Review
"Bauden delivers believable characters... (I)t is very easy to get caught up in the story of Frankie." --
Lesbian World's Magazine
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
As I sit here attempting to put into words all that has happened to me, I am trying to imagine your faces as you read it. I guess the first thing I should tell you is that what you are about to read will be as unbelievable to you, as it was to me. Everything that I am going to relate to you will sound completely off the wall. All I can tell you is, bear with me as I try to recapture and recount the most incredible experience of my life.
For starters, I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Frances Theresa Elizabeth Christina Camarelli, but you can call me Frankie. When you are Italian, I guess one name isn't enough for you; so I went through my childhood hoping the new kids wouldn't ask me my name. Making it easier for them, I just told them what they could call me. Everyone has called me Frankie since I was little, except for Stacey, my ex, who still just calls me "bitch" when I see her, but that's an entirely different story.
I am the only child of my parents, Frank and Myrna. My mother left us when I was about two, so I really don't remember much about her. I keep a picture of the two of us on the mirror of my vanity as a reminder. Pop says she couldn't handle being a mother and a wife, so she opted for neither. Pop forgave her, but I think she was a chicken shit.
Ma was a real head turner; people tell me I have her eyes. I like the smile I got from Pop, though; it's gotten me out of more shit than I ever intend to talk about. You could probably get it out of Crystal, though; she's never known how to keep her mouth shut, except when it counted. Crystal and I have been best friends since I was about four. She moved here from Ohio. A good choice, too, I think. I mean, what's in Ohio anyway? I think they invented the concept of "moving" in Ohio. This is Chicago. There isn't a town like this one anywhere. Some people like New York; it's just because they haven't yet lived here.
Anyway, Crystal and I have been to hell and back together. We've had our share of running from trouble: starting with our parents to cops and of course, the boys on the corner. She's such a flirt, God, I can't even begin to tell that story. Anyway, we have done it all. There isn't much we wouldn't do for each other, and that theory was recently put to the test.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
