Showing results by author "J. R. Caldwell" in All Categories

In 1954, there were three major newspapers printed daily in Pittsburgh, all with vast subscriptions. Hundreds of adolescent boys and girls delivered them throughout the day. Marty Rinehart had just turned 12 when Mark, a neighbor and his older sister’s unofficial boyfriend, handed down his Post-Gazette evening route to him. It was also the year that a well-liked teacher in his seventh grade inspired her class to write. Marty asked his mom to buy him a large blue notebook and began to journal his first year as a carrier.

The positive test stunned the traumatized 17-year-olds. His parents and her mom were devastated. It was only a one-time experience! It wasn’t very romantic. Both of them knew they had none of the emotional, financial, or physical wherewithal to raise a newborn, let alone two. Abortion was never an option from the start. They would, in due time, together sign away their parental rights in favor of separate and closed adoptions of the twin babies. Eighteen years later, although neither one knew the other existed, their stories collide with the homicide of a well-known individual.

When Jamar Clark's girlfriend leaves without giving any explanation, he retreats to Topsail Island, his beach haven in North Carolina, to sort things out for the summer and get his head together. Rather than an end of a relationship, the move opens up a whole new world for the twenty-seven-year-old.