EXCERPTS FROM ‘YESTERDAY’S GONE’ by Lamar and Mary Agnes Fine

♦ “You can’t resurrect the past… Yesterday’s Gone… You can only remember it for what it was… A Memory… That’s all it can ever be.”

♦ “There was not a trace of tears in his eyes. Perhaps they had all been cried, or would be, at some private time in some private place, as would her own.”

♦ “Susan was gone… And so was the summer of ’74.”

♦ “Again, there was only silence. They were two people a hundred miles apart, joined only by a telephone line, reaching out to each other for answers, which neither of them could provide.”

♦ “For a long time he rocked her lifeless form back and forth in his arms, as one gently shakes a nolonger-working timepiece, hoping the motion will start it to ticking again… Yet it never does.”

♦ “She wondered why she was thinking these irrelevant thoughts. Perhaps it’s the inexplicable effort the mind makes to insulate itself against the unbearable circumstances of the present moment.”

♦ “He stood staring into the fire, reliving the last twentyfour hours. They had spent the night in a cold house without heat or lights, but they had managed quite well, and in the midst of the storm, they had found something they had lost so long ago.”

♦ “October in Georgia is mother nature in all her glory. The sky is azure blue, and the clouds look like huge balls of white fluff. The sun shines warmly down, and everything seems to slacken its pace, as people turn instinctively to the outdoors, realizing that the long, dreary days of winter are simply biding their time.”

♦ “She would not try to stand in his way. It was time to end the pretense. Tomorrow she would tell the children. She would do it as gently as possible and would encourage them to love and respect their father, but she would not make him out to be something he was not. There had been enough of that. As the years went by, they would make their own assessment of their father, and that was as it should be.”

♦ “He hesitated for a moment as he watched the pretty lady in the turquoise suit walk quickly out of his life. Then he crossed the street to his silver Mercedes. Once he looked back, but she had already turned the corner.”