Michelle St Claire

Being Davante Michelle St Claire

Davanté Williams senses his mother slipping away. His skin prickles as the shadows of loneliness threaten. He cannot lose her now. He is too young. Barely seventeen. An almost-man.

Mother moves on, leaving Davanté to struggle with grief. He shuffles through his last senior classes like a ghost trapped between two realities. In one, he must muster his energies to prepare his senior project for graduation. In the other reality, he reminisces over his mother and wonders about her secretive and tragic past.

Love keeps Davanté afloat despite his trials. That is, until his mysterious father surfaces. A man of a dark past. An ex-convict. A rumored murderer. Davanté's father swiftly becomes a thorn in Davanté's side. His father wants to amend and make new, but Davanté is having none of it.

He lashes out. He rebels. He pushes his father away. Love, he cannot push away so readily. It wraps itself around Davanté again, reminding him of who is, where he is from, and where he should be going.

Eventually, Davanté learns to forgive. He learns to love. He learns to live anew.