Title: The Right Thing Author: Amy Conner

Annie grows up to follow the path ordained for pretty, well-to-do Jackson women- marrying an ambitious lawyer, filling her days with shopping and charity work.  She barely recognizes Starr when they meet 27 years after that first fateful summer, but the bond formed so long ago quickly reemerges. Starr, pregnant by a powerful married man who wants her to get out of town, has nowhere to turn.  And Annie, determined not to fail her friend this time, agrees to drive Starr to New Orleans to get money she's owed.

During the eventful road trip that follows, Annie will confront the gap between friendship and responsibility; between her safe, ordered existence and the dreams she's grown accustomed to denying.

Mercy Anne Banks, or Annie, as she likes to be called, grew up, got married and continues to reside in the safe little city of Jackson.  Jackson is not a place to hide secrets, not in the fancy circles that Annie was a part of.  She is not surprised to find out that one of the men she grew up with had an extramarital affair with a girl who clearly grew up in a trailer park, making her trailer trash.  What does shock Annie is finding herself face-to-face with the woman who turns out to be nearly eight months pregnant.  The child a bastard from the affair.

What is even more surprising is the fact that the woman turns out to be someone Annie knows.

'Without thinking, the rite pertaining to social awkwardness comes to [Annie's] lips and [she says], "Do I know you?"

"I'm Starr Dukes," she says.  The look she gives [Annie] is as cold as the wind.  "It's sure been a long time."

It's been 27 years.'

Starr is Annie's best friend; a girl who showed up in grade one and vanished with her father halfway through grade two.  Annie can't just leave her alone in the cold so she offers the woman a ride home.  This gives them a chance to catch up.  The conversation quickly and predictably turned to Starr's condition.  She is determined to keep the baby and take on the fathers wealthy family through legal action if necessary.  Annie knows her friend stands little chance against such a formidable family.  Still, Starr was her friend and she needed help.

Starr claimed to have a friend holding $20,000 for her if she could only get to it.

'"Me and my baby are going to see that lying nickel son-of-a-bitch pays for every damn box of Pampers, every pair do soccer shoes, every trip to the orthodontist, and anything else I can think up.  I've got the money for the kind of lawyer I need. I just got to get to New Orleans."

"Starr, that's three hours from here, Annie exclaims.

"I can hitchhike if I've got to," Starr says, waving a dismissive hand.'

Even though she hasn't seen Starr for nearly 30 years Annie knows she can't just leave her stranded.

'"All right! I'll drive you..."'

Annie gives in easily though she knows it's not going to be that simple.  All she has to do is convince her husband that she is far too sick to join him at his business dinner that night.  She hates lying to him but knows he'd never allow her to help as their social life would be on the line, associating with the likes of Starr Dukes.

She somehow convinces him that she's too ill to go to dinner, but not so ill that she needs him to check up on her.  She hopes her deception will leave her absence undetected.  6 hours there and back and only a few more to pick up the money Annie prays her actions will remain hidden as Starr navigates them through the old neighbourhoods of New Orleans until they come to the fair grounds where Starr's mysterious friend lives.

Inside Starr helps herself to some freshly baked Snickerdoodles.  The mere sight of them make Annie's mouth water.  Determined not to have one she silently sips her coffee until a moment comes where Annie is alone in the kitchen and cannot resist a brownie.  She shoves it in her mouth before her friends come back and too late notices something strange about the treats.

"It tastes a little strange, as though Bette's recipe is a foreign one... [Annie] chews thoughtfully for a minute and can almost identify the herby aftertaste..."

She feels as if she should sit down or get some air and chooses the latter. She stumbles out the front door and nearly lands flat on her face.

'"Hey, watch yourself."  A strong, warm hand catches [her] elbow another across the small of [her] back, steadying [her.]'

In spite of her best intentions, and because of her influenced state, Annie lets this handsome stranger, Ted, lead her off to look at the horses he takes care of.

'Without thinking [she stretched] up on [her] tiptoes to give him a kiss on his stubble-covered jaw for being such a nice man, but at the same time Ted [turned] his face down to mine like he [wanted] to ask [her] a question...[her] mouth folds into his mouth...he feels so wonderful so amazing...[she] dare not let go.'

After a while, as the two try to make chit-chat, Ted offers to take her back to Bette's.  Thinking Starr and she still have time to get home before her disappearance is noticed, Annie returns to the trailer only to find that her car is missing.

'"Starr took your car and went back to Jackson.  You we're gone for...over and hour, and we didn't even know where you'd gone.  She said to tell you it couldn't wait," Bette explains.'

So Annie, stranded without any money, is devastated and alone in the middle if the night.  Luckily Ted is able to give her a ride.

'"He's one of the good guys, hon," Bette offers.'

Annie accepts and on the way they talk about it all; religion, politics, money, but it isn't long before Annie breaks down into a sobbing puddle of tears from exhaustion and disappointment.  She folds into Ted's arms for comfort.

