Stephanie's Stepside: A Novella of Central California

By Lonnie Mair

An 8.0 earthquake almost completely destroyed Interstate 5 in California's Central Valley, heavily damaged the California aqua duct and cracked the holding ponds of a toxic waste facility that released the toxic chemicals, heavy metals, and plastic effluvium, a witch's brew, that poisoned miles of the most fertile land in the world. Stephanie Granger's master's project was to study the extent of the poisoning and what methods, if any, might return the land to production. Not long into her research, influence, pressure, and eventually death threats from the conglomerate that owned the toxic waste facility, hound her in her search for the truth. She is forced to flee from the university lab that had become her second home, and armed with her lab and field work studies, endeavors to put the research findings together to save the land, her friends, and herself!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 18, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452018225

Lonnie Mair

Lonnie Mair is a retired high school teacher. Over the course of over thirty years in the high school classroom, he taught many subjects, but perhaps the one in which he spent the most time, was in teaching English and composition. After retirement, other responsibilities consumed the years. The characters brought to life in Stephanie’s Stepside took on a life of their own and the developing scenario led to the sequel which became Stephanie’s Stepside Episode 2: Blood on Toxic Ground, and now Stephanie’s Stepside Episode Three: Hope from Toxic Ground.

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© 2010 Lonnie Mair. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 11/10/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4520-1820-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-1821-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-1822-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010908631

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

This story is a work of fiction, and although place names are recognizable, any resemblance to people living or dead, is not intentional but rather purely coincidental.

Although there are companies which operate similar-in-function business operations in the Central Valley, this work is not an accusation of them, their business practices, or their personnel, nor should it be construed to be.

The universities named are real, the people and conditions total fiction. Lonnie is not associated with the universities in any way, and although he does not think there are any negative aspersions that can legitimately be viewed as cast in this work, it was not his intention to do so.

The Central Valley does contain the geologic realities and potentialities referred to in this work and should an earthquake of the magnitude mentioned occur, there is no doubt that the damage would be extensive. To what extent, and to what degree, the damage would be, he leaves to other minds to calculate.

Dedication:

This book is dedicated to my loving wife, Carol, without whose inspiration and example during the paradoxically people-filled, but isolated life that is the life of the public school teacher might well have shorted my teaching career at more than one juncture,. Her teaching career began before mine, since a four year stint in the U.S. Navy, followed by the completion of my degree and then credentialing process preceded the beginning of my teaching career. It was her success at making a beginning of teaching that inspired me! Her career was and still is exemplary, as well over a thousand primary grade school students, taught twenty to thirty-five at a time, still often testify today.

We have partnered together in many ventures, and as we began this venture, it was to her, as always, that I turned for counsel and editing of the first draft.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1:

In the Field

Chapter 2:

Interstate 5

Chapter 3:

The Lab

Chapter 4:

Davis

Chapter 5:

Her Apartment

Chapter 6:

ECS and the University

Chapter 7:

An Evening at Home

Chapter 8:

Sacramento

Chapter 9:

Ethan Arrives

Chapter 10:

Plan One

Chapter 11:

Ethan’s Dad

Chapter 12:

The Library

Chapter 13:

Almost Found

Chapter 14:

Tragedy at Home

Chapter 15:

Nevada and Back

Chapter 16:

A New Car

Chapter 17:

A Change in the Status Quo

Chapter 18:

Highway 49

Chapter 19:

Stephanie’s E-mail

Chapter 20:

Ethan’s E-mail

Chapter 21:

Plan B

Chapter 22:

Remote Access

Chapter 23:

An All-Night Session

Chapter 24:

Another Library

Chapter 25:

The Print Shop

Chapter 26:

The Logical Next Step

Chapter 27:

The Science Building

Chapter 28:

On the Way to the Chancellor

Chapter 29:

The Chancellor Arrives

Chapter 30:

The Press Conference

About the Author

Chapter 1:

In the Field

The summer sun beat mercilessly on the irregular shape close to the surface of the field. If one looked carefully, the outlines blurred by the heat, became the shape of a person, a young person, surrounded by the untilled earth. At the western horizon a few miles ahead of her a ridge of hills drifted in and out of view whenever the hat brim came up. A hand reached under the brim with a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from the young, recently tanned, face. The young female face grimaced as it looked west toward the hills and recognized a long strip of broken earth running north and south along the foot of the hills. The broken earth looked strangely out of place in the hot, yet peacefully serene, surroundings.

The young person, looking suddenly old and tired, rose with a groan, and with a concerned look and wrinkled frown, partially revealed by the upturned brim of the battered hat. Fresh moisture stains permeated the band, while other older ones spread up toward the crown, and others spread onto the brim. She bent her head slightly and peered at the instrument that she held in her hand. Placed predominately on it was a large round gauge which contained a quivering needle. A thin insulated wire ran from the top of the small rectangular yellow plastic box down to a dangling three-foot steel probe that still had dirt on it after being pulled from the gray earth.

As she rose, she mumbled, The PH imbalance of this soil is as bad as it was last month. We used to worry about alkali here, but now the soil is so acid and toxic, nothing is going to grow here this year, and unless something happens fast, this field won’t produce for at least another thirty years!

A sigh of resignation caused her young shoulders to sag as she turned and walked toward the distant road and the heat distorted shape of her aging red Chevy pickup. As she came closer to the road and the pickup, her eyes were drawn almost magically to the U.C. Davis parking sticker in the back window. The gray mud caked on the tires, wheel wells, and fenders evidenced many trips to other fields just like this one. The bed of the old stepside, held boxes of carefully packed and marked soil samples and bubble wrap packed test equipment. Close to the chained up tailgate, was a battered orange picnic cooler, with a cup tethered to the handle by a length of nylon rope. In marked contrast to the outside of the old truck, the inside of the cab was clean and neat with a small bookcase behind the seat, filled with well-thumbed, but carefully tended friends on ecology, agronomy, soil conservation, and a dictionary of toxic waste materials. Quite evidently taking pride of place, in a specially built niche in the middle of the front seat, were copies of all the Rachel Carson books: Silent Spring, Under the Sea-Wind, The Sea Around Us, The Edge of the Sea, even the one published after Carson’s death, The Sense of Wonder. In a small frame on the dash was a picture of the young woman standing beside a handsome young man of approximately her own age. Written in a delicate hand on the bottom of the picture was, Ethan and Stephanie. The way they stood together in the picture, it was plain, to even the casual observer, that these two young people were more than just friendly acquaintances.

As she approached the truck bed and stowed the instrument away, the sag in her shoulders stiffened almost imperceptibly to resoluteness. Her back straightened, and her jaw