Novella's family problems are heightened, when two scumbags attempt to kidnap her. The sixteen year old is saved by a stranger, twenty-three year old BETY Junior, who in the aftermath is beaten by the cops. BETY Junior's motives are also questioned by Novella's dysfunctional family, who accuse the two of an indecent relationship and prohibit them from seeing each other. Several years later, Novella and BETY Junior meet again, quickly becoming friends and forming a lifelong bond. Their commitment to each other gives Novella all that she wanted from a family, and much more than she thought she could handle. THE KIDNAPPING Novella's head bobbed from side to side wildly, as her eyes scanned her surroundings. Seeing that there was no one around, it came to her that not escaping the abduction was a strong possibility. That she'd get locked away from the world. How will they find me? she wondered, remembering that she wasn't on her usual route. How will anyone know that I was almost home? She felt her purse still fashioned across her body, so she knew there was no chance of it falling to the ground. Zipped close, as always, it had no chance of spilling a trail of clues. She presumed her pompoms would disappear along with her. Their stretchy loop handles were secured behind a watch on her left wrist and a hard leather bracelet on her right wrist. JUST IN TIME They tried and tried to get her through the side door of the abandoned home, but Novella wouldn't stop fighting. It had been easy enough for Milky to carry the struggling girl down the street, but now he faced the low ceiling of the basement's entrance and the steepness of its steps. The narrow, closely-set wooden planks that led to a concrete floor had complained under his weight when they had scoped out and prepared the home. Milky was nervous of taking a life-changing fall that would most likely also break something on their pretty brown captive. The risk of his health and their prize going to waste, in a nasty tumble down the steps, gave him pause. "This is taking too long," Milky breathed out heavily. It was an instant later when he thought to turn her over his shoulder that he saw a clearly angry dude rush into the driveway. Yank, also seeing him and feeling caught, immediately backed away from Novella. Scared, Yank's body jerked a few times as he fought the impulse to run inside the abandoned house. Both Milky and Yank recognized BETY Junior. A MUST READ Wide in scope, ambitious, and populated by complex characters who come together and are torn apart by life and fate, In Search of a Tribe is a powerful novel about friendship and love. Most importantly, it is a novel about family--the family we are born with, and the family we create.