Retrogame

Martin Lee

Description

Tom Huxley, owner and CEO of a large accounting firm in the town of Jasmine, South Carolina, is on his way to the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics when he is assaulted at a rest area near the Georgia border. His wife, Amanda, is notified by the Anderson County Sheriff that Tom was transported to a local hospital and currently in a coma. Within a matter of hours, she and her daughter Brie travel across the state to take up their vigil in the ICU waiting room, praying for him to awaken. The good news is that a day later he does regain consciousness; however, they then discover he has lost memory of the last twenty years of his life. While convalescing the following week in the hospital, he is horrified to find that he is a thirteen-year-old in a thirty-three-year-old man’s body. Even weeks later at home, both he and Amanda are trying to cope with the reality that a teenager in an adult body who doesn’t know his own family is incapable of being a husband and father. So how long will his amnesia last? Or is it actually real? And what was it Amanda found in Tom’s car that poses an even bigger threat to their marriage? Retrogame contains all the ingredients that excites readers…mystery, suspense, surprise, secrets, action, murder, romance, deception and on top of it all, betrayal. Be electrified all the way up to the surprise ending.

Sujets

• Detective
• Mystery
• Jasmine
• Fiction
• Brie

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 24 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663244406
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

RETROGAME
 
 
 
 
 
 
LEE MARTIN
 
 
 
 

 
RETROGAME
 
Copyright © 2022 Lee Martin.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
iUniverse
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www.iuniverse.com
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4439-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4440-6 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022915611
 
