Excerpt from forthcoming book "10 Silver Dollars"

It was 2 a.m. and unusual I wasn't asleep by now. Maybe it was celebratory debris still in the air from a day of birthday events. To finally be 10 years old was monumental; things would probably change now, at least I thought they should. More responsibility, fewer rules, and yes more allowance. The type of allowance that would upgrade my hobby set to one more representative of a kid on the move.

I thought I’d begin the first day of my second decade by separating my tithe from my other money so I wouldn’t spend it. I looked all around the hotel room for a safe place to keep the 10 silver dollars my aunt sent for my birthday. We’d be home tomorrow so I just needed a place for the night away from my brother and sister’s view. I found the golden location. Behind the water faucets at the bottom rear of the toilet, no one can see it...I perfectly stacked my ten silver dollars there.

The dollars were hidden so well I thought I would forget them, maybe that’s why I was still up staring into the darkness. Surely I wouldn’t leave in the morning and forget to crawl down there and retrieve them. Seemingly just when my thoughts were finally turning towards sleep a figure moved in the room. At first I wasn’t sure whether it was my brother or sister getting up for a restroom trip, but something deep inside told me not to make a sound.

In an effort not to make a noise I kept my head still and starting watching only with the east to west movement of my eyes. I watched as the figure started to emerge out of the darkness of the unlit room. My eyes had been open for awhile and had taken hold of the moon rays. “Oh my God!” I uttered in my heart, “A man is in our hotel room.” He slowly moved from one piece of luggage to the next, then to my mothers’ purse removing her wallet, credit cards and identification. By this time fear had set in so firmly that I was unsure whether I could actually move if I wanted to. My body felt heavier than ever before as if I was in a straight jacket with an anchor on my chest.

The man, by this time I was sure it was a man, proceeded to rummage through my father’s pants leg pulling out the few dollars he had. It ran through my mind how this burglar must not know my dad is a minister. Does he understand you can’t steal from a pastor? Has no one told him this?

My fear partnered with frustration, and then anger as my ten-year-old mind attempted to process how my parents would feel once they found out we had been robbed. Lost on me was the tangible danger my family was actually in. I knew not if his plan was to kill all six of us, or harm us physically in any way.

I do know that as soon as he appeared he was gone and I would have credited my memory to a nightmare had it not been for the police sirens that stirred me awake the next morning. I got up repeatedly asking, “Dad what happened?” His only reply, "We’ve been robbed" he then turned back to the police officer and continued speaking.

As if flashcards where thrust in my face, I immediately recalled everything that happened the night before. With a shaking voice and sweaty hands I shouted with my eyes shut tight. “I saw the Man!” The policeman stopped writing. My father turned sharply with a look of disbelief and horror and slowly asked me, “You saw him? Yes, I replied…"I was up late because I couldn’t sleep and I saw this man walking in the room," I continued, “I didn’t want to wake anybody because I was scared to death. I wasn't sure what he would do.” I went on to explain how he went through my mothers' purse, took her wallet, identification and everything else she had and then left as quickly as he came…I heard my father murmur under his voice. “He took everything officer, he took all the money we had." I paused, pulled on my dad’s elbow and said, "Wait,
I hid my tithe.”