Finding Francis
by
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About Six
Twenty years ago I was six years old. I cared nothing about being six. I enjoyed my childhood and I was happy but all I truly wanted in life was to be seven.
For me, seven was grand. Seven was special. Seven was my lucky number. On the number puzzle I got for my sixth birthday, the seven was pink with bunnies. Six had bugs all over it. Seven was going to be my First Holy Communion, learning script and having Mrs. Carlos as a teacher.
Mrs. Carlos was wonderful before I ever stepped foot in her classroom. She had a warm smile, was very pretty and often wore pink. Best of all, her students were always happy. They all seemed special to her. She was the kind of woman who would talk to you and make you feel like you were the only girl in the world. She was the kind of teacher who would take you to McDonald’s™ if you forgot your lunch or spend an afternoon leading the class in their favorite songs.
Yes, seven was the pinnacle. Everything before it was just passing time. At six, it would take something significant to grab my attention from seven. It would take something unusual for me to stop and take notice.
Enter Francis.
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About the Book
When she was six years old, Cristina’s childhood friend, Francis, had a birthday party. She was the only one who showed up. Over twenty years later, she sets out to find him and discover why no one else ever came and why, after that party, she never saw him again. What secrets about Francis did she hope to uncover? What secrets of her own did she bring to light?
From New York to Philadelphia to New York again, Finding Francis is a hilarious journey that takes the reader into the twenty-something dating scene, the life of a nanny and the living room of an old Cuban grandmother. The search for Francis takes you into the mind of a young writer struggling to find herself as she sets out to find a childhood friend.
Finding Francis is a memoir about writing a memoir. A story that asks: Why do we yearn to find those we have lost contact with? Why do we insist on raising the dead? As individuals? As a society? What do we hope to find in the past that is lacking in our present?
About the Author
Cristina is currently working on her second book of letters to a lost friend. In addition, she writes short fiction, personal essays and poetry. Excerpts of Finding Francis have appeared in The Griffin and will be in The Full Circle Journal of Poetry and Prose in August 2003. Cristina is a member of the International Women Writers’ Guild (IWWG), a participant in the Southwest Women Poetry Exchange and was a resident poet at the Vermont Studio Center for November 2001. She’s a huge fan of Little House on the Prairie and her husband with whom she is currently serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine.