...And Sat Down Beside Her

By Lynn Thompson

....and sat down beside her, the final volumn of a trilogy is a tale of life's circles.
We follow Samantha and her best friend on their adventures as they begin new chapters and relive some of the past.
Samanth, orphaned, cared for by a succession of foster parents, changes careers and locales, learning, one can only hope the meaning of the word, 'serendipity'.
The reader meets Mafia dons, past and present, and wannabees, a medical examiner, a budding terrorist, and Televison broadcasters.
A highly unlikely story----but then, the best tales hardly ever make much sense.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 22, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462005413

Lynn Thompson

Lynn Thompson’s place is in the Land of Enchantment, where the sky is turquoise blue, the fires rage, and there is rain and/or snow without a cloud in the sky.Lynn lives with her husband, son, dog, cat, and a tank full of fish. In her spare time she loves to hike, camp, read and write fiction.She has a degree in graphic arts and web design, but doesn’t have a specific genre that she writes her books in. She has two novels out: Blake-A Montana Dayton Novel and Sterling-A Montana Dayton Novel. She also has two short stories books out: Dark Fates and News Worthy.

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…And Sat Down Beside Her

Lynn Thompson

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

…And Sat Down Beside Her

Copyright © 2011 by Lynn Thompson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4620-0540-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-0541-3 (ebk)

iUniverse rev. date: 3/11/2011 

Contents

Also by Lynn Thompson

Dedications and Acknowledgments

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN…

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

Also by Lynn Thompson

Deep and Dark

…And Along Came A.

Dedications and Acknowledgments

To Mom, who had a black dog of her own

And Kay, who did, too

To Mason, who gets it

To Mark, who expedites it

To Dale, just ‘cause

To the rest of the family, thanks for your patience. I think I’m finished now.

CHAPTER ONE

33 percent of dog owners admit that they talk to their dogs on the phone or leave messages on an answering machine while away

The heat snuck into town on humid southern breezes under the Perseid meteors, those bright, hot bits of other worlds. Dew soaked the early morning lawns and sparkled in traps that hunting spiders had set for unsuspecting victims of the buggy sort.

The slow, steady climb of mercury in thermometers outside resulted in adjustments of the thermostats inside and slow, steady whir of ceiling fans.

Cicadas fretted among the wilting leaves, spending their short lives oblivious to the humans who fretted about their garden’s decline and their own discomfort. Meteorologists, always popular ratings-grabbers in the broadcasting game, were quoted whenever groups gathered.

"….and, if you will notice, on our map, way out in the Pacific, above good-old Seattle, that swirl of clouds ? Well, that is what our relief looks like. Our own Samantha had her very first job in Seattle, and some of our more devoted viewers may remember the Eyewitness News Team’s attempt to be news makers instead of newscasters, last year………Luckily, we did NOT quit our day jobs.

It all looked so simple: Samantha, raised in foster care in Washington, toddler found covered in the blood of her murdered parents, the time frame…..all of it so perfect…………… except for the blood types………….it wasn’t……. But, I digress!

"Our breath of fresh air will bring us cooler less humid conditions and a good chance of rain to help out our poor tomatoes….. and give the air-conditioners a rest, finally! We will be able to open our windows and breathe some real air for a change. And, speaking of changes, our beloved Samantha has accepted a position half-way across the nation at one of our affiliates in the Garden State, New Jersey. We will miss her, but we wish her well. She and her faithful companion, Bernard will be the new ‘night beat’ reporters.

Some of our more faithful viewers will remember when Sam and Bernie got together right here during one of our ‘pet of the week’ segments. Sam, keep in touch and come back to see us, O.K.?"

Jaych struggled to keep the emotion from spilling out. She and Samantha had developed a bond and a careful friendship.

Off-camera, A.J. the station owner/manager/anchor sniffled. Smitty, big, strong sports-caster, sobbed loudly into his hands, surrounded by sympathetic camera men and production assistants.

Samantha studied these good people she had become so close to during these last few months. When A.J. had called her into his office, she had expected the proverbial pink slip of dismissal to make way for a younger, blonder newscaster.

Instead, he had produced a bolt-from-the-blue job offer, for not only a night beat-type reporter, but, for a faithful companion…….. they wanted Bernie, too!

This guy, a …….Delbert Lenape, had seen you and Bern, here on a public service announcement and evidently fell in love with both of you! I checked ‘em out–-googled ‘em and this is totally on the up and up. Probably, in ‘Joisey’ they would say ‘legit’ Half-way across the country in New Jersey.. little place called Mountain View. Who knew Jersey had mountains? I thought they just had refineries and the Mafia and Bruce Springsteen…… Mountain View, New Jersey?! Please! Turns out….here, look I got it right now, Sam leaned over his shoulder to look at the monitor.

"Look it, it’s a train station….’New Jersey Transit ‘— you can be in Manhattan in fifteen minutes! Wow!

Anyhow, the TV station is in Wayne, N.J., which looks like a nice place, 50,000 people or so…be a lot going on, a fun place to live, I would think. Did I mention? Are you ready? He’s got a place for you and your buddy here, to live?! A house with a yard for big boy, here. I can’t stand it!

Listen, it’s up to you, but you’d be