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63aecd3
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It was raining so hard on that lonely stretch of rural Illinois backroad that I couldn't see the painted white lines on the worn cracked asphalt.
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Bobby Underwood |
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77abfb0
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I'm one of the two people left on the planet who doesn't own a cell phone and doesn't want one.
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Bobby Underwood |
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e2a4ad4
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We lived --or rather had lived --in a society which had come to view the father as almost superfluous. But people of common sense knew better. For a boy growing up, it was someone who could show him how a man acts and conducts himself. But for a young girl, it was that, and her first exposure to how she should be treated and viewed by the opposite sex. Because of him, when someone treated her differently, she would know in her heart that it..
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Bobby Underwood |
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0d97914
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The human heart buries memories of love, files them away somewhere when they don't work out, because it hurts too much to remember feelings that you have little hope of recapturing. The truth is, you never recapture those exact feelings anyway, because love is different every time you feel it. But the head knows this, not the heart. So the heart buries them deep.
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Bobby Underwood |
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b49fd9a
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I wondered as I watched people leaning out to snap digital photographs if the ability to capture the technical reality of a place took away from the feeling of it, and muted the memory forever. A picture in the mind was a picture in the heart, but a picture on paper or on a computer was only relevant when it was taken out or clicked on to view. Another way in which society was distancing itself from living, perhaps. Life could no longer be ..
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Bobby Underwood |
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cd942b0
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Old Harry, who knew more about boats and the sea than anybody I knew, was sleeping off last night's tequila on my big cruiser/houseboat, Stella. She'd been named after Gail Russell's character in an old classic film titled, The Uninvited. It was Harry's favorite movie.
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Bobby Underwood |
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a5f52a4
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But for those women too stubborn to accept their part in the failure, it would always be "his fault" for being a jerk, not theirs for being attracted to jerks. Anger would eventually turn to bitterness and before too long all men were jerks."
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Bobby Underwood |
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4993d02
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People think cops always know what they're doing, but a lot of times it's just poking around in the dark till you get a reaction and figure it out from there.
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Bobby Underwood |
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17b1df9
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What happened on that tiny island off the coast of Cuba called Flowering Cay at times seems like a half-remembered dream, one of those groggy remembrances that you're never quite certain you didn't just imagine. Other times I can recall it with such clarity it is as if it happened yesterday. Sitting in front of my typewriter as the palms sway gently at the urging of the trade winds, I almost wish I could forget everything. But then I think ..
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Bobby Underwood |
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f9a77ff
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I'd sought out these lonely roads because I was hurt and lonely, and that's what the hurt and lonely do; seek out a place far from people, far from the happiness which is painfully just out of their reach. For those rejected by love, chewed up by romance and spit out like unwanted seeds in a flavorful melon, the night is a sanctuary, a trusted friend. The darkness comforted you, placed an unseen arm around your shoulder so you wouldn't be a..
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Bobby Underwood |
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07f811e
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Night had fallen on San Francisco. Once upon a time, the romantic city's evenings had brought with it the sound of Henry Mancini's beautiful Lujon, but now there was no music left for me. Claire had taken the music of my heart with her, and I hated her for that. Hated her almost as much as I still loved her...
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Bobby Underwood |
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1a643b2
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I didn't drink coffee but kept an old Mr. Coffee around because the Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio, had endorsed them.
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Bobby Underwood |
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66f6e95
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If there was a divine plan, some otherworldly force at work here, it couldn't be such a cruel one as to allow me a glimpse of heaven then take it away, could it?
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Bobby Underwood |
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e68c7cd
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Only when I'd see a young girl I'd known in high school, walking down the street hand-in-hand with her returned soldier, did the deeper pain return.
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Bobby Underwood |
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7e7e225
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I'm happy you like me too, Johnny." "Oh, I like you, I just don't trust you."
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Bobby Underwood |
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89a7b5b
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He looked like Ramon Navarro, back when Ramon Navarro looked like Ramon Navarro.
