The Daily Novel

CHAPTER XXV
Gene Snyder alternated between feeling silly and feeling like what he was doing was right, as he drove along Interstate 79 from Erie toward Pittsburgh. If nothing happened, nobody ever need know that he was here, except his wife. He explained everything to her including the fact that the hard data was very slim [...]

CHAPTER XXIII
By Tuesday morning, Harlan and Gloria were in total agreement: She would stay with the car, and Harlan would go into the cloverleaf. There had really been no contention. She and Harlan talked through all of the scenarios they could think of and, together, settled on Harlan’s going in and Gloria’s waiting nearby.
Before they [...]

CHAPTER XXII
For any number of reasons, the main one being that there was no official confirmation, the media did not jump on the story with their Saturday editions. By the time producers and editors and assignment chiefs woke up to the potential in the story, Saturday papers were already printed and delivered, Saturday television provided [...]

CHAPTER XXI
Saturday afternoon, Jerry stopped for a nap. First he placed the harness in the wheelchair, lifted Sue Ellen into the chair, and moved her to the bathtub and suspended her. He figured that if she were to regain consciousness, she would still be unable to do anything, suspended and unable to reach the rope [...]

CHAPTER XIX
Jerry’s Interstate entrance was about four miles from the café parking lot. He drove calmly, gently. Once on the Interstate, he headed toward Louisville. With reasonable driving, the trip to his home would be nearly five hours. He decided he didn’t want to push it, so he planned to use a rest stop, one [...]

CHAPTER XVIII
Bobbie Fisher called first. The bureau chief for her paper had called her as soon as he picked up the first call on the scanner. He reported what he knew, then immediately headed for the café. Bobbie hit the speed dial for Gloria’s cell.
Bobbie’s story had run in the Monday edition of the paper, [...]

CHAPTER XVI
“If someone would open a fondue restaurant with this kind of spread,” Bobbie said, sitting back from the table, “it would be a raging success. That was magnificent.”
Gloria had set the trays of food and the pots of oil and broth with sterno cans on the low table in front of the fireplace. There [...]

CHAPTER XV
“Gene, I’m just telling you,” Betty said into the phone, “I am about to go over to Harlan and Gloria’s house. And, I am telling you that the kind of progress that happens in the kind of think-tank environment that you find there is going to generate something.”
“And, you’ re calling me at, what, [...]

CHAPTER XIV
Saturday morning dawned clear and cold. Harlan and Gloria, as usual, were up before sunrise. The first round of coffee was made in the French press, just enough for the two of them to start the day. The main coffee maker, which would supply the needs of the others as they awoke, was still [...]

CHAPTER XIII
The reason Harlan and Gloria had started the winter road trip to begin with was because they both felt stopped. Getting up every day and staring at the same displays was not providing any inspiration or sense of movement. When they hit the road, they did not have a set time frame for their [...]