A Night of Summer Magic

It's the end of August. Summer's almost over, and the carefree time of a young boy's summer vacation is rapidly and inexorably slipping away from him.

With his first day of junior high school looming ever closer, thirteen-year-old Jackie Stone and his best friend, Chris Hooper, want to make the most of their freedom. They have one last Saturday night to camp out in the tent in Jackie's backyard one last night to goof off in ways only two thirteen-year-old boys can.

But as much as Jackie wants to go along with his friend's idea of what would be "fun," he is filled with unaccountable apprehension. He senses that something is wrong. He has a uncanny feeling this may be the last night-ever-that he and Chris will fool around like this.

A high school class is having its fortieth class reunion at the local country club. Chris pressures Jackie to sneak out of the tent with him and go across town to "spy" on the party. He wants to get as close as they can close enough so they can steal some of the food and, if they're lucky, maybe even grab a bottle or two of beer.

But as the boys are creeping around in the woods, confident that no one at the reunion knows they're lurking out there in the darkness, someone does know they're there. A man chases after them and in the simple act of confronting Jackie will change Jackie's life-and his own-in ways neither of them can begin to comprehend.

Because, unlike any other night of the year, this summer night is imbued with mystery and magic and danger, and it is fraught with implications that no thirteen-year-old can possibly begin to understand.

Tonight, this reunion will mark Jackie Stone and change him forever.

Rick Hautala has had more than twenty-five books published, including the million copy, international best-seller Nightstone, and Bedbugs, Little Brothers, Cold Whisper , Four Octobers, and The Wildman. Under the pseudonym A. J. Matthews, he has published four books: The White Room, Looking Glass, Follow, and Unbroken. More than fifty of his short stories have appeared in a variety of national and international anthologies and magazines, including the forthcoming anthology The New Dead, from St. Martin's. He wrote the screenplay for Ed Gorman's short story "The Ugly File" and Kealan Patrick Burke's "Peekers," and is working with Marks Steensland on a web-series titled Graffito and a feature film, The Special. Born and raised in Rockport, Mass., he is a graduate of the University of Maine in Orono with a M.A. in English Literature. Because he is usually busy writing, you can visit him at his hopelessly out-of-date website www.rickhautala.com.