can a frustrated single mom and failed big city journalist save her family and salvage her career by returning to a town run by a gang of bungling thugs?


“The Resurrection of Puerto Cielo” is a novella published in serial form, 43 posts.




16


Returning from the market, Lucy passed the workmen replacing the window. Good, she thought, Espy must have taken care of that.

Entering the Star, Lucy heard Espy’s angry voice. The editor’s office door was closed.

“Where have you been? What kind of example are you setting for your grandchildren? What would Mom think of you running off to get drunk?”

Unshaven, rumpled, dejected, Sam sat in front of Espy with nothing to say. Sat in front of the desk that for years had been his, while his daughter fumed.

She threw her hands in the air, staring at her father in exasperation.

Then she saw the lost man in front of her. The man whose shoulders slouched, whose hair had gone white, whose sightless eyes were filled with tears.

She stood, slid around the desk, took the bottle of beer from his hand, and pulled him up and close.

Tears ran down both faces as they hugged.

“Dad, we need you.”

There was a tap on the door, then a cheerful voice.

“Coffee?”

Sam and Espy turned and smiled as Lucy entered with three steaming cups.

There was  work to do.

***