G. Novitsky
Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………..…..iv
BOOK I
The Misty Dins………………………………5
BOOK II
Sheep….…………………………………..114
BOOK III
The Cemetery Fence..…………………….222
The Cemetery Fence, I
found to be a spectacular story of a young boy who realizes that he possesses a
special gift in his dreams to help solve odd events taking place in his small
Sheep is also a
magnificently told story that takes place throughout the
One very interesting aspect of Novitsky’s writing would have to be the connections from one book to another. The stories are unrelated, however there are small associations from book to book. A prime example of relations from the first two novels would have to be KDL. After reading one of the two books you expect to find out just exactly what KDL is, it is not until you read the other before it makes complete sense. No matter which book you read first, you will appreciate that topic.
The Misty Dins also has connections with the two prior novels. The main relation that I was overwhelmed by was the introduction of Darren Harston in Sheep. After reading Part Two, Chapter Two of The Misty Dins, and then going back to Chapter Thirteen of Sheep, I was quite impressed to see the conversation from both sides. Again, that will be understood after reading both books.
Another surprise is the mentioning of the book from The Cemetery Fence called Sudden Track Switch and to find out who the author is.
Dr. Albert Bleckard also gets a mention due to one of his fine inventions. Learn who manufacturers the product.
There are also a couple of visits from Gary the psychologist in this one.
The Misty Dins is a cleverly written novel that takes place in the 21st century and also takes the reader back in time to when the main character’s father was a child. There are many flashback scenes that signify great importance toward the main situation.
Unlike other works by Novitsky, this one hits a certain element of political issues faced by the world in this time. The issues are touched upon lightly with the view from somewhat of an underdog that disagrees with many of the present jabs that are taken at certain members of society that are used as punching bags by the system. That is a small part of what I took away from this one.
Once again the storyline is one of a bizarre unlikely nature, however if you think about the events hard enough, some of these things do have a small believable factor involved to them.
Novitsky writes in a way where he’ll put the reader into situations that are not commonly witnessed by the average person, although they do have a slight chance of actually occurring. He does not create monsters or harshly far-fetched creatures to give the stories one of an unbelievable basis. His work is seen as events that can actually take place and have actually happened to some people who search the afterlife.
Although his novels are fiction, there is something to be said about reading a story that cannot be documented as never being able to come about. Now open to Chapter one and lose yourself in this one. Try not to look over your shoulder.
Happy reading
1. Admire It From A Distance.
It was late fall in a small, quiet,
lightly populated town known as Radcliff
Clive was the father of a daughter, Amanda and two sons, Darren and Merk. Yes, Merk does seem like an odd name. That shows the originality of Clive. Darren was thankful that his father chose Merk as the one to be original with.
“Honey, it’s about that time. We don’t want to miss the entrance of our first grandchild. Stop daydreaming and step on it!” Clive’s wife Andrea yelled while holding the screen door open.
Clive was startled as he was brought back to reality from a visit to one of his old camp days. He was remembering a night out in the woods when the camp director had the children watching the stars.
“All right, all right,
Clive and Andrea were getting ready
for their trip to
Merk worked for an unusual type of
brokerage firm. It was low key but had several big accounts belonging to high
priced clients who needed their money cleaned and hidden. Merk discovered the
dishonesty by putting all he had into his work. His office was also in the
downtown
Sometime earlier on a warm
afternoon, Merk was sitting outside enjoying a sandwich with some of his
buddies for lunch at the South Street Seaport in
“Did you see that game last night Merk?” one of the guys asked.
“Merk? Are you there Merk?” Another waved his hand in front of Merk’s face.
All of the guys then realized what he was concentrating on. In the distance, sitting on a park type bench near the water was one of the most beautiful women those guys had ever seen. She sat with her legs crossed as she sipped a soda through a straw and chatted with a friend.
“Good Lord, that chic is something. No wonder you don’t care about last nights game.” One guy commented.
“She has to be a grouch, she’s too cute not to be. Stay away from that Merk. Admire it from a distance.” Another added.
“Tell Pol Corr I’m gonna be late from lunch. I have some business to take care of.” Merk had a plan.
Pol Corr was their office manager. He was given that nickname because of his obvious attempts at being politically correct. If the so called experts of public relations told him that dried up, insect ridden weeds in front of his house looked better than his colorful flowers, you can be sure he would run home and rearrange his garden.
Merk followed the women back to their building. He waited until they separated and then he confronted the friend of the woman he was interested in.
“Get in line if you want to get to know her. She has a lot bigger hunters than you chasing after her. If you really think you have a shot, her name is Toni and she works on the twenty-sixth floor. Good luck.” The woman walked to the elevators.
Merk quickly headed to the small flower shop outside of the building. He picked up an arrangement, grabbed a card and rushed to the twenty-sixth floor.
“Hi, can you tell me where Toni sits? Pretty girl, dark hair?” He asked a woman in the hall.
She smiled and directed him to Toni’s desk. He looked over and noticed Toni was walking away. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked into a co workers office with a big smile on her face. Merk quickly jotted down something on the card and left it with the flowers on her desk.
