The Cross Guard

A Novel by Samuel Rice

Sometimes the smallest kindness travels farther than we will ever know.

There are people who enter our lives with great fanfare.

And there are people who simply stand at the side of the road.

William Masters never expects his new job to matter very much.

He is retired. His life has become quieter. Twice each school day, he puts on a reflective vest, walks to an intersection, raises a STOP sign, and watches children cross safely from one side of the street to the other.

Thirty seconds.

Perhaps a minute.

Then they disappear down the sidewalk.

But William wonders about them.

Who are they when they walk through their front doors?

Which ones are happy?

Which ones are frightened?

Which ones are carrying something no adult has noticed?

And then there is Lukas Anderson.

A BOY WHO DOESN’T SAY MUCH

Lukas is eleven years old, intelligent, observant, and more comfortable solving puzzles than explaining himself.

He notices everything.

He simply doesn’t talk about everything he notices.

At home, the Anderson family appears ordinary enough. Barry and Patty were high-school sweethearts. Their daughter Amanda has grown into a fiercely independent young woman. Lukas is their quiet, thoughtful youngest child.

They love one another.

That has never been the problem.

The problem is everything they have stopped saying.

Barry is hiding a truth he is terrified to reveal.

Patty senses that something is wrong but clings desperately to the belief that her family is fine.

Amanda sees more than anyone realizes and has learned to protect herself with toughness.

And Lukas retreats behind the one door he can close.

His own.

THEN SOMEONE SEES HIM

William doesn’t interrogate Lukas.

He doesn’t attempt to rescue him.

He doesn’t even know that there is anything from which Lukas needs rescuing.

He simply offers something increasingly rare:

his attention.

A greeting.

A question.

A few seconds without judgment.

A safe place to stand before continuing across the street.

And slowly, almost imperceptibly, something begins.

Not only in Lukas.

But throughout his family.

One act of kindness touches another person.

That person touches someone else.

And the effect continues outward in ways William may never completely understand.

EVERYONE IS CROSSING SOMETHING

At its heart, The Cross Guard is not simply a story about a man and a boy.

It is a story about the private crossings taking place around us every day.

From fear into trust.

From silence into honesty.

From isolation into connection.

From pain into the possibility of healing.

Most of those crossings happen quietly.

There is no audience.

No applause.

Sometimes the person who helped us reach the other side never even knows what they did.

That is William Masters.

He holds a STOP sign.

He watches the traffic.

He gets children safely across the street.

And without realizing it, he becomes part of a much larger crossing.

We might look good from the street,

but inside things are different.

Everyone is crossing something.

THE CROSS GUARD

A novel by Samuel Rice

A story about family.
A story about being seen.
A story about the quiet power of human connection.

And above all, a story about how far kindness can travel after it leaves our hands.

Available now in Kindle and paperback.