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from exciting novels by Latino authors. Happy reading!
and Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
By Celeste León
Floricanto Press
Book Summary: This novel is based on Celeste Leon’s father’s
true story – he won the Puerto Rican lottery and used the winnings for the
benefit of all. It’s fiction but an inspiring heroic adventure. Read our review of LUCK IS JUST THE BEGINNING
by clicking here. And click here for
Celeste Leon’s post about her father.
CHAPTER
1
Maunabo,
Puerto Rico
November
17, 1944
Ramon León had a powerful
premonition. Something extraordinary was about to happen.
Just that morning, he shot an
unprecedented seven free throws in a row. He watched the seventh ball soar into
the air and sail through the tattered net when numbers appeared, high in the
sky above the palm tree that held the faded backboard nailed to its mighty
trunk. A 14 trailed by three zeros pulsed red above the clouds, so vibrant that
Ramón believed God Himself had painted it.
His heart fluttered in his chest
like a moth caught in an oil lamp. He could scarcely breathe before the vision
faded away in the breeze. A trail of gooseflesh swept up his arms until his
mother’s voice broke his trance, calling him to work at her tienda de
ropa. Ramón tucked his basketball under his arm and hurried across the
plaza, the only paved area in his village.
He passed the whitewashed colonial
Catholic church and the enormous ceiba trees shading park benches. This
morning, Ramón was the only person in the plaza, but the benches would soon be
occupied by young boys who polished shoes for a penny with their square limpias
botas and old too frail to work in the sugar cane fields.
Ramón stepped into the store, legs
trembling—had he imagined that vision in the sky? Would everything suddenly
look different? No, the shelves were lined with the same bolts and rolls of
cotton, broadcloth and muslin from which his mother fashioned shirts, pants or
skirts that villagers ordered when they could afford it. He placed the
basketball under the counter where he tallied purchases, and washed his hands
in the old ceramic basin. He began to press and straighten the rolls tight
against one another when the tarnished brass doorbell jingled to announce his
first customer, an elderly jíbara from the barrio.
Ramón nodded to acknowledge her. He
wondered: what did it mean—the number above the clouds? What other
extraordinary things might happen today? When the peasant woman laid seven
brown buttons on the worn counter and counted fourteen pennies, a revelation
struck him like a fist: fourteen cents, seven buttons, and seven free throws.
He was the seventh child to survive after his beloved mother lost her first
eight babies, the lucky one, born in a caul on the seventh day of the seventh
month.
“I hope Caimito comes today. It’s
lottery ticket day, and my husband’s been saving two dimes to play,” the woman
declared.
There was no reason the lottery
vendor wouldn’t roll into Maunabo in his battered old truck. Hurricane season
had passed, the roads were clear and the sky electric blue. The tropical breeze
carried the scent of the sea.
At that moment, Ramón felt the
gooseflesh again. Now he knew what those numbers meant. He must play that
number in the lottery.###
Excerpt published with permission. All rights reserved by author.
Excerpt published with permission. All rights reserved by author.
About the Author: CELESTE LEON is an
award winning author. Her passion for the past ten years has been writing Luck is Just theBeginning, the novel inspired by the true story of her father’s life in
Puerto Rico, released by Floricanto Press on November 23, 2015. The
book earned a Mariposa Award for Best First Book in the 2016 International
Latino Book Awards, a Finalist in Multicultural Fiction in the 2016 International
Book Awards and was selected as Book of the Month (August 2016) by the Las
Comadres National Latino Book Club. Ms. León is a 2013 Alumna of The Squaw
Valley Community of Writers. Her personal essay, Finding Home,
about her travels to Puerto Rico, won first prize in the Annual Contest for
High Sierra Writers of Reno, Nevada; her short stories have appeared in Chicken
Soup for the Soul, Celebrating People Who Make a Difference and The
Preservation Foundation. To contact Celeste or for additional information,
including reviews, interviews such as NPR, and scheduled appearances visit www.celesteleon.com.
Also, visit her at www.celestejleon.blogspot.com
and
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