The Phantom of the Circus
Description
Death has a way of drawing people together, and it's no exception for Betty Hall and her mother, Zoe Payne. With the death of Innocence ‒ Betty's daughter and Zoe's granddaughter ‒ the two were again united but for only a few short weeks.
One day, not long after Zoe returned to her home with a traveling circus in California, Betty received a call from the Santa Monica police saying her mother's body had washed up under its famous pier. The following day, Betty, her dad FJ, and his friend Ray Harris boarded a plane bound for L.A. to retrieve the body and bring her mother home.
Lucia Torres's grandmother was concerned about her granddaughter. Why? Lucia Torres was becoming a young woman.
Unfortunately, the human monsters that occasionally invaded her little Mexican town would also take note. Their hearts would be filled with lust, and make no mistake about it, the monsters would want to pluck the little budding flower.
Call it fate. Call it destiny. Soon Betty Hall and Lucia Torres's lives would collide, all thanks to the Phantom of the Circus.
More details
Person
Kentucky has always been my home. I was born in Owensboro and raised in Daviess County. Life was simple back then. I grew up with outhouses, hand-pumps, and coal stoves. If you wanted hot water, you heated it on the stove. Both of my parents have passed on. I have a half-brother, Danny, but most of our younger lives he lived with his father, so we didn't get to see each other often. Looking back, sadly, it was like being an only child. My closest friends were the cows, chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, turkeys, geese, ducks, and horses my dad kept on our small farm. I hope I didn't leave anyone out. Farm animals can be so jealous. Our grocery store ? mason jars of mom's canned vegetables and the occasional trip into town to the IGA.
My dad was a woodsman. You could give him a shotgun, a box of shells and a book of matches, and he could disappear into the forest for weeks. I used to hunt with him, but I was never the woodsman. I can't tell you how many deer, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons and ground hogs I've eaten. My wife, Stephanie, and I have five kids (three boys and two girls) and eight grandchildren (five boys and three girls). All but one son live here in town. You should see Christmas day at our house.
I've had several jobs during my lifetime. When I was thirteen, I had a summer job. I was a soda-jerk at the Utica Junior High School playground. The school is now defunct. It is not my fault the school went defunct. As an adult, I started out as a janitor. Loved the work, but not the pay. Mapping came next. In other words, I was a draftsman who created maps from surveys. I did that for over twenty years. Mapping fulltime and going to Brescia College (It's now a University) at night, I got a BS in Computer Science. Career change. I was a Computer Analyst for over twenty years.
There came a day when I realized I was the dinosaur of Computer Science. Technology had passed me by. So, I up and retired. That was in 2014, and I haven't missed working a day. Truth be known, I do miss the people I worked with. Notice, I've said nothing about writing. I could tell you a pretty good story, but putting it on paper was another thing. Stephanie, my wife, asked, "And why not?" I had no answer.
