Hiro's Welcome

By Patrick O'Sullivan

Hiro's Welcome

 

Not all soldier's homecomings are filled with joy.

 

And not all sweethearts remain true.

 

Sergeant Kintoki Hiro knows this.

 

But he has hope.

 

Two years living out of a helmet and hope is all he has.

 

In just one moment he'll learn the truth.

 

Is hope enough for a man?

 

Or for a woman?

 

This romantic story originally appeared in, "Fiction River: Hidden in Crime."

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dunkerron Press
• Release date: Oct 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781625600158

Patrick O'Sullivan

PATRICK O'SULLIVAN was the OHL and CHL rookie of the year in 2002 and the AHL rookie of the year in 2005. He remains the all-time leader in games, goals, assists and points for the Mississauga/Niagara franchise in the OHL. He played 334 games over eight seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers, Carolina Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild and Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL. He played in three World Junior Championships and is all-time second in games played for the USA in tournament history. He scored the gold-medal winning goal for the United States team at the world junior championships in 2004, the first gold medal in the team's history. The 30-year-old now lives in southwest Florida with his wife and two sons. GARE JOYCE is a senior writer for Sportsnet Magazine. A former writer for ESPN: The Magazine and The Globe and Mail, Joyce has won four Canadian national magazine awards and been a finalist 21 times. He is author of seven books of sports non-fiction, including When the Lights Went Out, Future Greats and Heartbreaks and The Devil and Bobby Hull. Under the nom de plume G.B. Joyce, he has written two mystery novels, The Code and The Black Ace.

Book preview

1

At four seventeen P.M. on Tuesday, August 21, 1945, Sergeant Kintoki Hiro hoisted his duffle as the ancient Southern Pacific engine vented steam, and air brakes hissed, and the rhythmic click of tireless wheels slowed, and slowed, and ground to a halt with a window-rattling lurch. He'd raced eastward, from the bustling port of San Francisco, through the sleepy capital of Sacramento, and eastward still, into the foothills of the Sierras, following the old transcontinental route, retracing the past like a wrongheaded pilgrim, or a settler in reverse, moving eastward, ever eastward.

He'd tried to sleep but found he couldn't. After two endless years living out of a helmet the war in the Pacific was over.

He was going home.

The train crouched beside the station three hours after its scheduled arrival time. He was running late and every second counted. He had business in town. Business he'd put off for far too long.

There was a girl. Dora Martin. She hadn't promised to wait. She hadn't made any promises. They both knew that she couldn't. That he