This is the third and final installment of our New Adventure Series capturing the before- and after-math of bringing home child 1 ( Next Adventure, Lila 2019), 2 (New New Adventure, Ciara 2021)., and now 3 ( Last Adventure, Chase Warner 2023). As my cousin Tim said, its a full house, Queens over Kings…
Get the full ‘Last Adventure’ Series here: charleskunken.com/season9
Last Adventure #3 - Fourth of Jully
Image: © golero/iStock.com
(Stock fireworks photo from the web even though, yes I tried to take my own picture of them and yes, that is a silly thing to do)
Chase's first Fourth of July at the club had a forecast for rain, which meant the lawn party was moved indoors. A great turn, actually, like a bat-mitzvah with a couple hundred people you didn’t know or have to talk to. (One child threw up all over themselves on the drive in, yada, yada, yada, we’re on kid #3 let’s get on with the story). Lo and behold the rain held and at 9:15 everybody had migrated to the grassy veranda for the show.
At 9:21 the sprinklers went off.
The first victims were those in the direct line of the firing paths, but it was not in vain as their sacrifices benefitted the adjacent bystanders (myself included). The rotating spray nozzles headed for the unaware in what I can only describe as slow motion. Within minutes the veranda had turned into the deck of the Titanic.
I’d like to say I witnessed valor in those bursts of light but as Lincoln once proclaimed, I cannot tell a lie (washington?). I, with my assigned child found the muster point of our reassembled unit. Wife and grampa each had a child which made 3. Mother took a sprinkler to the shoulder.
By the rockets red glare, the show went on and as luck would have it the front wall of the patio had totally cleared out. In fitting conclusion, however a light breeze brought the smoke screen entirely over the first tee and evidence of a finale could only be heard. Shroedinger's finale. One soggy aristocrat in the parking lot claimed to have seen the top of an extraordinarily high burst.
Best fourth ever.
If you're tracking on the book, I'm all but finished with this latest edit and I'm readying to send the whole thing out to Beta readers next week. I'm also contracting some expertise for the back-of-book blurb, an art wholly unto itself. Beta reader feedback is expected mid-September followed by minor edits, copyediting and a plop-plop and a fizz-fizz. I'm pushing (and with the good lord's blessing) I'd like to get this thing on pre-order by Thanksgiving.
Next newsletter I'll have a book recommendation for you on a recent publication that I am so inspired by. Will take some serious thought to do it justice. Until then...
Cheers everybody,
Charlie
Have some thoughts? Feel free to drop a comment or hit me up: charlie@charleskunken.com
Other Posts In The ‘Last adventure’ Series
Chaos ensued, and it was not my fault. Chase first fourth = an all-timer.