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4e95b51
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I was listening to a replay of Art Bell hosting Dreamland, back when he was still doing the show. I let talk of UFOs and crop circles distract me from my own perplexing mystery. I believed again, but if fate was guiding me, what was it telling me to do? Maybe if I simply trusted what was happening, without question, a solution would present itself. If there was a divine plan, some otherworldly force at work here, it couldn't be such a cruel..
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Bobby Underwood |
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19f1266
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She loved San Francisco but always remembered the happiness of that summer traveling through lovely towns like Gundagai and Tumut. The rural countryside was beautiful, and the people were always ready to smile at a pretty young American girl on vacation. She knew she was just average pretty, but she felt beautiful that summer, a duck transformed into a graceful swan. Perhaps it was just that moment in a young girl's life when all things fee..
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Bobby Underwood |
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e44ac7f
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The smell of Jasmine was in the sea air. Any other day I would have adhered to the Victory Speed but I couldn't wait to reach the village. I smiled to myself, thinking what a stir it would cause when I drove through in Deanna's car; a car that supposedly wouldn't start and couldn't be moved. Poppycock! I wasn't sure about Johnny's plight yet, and it might very well be that that part of the story was true. If so, I would have to break it to ..
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Bobby Underwood |
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e6768a0
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Vera Lynn was telling me it would be a lovely day tomorrow as my new Packard wended its way along the winding shore road. The cool sea mist blowing in my face felt wonderful, a refreshing reminder that I was alive and life was good. It was a bright sunny morning, and the War would soon be over according to nearly everyone.
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Bobby Underwood |
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6bbdb8f
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We enjoyed our newfound intimacy, quietly and tenderly adoring each other as Jasper kept hopping into his pretty master's lap to be in the middle of things. There is nothing like love when it is new, especially when it comes quickly, and out of the blue. How we had found each other, why we had found each other, and the otherworldly mystery surrounding our romance -- much of which she was still unaware -- felt unimportant compared to being i..
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Bobby Underwood |
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bfd95c0
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I picked up the photo and studied it while Deanna set about rifling through her brother's chest of drawers. Physically, she looked the same in the picture, perhaps only a couple of years younger. Yet there was something perceptibly different about her in the photo that it took me a moment to decipher. She appeared to be much younger. She was smiling wide, her chin on her brother's shoulder. It was the eyes! They weren't vacant, but there wa..
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Bobby Underwood |
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53358c8
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I heard it first. Footsteps. They were faint, and not localized in any particular area, but they were footsteps. The sound was like an echo from very far away. If they were the kind of footsteps I believed them to be, they were coming from very far away, indeed. A chilly wind blew past me and Jasper barked, which woke Deanna, who was by my side in an instant. "Did you hear it, Mike? Sometimes there's a cold." No sooner had she spoken than ..
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Bobby Underwood |
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9d3615f
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It was still dark. I grabbed the Howzer by the bed and crept quietly from the bedroom. I saw her through the screen door and laid down the gun, my soul in turmoil. As she stood silently crying beneath the starry Spanish sky, I suddenly realized she wouldn't make it back from here.
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Bobby Underwood |
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6e3146e
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I became mad for a time, wanting to dig her up just to be certain she was dead. Once, I even had the shovel in my hand. But then I knew I could not let her suffer the indignity of a man who had lost his mind to grief and loss. Not a man at all, really, but a bio-organic whose soul might never recover from her quick and sudden departure from my life just as we'd found an avenue for happiness.
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Bobby Underwood |
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0df6a49
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The boys weren't just whistling Dixie when they said she was a piece of junk that flew. The flying part I had yet to see but from the looks of her, it was going to be nothing short of a miracle from heaven if we cleared the forest at the end of the runway. She had more patches on her than a Georgia quilt, and though she was civilian, you could tell she'd caught some anti-aircraft fire somewhere along the way.
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Bobby Underwood |
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e990eef
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I'm glad you're along, Juanita. We may need you to translate." "I forget to tell, Johnny. My Spanish not so good. I from Tijuana." We all looked at her in disbelief and then the laughter started. This was going to be one bumpy ride all around."
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Bobby Underwood |
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eef1693
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Suddenly hungry, I waved a goodbye to my new friend and headed for the open road once more. I slid in an old radio cassette and enjoyed a Jack Benny Christmas show. I was among the living again. It was a start.
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Bobby Underwood |
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8699751
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found what I believed to be the shoulder and managed to stop. It felt solid. The storm was interfering with radio reception, so I bundled up and listened to tapes of Alan Ladd in Box 13 and Larry Thor in Broadway is My Beat to keep me company.
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Bobby Underwood |
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7b71d6f
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Not a momma's boy, just too much Gene Autry and not enough Bogart.
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Bobby Underwood |
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6d6d856
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Don't come out from under unless you hear my voice. Understand?" Karen's eyes were full of tears but she nodded and slid beneath the Gremlin. I'd purchased it from some guy who'd been using it as a dune buggy, so the tires were oversized. She'd never have made it under the car if they hadn't been. I ran in the opposite direction, waving my arms to catch the attention of the alien piloting the saucer. It worked all too well. I ran faster tha..
