Going Home

By Rick Andreoli

In Loving Memory, to Fred Mister Rogers, the kind man from Pittsburgh, who changed the world with his smile.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 17, 2003
• ISBN: 9781477163894

Rick Andreoli

“My Trolley Ride” My magic lifetime trolley ride, Imbued with a mystical, churning tide, Will take you down a wooded slope, A valley view of spirited hope. The tracks descend through a leafy ravine, A field beyond the trees pristine, The windowed sky with emerald domes, Where fluffy clouds and wings can roam. By a bouldered cliff the trolley speeds, With hidden caves and prickly weeds, On top two boys watch closely by, The approaching train will make them sigh.

Book preview

GOING HOME

The wooded lot intrigued me still,

With its gleaming reveries of shade,

A brief hiatus from toil and till,

In sandy paths of mysterious cascades.

Toward the end of an infinite haze,

Mossy grass gave repose for my soul,

Cicadas and crickets sang their praise,

The golden robin stood proudly extolled.

Under the canopy I began to feel free,

Tranquility was nature’s preferred pace,

Young saplings branched out of hardy seeds,

Dark corridors of old secrets were traced.

A carriage house stood unpretentiously,

Nothing stirred as I listened for a sound,

A fiery sun glowed behind prickly leaves,

Shades of gray snuck in all around.

Fluttering memories came up with a rush,

The moldy garage appeared rearranged,

Darkness came now and the trees were hushed,

As I walked toward the old window pane.

I dreamily climbed the collapsing old steps,

The leafy porch missed part of its railing,

The living room appeared sparsely kept,

A ceiling fan went ominously sailing.

I briefly knocked for the bell was detached,

A weak screen door could use some repair,

I inquired in but my voice wasn’t matched,

An open door tempted me to enter there.

Crossing the threshold into shadows unknown,

A circular mirror beckoned me from the right,

The reflection I saw had a singular tone,

To the kitchen I quickly alighted.

A side entrance revealed no car on the drive,

Blinding spotlights brought on mothy throngs,

Not one person was there to confide,

And the clock on the wall was far gone.

I turned toward the gloomy and gothic stairway,

Something told me I must go upstairs,

Bravely ascending to where dreams were made,

A hallway lamp now eerily glared.

Each room I observed no sign to be found,

Deja’vu came as I slowly crept,

Fear gave way when I heard a strange sound,

I returned through the creaky, old cleft.

One last door now affected my mind,

I softly opened it though trembling inside,

The stairs angled high as I surveyed behind,

The narrow attic was waiting to abide.

Ancient, deep thoughts now entered my heart,

The inward journey must somehow conclude,

Arriving on top, I suddenly made a start,

Anxious moments began to exude.

Slanted dark walls and a childhood long past,

By the window I once again stood,

But years had passed and days went fast,

It was hard now to see what was good.

Suddenly a truck came with beaming lights,

I flew down the tall flights of stairs,

Landing on the porch in the sultry night,

Getting out was my last major care.

Cars flew by on the dusty, black road,

Massive maples swallowed up the old shack,

Finally I had faced my burdening load,

And I knew that I’d never go back.

SANDPIPER, SANDPIPER

Sandpiper, sandpiper,

My petite and vibrant friend,

How gracefully you glide by the surf late at night,

Your energetic movements are an august delight.

You and the rest of your dancing night flock,

Perform a cheerful ballet at the end of the day,

Like champion skaters vaulting into the air,

I silently approach to see how you fare.

Reviews for Going Home

[jenn.s · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Riveting, exciting and eye opening. Intricate attention to details. Fleshed out characters, each unique and layered with realistic actions and reactions. Well constructed and planned out plot with an ideal pacing throughout. All this combines with a well written novel you will not want to put down. Even my "I'd rather watch the movie." Non-reader type son picked up this book and refused to return it until he read the whole thing. "I really liked how it was written and how detailed the scenes were. I could picture them easily in my mind. Best book ever."

