At The Edge of The Woods
A Memoir
by
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It’s been a long and restless night. The sun is up but my eyes are sealed shut and refuse to open. I forgot the Mohave Desert is just a mile up the road. My teeth feel grungy and then I realize I can’t be found here. My body aches from lying like a mummy; legs out straight with my jacket stuffed behind the small of my back. Any slight turn and the stick shift jammed my right kidney. A glance upward and I see my key ring tucked into the visor but no key to the front door. Fumbling to get my sneakers on, I lower the steering wheel, throw my pillow and blanket in the backseat and speed off towards the Chevron on the corner. Cars are lined up for gas, heading south for their two hour commute to LA. Drivers with destinations all caught up in the rat race. I wonder, will I be shot for desertion? A woman in her late sixties with cotton candy hair and chipped blood-red nail polish stands behind the counter. “Mornin,” she says, taking a drag on her cigarette. Her name tag reads Wendy. “Ladies room,” I ask. Wendy hands me a dirty, foot-long wooden dowel wired to a single key. “The restrooms are out back,” says Wendy. I opened the door to a dingy, mirror-less room reeking of Lysol. Disgusting trash spills onto broken tiles. I have to be careful not only where to sit but where to step. Damn, this is tougher than I expected. I head back inside to hand Wendy the key and buy a pack of gum and a coffee. “Honey, make it a good one,” she says in her raspy voice. Unlike Starbucks the coffee is black and bitter. Still bleary-eyed I head over to Starbucks and wait for them to open. I doze off until I hear cars pulling up and doors slamming. Seems strange, yesterday I was like most customers but today I not only seek refuge with fellow writers but I don’t know what else to do. “What can I get you,” asks the bright-eyed teen who obviously had her caffeine fix. The blackboard reads: today’s blend, Italian rich, smoky and full-bodied. “I’ll have a tall Italian,” I reply. A vision comes to me of a tall, dark and handsome lover, a momentary thrill, until I remember that most Italian men are short like my ex and Carlo Ponti. However, arm in arm a towering Sophia Loren remained a devoted wife to her Italian film maestro for many years. As for my Italian; he was tall in the passionate lover department but if another man’s glance lasted too long he had a short fuse. I thought we were a match made in heaven; both grew-up in large families with strong work ethics, determined to overcome our lack-luster childhoods. He did have redeeming qualities like being a hard worker and a good provider. However, early on he let me know he owned me and if I messed around I’d be dead. It was a tough seventeen years.
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About the Book
“Tess Hummer’s memoir, ................. vibrates with life. The anguish of her childhood is relayed with such unsentimental clarity that we can’t help but love her and cheer her toward transformation. The road is hard and she doesn’t spare anyone, least of all herself. Her journey from homelessness to home is something that will crack open the hardest of hearts. This is Angela’s Ashes for the new millennium.”
—Alan Watt - (bestselling author of The 90-Day Novel, and founder of L.A. Writers’ Lab)
“Tess and I were in the LA Writer’s workshop in 2010. She was writing a memoir about her life, much of it dealt with her experiences as a homeless woman in the LA area. I swear to god, I never cried in that workshop until Tess presented her work. It’s a sleeper--take my word for it.”
—Frank Wilderson III - Author, Incognegro, A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid, Red, White and Black: Cinema and the Structure of U.S. Antagonists
“In, At Edge of the Woods, baby boomer, Tess Hummer, transports us to a nostalgic America with crisp imagery that paints a story more like a forbodding Hopper than a Rockwell, as she reflects on choices, responsibility, and the sobriety of conscience on the journey to make sense of her life , which spans seven decades, from her crowded family home in Connecticut to a Starbucks in Malibu, in her relatable and engaging memoir.”
—Masha Savitz- Writer-Film Director - Red Reign –The Bloody Harvest of China’s Prisoners- http://redreignfilm.com/
“This book will prevent you from doing your chores. From the first sentence you’ll be hooked. Get ready with a comfortable reading chair for the duration. I suggest that ‘At the Edge of the Woods,’ by Tess Hummer is a consummate personal and spiritual memoir that illustrates what can be chosen, created and experienced within a human life. The fact that Hummer’s book is a fabulously successful read is a testament to her life and insights.”
—Debbi Dachinger, Media Personality, Award-Winning, Syndicated radio Host, International Bestselling Author, and Media Coach
About the Author
When I was about six years old I asked my mother; "Ma, where did I come from and how did I get here? Ma always said the same thing, "Tess go outside and play." And to myself I wondered, 'what is my purpose and what am I supposed to do?" I've never stopped wondering.