Vincent N. Scialo
In the long awaited sequel to The Rocking Chair, Randolph’s Tale (A Journey For Love) will capture the hearts of those who love and long to be loved.
Randolph and Heidi, now in their eighties and happily married, are faced with heartache when Heidi suffers a sudden stroke. As Heidi lay in her hospital bed in a coma, it is Randolph’s quest to tell her of his long ago journey to this country. Randolph’s tale begins in Warsaw, Germany during the holocaust and continues until his eventual freedom in the United States. From a long-lost family member to the discovery of the hidden rocking chair, Randolph shares every vivid detail with the hope of Heidi’s recovery.
Can the rocking chair destroy Randolph’s life?
Will Heidi awaken from the coma?
Does Randolph reunite with the long-lost family member?
Is it possible for Randolph and Heidi to once again share marital bliss?
Time is of the essence and what matters most. Randolph’s Tale (A Journey For Love) will keep you guessing and asking if love can truly prevail.
This is a third novel for Vincent N. Scialo. It is a sequel to the much talked about The Rocking Chair which he discussed as a guest on News 12 Long Island. The Rocking Chair was part of their Summer Beach Book Club and Vincent was a featured guest on their News broadcast. This sequel will answer any and all questions people were curious about from his first book. Many readers urged him to write the sequel and with his desire to please his readers, he wrote what he feels is his best work to date. Randolph’s Tale (A Journey for Love) will keep you turning pages.
For those who love suspense thrillers, his last book, Deep in the Woods, will be sure to please.
Vincent continues to take writing courses and networking over the Internet, through his creative style of writing is working toward perfection.
Vincent resides in Bellmore, Long Island, with his wife Jennifer and their two children.
Randolph had just closed the door of the shed which stood behind his house. Once Heidi had gone into the woods for her long quest to safety, Randolph finally broke down. How he was able to muster up the courage to lead Heidi away from those soldiers was beyond him. It took all his self-control not to show his nervousness it front of the superior and the other German soldiers. His legs felt weak and his hands were trembling. He knew he had to remain strong for Heidi’s sake. She was on the verge of losing it completely and he could not let that happen. Now that she was gone, he took a few moments to compose himself. He knew what he needed to do next. He had to return to Heidi’s house or what was left of it for the rocking chair he had made her for her seventeenth birthday. Somehow, some way, he would return the rocking chair to her one day. The pleasure it had given her for those short few weeks made him want to retrieve it even more. He knew he would be in danger returning to Heidi’s house but he took the chance. Upon arriving there, seeing her home destroyed and her father lying there in a puddle of blood left him sick. Heidi’s father, Ira Kaufman, was a good man. He didn’t deserve to die such a brutal death. Randolph went into the bedroom and came back with a sheet. He placed it over the body of the man he now knew he would never really get to know. It was the least he could do knowing that Heidi’s father would never get a decent burial. None of these people deserved to be treated this way.
How could such a great country let itself become corrupted by one man? A sick man by the name of Adolph Hitler. Then he saw it. The rocking chair was exactly where it was just moments ago when he saw it last even though it felt like hours. Heidi had persuaded her father to let her take it along with them on their escape. The escape that never took place. He took hold of the rocking chair and carried it back to his house. He placed it in his shed with every intention of coming back for it when things quieted down. Randolph hurried about. He took a blanket off a shelf and hid it in a corner where it could not be seen just in case someone came into the shed. Randolph fastened the door with a lock. He needed to get back to the troop he had deserted many hours before. Randolph needed to come up with a great excuse for the time he had been away. A quick goodbye to his parents and he would be off. Just as he was heading toward his back door, he was startled by a group of soldiers. It was the same group that he last seen in the Kaufman house. He stood there frozen. The soldiers moved apart for someone to come through. It was the superior of the troop.
Randolph didn’t know what to do. He just stood there.
The superior came forward and stopped right in front of him and said, “I told you that if we were ever to cross paths again, you would be sorry. Especially if you were caught in a lie. You helped those Jews escape. Didn’t you?”
Randolph couldn’t speak. Not a sound was able to escape his lips.
“Don’t you want to know how I know this you little piece of shit? Answer me!
I demand an answer!” and with that the superior slapped Randolph so hard that he fell to the ground. “I had Hans follow you after you left with those four Jews. I knew a kid like
you wouldn’t be sent by General Rothkamp. And I was right. I knew just what Hans would report back to me. He watched your every move since you first left the house with those Jews. I haven’t been in the German army all these years for nothing. I sat back and watched and knew your every move. I left those four Jews alone. They won’t get far. These woods are crawling with German soldiers just looking for target practice. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have already been shot to pieces,” the superior laughed. “I know when I smell a rat! Actually more a Jew lover!” the superior yelled. “Isn’t that right boy? What did you do? Have the hots for the little Jew girl? Was that the case? Answer me when I speak to you,” demanded the superior.
