Absent Friends

CONTENTS

Title Page

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Epigraph

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 1

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 2

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 1

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 1

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 1

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 3

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 2

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 4

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 2

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 3

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 2

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 5

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 4

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 6

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 3

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 4

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 3

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 7

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 4

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 5

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 8

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 5

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 6

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 5

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 9

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 6

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 6

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 10

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 7

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 7

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 11

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 8

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 7

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 9

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 12

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 8

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 10

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 13

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 8

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 9

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 9

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 10

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 10

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 11

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 14

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 11

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 11

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 12

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 12

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 12

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 13

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 14

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 13

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 15

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 13

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 14

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 15

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 16

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 15

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 16

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 17

PHIL'S STORY

Chapter 14

MARIAN'S STORY

Chapter 16

LAURA'S STORY

Chapter 17

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 18

EPILOGUE

Explanation

Copyright Page

for all the heroes

As to truth, I haven't even tried to dissect its nature. All I know is that the surest way to make enemies is to always tell the truth. So, its nature probably is quite complex.

—Jose Latour

Powerless is speech.

Still, it bests a tear

In attempts to reach,

Crossing the frontier.

—Joseph Brodsky,

“A Martial Law Carol”

There are people who are as much a part of this book as the words in it. Expressing my gratitude isn't enough, but it's a start. Thank you to:

My agent, Steve Axelrod, who stayed calm, and my editor, Kate Miciak, who got excited.

Steve Fagan, Laura Lippman, D. P. Lyle MD, FDNY Lt. Simon Ressner, Betsy Harding, Royal Huber, Jamie Scott, and Lawton Tootle, for technical help and support.

Keith Snyder, Nancy Ennis, Carl Stein, Steven Blier, Hillary Brown, Monty Freeman, Max Rudin, Eve Rudin, James Russell, Amy Schatz, Nancy Richler, Vicki Trerise, Reed Coleman, Jonathan Santlofer, Paula Woods, Felix Liddell, Denise Bigo, John Douglas, Stuart Early, Jennifer Jaffee, Tina Meyerhoff, Larry Pontillo, Tom Savage, Jose Latour and his wonderful family, Jayne and Frank Krentz, Bob Hughes, and Joe Wallace, for aid and comfort.

Susanna Bergtold and Andrea Knutson, for being where they were, and being with me.

And especially, James Grady and Archer Mayor, for helping me find the floor.

BOYS' OWN BOOK

Chapter 1

Secrets No One Knew

July 4, 1976

Four boys, three girls, high and soaring, skin sizzling, tingling under the dizzying stars. Everything open and opening: the ragtop to the sky, the sky endlessly to the huge summer night. This night to their limitless lives.

Everything opening: In the black sky tight bright bursts eclipse the luminous moon, explode as fiery streaks, fountains of scarlet, rockets of silver, purple blooms and sprays of green. On the radio rising swells of tinny music; from the car shouts and applause.

Everything opening: the girls to the boys, not for the first time, but with a new, laughing heat. The boys to each other, grunts and shrugs and grins their fiercely sworn oaths, beer cans their glittering tokens of fealty.

Everything, everything opening: surprisingly, newly, the boys to the girls.

The boys? One is quiet, and one sure; one eager; and one flying, as always, too near the sun. The girls are royalty to these boys, have been since their memories began; and now, as the boys turn into men, the girls are knowing, wise, and real to them in ways they are not yet to themselves.

All would tell you.

And on this patriotic night, this celebration of association, when people all around them are reveling in the sheer staggering luck of being born into the community they would most want to be part of—what are they feeling, these boys and girls? Not fear, not on a night like this, when together they could conquer invading intergalactic armies, with grace and ease they could defeat rock-blind, howling swamp men burning with destruction. Not fear, but the hope of an anchor. The need for each other's weight in the whirlwind. “You Are Here” marked on a mental map. One of the boys leaving in the morning, everyone else to stay. All have been told by men and women, older and more tired, that the marked spot shrinks to nothing, that no ballast can hold, that the buoy above the anchor disappears in the bobbling waves.

Not one of the seven believes it.