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Bobby Underwood |
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a4261b1
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Alan Ladd as Neale Jordan Veronica Lake as Ellen Hillman Mike Mazurki as Paul Fontana Elisha Cook Jr. as Ciro Ricci Gloria Graham as May Martell Frank Lovejoy as Randolph McGraw Hugh Beaumont as Charlie Gray Lloyd Nolan as Victor Haskell June Lockhart as Janet Haskell James Craig as Eddie Lomax Laird Cregar as Frank Perkins William Bendix as Art Barker Richard Denning as Jerry Markle James Gleason as Sam Menard Tom Drake as Roy Douglas Dick..
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Bobby Underwood |
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b4a831a
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But they weren't just bodies, they were people. People who'd awoken this Saturday morning with hopes and dreams; dreams of getting promoted and moving upstate to the country; hopes of having children and watching them come into their own; dreams of one day taking that vacation to Hawaii as Karen and I were always saving for, but never quite saving enough; hope that the new boy in school would ask you to the junior prom; dreams of getting in..
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Bobby Underwood |
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1f903c3
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Now people nowadays, especially the younger ones, they don't have an ounce of romance in their soul. It's all zombies and video games, shallow celebrities. They love insta-sex but make fun of what they call insta-love. They get a few minutes pleasure out of the foolin' around, but don't have the depth of heart to fall in love like a romantic will, so they scoff at it. Real love is like that sometimes.
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Bobby Underwood |
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b9c2366
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I never had a more wonderful time with anyone than I had with Mary that afternoon. I won her a small stuffed bear, and felt ten feet tall. She introduced me to just about everyone, and it made me feel more at home than I'd felt in a long time. We ate hot dogs together, and talked. We talked the way people don't talk any longer, now that they have cell phones and electronic gadgets.
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Bobby Underwood |
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2e130ec
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Neither complained, because they liked going on dates -- when they were allowed -- and it was especially fun when they could double date. Dances and the malt shop, and occasional jaunts to see a Tyrone Power movie -- both thought he was dreamy -- filled up the moments when they weren't playing tennis at Riverside Cove Country Club -- Nancy only got in because Beverly's father owned the club -- or swimming.
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Bobby Underwood |
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d613a14
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My little twenty-year-old thirteen-inch black-and-white TV had quit working a couple of months ago. I wouldn't be able to watch Jimmy Stewart discover it was a wonderful life for the millionth time on Christmas Day, not this year. I tried to concentrate on crime in Isola, but kept thinking about those tips; planning how I'd spend the dough. I'd stock up on food first, can goods and package stuff I could heat up on my hotplate. And cases of ..
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Bobby Underwood |
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7567d49
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California during the 1940s had Hollywood and the bright lights of Los Angeles, but on the other coast was Florida, land of sunshine and glamour, Miami and Miami Beach. If you weren't already near California's Pacific Coast you headed for Florida during the winter. One of the things which made Miami such a mix of glitter and sunshine was the plethora of movie stars who flocked there to play, rubbing shoulders with tycoons and gangsters. Som..
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Bobby Underwood |
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f53f45e
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Both of them grinned. "Must be a dame." "Better than that." "Watch out she don't start walking you by jewelry store windows," said Roy. "And make sure she don't have to attend no funerals anytime soon." "I'll do my best."
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Bobby Underwood |
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7ffd975
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I don't know if I'll get in with all the bad in life I done. But at least when Saint Peter, or whoever they got guardin' 'em asks what I did in life to deserve heaven, I'll be able to tell 'em about Kathy. On the plus side, I'll have one good thing...
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Bobby Underwood |
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6984a8a
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San Francisco is still the loveliest city in the world for my money, despite how they've tried to ruin her. Yeah, it attracts all the weirdos, and some of them aren't harmless like they used to be in days gone by, but for the most part the people are lovely and easygoing, and there is a romanticism that exists in San Francisco that you can genuinely feel as you walk around. The wonderful things about her still remain; the wharf and fabled P..
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Bobby Underwood |
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5dcd44c
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A singular, frightening truth begins to set in: we're all just a few bad breaks away from falling through the cracks and disappearing. As society gets more distanced from human interaction by technology, our collective compassion wanes, and the cracks get larger.
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Bobby Underwood |
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20d4c42
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I reached over and turned on the Buick Roadmaster's radio. It was Sunday night, and the Jack Benny program was starting. Even Rochester's interactions with Jack couldn't quell my apprehension tonight.
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Bobby Underwood |
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a31dd4f
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Some primal instinct tells the parent, or the person down on their luck, than if we let it go -- the child's hand, or our dignity -- all is lost, and we'll never get it back. That's why, if you even bother to look, you'll sometimes see a bag lady pushing a shopping cart down the street, wearing a nice dress underneath her torn and tattered coat. Or she'll have a pretty plastic flower pinned to her beat-up old hat. The flower and the dress r..
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Bobby Underwood |
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e3d5df5
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It isn't easy to look inconspicuous doing a stakeout in an Aston Martin Vanquish, but it's easier in Monaco and Monte Carlo than just about anywhere else, and so far, no one seemed to give me a second thought.
