Prior Knowledge

By Mel Walsh

Summer of 1966. The Vietnam war is reaching its height, and Sonny has just enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. On his way home from the recruiting office he meets Joe, a 15-year-old from New York City. The two teenagers form a strong bond and spend every day in each other’s company until Sonny leaves for Vietnam.

Years later, Hendricks is on a flight home from the war. A chance encounter with a fellow veteran leads him to upstate New York and a career in the New York State Police. But Hendricks is suffering partial memory loss due to trauma he suffered in the war. He needs to build a new life for himself, which he does successfully, until one day he finds himself in a situation that triggers emotions he cannot explain or control.

Is Hendricks regaining his lost memories? And what is the significance of Sonny and Joe’s friendship all those years earlier? Hendricks’s journey is painful. Will it lead him to discover what has eluded him for so long?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jul 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398445444

Mel Walsh

Born in London in 1964, Mel Walsh spent her childhood in the London Borough of Hackney. In 1983, she trained as a registered nurse at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, and then as a midwife at The Homerton Hospital, London. She had a varied career, including working as a practice nurse in busy GP practices in Islington and Newham, and as a volunteer midwife in Lebanon during Civil War. After retiring from nursing, she moved to the west country. Prior Knowledge is her debut novel.

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About the Author

Born in London in 1964, Mel Walsh spent her childhood in the London Borough of Hackney. In 1983, she trained as a registered nurse at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, and then as a midwife at The Homerton Hospital, London. She had a varied career, including working as a practice nurse in busy GP practices in Islington and Newham, and as a volunteer midwife in Lebanon during Civil War. After retiring from nursing, she moved to the west country. Prior Knowledge is her debut novel.

Copyright Information ©

Mel Walsh 2023

The right of Mel Walsh to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398432321 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398445444 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

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1

He felt it before he saw it. An almighty thud about three feet away from his right foot. It was impossible to hear above the din, but he felt the vibration and knew what it was immediately, before he even had the nerve to open his eyes and look at it. He was crouched so tensely, so tightly, with his eyes and face screwed up. Knees so close under his chin, arms covering his face, his frame turned inwards, his body forced against the wrong side of a wall of sandbags. All around him men were doing the same thing, or lying motionless where they had fallen, some whole, some no longer complete. The air was pungent, acrid with the smoke of exploding artillery. The noise deafening, powerful, overwhelming. The ground shook with each mortar and shell that landed and blasted around him.

Still, he managed to open his eyes. Everything went dark around him, except for the unexploded shell protruding from the ground at his feet. He could hear the violent beating of his heart, feel the pain in his chest as his heart tried to beat its way out. His mind and body were paralysed with a terror he could not have imagined. He did not see his life flashing in front of his eyes as so many had said he would. Instead, his former existence was a blank. Except for the moment he was in nothing else existed.

There was a lull in the assault, but he didn’t notice at first. He was absorbed by the shell. Then something stirred inside him; the instinct to preserve his life. He had to move, but how? His mind was now ablaze, and his lungs were gulping in air and his body was still rigid with fear. But he had to get away; it was his overriding impulse. He managed to pry his arm free from its position and slowly, very slowly, feel his way to the top of the wall of sandbags. He didn’t know if the slightest movement would detonate the shell. He felt even his heavy, erratic breathing would cause it to rupture and he would be blasted away, evaporated out of history like so many around him had been. He cautiously began to rise off his haunches, steadying himself by leaning on the top of the sandbags. As soon as he could he ungraciously slid over the top of the makeshift wall and eased himself down onto the other side. He paused for a second then crawled on his hands and knees towards the voices he could now hear.

The source of the voices was now running in all directions. Their position was returning fire and the men were needed at their stations. Someone shouted at him, Hendricks are you injured? He couldn’t speak so he just nodded his head. Then get up, man, we need you! Thus was the unrelenting nature of the siege of Khe Sanh in February 1968.

Because of the situation, the young men involved lived in the moment, the moment of life and death, and at first Hendricks didn’t realise what had happened to him as a result of the experience. When the exchange of fire was over, when they had collected the injured and dead and