 
iUniverse rev. date:  08/22/2022
CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Chapter Forty-three
Chapter Forty-four
Chapter Forty-five
Chapter Forty-six
Chapter Forty-seven
Chapter Forty-eight
Chapter Forty-nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-one
Chapter Fifty-two
Chapter Fifty-three
Chapter Fifty-four
Chapter Fifty-five
Chapter Fifty-six
Chapter Fifty-seven
Chapter Fifty-eight
Chapter Fifty-nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-one
Chapter Sixty-two
Chapter Sixty-three
Chapter Sixty-four
Chapter Sixty-five
Chapter Sixty-six
Chapter Sixty-seven
Chapter Sixty-eight
CHAPTER ONE
T heir house, a white, historic Victorian with twin turrets, sat majestically on a piece of high ground two blocks off the Santee, looking stereotypically like something a southern aristocratic family ought to live in, complete with a wide veranda and a lawn of manicured centipede grass over which stood a half dozen stately live oaks covered with resurrection fern and Spanish moss. The Huxleys of Jasmine…Tom, Amanda and their six year old daughter, Brie.
The town, population maybe three thousand, give or take a body, thirty miles north of antebellum Charleston, like other small South Carolina burgs, showcased a circa 1880s square containing a Confederate soldier statue similar to those standing in hundreds of other town squares throughout the southern states. Quaint little shops, some dating back to the turn of the 20 th Century, surrounded the town square which boasted as its centerpiece the stately Jasmine City Hall. One of the businesses on the square was at one time a long-standing hardware store more recently remodeled into an accounting firm owned and operated by thirty-three year old Thomas (Tom) Huxley, a CPA and possibly the wealthiest and most educated young professional in the county. One could easily recognize Tom flitting out and about most days in his seersucker sports coat, light-pink Oxford shirt and Joseph Abboud necktie that was covered with a goodly number of embroidered images of the sabal palmetto and crescent moon representing the South Carolina state flag. Always GQ.
Back in late April or maybe early May when the Carolina Jasmine was in bloom, one might see Tom stopping before entering the Huxley and Associates Accounting office to take in the sweet aroma of the blossoms on the ten foot bush adjacent to the door. He might pluck from one of the branches a bloom, then tuck it up under his nostrils and smile. The town was literally bestrewn with jasmine bushes from one end to the other, ergo its name.
On one side of his office sat the post office, and the other, Dixie’s Dolls, the owner being 78 year old Dinah (Dixie) Dawson, who created most of the dolls in the shop. It was the year 1996 when she was making Brie one that would end up the image of a southern belle, complete with long, curly blonde hair, like Brie’s, and a frilly white, full-length dress with ruffles. Dixie would then finish her up with chic miniature copies of Marie-Anne Lecoeur shoes all the way from France. She promised to be done with it well before Christmas.
On July 18 th of that year, Tom sat at the kitchen table putting down the last few bites of the ham and poached eggs that Amanda had prepared. Brie sat across from him mostly just moving around her scrambled eggs with a fork. She wasn’t much of a breakfast eater, and generally only nibbled most anything put on her plate. That’s why she only weighed just over sixty pounds. Ten pounds less than she should have weighed, considering her age and size. It wasn’t anything her pediatrician was worried about. “She’ll eat when she gets hungry and should pick up weight when she gets older,” Dr. Moore told her.
Tom glanced at his watch a couple of times which prompted Amanda to ask, “Do you have to leave so soon? It’s only a four hour drive over to Atlanta and the ceremony doesn’t begin until tonight.”
“And why can’t we go with you, Daddy?” added Brie.
“I told you I have a meeting with the Chartered Global Accounting Group and we have a row of seats designated for us at not only the opening ceremony, but tomorrow’s games.”
“But Tom, this may be the only opportunity Brie and I will have to attend an olympics.”
“The ceremony and tomorrow’s events are sold out, dear. We went over that. I’m only staying a couple of days and will be back home Wednesday. I have to get back. Got an office to run, you know.”
“Could we maybe go as a family next week? While you’re over there, you could check to see if there are any events that are not sold out.”
“Maybe…but we’ll see.” He then gulped down the last of his coffee and winked at Brie. “We’ll see, baby.”
“Will you bring me back an Olympics souvenir, Daddy, like an Izzy mascot figure?”
Tom reached across the table and patted Brie’s hand. “You got it, honey. Izzy it is. Well, gotta go. I have to gas up and swing by the office for a few minutes.”
Having earlier brought his suit bag down from the bedroom, Tom then retrieved it from the arm of the couch. After giving Amanda a peck on the cheek and applying a second to Brie’s forehead, he walked to the door. “Bye, girls. See you in a few.”
Amanda smiled. “Drive carefully, Tom. Remember there will be a lot of traffic going into Atlanta.”
“Not to worry. You know me. I always look for the other guy to make the dumb move.”
She followed him with her eyes as he walked toward the door. At thirty-three, he was unquestionably one the most handsome guys in the county…tall with dark brown hair, taut physique, wearing a well-established golden tan. Amanda knew she had to be the envy of every unattached woman in town, whether age twenty or fifty.
When Amanda heard Tom’s BMW leaving the driveway, she returned to the kitchen to begin clearing the breakfast table. Brie was still playing with her cereal. “Okay, little miss, quit lollygagging and go on up to your room to start getting ready for church and Sunday school. We have to leave in less than an hour.”
After Brie had scampered away, Amanda paused at the sink to look out the window across their vast lawn and into the horizon. The sky had turned red…a beautiful orange-red…bringing with it a hint of sudden doom. She then caught herself whispering the old adage, “Red skies in the morning, sailors take warning…” Where that came from she didn’t know, but knew it had to do with storms that would brew up from out of nowhere and rock the seas, making a boat’s navigation treacherous. Of course nobody locally had to worry about sailing unless the Sunday morning fishermen ventured further out into the wider and deeper waters of the Santee. But that was their problem and all she herself had to worry about was Brie’s new pink dress getting soaked coming out of the church. However, Tom would soon be out on the road and those sudden southern storms could come up so quickly with sweeping sheets of rain that made it nearly impossible for one to see to drive. But Tom was always careful on the road and knew to pull off under an overpass on the interstate when it began raining sideways. Tom also had with him one of those new Nokia phones he used in the business; so what was there to worry about?
Amanda finished up in the kitchen, took her morning shower and stepped into Brie’s bedroom to see if she had gotten herself ready for church. She hadn’t . Brie was still in her pajamas and back on her bed reading one of her Nancy Drew b