'"Are you sure, Annie?" he says, low-voiced and hoarse.'

Annie knows that she is, even though she vows to never tell her husband.  When he gets her safely home she is dismayed to see her mothers cream-coloured Lincoln and a black and white police car parked in front of her house.  It's early, nearly 6:00 a.m. and they know she's gone.  It's up to her to explain.

'[She] can't speak up because [she doesn't] know what to say, how to justify the unjustifiable.

And then, with a jolt of self-awareness...[she's] amazed to discover [she's] mortally tired of this...[she'll] be damned if [she] can stand living like this anymore, always wrong, always apologizing.

"It's too much," [her husband] admits.'

She knows she should go after him, but she doesn't.  It seems her marriage is ending.  After 13 years of living a life, a life where she's yearned for a child to make her marriage whole; after 13 years she's given up hope of ever having a child.... Until she finds out that she's pregnant with Ted's child.

With her old life in ruins Annie knows there's no going back.  That she must continue doing the right thing.

This book tells a poignant story of a reconnection between two women intermittently laced with touching stories of their brief friendship as children.  Delightful and thought-provoking, The Right Thing will leave you thinking about it long after you put it away.


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Title: Treasure Island Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Set in the eighteenth century, Treasure Island spins a heady tale of piracy, a mysterious treasure map and a host of sinister characters charged with diabolical intentions.  Seen through the eyes of Jim Hawkins, the cabin boy of the Hispaniola, the action-packed adventure tells of a perilous sea journey across the Spanish Main, a mutiny led by the infamous Long John Silver and a lethal scramble for buried treasure on an exotic isle.  

Jim Hawkins lives and works with his mother in the Inn his family owns and runs; the Admiral Benbow.  Here 'a brown old seamen' comes to stay.

"... a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred with black, broken nails, and [a] sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white."

This old sea dog asks Jim to, 'keep a weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg.'

No one of that sort ever visited the Inn until one day a sailorly man comes enquiring about his old friend; someone he calls Billy Bones, the captain.  Jim is wary of the stranger, but since he has two legs thinks nothing of it.

The captain isn't pleased to see his old shipmate, someone he calls 'Black Dog' but resigns to a private conversation.  It isn't long before the two men erupt in a fight, voices raised, cutlass's drawn and the stranger flees for his life.

It isn't long before the captain gets another visitor; an old, blind pirate who threatens Jim until he allows the him to meet with the captain.  The old blind man gives Billy Bones a piece of paper, blackened on one side.

The black spot.

The black spot is Billy Bones' undoing.  He drops dead right there.  Worried that the pirates will be back to ransack the Inn Jim warns his mother.  Together they search the dead man's chest, where he kept his only possessions, for money to pay for his stay at the Inn.  All they find are old, foreign coins and a oil parchment.  With no more time Jim grabs the parchment and he and his mother flee.

Just in time.  Pirates, scoundrels, call for Billy Bones and ransack the Inn.  Jim and his mother hide in the yard and escape certain death by the hands of those murderous, blood-thirsty pirates who cannot seem to find what they're looking for.

Jim hears the old, blind man swears that, "it's the people of the Inn... that boy."

Jim knows he's in trouble and clutches the parchment even tighter.  Jim prays that they remain hidden

It seems his prayers are answered for just then some revenue officers come charging on horses over the hill.  There is a scuffle, the blind man is dead and the rest of the pirates flee back to shadows of their ships.  After some investigation Jim discovers that in the parchment is a clearly marked treasure map.  Word gets out and the local Squire convinces a group of men, including a doctor and Jim himself, to suit up and ship out to find that treasure.

The Doctor warns the Squire to keep the true nature of the mission a secret.  "These fellows who attacked the Inn - bold, desperate blades, for sure - and more, I say, not far off, are one and all through thick and thin, bound that they'll get that money."

They make a pact and the secret is safe.

It's a few weeks until the Squire Trewlaney is able to finance the ship, but eventually word comes that they've acquired a schooner.

"You never imagined a sweeter schooner... name, Hispaniola."

With the help of a helpful old sailor, Long John Silver, they manage to put together a mighty fine crew with Jim serving as cabin boy.  Jim is allowed one night to say goodbye to his mother at the Inn but the next day finds himself in Bristol ready to sail off.  There Jim meets the charismatic and enigmatic cook, the man who helped hand pick the crew, Long John Silver.

Jim is worried at first because it is clear that the old sailor only has one leg, and the warning of Billy Bones still haunted Jim's mind.  But Silver turns out to be a charming and delightful individual and Jim warms up to him right away.

In spite of their pack the purpose of the trip, treasure, hasn't been kept very well and an unmistakable rumour that there is a treasure map on board make everyone anxious to leave.  They sail as planned on a course plotted with treasure in mind and it becomes clear that there is some mistrust between the sailors.  Though they find their destination as planned and without incident.

