"Racism is always there. Just under the surface. Waiting. So, it is with the book you are about to read. I wrote this book years ago. It was prompted by my visit to Missouri. I met these high school students that told me about their life. A vacant lot where a black family's home was burned to the ground. The lynching of a brother. Their school with a bomb next to the flagpole. The value of friendship in a little know Pep Band. So, I wrote a fictional story about these young adults. It was to be a story about hope. I didn't expect the ending. It frightened and sickened me. I put the manuscript in a box and buried it in a basement closet. So, I wouldn't have to remember these young adults I'd met in Missouri. Or the newspaper articles they mailed to me about racism in their small town. Racism. It's like that book I hid in my basement. It's always there. Waiting. George Floyd is murdered in the public eye. Enough is enough. After years I found the need to open that box and read the story in your hands. To print it for children everywhere. Children that feel alone and threatened. Children that choose to sing out loud for freedom. Children where Black Lives Matter. I'm sorry for the ending in this book. And the fact that I kept it locked up for so long"--