Before We Were Perfect

by S.D. Moore

Overview

Before We Were Perfect has been adapted into an award winning screenplay titled Perfectly Normal in Flagstaff. The screenplay won Best Feature Script in the 2018 Top Indie Film Awards and a 2018 Silver Screen award in the Nevada International Film Festival.



About the Book

Inspired by true events, Before We Were Perfect is a romantic dramedy about the Havreaux family; a clan of four creole sisters, their mother and ragin' Cajun uncle who transplanted to Flagstaff, AZ. Julz Havreaux is a beautiful young woman with imperfections who meets an imperfect handsome wounded warrior turned writer named David Greene. Through comedic mishaps, they discover that in spite of their imperfections they are perfect together. Contains adult themes, intense drama, sensuality, humor and love.



About the Author

Multiple award winning Author: S.D. Moore writes in spite of being a brain damaged, heart damaged Air Force veteran who also battles Lupus. She is the author of the award winning screenplay, Perfectly Normal in Flagstaff which won a 2018 Silver Screen award inthe Nevada International Film Festival. S.D. is also the author of Readers' Favorite 2017 International Gold Medal (1st place) winning horror novel Wicked Prayers, the award winning Adventures of PJ and Split Pea and the workbook Basics to Business: Minding Your Business with Excel. She is also a patented inventor of The Portable Hot Sink System; has an ABD towards a Doctorate of Education, holds dual master's degrees in management and human resources development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780999761205
Publisher:	Moon Leaf Publishing LLC
Publication date:	01/02/2018
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.43(d)

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Part One

Julz Havreaux is the first of her sisters to arrive at their tattoo shop this morning. She turns on all of the lights before laying out trays of snacks that her mother prepared for a celebration at the shop. At twenty-five years old, she is the second oldest of four sisters and one of the most talented tattoo artists in Flagstaff, Arizona. Some say she is one of the best in the south-west region. Her natural talents also extend to tinkering with technology and robotics, but her first love is bringing dreams to life on a canvas.

She turns on the lights in the hall. The robot dog she created years ago as a class project lights up when it sees her.

"Morning Abigail." Julz says.

The robot dog responds in a childlike automaton voice, "Morning Abigail!"

"Today, I'm going to fix that repeat error in your system. I promise." Julz says.

"Pill time. Pill time." Abigail says.

Julz washes down her meds with a cup of punch.

She stops to check herself out in a large mirror. She fluffs up her long soft curly hair; a gift from her ebony mother. She touches up her lipstick and then flashes the gift of her ivory father's smile.

Julz speaks aloud to her reflection in the mirror.

"Listen up lady. You're going to sit in on one appointment today. You will not have any disease flare ups. You will not get dizzy. There won't be so much as a hand tremor today. Now get to it and have one awesomely perfectly normal day."

She sees a note from her sister lying on a table.

"Today is the big day. Woo hoo! Jaxx"

Cosmetic Surgeon, Dr. Jaxxelle Havreaux or Jaxx for short, is the oldest of the sisters. She is only twenty-seven, but her father used to say that she is the most level headed one of the bunch. Jaxx had to step up to help her Mom with her sisters after her father died. She's a woman who is all about her family, her business and her money; sometimes not in that order. She convinced her art inclined sisters to get a degree in Practical Nursing so that they could be best equipped to help out with the more complicated procedures at the tattoo shop. Plus, they will have another skill to fall back on during a down turn in the economy. Jaxx borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a high tech, state of the art tattoo parlor with a cosmetic surgery center for minimally invasive body modifications. The center also includes several comfortable recovery rooms.

The two youngest sisters, twenty-two-year-old Jadelyn (Jade) and twenty-one-year-old Joelle (Joe) are the wild natured ink masters of the Havreaux brood. Sometimes the difference in age between them and their older sisters makes Joe and Jade feel more like offspring of their big sisters than their younger siblings.

The sister's dearly departed father James had a thing for J-names. Their mom Connie thought it was a cute thing to do so she went along with it. As adults the four siblings agreed to merge their talents to open Flagstaff, Arizona's major tattoo shop called Wicked Sisters Ink & More. Today is the grand opening of their new body modifications recovery wing. Now the sisters will be able to help clients achieve their desired state of perfection.

