Back in 2017 the short story Fugitives was published in an anthology titles butterscotch-a collection of stories. The majority of stories in butterscotch were about people struggling with some issue of the other, or involved in domestic situations, or encountering unusual situations and having to make moral choices as to what to do. Fugitives is about two young people, both victims in abusive domestic situations. Their lives collide on a rainy pre-dawn morning and due to their individual circumstances they form a bond of mutual need. James needs Jade's help with a medical issue, Jade needs financial assistance which James can provide temporarily. A bond forms between them due to the abuse they've suffered. A Massachusetts police officer helping the Pennsylvania police investigate a murder in their state questions Jade, a suspect in the murder, when she takes James to the ER for treatment. There is no direct evidence connecting Jade to the murder, although the Massachusetts officer feels she could have done it, but seeing the evidence of the abuse she's suffered, documented on James' cellphone camera, he chooses not to look to hard for evidence that could connect her to the murder.
One of the most frequent comments I receive in regards to my short stories is that readers want to know what happens to the characters after the story ends. They want to know more. so, about a year and a half after writing Fugitives I wrote it's continuation in Survivors. Survivors has never been published and probably never would have been published, but I was recently rereading butterscotch, and remembered I'd written more of Jade and James' story, so I found it in the files, fixed up the continuity issue, cleaned it up and decided to publish both stories in one slim volume as a novella in two parts, much like Bending Birches combines two connected stories.
Fugitives/Survivors is about how two damaged young people run away from emotional, psychological and physical abuse and violence in their homes. James and Jade have both taken as much as they can, are aware that the abuse and violence has escalated and they could end up dead if they don't get themselves out of the situations they're presently in. One f them commits murder. One thinks he's committed murder, but it turns out he hasn't killed his father, only injured him. One crime was committed in self defense, the other a spontaneous act after a violent physical assault when Jade knows the next time he attacks her he could very well kill her.
Survivors is set three years later. James has settled down in New Brunswick. Jade was with him until one night when the police came and arrested her for murder, returning her to Pennsylvania to face charges. Her charges were reduced and she's been released from prison after serving her sentence. She returns to New Brunswick exhausted and unsure of the future. Her life is full of unknowns. She suffered further traumas while in jail. James takes her in and wants her to stay, but she has difficulty adjusting. He doesn't quite know what to do to help her. While their individual situations and their mutual need bonded them initially, Jade no longer feels worthy of James' love. She's unsure of everything, wary, depressed, but stays with him because she has no where else to go. James still loves her and wants her to stay, but he's afraid she'll take off and life will consume her, use her up, and she'll be gone. Survivors is about forging new lives from the wreckage of the past and building a better future, about finding someone who understands and cares and can relate to what you've been through, who gives you time and space to begin to heal and a safe environment in which to work on that. It's about learning to trust someone not to hurt you, and discovering love when your heart has been through hell.
This novella is about two damaged young people reconnecting, deciding that they want to stay together, and beginning to lay down a new future for themselves, taking the first steps into that future, and realizing they have a few older friends whom they can count on and turn to for advice and guidance should they need it.
When the family one is born into fails you it's easy to fall between the cracks. Some do not survive. Some survive, but at a terrible cost. Others forge bonds and find others who understand what they've been through. Some still slip and fall between the cracks, but some find a path that leads them away from the past. Some survive.
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