WELCOME TO FRED
{A NOVEL}
Chapter One
I found it in the back of a drawer in his roll-top
desk. Not that I was looking for it. I was just cleaning out the desk. I
didn't mind. In fact, I preferred it to cleaning out the closets, which
Hannah was doing, or cataloging the furniture, the job Heidi had chosen.
It was a small, black, cardboard ring binder with a white label. The
printing on the label was definitely Dad's-a small and precise lettering from
a hand that seemed to be more comfortable with cuneiform than the English
alphabet. It read: "The Matthew Cloud Lexicon of Practical Usage."
Intrigued, I flipped through it. There were tabbed dividers for each letter
of the alphabet. Each page appeared to have a single entry consisting
of a word and a definition. I flipped back to the beginning. The first entry
was:
Adolescence: Insanity; a (hopefully) temporary period of
emotional and mental imbalance. Symptoms: mood swings,
melancholia, rampant idealism, insolvency. Subject takes
everything too seriously, especially himself. ... read full excerpt from Welcome to Fred: A Novel ebook