Shop assistants Daisy and Terra arrive.

"Morning Julz!" They sing out in unison.

"Morning ladies."

Jaxx, Jade and Joe arrive.

"Morning everyone!" The arriving sisters sing out.

"Hey what's with the food?" Joe asks.

"Mom sent over sausage, cheese and crackers trays for the opening of our new wing. The skinny ones are reindeer dogs. The medium ones are Kielbasa and the large ones are Polish sausages. She even sent over her ceramic covered cast iron sauce pots to put the dips in too." Julz says.

"Awesome! I'm starving." Jade says.

"Me too!" Daisy says as she grabs a plate.

Joe pours a jar of cheese sauce into a plastic serving bowl and then sticks a plastic spoon in the dip.

"Joe!" Julz shouts.

"What? Nobody wants to mess around with mom's fancy, smancy sauce pots anyway. Plus, it's a pain trying to get the little ladle around the pot's handle." Joe says.

"I thought mom was coming by to set up this stuff." Jade says.

"No she has an appointment. She'll meet us at the book signing for that horror author." Julz says.

"Horror isn't my thing so I'll pass, but would you mind getting me one of those naked moonlight t-shirts if you see one? I've been working out so my abs will look great under the dancing lights this year." Joe asks.

"Ditto on the horror thing, but get me a shirt too. If the dancing lights are out I'm heading over there to dance nekkid baby!" Jade says as she does a little shoulder rocking dance.

"I'm going to dance naked too." Terra says as she starts dancing behind the reception desk.

"One of us will get the t-shirts, but I'll pass on the dancing naked thing." Julz says.

The ladies do a fake pout with their lips as each of them tries to encourage Julz to go dancing under the southern Aurora Borealis.

"Come on sis. Come on sis. Come on sis." Joe says as she playfully dances.

"Yeah come twerk nude with us under the dancing lights." Jade says as she twerks.

Jaxx interrupts the crew. "Well, count me in on the book signing. I always wanted to attend one of those things. I did the naked dancing thing last year ha-ha, so I'm good."

Daisy looks out of the front window.

"Hey your uncle just pulled up."

A rather attractive middle aged man wearing a flat top gambler's hat gets out of large red pickup truck. The sign painted on the side of the truck says, Sumner's Industrial Construction. Sumner Havreaux enters the ink shop. The ladies stop dancing and greet him.

He speaks with a relaxed Cajun drawl. "Good morning fam-lay."

"Hey Uncle Sum." The sisters sing out in unison.

"How y'all doin?" He says.

He slowly walks in and makes a line straight to Daisy.

Jaxx leans close to Julz and whispers, "Uh-oh, there he goes straight to Daisy. Messin' with Unc is a good way to catch a case of his Bayou blues."

Julz snickers softly. "Ain't that the truth."

Sumner removes his hat and then smooths down his straight silver and sandy hair. He uses his fingers to slick down his mustache and goatee before speaking to Daisy.

"I haven't seen you in a while gurl. How you been doin'?"

"Good."

"Are you switching businesses? I thought that you owned the Bayou Blues Club."

He hands her his new business card. Daisy briefly looks at the card.

"I still do, but I recently expanded my business interests. I just started my own construction comp-nee. Look-a here cher, you should holler at me sometime. You wanna join me if the dancing lights show up?" I got top shelf dranks at the ready.

"I don't know."

"You know what we call a beautiful, voluptuous gurl like you where I'm from in Louisiana?"

"No. What?" Daisy asks.

"A thick ole bowl of honey."

Daisy blushes and giggles. "Stop it Sumner! You're a mess. Besides I heard that you're a bad boy." She says.

"I may have done some thangs to make the Devil blush, but this here bad boy will always be good to you." He says.

Daisy giggles and gives Sumner a timid smile.

Joe interrupts. "Is that a new truck? Your business must be doing pretty good Uncle Sum." She asks.

"Yeah. You like it?"

"It's sweet!!" She says.

"Ya mama said that you needed to have a busted light on a sign and a hole fixed so I put y'all in the family express lane."

Jaxx walks over and gives him a hug. "Thanks Uncle Sum!" Jaxx says.

"You know that I always got y'all covered." He says.

Suddenly the front door flings open. A heavy sweating junkie holding a gun bursts into the lobby of the ink shop.

