No Free Soup for Millionaires

Finalist, Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society Novel-in-Progress Contest
  When blue collar workers confront a factory owner for stealing soup at a neighborhood meeting, millionaires start a war against the community’s budding campaign for worker’s rights.  
 Teenaged Friends Paul Makinen, son of a truck mechanic, and Karen Ahlberg, daughter of a railroad engineer, have just begun leading the Shingle Creek Park Teen Council and its programs for kids. They realize that something is making neighborhood adults grumpy and angry, but they don’t know what it is.
 Working with two adult neighborhood leaders, they hold a soup ‘n’ sandwich community meeting. Paul and Karen make huge vats of homemade soup. Creekers bring their own sandwiches.
 When Paul asks, “What do you want to see happening here?” they find out most Creekers do not feel respected at work. They’re furious that the bug spray factory owner stole community development funds to stop fumes and smoke from poisoning their air. They’re also terrified by run-away inflation. So they decide to campaign for a raise in the minimum wage, respect on the job, and the return of the stolen funds.
 The factory owner is at their meeting and accuses Paul of being a socialist. The Creekers ask if the owner paid for his soup, which is only free to neighborhood residents. He didn’t. So they make him pay for it and escort him out of the meeting. The factory owner then starts a lawsuit against them for slander.
 As they work closely together, Paul discovers Karen has a crush on him. They both realize they have a kind of magic between them they’ve never felt with anyone else. But because of his personal problems, Paul’s fear of having a romance with her intensifies, even as they grow closer. His anxiety causes such violent physical pain, Paul imagines he has snakes biting his insides. He begins to understand he has to somehow resolve his problem and starts counseling with a therapist.
 Right before the second soup ‘n’ sandwich community meeting, Paul and Karen get anonymous death threats. A paid provocateur accuses them of running a kidnapping ring that sells children. More troublemakers try to disrupt their meeting.
 Paul has nightmares that the provocateurs are going to kill him. Karen and Paul are terrified. But they realize they don’t have a choice. They have to keep organizing and fighting for working people’s rights. It’s a matter of survival.
 “I Can Still Feel Her Hand in Mine,” excerpted from chapters 3 and 4 of No Free Soup for Millionaires, was first published in Newtown Literary, Spring/Summer 2020. No Free Soup for Millionaires was first published as The Real Paul Makinen? Part 1.