Old Fires - Paperback

by Josh Patrick Sheridan (Author)

Tim--a man on the brink. His wife, Grace, recently passed, and he, all alone to confront the world--a task too great for him, too oppressing, too--much. He told her on her deathbed that he'd wait for her signal, a signal that she'd put out from the beyond telling him when it was time for him to come join her--in death.

With the past flashing before him, his tour in Vietnam and all its gruesome memories, his brother unable to return normally to civilian life after, his time with Grace, all fragmented and making for a tortured present. He gets in his truck and heads to the West Virginian holler, a place he has been before, and a place that, he hopes, his signal from Grace will appear, and the end will come.

In the nearest town, he is met by life--people who intend to save him, to convince him otherwise. A local waitress hinting at future love, her brother intent on selling him canned peaches, a preacher who leads a congregation that speaks in tongues and handles snakes. Is any of it enough, close to enough, or does the signal come, too strong to deny?