John Martin had turned his successful engineering business over to his kids -- much to their consternation. While camping deep in the national forest, he met a fox hybrid in great need of help.

Note: I added the caution because violence exists in the story. It isn't very graphic, but it is there.

Smoky Corners 6-V: JC Salinger

Whoever heard of Smoky Corners, Montana? You can’t even find it on a map, unless you are looking for it. It’s perfect…

I needed a place serene, someplace to get over… Well, get over everything. My wife, Sophie, had been shot in front of me by her lover. She had obviously been cheating on me. I couldn’t write anymore. My publisher was begging me for another book; I was empty. I don’t know what drew me to an old road atlas. Google seemed to have taken over the map, literally. I remember driving through the northern half of the US in my youth. I was trying to find myself. Jack Clay. Well, that was who I was when I started out. Funny, that’s who I’m trying to find again. So, Jack Clay, welcome to Smoky Corners, Montana.

The man, who appeared to be about 55 years of age with silver coloured mid-shoulder length hair, wearing a medium brown lightweight woollen suit with vest and a hideous bright orange tie that made it look like he was about to burst into flame, sat in his usual chair in front of the roaring fire at the back of the small but cozy bar in the Midwest college town that he had been frequenting for almost six years now.

I loved watching the beautiful trees go by in the fall when I ride in the car. I felt dreamy and a bit overwhelmed but happy on multiple levels. I was just caught looking at a pair of pantyhose in Macy’s by this girl who is in my math class. She never talked to me before and when she saw me looking at the pantyhose package, I thought my life was over. However, she treated me with kindness. She is very pretty and I think I like her a lot. Now that I have her phone number, I will call her and hopefully we can become friends.

Chapter 3

The weekend passed like it usually did with Amber locked in her room hiding from the world and her family. She talked to them at dinner and on Saturday she had listened to Amanda tell the story of the volleyball match and how they had won in the fifth set having to win 3 straight. Amber for a small second had wished that she had been there to watch Amanda play.

Tina's mom reheated some manicotti and fixed a fresh garden salad.

Tina's dad handled the grilling.

“So how long have you two known each other?” He stared at me.

“It feels like a lot longer that it's actually been” Tina laughed. “It's really just been over a month, but it's like we've known each other forever. Sometimes someone comes along and you really click.... you know?”

Tina's mom nodded smiling. Her father almost hid his grimace.

“You met at work.” He said dryly.

The Beginning – Part 1 by Anna Olivia

Tina Shepherd was in the final stages of dying a slow death due to cancer when she met the Martins and their friends.

3 Years earlier…

“You must be Owen… I’ll take the room on the left, and you’ve got the one on the right. I’m David by the way.” The apartments on the campus of Northern Coastal University offered a bit more privacy than the dormitories, but you were still assigned your roommate.

With the economy tanking, a boat was found that would allow the teens to boat between the Wells Point docks and the dock in St. Michaels. It was a rebuilt 1980 Steiger Craft Skipjack with a completely enclosed cabin and pilot house that could seat nine teens. The boat was twenty three feet long with a beam of eight and a half feet with a draw of thirteen inches. The hull was fiberglass with an in-board 5.7 liter Volvo Penta engine. It also had a depth sensor, GPS, radar, a bow thruster, windlass spotlight, extended hardtop with enclosure. They named the boat ‘Teens Ahoy’. The six and a quarter mile trip would take twenty minutes at twenty MPH. By road the ten mile trip would also take twenty minutes. Both modes would require a licensed driver. The difference was the teens could get a valid boating certificate at twelve years old. To this end all the teens and any adults who wanted took an eight hour course after which they took a test to obtain a valid boating certificate.