty cash per cellophane baggie—all buds, no shake. Mata kept a coded ledger that listed prospective buyers and dollar amounts. There were enough eager customers to move kilo bricks of quality smoke, more than four porters or “mules” could transport on foot over the mountains to the west.

Jena Estery shook off her backpack and sighed, after their long trek through the sierras. In front of her loomed a streak of baked mud, flecked with iron pyrite and mica. “Without water, we farm prickly pear and sagebrush,” she said to the three men, pointing to a stand of drought-withered nopal cactus. “How do I salvage my inheritance, when my dear sister Lynn is a cash-only woman?