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CrossReads Book Spotlight
Do and Die
A book/plot that enlightens and inspires…
by James Andrew Edske
Two unemployed men living over a thousand miles apart are complete opposites. Kenneth Saxton an unemployed logger during the Spotted Owl Timber industry standoff has been out of work for over a year. He puts a long gun to his head at the families’ cabin near Zigzag, Oregon. Richard Johnson an assembly line manager for Trask Trailers in Long Beach, California is fired for secretly meeting with a company auditor. From the twelfth story of a hotel balcony Richard discerns jumping to end it all… Two things Richard and Kenneth have in common; excessive drinking and they both lost sons. Jabbar died from a drive by shooting in LA and Billy to a climbing accident on Mt. Hood. Strong men need self worth and are always easy targets of the dark purple haze…
On that same weekend the temporary auditor for Trask Trailers rear ends a semi truck after her brakes fail on a brand new, limited edition convertible sports car; she dies instantly. Kevin Trask receives one of these same limited edition SL600 sport cars for a graduation gift and is headed to Shasta Lake to meet up with friends for a houseboat graduation party. Tina, his college girlfriend is ready and more than willing to straighten out Kevin’s distorted sexuality, all caused from what his grandfather did to him during adolescence.
After three days of drinking, drugs, sex and Rohypnol, Kevin leaves the houseboat flotilla to climb Mt. Hood. Not only did Grandpa Trask distort his views on sex, he gave Kevin a pocket watch with a three word inscription “Do and Die”. Not the mantra that serious mountain climbers repeat over and over. Do or die is all about being self centered and self achievement—unlike do and die, a term that superheros and plain ordinary people often live by.
Gus Watt the security guard at the Trask manufacturing plant has his own three word mantra “Trust in God” and continually repeats it to everybody going thru his guard gate. But two letters and one number is what Gus is truly fixated on… Most people these days have forgotten what the Y2K abbreviation stood for. Without Augustine Watt’s persistence, focus, prayers and repetitive behavior, the 21st century would not be what it is today…
