The Conscience of Abe’s Turn libertarian civil rights in America

Ted noticed the tall, burly police chief, dressed in a business suit and seated in the gallery. Far from intimidating the lawyer, his presence made Ted even more determined to nail him and his department to the wall. Ted knew that Baedes was interested in the case. Baedes was even involved, Ted knew, because he was on the prosecution’s witness list. Ted wanted to nail him to the wall, because Ted hated to lose.  read more »

Michael bit into his coffee cake and sipped his coffee. He reclined on the big, comfy couch in Ted and Clydene’s reception room. Usually, they met in the living room—or “den,” as Clyde sometimes called it. But for special guests, they pulled out the reception room. Tucked into a corner of the house, just off the main foyer, the Jacksons’ reception room welcomed guests with light hues and plush chairs and sofas. 

Michael was surprised at how good the coffee was today. 

“Wow, that’s good!” he said to Clyde, the only other person in the room.   read more »

Michael stared across the table at a sad face, which in turn stared out the dining room window. The face looked darker than it ought to have. Under her eyes swung dark, tired bags of exhaustion. Her cheeks drooped like a dog’s jowls. He was sure she had been a decade younger only a few weeks ago. They were all growing old, too old, too fast. Life was so short, and it was impossible to be happy. In the end, as the Preacher wrote, all is vanity. Michael didn’t remember much from the Bible, but that he remembered.  read more »

Seated at the office desk, Damian stared at the piles of papers before him. Yeah, Jay was a genius. Or rather, he had hired a genius to help them. Only a couple weeks ago, they were looking at one of the coldest financial winters since they got into the home heating business, all because an aggressive, new competitor started stealing their customers away. Now, thanks to a brilliant marketing campaign, not only were they no longer losing customers, they had more new customers than they could comfortably handle.   read more »

Clyde wrapped her arms around her weeping friend. Mira mumbled something about “Ike.” Then they stood there without saying a word. They stood for a long time, while Clyde’s thoughts wandered from worry to worry, then from sorrow to sorrow, then from anger to anger.   read more »

To start reading episode 3 of season 1 of The Conscience of Abe’s Turn, click on Chapter 1.