Bobby Slater's World: An early 1960s summer ghost story

Summer, 1964, and for thirteen-year-old Bobby Slater, one of those rich summer kids up on Baker Lake, it’s idyllic – swimming, fishing, baseball, hiking the mountains around the lake, camping on the islands, but what Bobby wants is a girlfriend.Be careful what you wish for, Bobby.Bobby gets his girl, a local Indian cutie, and it should be blissful – one soda, two straws, foreheads touching, eyes lost in love, but his girl is fickle. Sometimes she’s sweet and funny, sometimes not, and it’s because Bobby’s rival for her affections, the ghost of an Indian boy dead more than a century, intends for the girl to accompany him on his journey to his Happy Hunting Grounds.Bobby hooks up with a gang of locals intent on saving the girl – a grumpy Indian war-chief, a gypsy fortune-teller, and from the other side, the Indian girl’s mom, dead ten years, a victim of the curse.Bobby’s big sister and his loyal sidekick, Cousin Joe, insist it’s all a scam, the locals, possibly even including Bobby’s girl, are trolling for Bobby’s dad’s money, but if Bobby doesn’t trust the locals and doesn’t stick with them, it might be curtains for his girl. And even if he ignores the warnings and brings along his sister and cousin, can he break down the barrier that divides the summer people from the townies? Can he bring them all together to save his girl?

About the Author

Hugh Centerville is retired and lives in New York's Hudson Valley. He likes, in no particular order, baseball, cats, tall spreading sycamores and old Indian stuff.

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