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Bobby Underwood |
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eec197a
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I was much older now, settled in a little coastal town called Cabrer, which ironically means go away. It hadn't been spoiled by tourists yet, so maybe the name had some kind of mojo that kept them away.
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Bobby Underwood |
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13349ec
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It was true, so she bought it and nodded her head. In Crystal Falls a fax was high-tech. We had one only because last time I was in Boise I stopped at an Office Depot and picked one up. My money, not department funds, which were non-existent. My salary and Janie's were about all the operating capital allotted law enforcement
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Bobby Underwood |
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82fc498
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Katie Wells stood looking out her window down to the street below. She could still feel the effects of the hard-rock miner getting his money's worth in every way he could. Angry that he could not afford the younger, prettier girls of the Golden Nugget like Jolene and Candy, he had taken his frustrations out on her. The man had treated her in a way which he never would have if she hadn't been nearing forty, and slightly overweight. The moon ..
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Bobby Underwood |
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185a200
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I frowned, staring into the eerie blackness along Route 33 truckers always complained about. It is odd how we rarely encounter true darkness. Somewhere, there is always light; a house, a town, headlights. Not here. Just total and complete darkness. I had been on the night run for months, long enough to get accustomed to total darkness if not entirely comfortable with it. What concerned me was the silence.
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Bobby Underwood |
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b44dcfb
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They had robbed banks and trains for the most part in their journey westward. More than one posse had taken out after them, but none had returned with any of the Taggart men. One posse tracking them from a town near Abilene, Kansas had been found in a Missouri farmer's wheat field where the gang had taken the time to dump their bodies. Six men, one of them a seasoned lawman. All of the men had been shot several times. Wyn had heard from a m..
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Bobby Underwood |
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50718ee
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Man was but an echo, thought Wyn with some awe, a small memory of rocks and mountains and rivers and lakes that had always been, and always would be. Man would come and go, but the land was forever.
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Bobby Underwood |
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9fcb3c9
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The California Gold Rush, both the first and second one, had inflicted almost as much damage as the bounty. Stream channels where the Diggers fished had been disturbed or re-routed and blasting had damaged the habitat the Diggers fed on. In addition, foods the Diggers gathered from the land had been damaged or destroyed as the way was cleared for cattle, who ate one of the major source of Digger food: the acorn. Worse, as with all Californi..
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Bobby Underwood |
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fc64b64
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A good friend is always welcome company. Even when thoughts are sad." She smiled. "Perhaps even mores then."
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Bobby Underwood |
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c03ae83
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Then something happened which made Callie feel something she'd never felt before. A tall boy close to her own age stepped from the train and gave the big man a hug.
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Bobby Underwood |
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25f21ed
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But I refused. One Ranger, One riot, as the slogan went, and a Ranger always tells the truth. Grandpa had had a bigger influence on me than I knew. They couldn't really fire me, but I agreed to leave voluntarily on the condition that the official file reflected my three years of exemplary service and nothing else. They were glad to accommodate me as long as I didn't darken their door again.
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Bobby Underwood |
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6d50c02
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Many men along the trail would discover that a man unafraid of death is the most dangerous man alive. Wyn could never be afraid of death, because he had already died, that night, so long ago.
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Bobby Underwood |
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f2daa1a
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It was the adventure which had called to his soul. All those years riding across open country as he hunted down the men who'd killed his parents was not so easily forgotten. He loved the feel of the outdoors, just as he had when he was but a boy. Wyn felt a freedom atop Tony that Wyn felt nowhere else. Mountains and rivers, plains and sagebrush, crystal-clear lakes and chilly desert nights were all he really needed.
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Bobby Underwood |
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5c420e0
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Lone Tree was a cow-town without the cow. No one I ever talked to had an answer as to how it had sprung up here in the middle of nowhere, nor did they know who the genius was who had thought it a good idea. Picture an old western ghost town, add a filling-station, an abandoned drive-in, a couple of folks milling about just so you knew someone lived there, and you'd be pretty close to Lone Tree.