He walked toward the elevators in a hurry and bumped into a heavyset man who was walking around the corner. The man's coffee spilled on his sleeve.
“Damn. At least there’s enough left to go with my bagel.” The man wiped his sleeve with a bunch of wrinkled napkins.
“Oh man, I’m very sorry.” Merk offered to help.
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. A large portion of us office critters are still only human. No one is perfect.”
“Good line. Again, I’m sorry. Have a great day!” Merk was very pleased by the man's reaction. Most people would have gotten bent out of shape after a stranger spilled coffee on them.
After that, he hurried back to work. He took some heat from Pol Corr, which was nothing new. That put a slight damper on the high he was feeling from the flower stunt.
Later that night, he was doing some
exercises in his
“So, now I’m your agent? What the hell is this all about? You should really talk to me before you pull this type of stuff. Who is she? Is this for a job?” She asked one question after another.
“Mom calm down… I guess it worked. Did you make me look good?”
“Of course I did. I’m your mother. She gave me a number where you can reach her.”
“Yes! Perfect plan, if I do say so myself.” He congratulated himself.
His mother insisted he tell her what was going on. Merk explained that the girl who called was Toni. The card he left worked as planned.
“Hi, I am unable to see you in
person because my eyes are trying to recuperate from soaking in your beauty
earlier. I am leaving the phone number of my agent who will give you an honest
opinion of me. Merk.” It included his mother’s phone number in
Merk was impressed by what he had done. He figured having her talk to his mother was somewhat cute and lovable. It was a hit or miss. He called her before he went to sleep and it turned out she did find it cute. They spoke about their jobs and made arrangements to have lunch together one day during the week.
While they spoke, Merk’s younger
brother Darren was at his apartment in
“Another foggy night out there, eh Jen? You know what that means. We better stay inside.” Darren joked, accompanied by a small laugh.
“You keep making fun of your dad and it’s gonna come back to haunt you one day, wise guy.”
“I’m not making fun of dad, you know, out of all of the people in the world, I would be him if given the choice. I know he scares my mom when he talks like that. I just want to do the same to you honey.” He really looked up to his father and wanted to be just like him.
“Gee, thanks, now I feel special. Are you gonna come to bed?”
Darren explained that he would be to bed after he
finished typing one more page. He had a job in a factory outside of
Dr. Bleckard’s invention was a plastic type, water proof, electric carpet. Its purpose was to be plugged in and heated up on sidewalks or driveways or even rooftops before snowstorms. When the snow would fall on it, it would melt before given the chance to accumulate. The invention went over very well in the North Eastern United States where Dr. Bleckard resided.
The most costly part of the carpet was its rubber rim. Darren’s foreman Henry, was a real great guy to work for. His only downside was that he spent so much time bothering the workers by fishing their brains for where he could get his hands on that almost obsolete form of rubber that has gone up in price over the last few years due to the shortage.
The importer that he used was way off some island that the guys never heard of. The word never got out from the supplier where he was getting it because he knew he could raise the price since he was the only one that was able to get his hands on it.
They tried using other forms of rubber but the product never came out the same so Henry continued to throw down whatever it cost to keep the product the way it was meant to be. He told the workers that if they could get their hands on at least a hundred pounds of the rubber, he could afford raises for all of them and the business would be set for a while.
Darren also worked with an old chum from the neighborhood named Dez. They were friends for quite a while. Dez’ father got sick when Dez was very young and he never knew his mother. His father gave custody of him to Dez’ Aunt Tammy. She was not such a good choice of a guardian but Dez’ father didn’t know that at the time. She turned out to be a cheat, a thief and a liar. She was never around for Dez.
For Darren, like his father Clive, writing was a hobby on the side. He had a small set up for his computer in the corner of the bedroom by the front window overlooking the street.
Clive would say things about the fog once in a while that would creep the family out. Darren tried to do the same but when he did, it never had the same effect.
Darren finished typing his page and looked over at Jen, who was fast asleep.
“I don’t know how she does that, if I was able to fall asleep that fast, I wouldn’t be dozing off at work all of the time.” He thought to himself as he walked into the kitchen for a glass of water.
He poured the water and glanced out into the small sixteen by twenty-foot yard. The fog was so thick, the house across the way was barely visible.
“This is the kind of night that would be perfect to sit in the yard with dad and the guys and talk about The Misty Dins” He thought and sipped his water.
The Misty Dins were thought to be some kind of a cult group from the fifties that Clive and his friends used to talk about when Darren and Merk were younger. Darren thought back to a night when his dad told one of his stories.
When the boys were young, Clive and
Andrea took them on summer vacations to a place near
They brought two other couples that
they were friends with for many years. Dudley and Sharon, and JJD and Ginny.
Dudley and JJD were two others from the camp days. JJD was quiet and sort of
timid.
Darren remembered the vacations like they were only days ago.
“Look at the fog Clive. This looks
like that night during our famous camping days with that maniac Kreasherd,
doesn’t it?”
“Yea it does. Remember that walk through the woods that one night?”
“How could I forget it?”
