Chapter 1 (partial)

The week started normally; Dad rousted me out of bed as he had been doing. Now that was strange. When I was on my own, I woke up without an alarm and got right up and at it. With Dad here, I sleep as long as I can. Now that was plain strange. I must be the only teenager in the world like that.

Once up, I got right to it. Exercise and go out to run. Dick was there. He wanted to talk.

“Rick, something weird is going on. I was approached by the FBI, who told me I was going to be considered for a special project. They wanted Janice and me to answer a long questionnaire about our lives and permit them to check our story out. It is like we are being given a top-secret clearance or something. I called the LA FBI office and found the agent is real, so we went ahead.”

“One thing Janice and I agree upon is if anything strange is going on in our lives, you are probably involved.”

Ouch!

“If it is what I think it is, Dick, you have no worries. You and Janice will like it. In the meantime, I can’t talk about it. You should know in a couple of weeks. Nothing will happen if things don’t work out, as I hope. You can’t lose on this deal.”

“Is your Mum involved?”

“Yes, she is.”

“I have my suspicions about her, so we will see what we see.”

Now it was my turn to worry. What were his suspicions? I couldn’t ask as I would give away too much. Instead, I just bore down and ran as hard as I could. The high school coach was there and waved as we blasted by him.

As I finished dressing after my shower, the phone was ringing. After a brief conversation, Dad grabbed it and handed me the phone. It was from Mark Downing. The DF flyers were ready to go out to the distributors today. He had one in hand, and it looked really good. In the meantime, the actual hard copy catalog was going to the printers, so we were in business. Mark was as excited as I was.

Dad dropped me off at the studio with a “break a leg.”

I think that was for a stage play, but I would take it how it was given. The set was a beehive of activity by the time I was out of makeup and costume. They were doing a scene with Maid Marian and the village children. All the girls were playing with dolls while the boys were shooting small bows.

I had read the script, and it had said nothing about dolls, so I asked more out of curiosity than anything else. A set dresser was standing there, so I asked him where the dolls had come from. “They are not dolls.”

I had to look again; they sure looked like dolls to me.

“What are they?”

“Poppets or puppets,” he replied.

“Oh,” I answered.

I still thought they were dolls.

He laughed, “Poppets is what they called dolls in medieval times. The term Dolls didn’t come into use until much later.”

Cast in Time Book 6 Available in June 2024!

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More details coming soon.

Earl E. (Ed) Nelson

I have always wanted to be an author. I had my first rejection slip in about 1965. Wish I had saved it. For many years the only writing I did was technical as pesky things like three children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren came along.

My technical writing was in the field of quality in several different journals. I worked in the field of quality for over fifty years, starting as a line inspector and ending up as a Vice-President of Quality and elected a Fellow of the American Society for Quality.

Then a wonderful thing happened. I lost my job and was out of work for almost eight months. To keep from going crazy I wrote. I posted my stories on an online site, and lo and behold people read them and said nice things. Fast forward about eight years and I am retired and writing for the fun of it.

A lot of what is in my stories is based on my life experiences, gasp! Give or take a lie or two that is. The one fortunate thing in my career is that I got to travel worldwide and have been to most of the locations I write about.

In my younger days, I tried hot air ballooning, sky diving, white water rafting, spelunking, and target shooting. I have collected stamps, drove in road rallies, lowly rated by the US Chess federation. I built a Kentucky long rifle and a dueling pistol. I am a licensed HAM radio operator. My hobby is having hobbies.

My true passion is reading. Trapped in a hotel room I would read the telephone book. The TV would not be turned on. I have averaged 200 books a year for the last sixty years. I knew those long flights were good for something.

BTW I was born in the middle of an air raid in England during World War II, the house next door was destroyed and our windows were blown out. That is probably the most interesting thing I have been involved with. Mum never forgave me. Happily married for 56 years I hope my wife doesn’t catch on to what a goof I am.