Ernie's Ark: Stories

About this book

The paper mill looms up from the riverbank in Abbott Falls Maine a town once drenched with ordinary hopes and dreams now praying for a small drop of good fortune. Ernie Whitten a pipe fitter was three weeks away from a pension-secured retirement when the union went on strike eight months ago. Now his wife Marie is ill. Struck with sudden inspiration Ernie builds a giant ark in his backyard. It is a work of art for his wife; a vessel to carry them both away; or a plea for God to spare Marie come hell or high water. As the ark takes shape the rest of the town carries on. Theres Dan Little a building-code enforcer who comes to fine Ernie for the ark and makes a significant discovery about himself; Francine Love a precocious thirteen-year-old who longs to be a part of the family-like world of the union workers; and Atlantic Pulp & Paper CEO Henry John McCoy an impatient man wearily determined to be a good father to his twenty-six-year-old daughter. The people of Abbott Falls will try their best to hold a community together against the fiercest of odds. . . .