Until Jim, in a fortuitous blunder, overhears an incriminating conversation between Silver and his men.  They are planning a mutiny the likes that had never been seen in the history of his predecessors, or as Silver calls them, the 'Gentlemen of Fortune." 

Jim alerts the Captain, the Squire and the Doctor.  They agree it's best to continue with the expedition as if they know nothing, all the while preparing for attack.  They let some pirate men go ashore and Jim slips into their boat unseen.  As soon as he can, back on land, he dashes away from the pirates only to double back later with the intent to spy.  While watching Jim witnesses the men murder one of their own and in his horror and fear runs unseeing through the trees and marshes of the island.  

He runs wild until he comes across a man, or beast, or something else entirely.  It scares him to death and Jim actually contemplates returning back to the evil pirates.  But the creature is a man and it approaches Jim with a story so terrible and tragic that Jim immediately recognizes a friend.  The man, Ben Gunn, had been left alone, marooned, on the island for the past 3 years.  He swears to help Jim as long as he and his friends help him get off the island.

Meanwhile, the Doctor, the Squire and the Captain and whatever good men were left took a surveillance team to inspect the island themselves.  They come across a defence unit in which they know they can defend.  They do their best to load it with supplies, weapons, defences, and by the grace of God Jim is able to find them there and joins them in defending against the villainous pirates.

At first Long John approaches and politely asks for the map.  When he is refused he returns with his army and attack the stockade with the good men inside.  All seems lost as the pirates take the stronghold, but once the smoke clears Jim realizes that apart from one death and a few wounded, including the captain, the side of good has won.  Seemingly beat the pirates leave them alone.

As Jim sits and waits and grows increasingly restless, an idea grows.  He escapes the stockade to find the homemade boat Ben Gunn hid.  It is no more than a crudely made coracle that has no steering to speak of but that doesn't stop Jim from hatching another idea; use the coracle to cut the Hispaniola from her anchor.  Jim hopes that will beach the ship leaving the pirates unable to maroon the men.  With great risk, and expectation of death, Jim succeeds in his plan.

The next morning the Hispaniola pitches and yaws and sails erratically.  Jim suspects that there is no one on board.  With a little luck and a lot of effort Jim sacrifices the coracle and hangs onto the Hispaniola for dear life.  Once on board Jim finds one of the two men left to watch the ship is dead and the other badly wounded.  With no one to help steer the ship to safe waters Jim has no choice but to strike a bargain; save the man's wretched life in exchange for help with the ship.  Jim suspects that his life is at steak as soon as they are safe ashore.  The pirate will most certainly try to kill him once his use is gone.  Jim vows to be ready, but in the excitement of bringing in the ship he forgets to be prepared for an attack.  In one throw the pirate manages to pin a knife in Jim's shoulder.  Fearing death fortune intervenes.  The boat pitches and throws the unsteady and wounded pirate head first into the water.

Wounded but safe, Jim is determined to find his friends.  By the light of the moon he is able to make his way back to the stockade where he believes his friends are snoring away.  But to his chagrin the little dwelling is full of the villainous, bloodthirsty pirates.  They capture him and give him a chance to chose sides; them or die.

It's then that he gets a bold stroke of courage and reveals himself to the Gentlemen of Fortune.

"... here you are, in a bad way: ship lost, treasure lost, men lost; your whole business gone to wreck; and if you want to know who did it - it was I! ... As for the schooner, it was I who cut her cable, and it was I that killed the men you had aboard of her, and it was I who brought her where you'll never see her more, not one of you.  The laugh's on my side; I've had the top of this business from the first; I no more fear you than I fear a fly.  Kill me, if you please, or spare me."

After a dazed moment from the terrible lot, impressed with his courage Silver calls out, "I like that boy, now; I never seen a better boy than that.  He's more a man than any pair of you rats of you in this here house, and what I say is this: let me see him that'll lay a hand on him - that's what I say, and you may lay to it."

And so he was spared, for the time being.  This only adds to the crew's restlessness and anger.  They request a private meeting without their appointed leader, Long John Silver.  When they return they denounce him as captain and hand him the black spot.  Jim fears that he and Silver are both dead, but somehow Silver manages to convince the crew that everything he's done and everything he's planning has been and continues to be in the best interest of them all.

This mollifies the crew.  Silver is reappointed as leader as he promises them silver and a boat to sail it to safety.  The men set out, determined to find the treasure.  Jim's hopes sink when he finds out they have the map; all they have to do is find the treasure.  How they got the map Jim cannot know.  He left it in the safe keeping of the doctor.  Perhaps he was dead?  Why else would the doctor give it up so freely?  Jim fears the worst for his friends and himself as he is taken with the pirates to pursue their lust of gold.

The story of Treasure Island is one we are all familiar with.  Full of exotic locations, descriptions and narrative the reader is pulled into a story of daring adventure on the high seas.

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