Authorpreneur Dashboard – Tom Szollosi
The Space He Filled
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Mike Cotter's son, Keith, hasn't just moved out -- he's vanished. Fatherly concern becomes alarm: this is not like the son Mike knows and loves. Soon he looks up an old friend, ex-cop Stan Backus, to help find his boy. Stan suspects Keith wants peace of mind and independence, like most kids who disconnect. But there's a deeper, darker pain than Stan can see. A space perhaps impossible to fill. The journey winds its way from seediest Hollywood to the wide streets of downtown Los Angeles, crossing paths with opportunists, victims, and desperate characters. Each is looking for an answer, a payday, a little something to fill their own space, their own need, so that for once in their lives they wouldn't be a fool. For once they'd grab an opportunity when it slapped them in the face, or make one helluva splash trying.
Book Bubbles from The Space He Filled
It was exactly like him.
The feeling of abandonment I'm writing about here is definitely autobiographical. My own son left home and went incommunicado for months. I didn't go looking for him quite like Mike does, but it hurt, no question about it. The anecdote about the bicycle moment in preschool is exactly what happened in my son's case, and so is the feeling that I'd been robbed of a father-son moment.
