Synopsis "Under the Cocoa Tree: A Troubled Girl's Quest for Happiness and Adulthood"
It was a stray orphan kitten, all black save for the white tip of its tail, that made the first, almost in-perceivable crack in the hard shell of an uncaring, savage, heartless young girl consumed with anger. An anger brought on by the sexual abuse of her lawyer stepfather, which she's endured since she was seven. Since her early years, Mia has been one of the covey of scorpion queens, one of the pretty young sexy girls who delighted in torturing and tormenting other girls who they considered inferior, those drab, plain and awkward girls who don't deserve to be happy or enjoy life. And Mia has come to excel at the art of savaging and hurting others using her sharp tongue and powerful intellect, while also having a steel hard impervious shell that leaves her immune to the sufferings of others. This includes her mother, who Mia has savaged unmercifully, which in conjunction with the mental tortures of her step father, has left her mom Sarah Sue a shell of a human, struggling with alcoholism, while hanging on by her fingernails. Since Sarah's decision to leave her husband, Bob the Bastard, she has hoped that by enduring Mia's savaging, she will eventually recover her daughter. Sarah, with Mia, returns to the small town environment of her birth and childhood, the peace and tranquility of her mother's home, and with the help of her all knowing and able mother ... given enough time, she will find a way to bring her daughter back to humanity. To undo the wickedness her husband has somehow sown on all of them. To have back that sweet, loving, caring little girl she once had, before the blackness of Bob the Bastard spread and engulfed their lives. But now, that hope is dashed! Now Mia is no where to be found, and obviously has no intention of ever returning. Sarah has failed, and there's no other way to look at it. But Mia is just a few miles away, in the old homestead where Jerry lives and works as an engineer, a boy she met just two days ago. A boy she knows doesn't like her, doesn't want her around, doesn't want to have anything to do with her. It's an old house out in the county amidst the vast brown dusty wheat fields she loathes, the kind of place having the kind of people she distrains and ridicules . . . had looked down upon as one of the scorpion queens. And while the peace, quiet and solitude instantly grates her, it's exactly the tranquil therapeutic environment she needs to start her healing process. And now sitting under the giant cocoa tree in front of the house, with that small seemingly inconsequential kitten, Mia begins her quest to regain her humanity and in the process finding her personal happiness and adulthood, while also healing her relationship with both her mother and grandmother. While Jerry asks the question, "Mia ... Eileen ... just who are you, anyway?"
