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DIG

  By Dan Dillard

  Born 8/28/2014

  Draft 1 Finished 9/28/2014

  Draft 2 Finished 1/18/2015

  Draft 3 Finished 4/16/2015

  Don’t steal this work. It isn’t yours.

  Copyright © 2015 Dan Dillard

  ISBN: 9781310919947

  Dedicated to the graduates of South Brunswick High School, classes of 1988-1992. You know who y’all are.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND AUTHOR’S NOTES:

  While there are some similarities in the characters, places and events that take place in this story, let me assure you that a heftier pile of bullshit never existed. I spent a great deal of my life in a town very much like this, although, thinking back, it wasn’t evil. I graduated high school there, made some good quality friends there, and I got into a lot of mischief there. I even met my wife there. That said, if anything in this book seems familiar, it should. If anything is offensive, it shouldn’t be. It isn’t meant to be. If any of the history is wrong, it’s because I changed it—I did do my research! This is me riffing on one possible past leading to one possible present and even a bit of a possible future. It’s fiction, folks, and by definition that gives me some leeway, I just hope I didn’t take too much. But there must be some truth to it. There has to be, right?

  Thanks also to Lisa Dissinger for some tow truck knowledge. I hope none of us ever need one, but if you do, I hope it’s reasonably priced and ready to go.

  And thanks to Google for filling in some blanks. Since I was already spewing bullshit, it didn’t seem to matter much where it came from.

  I’d like to thank Joe Mazza for the tow truck idea—what a great character…the tow truck driver and Joe. And thanks for the lessons. A finer “Moe Lester” of the guitar I have never known.

  Thanks to John St. George for driving The Batmobile. A glorious piece of crap, but she could fly when she needed to…away from trouble, usually.

  Thanks to Rob Parrish for the ice cream. I hope you’re still slinging it.

  To Boo, Loofa, Noah and Wally, thank you for teaching me that nicknames are a good thing, even though I never got one—late to the party as usual. Even without one, you guys included me, for a time, in the gang.

  And thanks to Southport, NC, for the stories, some are in this book—embellished greatly (See again the first sentence of these acknowledgements).

  To my beta readers, you help more than you know. A fresh perspective gives me insight on the things I miss. You tell me when I’m full of shit, when my characters all sound the same, when the story hits a brick wall and when her eyes were green on page 15, but blue on page 125. As usual, I will thank these people for their help with my editing process and making the story better than it was...but I will also claim all of the mistakes you might find in the story as my own. They are mine after all. So, in no particular order, my gratitude goes to: Bob Dillard (my father), Bob Dillard (my brother), Stephanie Dillard, Josh Elliott, Tim Anderson, Missy Andre, Jenn Swanson, Rosa Thomas-McBroom, Abraham Toner, Tyler Wyatt McAlister, Trudie O’Melia and R. Harlan Smith.

  If I have forgotten anyone in these acknowledgments, yell at me and I’ll fix it.

  Timeline:

  Albert Gates, Sr. b.1783 d. 1832

  Albert Gates, Jr. b.1807 d. 1859

  Albert Gates, III b.1838 d. 1880

  James Gates b.1862 d. 1904

  Robert Gates b.1887 d. 1939

  Robert Gates, Jr. b.1914 d. 1976

  Loretta Gates b.1941 ...

  “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”

  — Revelation 20:1 - 20:3

  “You load sixteen tons, what do you get

  Another day older and deeper in debt

  Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go

  I owe my soul to the company store”

  — Tennessee Ernie Ford

  “Hell is other people.”

  — Jean-Paul Sartre

  “There shined a shiny demon, in the middle of the road.”

  — Tenacious D

  DIG