That Memory of Evil
by
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Kenny was now screaming hysterically and openly, uncontrollably crying and whimpering worse than Jimmy or Donny. This was having an even more drastic and negative effect on the others. But Tommy Anderson wasn’t having any of it at all! He got up and stood on his sleeping bag, placing his arms akimbo and glowered out over all of them, seeming to tower above them larger than life. To Johnny he reminded him of Mr. Gilmore, who so often defied his class to dispute him simply by staring them down, just as Tommy was doing now. "You guys make me want to puke!" he spoke out harshly, relentlessly. "What the hell are you afraid of, anyhow? Not a damn thing has really happened to us except some creaking boards and a floppy g-dd---ed door, that’s what! Everything else has been in someone’s imagination, for crying out loud. You would think we’ve just been attacked by monsters like in ‘WAR OF THE WORLDS’ and we want our mommies to protect us!" he mimicked the voice and mannerisms of a very small child in order to shame the others. Johnny was appalled at his friend. This wasn’t at all like him. He wasn’t this insensitive to the needs of this bunch, his friends. He wasn’t so pedantic that facts right in front of his eyes meant nothing. What was wrong with him? And why was himself unable to deal with him or this situation well at all, either? Johnny was rapidly losing touch with reality and sanity, he felt. But he was helpless to take any other course. "Now I’ll tell you what I’m going to do," Tommy continued his tirade. "I’m going to go close that door and look around some more. Then I’m going to come back here and get some sleep. I know none of you pansies is gonna come with me so just keep your lights on, your eyes open and your mouths shut while I go do this. Okay?" the question brooked no back talk, nor did he expect any. "If there is someone else here in this place, and that’s a very big ‘if’, you guys just keep your knives and hatchets handy. I have mine right here," he showed them his hunting knife, a Buck about six inches long. He attached it to his jeans on his belt. As Tommy turned and walked down the hallway all by himself at a slow but determined pace, Johnny couldn’t help feeling a great deal of admiration in addition to his anger at Tommy’s pigheaded stubbornness. He wished he had Tommy’s guts and determination. But at the same time he felt a deep conviction, just like Jimmy and Kenny, that there was truly something terribly wrong about this House.
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About the Book
A prologue, occurring in the early 19th Century, sets the stage by showing the origin of the ‘EVIL’ and the woods.
Six young boys, entering adolescence all, comrades in the Boy Scouts, love to play pranks, talk, hike and enjoy being alive. At a summer scout camp only two of the boys, Tommy and Johnny, earned enough Merit Badges to suit their Scoutmaster. In the final Scout Meeting of their lives, the Scoutmaster admonishes them to go out and practice hard so they can get more Merit Badges at an upcoming Scout Jamboree.
The boys, knowing their parents will not allow them to go out alone one more weekend, lie to them and allow Johnny and Tommy to lead them on their last campout, so they can learn enough to earn more Merit Badges when they return.
They take a wrong direction, but are oblivious until they enter some sinister and mysterious woods late on their second day. In the afternoon they come upon a very old house of Spanish design. They enter, explore the downstairs (the second floor unapproachable because of rotted wood on the staircase), then settle down to eat and tell stories, reminisce and generally goof off – as they always have done.
The night descends with several mysterious and ominous portents, as had their previous night camping out in the open. After even the indefatigable Tommy becomes scared enough to ask Johnny to come with him, they take a final walk down a long hallway to see who, or what, continues to come down the stairs. Stairs they could not ascend because of rotted wood and banister.
The fright Johnny receives is different from the horrors and strange effects on each of the other boys, as they begin to find out only the next morning. To their horror, the bravest of them all, Tommy, has been frightened so deeply, his hair has turned white and he can only babble incoherently and must be carried by the boys in order to escape. In their haste to leave that awful house they only later discover that one of them has not come with them!
The return to civilization and their homecoming leaves them broken as a group, nevermore to be merely boys and Boy Scouts.
Johnny returns nine years later to try to get the remaining boys, each now nearing twenty years, together for one last night before Johnny serves overseas in the U.S. Army. They receive permission from Tommy’s parents to come see him, with one strong requisite: they must not even broach the subject of ‘The House.' The reunion is joyous but strained. At the end of the evening Johnny, because of his own fears, did not see who or what was coming down the stairs that fateful night, is unable to stop himself from trying to get Tommy to remember what he had seen and to tell all.
In the end, Tommy is catapulted back into horror. Johnny’s friends are broken hearted and the secret remains in the mind of a young man who has retreated into unreachable portions of it.
About the Author
PERSONAL & EDUCATIONAL
Born Oct. 12, 1946 in Phoenix, Arizona. 5'10" tall, 230lbs, gray/brown hair, green eyes. Married to Dianne (Robinson) Reddoch. Two children: Lynn Kathleen Briones and Ian C. S. Reddoch; two stepchildren: Donna Schwitters, Ken Colombo. Ten grandchildren as of this writing.
Activities: cross country skier, scuba diver, backpacker/camper, bowler, golfer, Oakland A's baseball fan, amusement/thrill ride enthusiast, avid reader/collector in many genre's.
BS, Bus Admin., Calif. State College at Hayward, 1971, Minor: Physics; MS Industrial Eng., Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, PA, 1972; MBA, Operations Research, Calif. State Univ., 1977
PROFESSIONAL and TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Manufacturing operations management experience since 1971 in a variety of high tech businesses such as telecommunications equipment; printers and disk drives; capital equipment microprocessor making & testing; chromatography and laser equipment; Global Positioning Satellite instrument and accessories; LAN, WAN, Internet and Storage Area Networking switches, hubs and software in both Ethernet and Fibre Channel technologies; remote networking communications server systems.
Adjunct Professor of Graduate and Undergraduate Operations Management for Golden Gate University; adjunct staff at several Community Colleges; Adjuct Faculty UCSC Extension University and San Jose State Universities.
AFFILIATIONS
American Production and Inventory Control Society; Institute of Industrial Engineers; National Association of Purchasing Management; American Management Association; American Society for Quality Control
PUBLISHED MATERIAL
Professional Papers: HOW TO COUNT A CYCLE, 1978; INVENTORY STRATEGIES for the 1980's, 1981; READINGS IN PRODUCTIVITY, 1982; MANAGEMENT: THE MISSING LINK TO PRODUCTIVITY, 1984; THE MYTH ADVENTURES of a MYTH-GUIDED MATERIALS MANAGER, 1985; FAR EAST PROCUREMENT FOR THE SMALL TO MEDIUM SIZED COMPANY, 1986; CORPORATE MATERIALS: WHICH FLAVOR DO YOU FAVOR?, 1987; A FRAMEWORK FOR MANUFACTURING, 1990.
Educational: A SYSTEM of FLOW PROCESS MANUFACTURING TECHNIQUES TO MANUFACTURE ELECTROMECHANICAL PRODUCTS, a Masters of Business Administration Thesis, 1977; P.E.R.T.: The PRACTICES and PITFALLS FOR LARGE SCALE COMMUNITY PLANNING & EXECUTION, a Masters of Industrial Engineering Thesis, 1972; THE KISS OF OPERATIONS, a paper for Graduate Ops Mgmt students, of manufacturing operations management philosophies, policies and methods for the seven major aspects of the subject.