A High Country Tale: The Fourteenth Tale-- Three Dog Night, A Stickshift Saga

By Zachariah Jack

Luke Cevennes, M.D. He liked the way it sounded even now, after more than a decade and a half of wearing the mantle. Jeremy Kell, PhD. That rolled over Luke’s tongue with more flavor than any name in his world. The sexy Jamaican immigrant literally swept him off his feet nearly two decades before and the ride together had proved satisfyingly memorable. Remarkable, more like. The two fit each other.
Luke and Jeremy’s best friends, Jake and Calumet, likewise professional and accomplished, lagged in years by a decade, but the bond between the four was as deep as the Marianas Trench. Traversing the twenty-first century as a new age American family, the two interracial couples complemented each other in ways the majority of people could only look upon in wishing.
The sole thing lacking: legitimacy. While the duos were supremely contented in their own skins and lives, the anticipation of securing a valid place in the social order was confounding. Evasively elusive, a lightening of the horizon now buttressed hopes for fulfillment of that state so taken for granted and abused by the straight domain.
Having already consummated enriched lives and comfortable lifestyles, meaningful authenticity by judicial fiat now loomed. The four exceptional gay men were over-ready to grasp the reins.
Hijinks, ribaldry, a touch of activism plus candor and humor, all souffléd with a smattering of profundity, gel into a roving epic, from America to Europe to the Caribbean, on the shores of World War II Normandy, to Blue Mountain in Jamaica, up the wuthering heights of the Rockies and down the alluvial plains of the American deep south, as these self-deprecating, refined yet lusty menfolk wend their way, together, while luring the flotsam, jetsam and A-listers of Humanity along, on the sojourn that is the Tree of Life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zachariah Jack
• Release date: Jul 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310660986

Zachariah Jack

I am a professional with a history in veterinary medicine and marine biology, but a fledgling in the realm of tale-spinning, just now launching the newest stage of my life . The existence of a contentedly settled home life with my man, our dogs and cat makes me whole. I finally took to heart the sage advice from the esteemed author and activist, Sir Armistead Maupin, who advised his audience over two decades ago to 'Proclaim Yourself!'. As a member of that audience, I never forgot. The remonstrance was belatedly acted upon in a mountain wedding two months following the SCOTUS concession of yet one more of our 'certainly reserved rights'. In accordance with the much overlooked ninth and tenth amendments to the United States Constitution. See for yourself. And think on it. Check my publications out at Smashwords, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, etc.. And, please, review my work. ZJ.

Book preview

The Fourteenth Tale

A Stickshift Saga

Three Dog Night

By Zachariah Jack

A High Country Tale, Book 14

By Zachariah Jack

Copyright 2016 Zachariah Jack

Smashwords Edition

A High Country Tale Synopsis

Luke Cevennes, M.D. He liked the way it sounded even now, after more than a decade and a half of wearing the mantle. Jeremy Kell, PhD. That rolled over Luke’s tongue with more flavor than any name in his world. The sexy Jamaican immigrant literally swept him off his feet nearly two decades before and the ride together had proved satisfyingly memorable. Remarkable, more like. The two fit each other.

Luke and Jeremy’s best friends, Jake and Calumet, likewise professional and accomplished, lagged in years by a decade, but the bond between the four was as deep as the Marianas Trench. Traversing the twenty-first century as a new age American family, the two interracial couples complemented each other in ways the majority of people could only look upon in wishing.

The sole thing lacking: legitimacy. While the duos were supremely contented in their own skins and lives, the anticipation of securing a valid place in the social order was confounding. Evasively elusive, a lightening of the horizon now buttressed hopes for fulfillment of that state so taken for granted and abused by the straight domain.

Having already consummated enriched lives and comfortable lifestyles, meaningful authenticity by judicial fiat now loomed. The four exceptional gay men were over-ready to grasp the reins.

Hijinks, ribaldry, a touch of activism plus candor and humor, all souffléd with a smattering of profundity, gel into a roving epic, from America to Europe to the Caribbean, on the shores of World War II Normandy, to Blue Mountain in Jamaica, up the wuthering heights of the Rockies and down the alluvial plains of the American deep south, as these self-deprecating, refined yet lusty menfolk wend their way, together, while luring the flotsam and jetsam of humanity along, on the sojourn that is the Tree of Life.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Beginning

Middle

End

Three Dog Night

Jeremiah was a most venerable bullfrog. A wily and esteemed Catesbian greenback. The jagged white scar stretching diagonally down his back confirmed the over large specimen for who he was. Voy backed the gig away and after a moment of silent reverence, turned in search of other sources to satisfy Winnie. The shallow marshy bywater had proven a particularly fertile venue for which to hunt the current object of his very pregnant wife’s gastronomic desires. Other Rana legs would have to grace the skillet, Voy decided, because he and the old frog had an understanding.

Two years before, the bullfrog had serendipitously leapt a path of intersection between Voy’s bare leg and a pissed off copperhead. The angry snake launched a strike which would have likely caused irreparable, if not fatal, damage had the venomous fangs connected.

By sheer dumb luck, Jeremiah had somehow absorbed the bite and the venom instead. Voy managed to wield his machete and decapitate the writhing serpent but the huge frog had dropped and lain limp, quivering in certain death throes. The compassionate fisherman and river dweller had scooped the stricken amphibian up and placed him on a flat rock in a protected corner on the off chance that he didn’t die. He had heard the lore about river frogs’ resistance to poisonous excretions so dangerous to warm-blooded animals and thought to offer the critter a chance.

Months later, on a pre-dusk trout line run, the man happened upon the most humongous emerald bullfrog he had ever seen basking in the last tippling sunbeams of an Indian summer day on the exact rock he had left him that fortuitous morning. Though grown significantly larger, a jagged scar adorned his dorsum, proving to Voy that Nature did, indeed, work mysterious wonders. Human and bullfrog had communed together for a while over the shared incident from that time before. They exchanged formal introductions under the new, less volatile circumstances, and the name ‘Jeremiah’ had lived on. Subsequent crossed paths had validated their eccentric oddity and now the two carried on in their private understanding.

Jeremiah’s legs would remain intact for the bullfrog’s continued jumping pleasure…and needs.