Randolph tried to answer but couldn’t. He stood up after being slapped to the ground but remained silent. Blood was dripping from his lip and he held his cheek where he had been smacked.
The superior looked at him with disgust when he spoke again, “So you won’t answer.
Well I figured that this would happen and now you leave me no choice. Bring them forward,” he shouted to his subordinates.
Randolph couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The soldiers threw them forward and they both fell to the ground at the superior’s feet. Why them he thought to himself. The two people who meant everything to him were now in front of him. The two people who had nurtured him from birth. The two people who made him the young man that he was. The fine young man that he turned out to be. Randolph’s mother and father. They both looked so frightened.
“Stay down,” shouted the superior, “Your son here refuses to answer me. I asked him a simple question and he chooses not to answer. Maybe your father can make you speak.”
With that the superior kicked his father in the stomach. His father doubled over in pain.
That was enough. Randolph couldn’t take it anymore when he finally spoke, “Please, let them be. They had nothing to do with any of this. It was all my doing. I chose to save the one girl I was meant to marry. It was me. No one but me!” Randolph said as he started to cry.
“So you ARE willing to talk. Now that we have agreed that you are guilty of setting those Jews free. How should we punish you for this crime? Are you a Jew? I think not.
Then why help them get away? You claim that you loved a Jew. You call your self a German! You aren’t man enough to be a German. Look at yourself now! Whimpering like a coward. A silly little schoolgirl. Crying like a baby,” the superior said taunting him
even more.
Randolph knelt in front of the superior and trying to control the shaking in his voice
said, “Please, let my parents be. They had nothing to do with this. They didn’t even know my plans.”
“Is that right?” asked the superior looking down at Randolph’s mother. You knew nothing of your son’s help with those Jews?” The superior grabbed his mother by the hair and pulled her to her feet. His mother screamed out in excruciating pain. She pleaded with him to let her be. She actually begged him to let them all go free. He pushed her back down. The superior then stood there with his hands on his hips laughing as he spoke, “You did know. This family in front of me is a poor excuse for Germans. They don’t deserve to be Germans. Actually, they don’t deserve to live.” He looked around at the soldiers and called on Hans to come forward. Hans obeyed his commandant and approached them. The remaining soldiers formed a circle around them as instructed by their superior.
Randolph’s parents knelt there with terror in their eyes. Neither of them spoke for fear of the superior’s next move. Randolph couldn’t believe how in just minutes everything had so quickly gone wrong. He couldn’t believe the danger he had put his parent’s lives in.
Hilda and Thor Krause had been married for twenty years. They were decent folks that would never harm anyone. Now Randolph watched as they too quivered at this madman’s
feet.
Randolph knew he must once again act fast and pleaded with the superior offering the only thing he had left. Randolph with every ounce of effort said, “Please let them go. Take me. Do what you must with me. Not them. Please. I beg of you,” he pleaded.
The superior ignored Randolph’s last statement and leaned over to whisper in Hans’ ear.
What Randolph saw next he knew would haunt him for the rest of his life. In a matter of a second both Hans, who looked visibly shaken, and the superior pointed their guns they had taken out of their belts. Randolph’s parents just gazed into each other’s eyes. Their love for one another was what would keep them forever together. Until the end of time. Hans aimed his gun into Randolph’s father’s forehead and pullet the trigger. Just like that. In a split second his father’s life was gone. Shattered by a single bullet. His father slumped to the ground and the blood poured from the hole. Randolph jumped to his feet and ran for Hans. Two other soldiers stopped him. They held him tightly by the arms. Randolph knew what was next. He started screaming to his mother. She too knew the inevitable. Watching her husband executed in front of her eyes was more than she could take. She held up her arms and started to say the Lord’s prayer. Tears flowed from her eyes.
Randolph shouted above it with the only words he ever felt for his mother. He cried out
the words, “I love you, Mama! I love you.”
And as she stopped mid-sentence in prayer, she turned to him and whispered, “I love you too son,” and just then the superior shot her point blank in the forehead. One bullet to the brain and she too was gone forever. Killed in cold blood by this madman. Randolph screamed out, “No…, No…, No…, not my momma! Please not her too! She was such a kind woman! Why? Why?” until his voice was hoarse. The tears were streaming down his face. He could barely see. He could witness no more and collapsed to the ground. He would never forget what happened next. The superior, without an ounce of remorse, stepped over his mother’s body and walked directly up to him and said, “Take him away! Killing him would be too easy. Let’s see him suffer. A slow death. If he wanted to help the Jews, then just maybe he would like to be a Jew. Pick up his scrawny ass and let’s get him sent off with the rest of those filthy beasts.” As he was carted away, Randolph looked directly into the superior’s eyes that were still filled with hatred. He wanted to remember exactly what this man looked like. Randolph made a vow to never forget him. And if he were ever given the opportunity, he would seek revenge. A revenge for what he just did to his parent’s. A revenge that would only be sweet.
