A collection of 8 short stories, 1 screenplay, 2 stage plays. Something for everyone.
Grab a cup of coffee or tea, burrow into that overstuffed chair, put your feet up and start at the beginning with ANSWER THE PHONE - a breaking off with the old and starting anew, then travel to Oklahoma in PLEASE COME BACK and feel the fear of a young woman in hiding, after which you’ll experience that time we all dread when we’re too old in TAKE ME, LORD, TAKE ME NOW. Next it’s a frightful night in SHOE’S ON THE OTHER FOOT, and a teen-age girl is in awe of a movie star in CARY GRANT & PINK CORDUROY. Have a handkerchief handy when you read OH YES, I REMEMBER, and prepare to blush when you read BATMAN‘S RIDDLER IN KANSAS CITY. You’ll cheer for Amanda in AMANDA’S DREAM and Rachel O’Neill in PEACE IN THE VALLEY. LITTLE KATIE MCMULLEN is based on the life of Catherine Cookson, the British novelist. OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE RAINBOW is about two people, opposites, and how they survive their differences, loosely based on the tumultuous, on again-off again, courtship of Jim and Rebecca Buckley.
Excerpt
EXCERPT FROM - "Please, Come Back" - a short story.
What is that? She sat up in bed. The noise came from outside the front door of the trailer. It sounded like whatever it was had stumbled on the boxes she’d set out to be cut and burned in the incinerator barrel the next morning. She listened. Dogs. She lay back down and closed her eyes. It had taken her a while to get used to country noises. Dogs roamed at night, coyotes scavenged, squirrels jumped from the lone tree in back of the trailer onto her roof and scampered back and forth along the length of the trailer, sometimes keeping her awake all night. She’d seen a couple of snakes out on the dirt road since she’d been there, but none up close to the house. She’d had the old woodpile removed soon after she got there, after hearing that snakes and spiders nest in woodpiles.
The garage was set back from the trailer, near another tree, and the water well was back even farther. She’d planted a few green plants along the length of the trailer that faced the road, and added garden rocks and roses for a homey effect.
“Damn it, who’s out there?” she yelled as she jumped out of bed, this time hearing voices. She quickly added, “I’ve got a gun and I’m not afraid to use it!” She hoped her threat sounded authentic as she listened to feet running away from the trailer towards the garage. "Now what!," she whispered to herself. She didn’t have a gun. “I’m calling the cops! So get the hell away from the garage!" She ran to the sofa. "Where’s the damn cell phone?" she mumbled. She searched the trailer and heard the wooden garage doors creaking as the perpetrators swung each side open on its rusty hinges.
After a few moments she heard the truck motor starting. "You bastards!, she yelled. Her first impulse was to run out and stop them, but she wasn’t a complete idiot. She knew how risky that would be. She didn’t know whether they were mischievous kids or desperate bums or the escapees from the prison she’d heard about on the radio earlier. Now she remembered. The phone was in the trash can.
Falling to a rare sentinel illness and separated from her charges during a retrieval mission Xevera Nanay encounters the biggest threat to her survival but more importantly her autonomy when paramedic Michael Constantine recognizes and imprisons her
