The California Arts Council awarded Tolley a supportive grant for his artistic project, A Tangle of Bones.
In this coming-of-age memoir during the height of the Vietnam War (1968-1970), Tolley Marney is an eleven year old boy in a family of five, following their alcoholic Chief Master Sergeant father to a US Air Force base on the sub-tropical island of Okinawa, south of Japan. Tolley is misdiagnosed as “mentally retarded” instead of severely dyslexic and his life changes. Tolley retreats into his imagination as he treks through the tangle of bones surrounding the US Air Force base. He encounters and endures child abuse, racism, riots, and puberty amid the business of war. He has the adventure of a lifetime.
Sample first Chapter:
A Tangle of Bones
by Tolley Marney with Cristina Acosta
Chapter 1: Something is Odd About Me
I don’t remember much of what I was thinking about before the age of 5 or 6. But by the time I was 7 and had finished first grade twice, I knew I was stupid. It was inescapable.
Teachers suspected something, scheduling meetings with my mother. Military doctors at the base in Camarillo, California, tested me, confirming their findings with my mother. She shared their verdict with my father, my aunts, uncles and grandparents.
“There’s always been something odd about that boy,” my grandfather said, nodding sagely in my direction. “Tolley’s been different since the day he was born.”
The other adults agreed and their judgement trickled down to my cousins and then the neighbor kids. When the military doctors officially diagnosed me as having a “brain defect”, the word “retarded” entered my life.
Before my diagnosis, my father, Tolley Loman Marney, Sr., would spend time with me. After the military doctors shared their findings, I’d hear him call me “a waste” to the other adults. My father began walking by me in the house as though I didn’t exist.
Even though I was in elementary school, I realized teachers weren’t expecting much of me now. They skipped over me in class. I didn’t get homework like the other kids. Despite my lack of intellectual progress, I was passed from grade to grade. The diagnosis of “minor brain damage” or “brain defect”, didn’t come with much of a treatment or any cure. I was considered mildly retarded.
The low expectations of others seemed to solidify around me like a layer of thick mud caked over my body. My progress in school slowed to a crawl, and I grew bored. I day dreamed constantly. The next few years of elementary school drifted by and my mind drifted with it. No one asked much of me other than I follow the rules and not cause any disruption. I became a shadow at my desk in the back corner.
I developed a severe stutter. Talking was a problem. Responding to adult questions from my teachers or parents caused my tongue to tie up every word struggling to emerge from my mouth. Most adults lost patience waiting for an answer they could understand.
A natural introvert, I went even more inward. Not until I was 18 did I learn that my severe dyslexia did not include brain damage. My first few steps into the outside world had become a stumble, throwing me off balance for many years.
End of Chapter 1 (We will put a link when the book is available in 2023)