[sable677 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Going Home is a story that captures the reader's attention from the beginning and keeps it throughout Morgan's journey home. The book begins with an event that changes the world as we know it by making everything go dark and leaving Morgan far from home. Being a survivalist, Morgan is more prepared than most and heads home. American introduces a strong narrator in Morgan who is prepared and ready to handle the situation and also introduces some other great characters that Morgan meets along the way. Jess, Thad, and Sarge are all characters that add to the story, and I enjoyed getting a switch in narration midway through so the reader can see what Thad and Sarge are up to when they part ways from Morgan. The book proves to be very hard to put down by making the reader want to see what happens next and find out whether or not Morgan ever makes it home. The book really makes you think since technology is such an important part of everyday life and makes you imagine a world without it. Overall Going Home proved to be a great read, and I am looking forward to reading book two.Received a copy of Going Home through NetGalley for an honest review

[knfmn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good book overall. I'm in love with the survivalist books lately and this seemed like a reasonable next read. It's nice to read a survival book that isn't full of religious nuts after a steady diet of books by Rawles. Looking forward to the next book in this series.

[jaynee_9 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Easily one of the worst books I've read in a long time. I got 80% of the way through it and had to put it down. Poorly written, this steaming pile is actually book 1 of a trilogy. How that ever got approved I'll never know. The author must be somebody's kid at the publishing house. That's the only way I can envision this ridiculously bad book was not only published but also made into an audiobook, which was similarly bad. While listening to the audiobook I couldn't tell if it was just the narrator that was awful, or the book. Then I realized it was both. Avoid this book like the plague, or buy it with plans to use it for making fires when things go awry and we're all in survivalist mode.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It’s guilty pleasure time and I have to admit that I absolutely wallowed in Going Home by A. American. There isn’t a speck of literary value to this book, but it did keep me totally engaged with it’s survival storyline and non-stop action. The main character is over 250 miles from home when the North American power grid shuts down. All he wants to do is get home to his wife and daughters and so he sets out on foot. Luckily he just happens to be a survivalist and he always carries the necessary equipment to survive in most any conditions. Along the way he picks up a young women who also wants to get home and a black truck driver. The three have many adventures along the way, running into black gangs, redneck bullies, some military types and even a pedophile who is in charge of a camp and lording it over the other people. It did seem a little repetitive when almost all the people they met were “bad”. The power failure turned out to be part of a conspiracy by a rogue element in the American government. Assisted by the Homeland Security Department, military rule was being put into effect, but this turned out to be a front for “them” taking what they wanted. A thread of mistrust toward authority and a definite view of city-dwellers as sheep who blindly follow and are totally helpless when all moral authority is removed is on display throughout the story. While I enjoyed the survival aspect of the story, I need to warn others that there were many grammatical and typographical errors that interrupted the overall flow. The female characters were either frightened, clinging vines or harpies that needed to be controlled (by a MAN, of course). Product placement played a strong element as well and left me wondering if Walmart didn’t help foot the bill for publishing the book. Although the last thing I would ever do would be to grab a rifle and jump on an ATV to go hunting, this story is peopled by characters that embrace this lifestyle. Even though I wouldn’t last five minutes in a situation like this I love to read about it. I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t put this book down - I devoured it and I will probably do the same with the sequel.

[cafcaflt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This first in series book seems obvious that the writer is fairly new to fiction. However, the story is great! It is believable and got me hooked into eventually reading the entire series as well as getting about a dozen other people to read it.

[mshooker · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

[Going Home] by A. American was an interesting post apocalyptic, survivalist story. It showed the main character, Morgan, as an everyman who only wanted to get home to his family. The problem was that he was stranded far away when something stopped everything from working. Luckily for him he was prepared for the worst.I love this type of story although I am not of the survivalist mindset but the author makes his characters out to be just normal people who want to survive and do the right thing. I would hope that those are really the mentality of most people. Almost everyone in this book who gets killed was on the wrong side of humanity.This book was not overtly political but rather quite humanistic.