Freedom Summer, they called it, the summer when three civil rights workers were murdered by a mob of Ku Klux Klansmen. It was the summer after The Beatles splashed on to the American cultural scene and the summer of the '64 New York World's Fair. It was the summer when Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and and the summer before Lyndon Johnson's...
Prologue Janet Abbot was my first lover. She was, and is, my biggest fan and cheerleader as well. She was at my high school and college graduations. She was at my wedding. Nearly forty years have passed since I began my relationship with her and we still talk frequently. She is in her seventies and her health is slipping, but she’s still cheerful and fun. I...
Freedom Summer, they called it, the summer when three civil rights workers were murdered by a mob of Ku Klux Klansmen. It was the summer after The Beatles splashed on to the American cultural scene and the summer of the '64 New York World's Fair. It was the summer when Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and the summer before Lyndon Johnson's land...
Carolyn drove Bob's old Honda to his house to exchange it for her own car. She noted gratefully upon arriving that Bob's wife wasn't home. Bob invited her in and she used a spare bedroom to remove the leg brace and the hidden radio transmitter and microphone. She had carried in a spare pair of flip-flops which replaced her "orthopedic" shoes. Then she and Bo...
Dan Carter held the single sheet of paper in his hands and began to cry. He hadn't shed tears in--how long? Seven years since his mother died? But the emotions overtook him with a force he could not have foreseen. At this moment Dan wasn't even sure he had ever been in love before now. He had thought so, but losing Lynn now made him think perhaps not. As the...
Denise had spent less than five minutes on the phone with the man from the restaurant, who had called himself Robert. He was vague about what he did for a living. Denise assumed that he was, in fact, the head of the bank in Halldale, just as Sandi, the waitress, had reported. But he was above all else a devotee. He wanted to know all about Denise's disabilit...
It was Friday afternoon and the hotel bar traffic was building. I sat and sipped a Dewars-and-water and watched the 20-something redhead behind the bar make drinks. Some part of me found her appealing but I was lost in thought. CNN Headline News paraded silently across a large TV monitor attached to the ceiling. I absently scanned a complimentary USA Today a...
Bart couldn’t believe his luck as he pulled his postal van into the apartment complex. The driver was female and he was finally going to see her! He was behind a baby blue BMW Z-4 convertible as it waited to pass through the wrought-iron security gate. The top was down and the driver was a very attractive 30-something blonde wearing expensive sunglasses. In...
"It's a rock." James spat. "I bet none of my friends have a rock this big." Damian rolled his eyes and took a step forward into the crater. Thanks to the heat radiating off the rock the crater was more like a small pond with the steaming black rock dead center. "I bet none of your friends have a rock that traveled here from the edge of the galaxy. Some one...
Dr. Lydia Martin's intercom buzzed. "Yes?" she said, still looking over a file she had begun. "Your new patient, Mr. Mullins, is here," said her receptionist and administrator, Barb. "The one referred by Dr. Jefferson." Lydia pushed herself up from her desk and stood behind it. "Send him in," she said, smoothing her skirt and adjusting her glasses. Moment...