India and the McCallums

In the fictional story of Little Woods, Lloyd McCallum’s job is outsourced to China and the firm that employs Marilyn McCallum moves its headquarters and its operations to Venezuela. In no way should the reader be led to minimize the Nation of India's role as a powerful force in the emerging global economy.

 

The modern-day story achieves a connection with India through a neighboring family who immigrated from India to St. Charles, Illinois and who are close friends to the McCallums.

 

Shashi (Moon) Raj, a best friend to sixteen-year old Jill McCallum, is a first-generation American. Shashi’s mother, Saumyi (Moonlight), and father, Nishesh (Moon), entered the United States on work visas and allow their daughter to socialize as a typical American teen.

 

 

Excerpt: Little Woods (April - 21st Century: Domino Effect)

 

“All right, time to spill it,” Shashi said while she dropped the heel of her hand like a gavel on the top of the steering wheel. “We’ve waited long enough. What’s the story with your dad? Our parents read the paper you know. We’re your best friends, and we don’t know more than our parents?”

 

Jill did appreciate her friends’ support. Each girl had a parent who was out of work, but Trish and Shashi were lucky to have one parent still employed. Shashi’s father was a laid-off electrical engineer who specialized in designing cell phone circuitry. Shashi’s mother was a physician—less vulnerable to overseas competition. Trish’s family carbon-copied Shashi’s: an unemployed Java-programmer mother and a solidly employed lawyer dad. But as far as Jill knew, Shashi’s and Trish’s parents still walked on the right side of the law. “Look, my dad didn’t hurt that woman. The man attacked Dad, and Dad fought back. Then Dad left. The other man beat up that woman so he could blame the whole thing on my dad. My dad’s lawyer’s going to straighten things out in court. When this is over, Dad said that the real story probably won’t make the paper."

 

Shashi and Trish glanced at each another. “Yeah, we figured it was something like that,” Trish said. “When will it go to court?”

 

 

Excerpt: Little Woods (June - 21st Century: Mother's Love)

 

Marilyn aimed her thumb over her shoulder toward the den. “CDC had a guy on television who said that the pandemic is all but over. The vaccine program’s going better than expected. Not fast enough for some people, though. After Saumyi Raj died, Nishesh bought a shotgun and started killing birds near the river.”

 

“I heard people were doing that, but I never would’ve expected it from Nishesh Raj. Though, I can’t blame him.”

 

“A woman from PETA complained about the decimation of the metropolitan goose population. She called the hunters ‘vigilante killers who should be locked away.’ The Aurora police chief claimed he didn’t have the resources to respond to gunfire that wasn’t directed at humans.” Marilyn tried to catch sight of the birds that normally frolicked in her backyard, and their total absence incited in her a strange combination of sorrow and relief.

 

“It’s hard out there for a goose..."