One of my readers pointed out that it was extremely unlikely that Jack Watson wouldn’t be reachable by phone. Pretty much everybody has a smart phone these days, and certainly the publishing company would have had that number in their files. That is true, so I had to do a quick edit. People do have phones, but they haven’t really developed one immune to being dropped in a toilet.
Special thanks to the incomparable Al Steiner for editing work in this and the next chapter. I asked him to review a few chapters for medical details, specifically emergency and ambulance procedures. For instance, I had written a section involving a helicopter ambulance being brought in. It turns out that it would have never been used in the scenario I wrote. I checked and it was only a fifteen-minute ride in an ambulance, and it would have taken longer than that to load somebody into the helicopter! He also pointed out a few other problems that I was able to fix. There’s a reason we all need editors! Thanks.
Going to play Grandpa today. Our son-in-law’s sister’s mother-in-law passed away and they need to attend, so they are dropping the girls (ages six and eight) off with us. Complicated enough? Welcome to upstate New York! Our town has about twenty-two-hundred residents spread out in three hamlets. My wife and I aren’t attending because we’d had a feud with her for the last thirty years. I commented to my wife we’d probably get arrested for dancing on the grave. Anyway, we love the girls so it’s not an imposition at all!
In any case, the story moves along. Enjoy!