Mr. Nachron's List

If you knew that there was something on the other side of a door that shouldn’t logically exist, would you through it?

In his efforts to locate the items on “Mr. Nachron’s List”, Ron Maddock is confronted by some surprising obstacles. Many are seductive, but complicated. Others seem toxic but they are benign. His charming and apparent naiveté is a contrast to the strength and energy of his closest friend Crystal, who is a patient ally as Maddock’s orbit becomes more eccentric.

Albert Nachron, the originator of this quest, proves that he has chosen his friends well as the trio negotiates a daunting temporal maze with courage and humor.

As the protagonist leaves the gauzy humid appeal of South Florida for parts unknown, he finds himself in the company of a colony of lepers in Panama, a Habsburg princess, and Richard Feynman, the noted American physicist. He even found time to spend with a cross-dressing Civil War sailor aboard a monitor class vessel called Sangamon which was patrolling the Carolina coastline. Historic settings are accurately portrayed to tantalize a reader with an appetite for history. The accomplishments of his tasks were typically a celebratory relief taken in the hospitality of Fort Lauderdale.

Ron’s personality has been flavored by a multitude of events, some positive but not gaudy, others humiliating but not shameful. A surfboard, a fishing rod and a handstamp to get into a night club were his most useful, if temporary possessions. The single quality which may have elevated him from the mediocrity that an onlooker might perceive, is a singular appetite for new experiences. Extraordinary stimuli should be exciting to many of us, but to Ron, it was the ultimate intoxicant. The planets must have aligned for him with the old friendship of Crystal and the arrival of Albert Nachron into their lives.

Ron had his own personal goal however. He had always hoped he would reunite with an old girlfriend named Lynn, who was every man’s dream and every mother’s nightmare. She once calmly and skillfully flipped a lit cigarette into Ron’s chest before they made love. That’s just the kind of girl she was. If you had asked him which he would prefer, a beautiful female with a graduate degree, or a cute girl with crazy eyes, he would answer without a second thought.

In this captivating tale, the believable has been woven cleverly into the impossible in a way that gives life to some of the improbable dreams that attract us all.

To say that this odyssey comes full circle with the completion of the assigned tasks is to grossly underestimate the size of the circle.

The author provides a literal and a hypothetical tapestry for the reader to enjoy.