Shane peered over my shoulder at the documents, now in hard copy.
“What the hell?”
Trapped in the Basement
by Rob Stutzgraft and Holly Malone.
Final draft April 1973
Based on true events
Setting: A veterans’ hospital (no specific location) in June of 1969
Character Breakdown:
Pvt. Daniel O’Hara: a Vietnam POW currently suffering from combat fatigue (Shane)
General Thuy: the commandant of the POW camp (flashback) (Rick)
Nurse Pamela: seductive nurse who has an affair with Capt. Keith Hemming (Chandra)
Captain Keith Hemming: collaborator with Viet Cong. In VA hospital recovering from leg injury. Working for a very shady defense contractor. (the real Olson) (Nick)
Mrs. Bettina Pryor: murders her husband (Crimson, if she’s back from her film), Sgt. Lucas Pryor: smothers him with pillow - Daniel witnesses but is ignored by Nurse Pamela and told he’s having hallucinations
Sgt. Lucas Pryor: POW suffering from combat fatigue
Act One, Scene One - Veterans’ Hospital, June 15, 1969
“It’s the final script. I’m sure it’s the one Rob sent, remember? Rob mailed it to me under the name Marshall D’Angelo. It arrived a day or two after…everything that happened on the bridge.”
“I don’t understand.”
“That makes two of us. I’m sure I chucked it into a box of memorabilia and shoved it along with a bunch of other cartons into my dad’s old storage unit.” I hadn’t wanted to look at the script after we’d both nearly died. Neither had Shane. Yet, here it was. In black and white.
“Holly? Holly!”
I opened my eyes. “I zoned, didn’t I?”
“You did. Not for very long, thankfully. Where’d you go?”
“Right here. That is, this room. You, Addie and I are all talking about this script and theses notes and time travel and loops and alternate universes and somebody mentions Plan C.”
“So, what do the notes say?”
My voice shaking, I read the first one.
Rob was in a support group with Hemming—recognized him as Angela’s brother, Larry Olson. Collaborator. Sniper. Arms dealer. Killer.
The second note read, Wooden peace symbol. Hang on to Shane! Henry Hudson Bridge. April 9th. Don’t let go. Don’t let him crash on the other side.
Shane held my hand as tightly as I remembered wrapping my arms around his waist one April night in 1973 when we’d almost been killed by a man willing to do anything to bury his past. “‘Hang on to Shane.’ I thank God you did. But, Holly, this is impossible. When? I mean, how…?”
I tried to joke. “Hell if I know. Addie’s ideas about time travel? Time loops? Alternate universes?”
Shane’s eyes brightened. “All the above?”
“What? That’s insane!”
“Well, yeah, but work with me, here, darlin’. I’m a sci-fi freak, but how about this being something like…an overlap in time? A circle in time where time itself just keeps going and at some point overlaps itself?”
“Are you trying to tell me my flash forward memories are real?”
“Were. Once. Maybe. It sounds improbable and mad, but then, so is a forty-something year-old script popping out of Addie’s computer, complete with notes, when the original hasn’t seen the light of day in more than forty years.”
“It may be,” I whispered. “It just may be.” I pointed to the notes on the last page. “Look at the signature. And the date.”
Holly Jordan Malone. April Fourteenth, 2016.
About the Author
Flo Fitzpatrick was born in Washington, D.C. and spent her first years traveling across oceans and countries as an army brat. She has very little memory of living in a chateau outside of Orléans, France but is certain the Gothic nature of the castle inspired her to write.
Her first attempt at a short story came at age four with “A Bug on the Wall”, which consisted of two sentences. “There was a bug. It was on the wall.”
She attempted a novel at age nine but dropped the project when her older brothers noted that her protagonist was traveling from New York to London—by train. To this day she swears she was simply projecting into the future and points out there is currently an underwater channel connecting England to France.
After earning degrees in dance and theatre Flo shuttled from Texas to New York City, performing, choreographing, and teaching. She still loves both states for their ability to spawn wacky and diverse characters who tweak her writer’s imagination.
Flo’s website is www.flofitzpatrick.com
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
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Scarecrow’s Dream
Copyright © 2016 by Flo Fitzpatrick
ISBN: 978-1-61923-351-5
Edited by Noah Chinn
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: June 2016
www.samhainpublishing.com
Scarecrow’s Dream Page 25