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Bobby Underwood |
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86f7a00
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I got him in the ankle," Kelly clarified. She added, "The gun was a gift from daddy. He says you never know who you'll run into and it's better to have protection." Jeff tried to look respectful at the mention of Kelly's father. In his head I knew he was thinking Kelly needed about as much protection as a barracuda."
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Bobby Underwood |
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8e1e451
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Halfway back to the Keys on Seven Mile Bridge, as day lost its eternal struggle against night, someone in Miami called in to the radio station I was listening to, and requested Gloria Estefan's Si Voy a Perderte. I turned it up and listened to the sad strains of Estefan's emotional pleading while I drove across the water in darkness. I could almost have sworn under oath that the caller's voice was that of Anna Marquez...
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Bobby Underwood |
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650afba
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I was empty and lonely, unable to remember the last time I'd felt any real happiness, or if I ever had at all. I knew I had seen it a few times in the eyes of others, and in movies made a lifetime ago, back when love existed. Finding that old-fashioned kind of love would be a miracle, and I was not expecting a miracle to come my way...
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Bobby Underwood |
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3fa47c3
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His gun was still holstered, but so were theirs. He had surprise on his side, and the urgency of the riders, as he could see a second cloud of dust not far behind them. Lonesome knew these men. He might not have known them personally, but he knew the look of men who'd seen battle during the war. Many soldiers from both sides had been unable to stop killing after the war, and he judged these men to be among them. The man riding point was the..
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Bobby Underwood |
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290301c
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Travis placed his hand flat on against his chest. "I'm almost hurt by that remark. Surely you've told him what a great bunch of fellas we are, and what great cowhands we are?" "I haven't had the chance. Travis is right though," said the Southerner, turning toward Wyn. "They are top cowhands, it's only when they get around pretty girls their brains start to go all mushy."
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Bobby Underwood |
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291e3b6
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Arizona and Tucson, to Wyn's way of thinking, sort of embodied the changing nature of the country in recent years as it had grown. Traders and explorers such as Kit Carson, Pauline Weaver and Bill Williams had wandered through Arizona in the early part of the century. New Mexico, which had included all of Arizona north of the Gila, had been ceded to the United States in '48, at the bitter end of the Mexican War, with the treaty of Guadalupe..
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Bobby Underwood |
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9c67a13
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I took my time driving back to the warehouse to drop off the van. It would be the loneliest ten blocks I'd ever walked once I did, because I'd met Nancy. It is one thing to be lonely and ache for someone to care for, someone to love in the abstract. It is quite another to know who that someone is and discover she is just out of reach. No love is as far away as one just beyond reach. I drove with an aching heart through the city as it sprung..
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Bobby Underwood |
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02c3da5
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Where's Steve Wilson and Lorelei when you really need them?" said Beverly with a sigh. "I know!" replied Nancy. The two girls smiled at each other, easing the tension."
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Bobby Underwood |
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e4638de
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Probably just someone on their way into Tucson, like us. We'd better check it out, though." The Southerner pulled his Winchester 73 from its sheath and laid it across his waist in the saddle. He'd killed a few men when he'd had to. There was always the possibility that a brother, son, or friend would seek retribution, even though the fights had been fair, the gunplay defensive, their fate deserved. He'd also riled a few lazy, drunk, or dish..
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Bobby Underwood |
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a9d9187
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Apache trick," nodded Fox. "Aw hell!" Jace remarked, "Accordin' to you, everything smart anybody does they learned from fightin' Apaches!" "We greatest fighters and trackers."
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Bobby Underwood |
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c69a374
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There was something starkly different about him that separated him from other men, reflected even in his choice of horses. Every seasoned cowboy, and even some greenhorns, knew owning a white horse to be the quickest road to death. Easily seen from a great distance, it left a man vulnerable to ambush, as another could simply lie in wait along the trail with a rifle, and spot the rider from a long distance. It was considered suicide to take ..
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Bobby Underwood |
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7e17b05
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He leaned in and pretended to examine every counter of my face, as though he were Lauren Bacall and I was Humphrey Bogart from Dark Passage. Then he pulled back and did a comical double-take like Cary Grant in My Favorite Wife.
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Bobby Underwood |
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d71b3f9
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Doral used to be swampland, but now Carnival Cruise Lines and one of the major Miami papers makes it their home. Everyone who knows Florida well enough calls it Doralzula because so many Venezuelans live there. Rich Venezuelans, the beneficiaries of the old "re-distribute the wealth" scam of socialism, which fails repeatedly and consistently -- though this fact is rarely ever mentioned in the media -- around the globe. Once they had theirs,..
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Bobby Underwood |
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b985616
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Her face, especially those lovely eyes, filled with amusement. She whispered, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"
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Bobby Underwood |
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78968bc
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Her face, especially those lovely eyes, filled with amusement. She whispered, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" I laughed and she couldn't help but join me. There was something restful and pure in her laughter, like a Christmas carol. "My grandfather used to work at a radio station where they broadcast The Shadow," I explained. "He'd take my dad when he was a kid. Dad even met Bill Johnstone once. Anyway, my dad named me aft..
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Bobby Underwood |