Authors Interviewing Their Characters: Alex Hart

When Harper Stein, a feisty photo-journalist discovers a young girl left alone in a New York shopping mall, the last thing she wants to do is mind the child until her mom turns up. However, when no one comes to claim her, Harper is left wondering who the hell she belongs to.

Determined not to let her fall in to the hands of ‘Child and Family Services’, Harper sets out to find out where she came from and why she was abandoned. Eliciting reluctant help from her long time friend TJ and ex-boyfriend Reggie, she sets off on a seemingly impossible quest. Determined to place the needle back in the haystack, she tracks down clues to the whereabouts of her parents, finally leading her to a devastating revelation.

Alex Hart interviews TJ Jefferson.

I meet with TJ at a bar called McKendricks in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. It’s an old school hole in the wall. You enter up a couple of stone steps into a dimly lit room that’s seen better days. It appears to have a few rough and ready regulars in the corner playing cards but there’s a warm atmosphere

INTERVIEW:

Tell us about yourself

‘I’m a retired cop. Been off the service going on five years now. Did it for nearly forty years.’

Have you always lived in Brooklyn?

Brooklyn born and bred. I was born just a couple of blocks from where I live now. My pa was a cop too. Blue blood runs through these veins.

And how are you enjoying retirement?

TJ pauses and looks off into the distance, before shrugging.

‘Some days I miss it, some days I’m just grateful not to be walking those streets. Things just seem to be getting worse not better. I don’t know what’s wrong with the world sometimes. It ain’t just since 9/11 either. People just don’t have the respect no more. Just the other day a young kid blew off another boy’s face, just around the corner from here. An argument over some dope or something. Crazy. But… I wouldn’t live anywhere else. I love this city. I’ve lived in the same house going on thirty five years. It ain’t much but it’s mine. It needs a few jobs doing to it, but …I’ve been having a few issues recently, so … well, they’ll get fixed. Now I’m retired, I guess I have the time.’

Issues?

‘Yeah I’d rather not talk about that and I don’t want Harper getting wind of it. She’d only worry.’

How do you know Harper?

Harper? Jeez, I’ve known that kid since she was knee high. I met her when I was a beat cop. She was running away from every home she was placed in and guess who got the job of finding her.

Tell me about her.

‘Harper has been a pain in my crack for going on over twenty years. I swear I had a full head of hair when I met her. She don’t listen. She don’t think before she acts. And she sure as hell doesn’t like being told what to do. She kinda paints outside of the lines if you know what I mean. I should have taken out shares in TUMS, the amount of indigestion that kid has caused me over the years. But I tell you, there’s no one quite like her.’

She sounds a little high maintenance.

TJ laughs

‘She’s also one of the toughest, resilient, kindest kids I know. Well I say a kid, she’s a beautiful woman now, but it’s hard not to see that wiry girl from all those years ago. She’s got balls. More balls than most the guys on the force I worked with. She had a tough life. Brought up in care homes and I use that word loosely. The stuff that went on in some of those places was criminal. But she’s a fighter. She could have gone down a bad path and no one would blame her but she made something of herself. Harper turned out good, you know. She could have gone the other way, the upbringing she had, but she’s done herself proud. She’s a photo-journalist and a great one at that. Got a good eye, you know. I got all the press cuttings of her work stashed in my attic. Don’t go telling her that though, she don’t exactly like the limelight. But I’m telling you, she did herself proud.

Sounds like you’re proud of her too.

‘I am. She’s… well she’s like a daughter to me. She’d do anything for you, you know. Underneath her gruff exterior she’s got a heart of gold. Reggie will tell you that.’

Reggie?

‘Her boyfriend. Well I say boyfriend. I’m not sure if they’re on or off these days. They’ve had a few issues the past couple of years. But I like him. He’s good for her. He’s a cop too.’

For someone who doesn’t like authority, she sure spends time with it.

TJ nods and smiles.

‘Yeah. Well I think it’s a yin and yang sort of thing. I don’t know. Maybe it gives her some sort of security. She wouldn’t admit it though. But he’s a good guy. I’d like to see them settle down. You know, get married.’

Think they will?

TJ lets out a belly laugh.

‘Well I don’t see her in no white frock, she’d sooner turn up in jeans and t shirt. She’s a beautiful girl but she don’t do any of that you girly stuff. But yeah I think maybe they will. Harper doesn’t like to get close to too many people, but her and Reggie are good.’

How did she end up in care?

Tragic circumstances. There’s stuff not even Harper knows so I don’t want to talk about it. Needless to say it wasn’t pretty. I think that’s what drew her to finding out what the hell happened to this young girl May she found. She may not have gone about it in the way most folk would, but she wasn’t going to see this kid go into care. Not after what she had experienced.

Are you able to tell me about that?

That’d take all day. It’d be quicker if you read the papers. It’s been all over them.

—

TAKE HER HOME

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, Interviews, On Writing