"Give up the money and drugs and nobody gets hurt!"

The ladies, who look more annoyed than frightened immediately become quiet. Sumner silently observes the robber as he looks for an opportunity to take the thief down.

"You must've missed the sign out front? We only accept cards and checks, but no cash! Aaannd we only use drugs to numb the skin, but you can't get high off of that stuff man! If you want the hard stuff, go to Dr. Okinashi's office in the building next door!" Jaxx says with attitude.

"Wait this isn't Dr. O's place?" The robber asks.

"Nope." Julz says.

"My mistake. You skanks better give me your purses then or there will be some fireworks in this place; starting with the curly haired one standing over there." The robber nods towards Julz.

Julz speaks in a stern voice. "I'll give you Abigail-bad-pistachios!"

The robber nods towards Julz as he speaks. "What's wrong with her? Is she having a fit or something?"

Suddenly, a knee-high metal four wheeled robot dog wearing a collar that says Abigail rolls up and stops in front of the robber. It examines the man holding the gun.

"Is this one of those expensive floor cleaners? I'll take it too." The robber asks.

The little robot dog raises its head. It squeals in a childlike automaton voice "Bad pistachios" as its metal head lunges up and forward slamming hard into the thief's crotch. The thief screams in pain. "Ugghhh!"

As the robber starts to collapse forward, Jade grabs one of the cast iron sauce pots sitting next to the food and smacks the thief in the side of his head. Joe uses an iron pot to smack the gun from his hand. Each sister grabs a cast iron sauce pot and goes berserk hitting, stomping and kicking the guy. The robber rolls on the floor screaming as the sisters pummel him with the small iron sauce pots.

Uncle Sumner can barely control his laughter as he rushes over to help the ladies.

"Hahahahaha! Alright-alright ladies I think this idiot has had enough. Bad pistachios! Lord have mercy. Hahahahaha!" Sumner laughs hard.

He grabs some zip-ties that he uses to clamp wires together to hog-tie the bloodied bandit's hands and feet behind him. He speaks to the robber while he ties him up.

"Now you can see why they call my nieces wicked sisters. My brother's Cajun crazy runs through their veins. Ya lucky they didn't kill ya." Sumner laughs loudly.

He leans in close to whisper in the robber's ear.

"Trust me you gone wish they had."

"Julz lucky for us that you programed Abigail to do that trick." Jaxx says.

"It's the high school science project that keeps on giving." Julz says.

Daisy calls the police.

"Well the authorities are coming so I think that I'll get to work on that sign. Do you ladies have this robber situation under control?" Sumner Asks.

"Yeah Unc; we got this. If he so much as flinches he'll get another sauce pot beat down." Joe says as she slaps a cast iron sauce pot into the palm of her hand.

Terra steps forward to lead Sumner to the sign.

"The sign and hole are over here in the waiting area. The sign is supposed to read Wicked Sisters Ink & More, but the lights burned out from the "k" in Wicked to the skull face representing the "o" in More." She says.

"Alright I'll work on it in your meeting room." He says.

Daisy walks towards the front door to lock it, but a customer walks in before she reaches the entrance.

A raven haired young woman with very pale skin, ruby red lips, wearing a tight black dress and short black evening gloves walks in. The woman looks down at the bloodied, hog tied man and a gun lying on the floor; then looks up at Jade holding a sauce pot.

"Tweaker thief?" The woman asks in a deep sultry tone.

"Yep." Jade responds.

"My name is Sharnia Valdana. I have a consultation appointment with Dr. Jaxxelle Havreaux."

"I'm she, but in light of the current situation on the floor you may want to reschedule."

"It looks like you ladies have the matter under control. I don't mind if you don't mind." Sharnia says.

Julz hands the woman a tablet with in-take paperwork displayed on the screen. "Please follow me to the back. Would you like some hors'doeuvres and or bottled water?"

"No thank you." Sharnia says as she casually steps over the legs of the man lying on the floor.

"Jaxx we got this dude." Joe says.

"Yeah, you handle the patient while we tweaker-sit. It's in his best interest not to do or say anything else stupid or so help me - bam!" Jade says as she slams her fist into the palm of her hand.

"Plus the police just pulled up." Daisy says.

