"My Next Book" - Chapter One

Here it is! A new excerpt (purt-near a whole chapter) from my book. Hope it was worth the wait. Actually, I hope it was the anticipation that was killing you, and not my writing. (don't forget to check out the Forward and Backward that were previously posted for your yawning pleasure).


excerpt from                                       
'MY NEXT BOOK"
by
b2

Chapter 1 - The First Monday of the Month


Four in the afternoon on the day before Thanksgiving in 2002 I get a call from the House Station district manager in Philadelphia. "Do you know where Pottstown is?"

The next Monday, as we walked from the weekly staff meeting, the wailing from what sounded like an air raid siren shook the block warehouse walls, jerked my neck to the sky, and seemed to phase no-one else.

Southey Mike saw my reaction and, nodding up to the sky, explained, "you eva hear dat and it's NOT the first Monday of da montd at 2 o'clock...". "I do what?", the new guy responded. "Nutten, it's too late!" His warning slightly softened by his oddly smooth Bosten accent and then sharpened when he failed to follow it up with even the slightest smile.

I found out a week later that I had already out lasted the manager I replaced. Working his first six - twelve hour shifts prevented him from noticing the two cooling towers that loomed over the home improvement retailer in an otherwise tree-topped suburban skyline.

His wife appeared on the scene the next day, with three kids in tow. She had no trouble immediately spotting universal symbols of the nuclear age. He did not start his seventh shift, and I did not transfer to Bensalem.

It was New Year's day that my wife (adequately fore-warned) and our two boys came on the scene, but it was March before we were able to move in to our house in nearby Royersford. My phone rang shortly after 2 on the first Monday of April, she was panicked. Although aware of the siren, and in fact she had already heard it three times over the hill in Phoenixville, we were now up on a ridge, 1 mile closer, and the sound seemed to rush across the school field that backed up to our little gray twin. She screamed,"WHAT IS THAT!!", then held the phone receiver out the back door, quickly bringing back in without taking a breath "what should I do, do we need to duck and cover, are you coming home?".

Eight years later I don't even hear it anymore. But later that day back in 2003, I had a thought. What if something were to happen....what if..what if something were to happen at 2 o'clock on the first Monday of the month. What then?