What if some of the things you see every day aren't really there? What if they just look normal? You seldom compare notes with anybody, do you? You don't bring along a video camera and record every minute of your daily life to see what you might have seen that wasn't there after all.
— Greg Bear, Dead Lines
For those who would dine on old, dead dreams of glory, Hollywood is always willing to set a place at the table. In his house in the Glendale Hills, Peter Russell has been dining for years on his defunct dream. A one-time creator of "nudie films" and Playboy cartoons, he planned novels, plays, short stories that somehow never were completed. Peter's creative stream was first diverted by the easy sex of his heyday, and then dammed up by the murder of one of his twin daughters.
Now he retains just enough charm to get by. He provides the likable "face" of business for a misanthropic millionaire, and charms the trophy wife of his employer, his remaining daughter, and just about every woman he meets (except his ex-wife). And even though he is not in the movie business anymore, he does still have connections.
Those connections bring him an innovative new cell phone, a hefty commission check, and an exciting chance to get back in the game. He will create a complete marketing campaign for the Trans, an eerily clear communication device that, according to the inventor, taps into a space "below our world, lower than networks used by atoms or subatomic particles, to where it is very quiet."
Even as he dreams of revived glory, the spirit of Rod Serling is waiting to detour him into nightmare. Peter's "signpost up ahead" is a phone call to let him know his best friend is dead. After that call, his life becomes more like a Twilight Zone episode with each passing day. His dead daughter, his deceased friend, and a host of other "ghosts", living and not, begin to haunt his life.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!