They were referring to one of their
camp nights when they left their tents to explore the grounds. It was the three
guys and a couple of their friends from camp. After an hour or so of walking in
the dark through trees and bushes, JJD mentioned that
“Oh that knuckle head is probably trying to put a scare into us.” Clive commented.
“Let’s put a scare into him.” JJD began to answer as he noticed a muffled yell from behind.
They all hurried back to where they thought the sound was. They looked all around trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. JJD became very worried thinking that it wasn’t a joke any longer.
“Where the heck are you? If this is a joke, it’s not funny anymore.” Clive yelled.
“It’s not a joke! I’m down here!”
All of them started to look down. It was very dark and difficult to see. JJD began to run toward the sound of the muffled voice and he tripped over a tree limb. He landed flat on the ground with his head above a hole. He felt around and noticed that the hole was rather large.
“Oh my God!
“Yes! Quick, pull me out!” His voice came from a different area.
Clive and another boy ran over to the hole and started to feel around.
“Where’s the flashlight?” Clive asked.
“Oh yea, the flashlight. I think JJD has it! JJ turn the light on!”
JJ searched his pockets, then he felt around on the ground where he laid and spotted the flashlight. He turned it on and a small section across from where the others were standing lit up.
“That must be a different hole.” They carefully made their way to the light.
After close to fifteen minutes,
they were able to pull
“What are these holes doing out
here anyway?”
Clive suggested looking at them in the morning and to focus on making it back to the camp area safely for the moment.
Darren came out of the daydream about his father’s adventure as he spilt some of his water down his shirtsleeve in his startled state. He headed to the bedroom and lied next to Jen, who was fast asleep.
The next day, Merk and his buddies went back to the seaport for lunch. Merk was hoping to see Toni once again. She was there but before Merk spotted her, Toni’s girlfriend noticed Merk and explained that he was the guy asking about her. She pulled Toni to the side, out of Merk’s view.
“So, I was meaning to ask you if anyone paid you a visit at the office lately.”
Toni sat and admired her fingernails as she explained the flowers, the note, Mrs. Harston the agent and the strange name Merk.
“Take a look at that table over by the stage area. Do you see the guy with the wavy hair and rolled up sleeves? That’s the guy who brought you those flowers. He asked me about you yesterday and I told him where you work. I didn’t get a chance to tell you.”
Toni made sure she was positive that it was him and she decided to have a little fun. She asked her girlfriend to pull off one of the balloons hanging by the doorway.
“What are you going to do with this?” She handed Toni the balloon.
“Don’t worry, I want to get a good look at this guy but I’d like to have a way out in case he doesn’t look the way I would like him to.”
She tucked the balloon under her blouse to create a pregnant appearance.
The guys were sitting and discussing their favorite topic. “No no no, I am tired of watching the Mets lose. I am not going to pay for a ticket and then pay seventeen fifty for a beer and a hot dog just to let them ruin my evening. I would much rather sit at home and watch the eighty-six series on video again. At least that way I’m not building myself up for a big let down.” Merk explained to the guys.
“I know what you mean, I was thinking
about taking a ride up to
“Baseball has really gone to hell between the over priced souvenirs and the hot shot attitudes. No one really remembers what the game was about in the old days. Well, I shouldn’t say no one. I just finished reading a book last week written by a guy named William something or other. Its called Streaking Home. He remembers. It really put some value back into the sport.”
Ken Murphy walked over to the table. He worked a couple of desks away from Merk. Ken was a part time comedian. He would take the mic every once in a while at amateur night in the local clubs. The guys got a kick out of his routines.
He noticed the guys were discussing baseball and he jumped right into one of his skits.
“Oh baseball, don’t you just love the conversations about baseball at the office? I can’t sit home and watch a game without realizing there will be a quiz the next day. Hey Murphy did you catch the Mets last night? Yea, such and such made a great play at second base and that was some double play in the eighth inning. I can deal with that but then all of a sudden one guy starts a shbeal, I remember back in the 1700’s, before Sy Young, I think it was the Sy Old Award back then, this pitcher had a perfect ERA, his batting average was also great for a pitcher. This guy went on with every stat imaginable…. Then he asked if anyone remembers the guy’s name…
I can’t imagine studying someone else’s life that much, to know their batting averages, stolen bases, home runs, ERA’s, jock strap size… I can just picture a bunch of ball players sitting around TGI Friday’s saying, Hey did you get a look at Ken Murphy’s spreadsheets? That guy is gonna be something in the next couple of years… Then another adds, yea he is only there four years and he managed to accumulate thirty-seven sick days and he’s only been tardy six times…
Gotta go ladies and gentlemen, you’ve been a wonderful audience.” Ken walked back towards the building as all of the guys were laughing.
“That guy cracks me up…” Merk was cut off in mid sentence as Toni strutted by to get a glance of him. She was unaware that walking seductively didn’t work with a large rounded stomach.
Merk’s jaw dropped to his chest in shock and disappointment.
“Told you not to get involved with her. Where was that jumbo pouch the other day? She must have been hiding it pretty good.” One of the guys joked.
Toni made it back over to where her friend was waiting and laughing.
“I guess I won’t be needing this. He’s cute. I guess he’ll do.” Toni popped the balloon as they giggled and headed back to their building.