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Bobby Underwood |
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95fcdd3
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How is Maria's mother doing, if I may ask?" His tone became less formal. "She is very well, thank you. She is quite involved in charity work and has those who love her around her, I believe. It helps." "I'm sure it does." I considered carefully my next words."
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Bobby Underwood |
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c4e6091
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I looked at Rushing River and he looked at me. Then we both looked up at the sky. "You thinkin' what I'm thinking?" He nodded. "Fell from the sky." "Any Indian legends about that?" He shrugged. "Got nothin'."
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Bobby Underwood |
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b48bec0
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It was also easy to do because just about everything annoyed them. I really got Abbie torqued one time while she was eating a tuna sandwich and droning on about how she only ate tuna that were "dolphin safe" as she called it. I pointed out it wasn't so safe for the tuna, which she must have turned her back on when it came to caring about God's little creations, since she had a mouthful of the tasty things. She got so red I thought her head ..
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Bobby Underwood |
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2e11a7b
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Value-wise, Crystal Falls still had theirs. It was American heartland conservative. There were three churches in Crystal Falls, all of them well-maintained and fully attended every Sunday. Of course, that didn't mean there wasn't a lot of hanky-panky going on. It just meant the hanky-panky was a bit more innocent than everywhere else in America.
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Bobby Underwood |
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a875ebd
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Unit One, I read you. What's your location, Unit Two?" We only had two units, so numbering them was unnecessary, but it sounded more official. I'd given Janie the Mustang because she liked it and because the Bronco was a little contrary on cold mornings. I didn't want her standing out in the snow on a winter morning trying to figure out why it wouldn't start. Plus it made her feel important being Unit One. And yeah, it did make her look eve..
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Bobby Underwood |
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dae7676
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One does not have to give up their own beliefs to understand and respect those of another people. We must learn to live together, now, there is no other way.
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Bobby Underwood |
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ade44c7
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Well!" I said huffily, doing my best Jack Benny impression."
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Bobby Underwood |
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0a61a0d
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Wyn noticed Jace had what appeared to be a copy of Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone. He smiled to himself.
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Bobby Underwood |
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0580df5
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There was something assured in the way he blended in with the surrounding mountains and lake. A sense of quiet deadliness was suggested by the low-slung gun belt, its holster tied down, and the Colt butt positioned for a quick draw. His movements had an ease about them, giving the impression of a man who did not look for trouble, but would handle it if the need arose.
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Bobby Underwood |
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1659038
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Rick was stretched out on the floor taking a nap. He was the lightest sleeper I'd ever known. He could doze just about anywhere and be up and alert in an instant. His ability to drop off and then wake up at the slightest sound or movement had kept us alive on one occasion as we were trying to make it to friendly forces after our crash. He opened one eye when he heard me then went back into his slumber.
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Bobby Underwood |
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b1e3191
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Maybe the pictures are all black and white because things were black and white then, Nick." I knew exactly what she meant. There was a moral center then, and you could feel it still here in Grover's Creek. It was a time with a clearly defined sense of right and wrong, a time when values and integrity mattered, and the majority had both. And a time when love lasted forever."
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Bobby Underwood |
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6828453
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A light and intermittent snowfall kept my world white over the next several days. The air was fresh and pure, nature's white medicine removing all that was wrong in the world. I was glad I had taken the now lesser traveled roads marked in blue lines on the map. Hours would sometimes pass before another car broke the solitude. I always waved and so did they. I became less anonymous somehow and felt an instant kinship with anyone traversing ..
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Bobby Underwood |
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67a9719
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One of those Los Angeles legends that add mystery to the bright lights and glamour.
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Bobby Underwood |
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ed5e929
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I stood. She reached up and squeezed my hand, trying to hold on to this us, before we went through with it and became a different us, held together by our sin. I turned and headed down the cliffs to the sea without looking back, afraid her anguish would weaken my resolve.
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Bobby Underwood |
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7825873
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Many people nowadays don't believe in things," she said softly. "Oh, they think they're all special, playing around with witchery and the dark stuff, but real miracles, things that can't be explained away, that have to be attributed to God, they scoff at. I'm not one of those people."
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Bobby Underwood |