Journey

Can 2 credible witnesses, Sherriff Jessie -Lee Stander, deputy-sheriff Tessa Theroux and a video camera all be wrong? That's the conundrum Jennifer-Lee Williams' family and friends have to grapple with after the young girl is involved in a terrible tragedy. Who do you believe? Two trustworthy law enforcers or a widely unpopular amnesiac girl? Jennifer-Lee Williams (Jenna) granddaughter of Red Pete Stander, ex-patriate South African living the dream of legalized Apartheid and racist militia leader in his adopted home of Montana USA, loses her mom Leonora Stander, in a tragic stand-off with the ATF. The militia is subsequently destroyed, it's leadership imprisoned and the rest of the foot soldiers exiled. Jenna' dad, Michael-John Williams who abandoned his then three month old baby girl ten years earlier, after being exposed as an ATF plant, returns to claim her and she relocates with him to Florida State on the south coast of the United States to live with him and his new African American family. Her mom's younger sister Jessie -Lee, who practically raised her, and Tanya, a cousin follows suit to be near her. The girl taken out of her comfort zone of a whites only compound and transplanted to the predominantly African American neighborhood of East Bank have difficulty adjusting to her new surrounding. The girl who through the years had been dogged by bad luck and trouble loses her dad less than three months later, leading her to act up, driving a wedge between her and Jessie-Lee, a sheriff's deputy. Estelle, her stepmom tries her best to insulate Jenna against the community who sees her as a racist and trouble maker. Egged on by friends much older than herself she floats from one scandal to the other. Four years later tragedy strikes again when Jenna is involved in a terrible tragedy. Through mistaken identity she is forced to plead guilty on the insistence of Jessie -Lee to a crime she didn't commit and is sentenced to Baines-Ville Reformatory in Northern Florida. The girl who endures a torrid time has to prove her innocence from behind the high walls of Baines-Ville while her hate tripples in intensity against the woman who used to call her Little Sister. Journey is a book about betrayal, hate, love and the enduring power of family and forgiveness.