Redline

A college dropout trades his predictable future for an eight-month dance contract in Paris, embarking on a turbulent journey of self-discovery, cheap whiskey, and unapologetic youth.

Summer, 2008. Twenty-one-year-old Jim is a junior business major who wants to be a writer, and he is not a dancer. But an audition he only went to for his girlfriend’s sake lands him an eight-month contract performing at a theme park outside Paris, so he drops out of college, tells his parents two days before his flight, and goes. Paris gives him the city his literary heroes wrote about, two-hundred-dollar whiskey and one-euro beer, a choreographer who calls him stupid on the first day, and a crew of expat dancers who become family. Then he meets Odette, a French dancer who teaches him to get out of his own way, and the eight months start to feel very short.

Currently on submission

Read the opening

Chapter One: The Long Road Home

The year was 2008. It was a hot summer day and I was stuck in my 1990 Toyota Corolla with a busted air conditioner. The hot wind on my face felt like the breath of a panting Rottweiler and did little to cool me down. But it felt good to stick my sweaty arm out the window. My white t-shirt was drenched with sweat and I kept sipping at a bottle of water to keep hydrated. Every so often I would lean forward, peel my wet shirt from my back and flap it around to cool off.

I drove north on Interstate 5 with my elbow jutted out the window. I was now halfway between Los Angeles and my hometown called Coalinga. All around Coalinga they raised cattle and grew almonds and alfalfa. At the moment all I could smell was cow shit and pesticides.

I’d been driving for about three hours now, but I didn’t mind. I'd been considering a problem I’d soon have to face. You see, I was leaving for Paris, France in a few days. Most people would be excited, and I was, but the only problem was I hadn’t told my parents. The opportunity to go to France meant I had to drop out of my junior year of college. I knew the disappointment this would bring my parents no matter how much I assured them I would go back and finish. So I just never plucked up the courage to tell them.

But I had to tell them soon. I couldn't just leave the country without them knowing. This I knew for sure. They would be furious with me. There was no sugar coating it. I still didn’t know the best way to tell them. I could act excited. Ignore the fact that I was dropping out of school. No, the best course of action would be to tell them without hesitation—like ripping off a band-aid. It would hurt, but it would be over with.

I heard a muffled horn blast in the distance and I startled awake from my daydream. I found myself driving halfway into the other lane with a semi-truck barreling toward me!

The truck blasted its horn again and I yanked my steering wheel to the right and swerved back into my lane. The horn kept blaring as the truck passed me.

I shook my head and slapped my cheek several times. I reached for the pack of Marlboros on the passenger seat, fingered it open and pulled out a cigarette. I pushed the cigarette lighter in for it to heat up and then turned the radio on.

A deep voice that sounded like Dracula rattled in Spanish. I quickly pushed the scan button. There was static and then a pastor started speaking about the blessings of God. I pushed the scan button again. The radio was still searching when the cigarette lighter popped out. I took it and brought the glowing coil to my cigarette and took a long drag. The radio stopped on a country music station. I couldn't stand country music so I replaced the cigarette lighter and turned off the radio.

I took another drag from my cigarette and exhaled the smoke. I rolled my shoulders away from my ears and leaned my head side to side, cracking my neck. That close call with the truck had made me tense. My thoughts turned again to the agony of telling my parents that I had dropped out of school.

I wished so much that they could be excited for me traveling to France. I suppose I was destined for ruin. I was a junior year business major who wanted to be a writer—like a fish that wanted to be a bird.

Download one-sheet