Opening The Way

By John O'Connor

Keith Richards is pulled home after his father, Ron Richard’s untimely death. Once there he meets with a few of his father’s associates. Keith begins to go through the mounds of papers his father had around the house. With the help of the all too willing Sheriff and an equally eager young lady, he begins to sort through the emotions and the information found in the house. But there seems to be something off about Keith’s new friends. They are anxious about finding a certain item of his father’s, a notebook.
A longtime rival of his new girlfriend, Rachel, shows up one day while Rachel is out of town. After their brief discussion, Keith begins to fear that his girlfriend has a secret she isn’t willing to share with him.
Follow Keith as he deciphers all of his father’s notes of Ancient Ones and Elder Gods, while he struggles with the conflicting emotions going through his mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John O'Connor
• Release date: May 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311932273

John O'Connor

John O'Connor is a numismatist from Kawartha Lakes Ontario who documents doubled die varieties on modern Canadian coins intended for circulation and proof-like sets.

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OPENING THE WAY

John O’Connor

Copyright © 2015 John O’Connor

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted to any form or means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

Copyright © 2015 John O’Connor

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1511950056

ISBN-13:  978-1511950053

Part 1

I wish I had paid more attention in some of my English or writing classes. Perhaps then I would feel more comfortable writing all of this down. As it is, I guess you're stuck with however I can figure it out to make any sense of what has happened. The main problem is how to tell the story. Do I start where I came into it? Do I start where my father came into it? Do I start where it really all started, millions of years ago? Please bear with me.

My name is Keith Richards. No, I'm not a rock star, far from it actually. I was born in Mayfield, Ohio in May of 1973. My father was the local weirdo, and my mother was his best assistant. When I was only 6 years old, my mother was killed in a car wreck. Dad was supposed to be with her at that time, but for some reason, he stayed behind and was saved. After that, Dad and I kinda went different directions. I did well enough in school, I guess. Mostly Bs with the occasional A and the occasional C, no Ds or Fs. I wasn't valedictorian of my class, but I wasn't last, either.

I said that Dad was weird. From all that I could learn, he had been a music student and perhaps even a concert caliber flautist at one time. Then, something happened to him in England, and after that, he spent all of his time with some weird cultist crap. I guess he got paid for it, because we never went hungry and I always had clothes that fit, but we sure weren't rich, either. Dad had visitors once in a while, but most of the time, he did business over the phone. He sure sent and received a lot of letters and packages, too. I didn't know then what he was doing, mostly because I really didn't care.

Since Dad pretty much ignored me, even if I were in the same room with him, I had so much time to myself that eventually I started going to summer school and I was able to graduate from Mayfield South High a year early, in 1990 instead of 1991 with my class. As soon as I graduated, I went down to enlist in the Air Force, and since I was still 17, Dad had to sign the papers to allow me to enlist. As I recall, he didn't even ask what he was signing. He just smiled at me, signed the paper I brought him and handed the paper back to me. Hell, he even seemed surprised to discover that I was leaving a few weeks after that for basic training and tech school. Like I said, he really never paid much attention to me or what I was doing.

My Air Force service was interesting but nondescript. I went to tech school for computer hardware repair and along the way learned quite a bit about software as well. I spent the remaining years, after basic and tech school, stationed at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I guess it could have been worse. While I was there, I also managed to earn an associate’s degree in software and web design from the Community College of the Air Force and I also was able to take several courses in systems analysis at UNM, although I never did get the degree.

I spent 4 years in the Air Force, and got out in 1994. During that entire 4 years, I had not been back home to Mayfield. Oh, I wrote to Dad sometimes. Well, maybe once every two or three months. He always answered my letters but he never once suggested that I come home. In fact, he never asked me what I was doing, or if I got time off. I did call him, too. Well, maybe two or three times during the entire enlistment, but he always seemed too busy to talk for long. Like I said before, I didn't really know what he was doing, and I really didn't care much, either.

I did go back to Mayfield to see Dad once I was released from the Air Force, but I only stayed three days. He hugged me when I first got home, and pretty much ignored me the rest of the time. Like I said, he was busy. Really busy. Far too busy to spend any time with his only son. So, I left Ohio and headed for the East Coast, and ended up in Boston. I hadn't even spent all my final Air Force pay when

I landed a job with a computer website company in Boston that had clients all over the world. It was probably the first really exciting time I had had in my life, learning the business, working with clients all over the world and getting paid big bucks on top of it. Then........ well, then it started.

I had been in Boston about three years, so it was the summer of 1997 when I got the phone call. I had had a rough day, and had gone to bed fairly early. When the phone rang, I looked at the clock and saw that it was around 5AM.

Grnphsnort gobbelblat I said into the receiver.

Mr. Richards? the voice said My name is Charles Whiting. I'm a detective on the Mayfield, Ohio police force. I'm sorry to disturb you, but we found your father dead about two hours ago. I thought you would want to know as soon as possible

Well, he had my attention now.

Dead? I said. How did he die? He really wasn't all that old

"It looks like a heart attack, but we got a phone call that there was some loud noises coming from the house. One of his neighbors called us at, let's see, 3:47AM. We arrived here at 3:58AM. There was no one else in the house, the door was locked, and there was