"Okay." Jaxx heads to the back.

"I'm Officer Gallagher and this is Officer Parks from Flagstaff PD. I take it this tied up individual is the guy?"

"Yes sir." Joe says.

"Is that his weapon laying over there?"

"Yes sir." Joe responds.

"I'm going to take your statements on my Tab-corder. Look at the spot on the screen, state your name, address and phone number. After that give your statement and answer follow-up questions as needed. I'll start with you." He says as he holds the Tab-corder in front of Joe.

"My name is Joelle Havreaux. My address is 1615 Milner Ave; phone number 555-0220.

"Please tell me what happened and how the suspect sustained his injuries."

"The dude busted in here waving a gun. He demanded drugs and money. Luckily we caught him off guard and we were able to knock his gun away. He sustained his injuries as we struggled to detain him for the authorities. That's the end of my statement."

"Wait a minute. The man's face looks like he was kicked in the head by seven bulls, but you don't have any specifics as to how he got that way?" Officer Parks asks.

"Things happened fast. I feared for my life. It's all a blur." Joe says.

Officer Gallagher looks annoyed at his partner. Gallagher clears his throat.

"Ah-hum ... That's fine ma'am. Please use your finger to sign your name at the bottom of the screen. Would you like a print or email copy of your statement?" Gallagher says.

"Both."

"Okay please type your email address here and hit send."

He prints out a copy of the statement then hands it to Joe. Gallagher runs through the same procedure with Jadelyn, Daisy, and Terra. Sumner steers clear of the scene by working in a rear office.

"Well, it looks like we're done here. Have a great day everyone." The police haul the robber out of the building.

Jaxx joins Julz and the patient. Jaxx reaches out her hand to Sharnia.

"Let me properly introduce myself. I'm doctor Jaxxelle Havreaux. Sorry about the mess out in the lobby ma'am."

Jaxx and Sharnia shake hands.

"Oh no problem. This is the unfortunate age that we are living in. Havreaux - does your family hail from France?"

"It's Creole. My family transplanted here after a very destructive hurricane. Now, how can we help you?" Jaxx asks.

"Currently, I don't have any tatts or piercings. I'm not sure that what I want is actually possible to create."

"You never know. We've done some pretty radical body art work. Lay it on us." Julz says.

"I am a professional mistress. I want to ..."

Julz cuts her off. "Ma'am, did you ..."

"Please call me Sharnia."

"Sharnia I just need to make sure that I heard you correctly. I'm not passing judgement, but did you say that you are a professional mistress?" Julz says.

"Yes. That's correct. You may be more familiar with the term Dominatrix."

"Oh I see. Go on." Julz says.

Julz presses her right index finger over her lips. To the patient it looks like she is laser focused on the conversation, but she is trying not to laugh out loud.

"Well I would like a black widow spider tattooed on my puu-twawny."

"Your vagina. Okay go on. Jaxx says.

"My puu-twawny will be waxed of course, but after I heal I would like the hair to be sculpted to conform to the body of the spider. A laser should be used to permanently remove any unnecessary hair."

"Okay, no problem. We can do that in two stages." Julz says.

"I also want the spider to have two ruby red jeweled eyes on top that will be in the form of a piercing. I also want the entrance of my puu-twawny modified with an implant at the base of the entrance that will feel like a narrow tongue. It will have one fang on each side of the tongue. The fangs should be designed to create a bit of discomfort when a member rubs against it."

Julz presses her finger harder against her lips and closes her eyes while she tries to prevent herself from laughing.

She moves to the back of the room to make sure that she is out of sight of the client.

She sits on a desk next to Jaxx's collection of a pyramid of signed baseballs balanced between two crossed baseball bats.

Jaxx scrunches up her face as she tries not to laugh at Julz.

"Discomfort for a male's member?" Jaxx asks.

"Yes. My companions prefer pain with their pleasure." Sharnia says.

After hearing what Sharnia said, Julz accidentally knocks over a baseball bat and some balls.

"You okay Julz?" Jaxx asks.

"Sorry about that. I accidentally nudged your bat and balls." Julz says.

"Annny-waay ... I just want to make sure that I get it right."

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Before We Were Perfect"
by .
Copyright © 2017 S.D. Moore.
Excerpted by permission of MoonLeaf Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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