Long Time Gone

By Darrel Bird

Change comes to us all. Sometimes in a moment, sometimes it comes gradually. Cody Anson, and his neighbors wife, Denise Banks leave early one Saturday morning on a business trip while his neighbor, Dale Banks, leaves to take a group of boys including his son, to Big Bear California on a week end hiking trip.

Little do they know that before sundown their lives will take a one hundred and eighty degree turn.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Darrel Bird
• Release date: Mar 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310252259

Darrel Bird

Darrel Bird has written and published 47 short stories. He attended Bakersfield college, and is an avid motorcyclist.

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Long Time Gone

by Darrel Bird

Copyright 2014 by Darrel Bird

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In modern war, you will die like a dog for no good reason.

Earnest Hemingway.

The separation

Don’t do that.

It was seven a.m., and Cody Anson wanted to play, but his wife Holly was having none of it. Go let the cat out, Cody.

Why can’t cats let themselves out like dogs? Isn't there a doggy door for cats or something?

Holly didn’t answer as she got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. Cody walked to the front door to let the cat out. He looked next door, and Dale Banks was already loading the van for the trip to Big Bear.

Hey Cody, can you go with us today? Dale called across the yard.

Dale walked down to stand at the edge of the small front lawn that separated the two houses.

No, Holly has a meeting at the studio, and I've got to go look at the property, remember?

Oh yeah, another sale my wife is trying to make. Is Trevor going with us to Big Bear?

Yeah, he’ll be out in a minute, and it sounds like a good investment up there.

Denise can make anything sound like a good investment.

Are you going to camp up at Butler Peak?

Yeah, it’s a good spot. We can get water from the spring.

Dale Banks worked for a big insurance firm in Los Angeles, and Cody had been a freelance photographer traveling all over the globe to war-torn crap holes most people hadn’t heard about, and he had decided enough was enough. He was determined to make his money work for him by investing in something, and Dale’s wife, Denise, worked for a real estate firm that specialized in investment properties. She was trying to sell him a piece of what she called a prime piece of real estate.

Dale had been with the local Eagle Scout troop since Cody, and Holly had moved into a quiet and expensive North Hollywood home. Every summer, Dale took