The Evolution of Nora

By William Post

This book takes a twelve year old girl through her life to age twenty-nine. Her name is Nora Wilson. Her next door neighbor becomes her best friend and business partner. His name is Wally Daily. Even though Wally is twelve years older than Nora they make a good team as Wally sees her intelligence and they have similar interests They write two books together before Wally is framed by two boys and is sent to prison. Wally does well in prison and is pardoned after four years when the two boys confess to framing him. During his time in prison Nora inherits a paralegal business which she turns into a large law firm. Through her ingenuity she builds a thirty-seven story business building where her law firm occupies the first floor and she occupies the penthouse of the high rise as her living quarters.

After law school she is invited to join the F. B. I. for a special mission, to take down a New York crime family. Nora must undergo plastic surgery to change her looks and study for a year to become an Italian woman, Angela Gambini, who is her age and is the daughter of a Sicilian Crime boss. The Sicilian Crime boss is the brother of the head of a New York crime family, Carlos Gambini, who Nora is to bring down.

The story has many exciting scenes with Nora at the center of them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9781456727451

William Post

William Post is the author of 19 novels with a variety of genres. the flagship of his novels is a trilogy starting with The Mystery of Table Mountain. Post’s descriptions of the scenery and weather makes the reader feel he is experiencing what the characters are enduring. The characters come alive as their emotions are displayed in a manner that makes the reader become part of the story. Post was reared in West Texas. He was educated at Texas A. & M. and served in the U. S. Navy. After his service, he became a surveyor for the Southern Pacific RR which took him to the wilds of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, where he immersed himself in the lore of those areas. This becomes apparent as he describes some of his experiences in his novels. Post is a professional engineer and land surveyor. Taking an early retirement as chief engineer of the Long Beach Water Dept., he moved to Northern California and started his writing career. Post is an Evangelic Christian and the thread of his beliefs can be seen throughout his novels. Post now lives in Las Vegas, NV with his extended family.

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The Evolution of Nora

William Post

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AuthorHouse™

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

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© 2011 William Post. All reights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse   03/25/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4567-2744-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-2746-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-2745-1 (e-b)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011901057

rinted in the United States of America

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Table of Contents

Preface:

CHAPTER 1 - A NEW HOME

CHAPTER 3 – THE SCHOOL PAPER

CHAPTER 4 – WHAT EVERY CHILD NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT SEX

CHAPTER 5 – A NEW BUSINESS

CHAPTER 6 – WALLY’S TROUBLE

CHAPTER 7 – BUILDING A HIGH-RISE

CHAPTER 8- DARLENE AND LAZARUS

CHAPTER 9 – LAWSCHOOL AND UNDERCOVER

CHAPTER 10 – THE FBI CALLS

CHAPTER 11 – ANGELA GAMBINI

CHAPTER 12 – THE PRISON BREAK

CHAPTER 13 – THE GOLD ROOM NIGHT CLUB

CHAPTER 14 – THE NEW COUNSELITORI

CHAPTER 15 – INTRIGUE

CHAPTER 16 – TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS

CHAPTER 17 – MAKING THINGS RIGHT

CHAPTER 18 – A NEW PURSUIT INTERRUPTED

CHAPTER 19 - A PLOT FOR REVENGE

CHAPTER 20 - BACK TO INVESTING

Preface:

I have no idea where this story came from. I thought about my own daughter at age twelve one day and began to write. The story just seemed to flow as I took Nora through the years of her life.

Most of my stories I think about for sometime and then outline my thoughts. I will add things as I go of my past relationships or experiences with a twist to them. However, Nora was different. She took on a life of her own and I was fascinated writing it and couldn’t wait for the next chapter of her life. This may sound strange to you, but that’s just how it was.

Smokey Swann, a life long friend, helped me edit the book and was a great help. He not only catches my many mistakes, but gives me great ideas and insight to my work. His younger brother, George, and I wrote a column for our high school paper many years ago so Smokey is keeping up a family tradition.

Smokey was diagnosed with a heart ailment as a child and wasn’t suppose to live much past his twenties. He is now 77 and is the picture of health. I suppose Smokey has a number of things to accomplished before God takes him home. He has surely enriched my life.

I hope you enjoy The Evolution of Nora as she is something special.

Other books by William Post:

The Mystery of Table Mountain

The Miracle

A Call to Duty

A Doctor by War

Inner Circles

Gold Fever

The Blue Ridge

The First Crossing of America

The Tides of War

Darlene

novelsbywilliampost.com

CHAPTER 1 - A NEW HOME

It was September 1945 and John Wilson was going home. He had endured three years fighting the Japanese and looked forward to seeing his home town of Houston, Texas.

No one met John at the train station as both his parents had died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty gas stove the first winter he was away. He took a room at a hotel near the train station. The clerk told him there was a USO in the ballroom of the hotel that opened at night. John had no other place to go so he entered the ballroom about seven that evening. He was met by a hostess who showed him where free punch was being served. John was served some punch and he took a table that was by a window and set apart from the other tables. He began looking out the window, not really seeing anything. Then the pictures of war began to enter his mind.

He remembered how he was on his first patrol in the jungle trying to locate the enemy lines. He heard a rustling in the brush and knew it was a Jap coming. He slipped the safety off his M-1 and pointed it and fired. The person who burst through the bushes at him was his best friend, Lester Savage. He had shot him through the chest. He quickly took Lester in his arms and cried I’m sorry Lester! I thought you were a Jap.

Lester said, It doesn’t make any difference John. I would have gotten it anyway, tomorrow or the next day. I’m just glad I can die with my best friend. I came with some very bad news, John. Both your folks died from a faulty heater. I guess I’ll be seeing them soon. You want me to tell them anything?

John just held Lester and rocked back and forth. The news was too much for him, but then he said, Tell them that I will be joining them and you in a few days. Find us a good place up there Lester.

Lester smiled then his eyes became fixed and he was gone. As if he were still there tears began to boil from Johns eyes as he stared out the window.

John then realized a girl was talking to him and he turned toward her. The girl could see that John was reliving a very sad time and it pulled her heart strings.

She said, May I sit with you?

John immediately stood up and pulled out a chair for her and said, I’m sorry, I have tried to block the war out of my mind, but I just can’t seem to do it.

Maybe I could help you block out some of those terrible memories for awhile. My name is Nina Sanderson and I’m from here in Houston. I am a nurse and like to come welcome the soldiers coming home from the war. I am so grateful for the sacrifice you men made for us. I will never forget what you did.

I’m John Wilson and I’m from Houston. I graduated from Milby High School in 1940 and went in the service after Pearl Harbor. Please excuse my tears. It seems I can’t put some of the war behind me. I need to keep busy so I don’t dwell on it."

As he was talking Nina was looking at John’s olive skin and Roman nose. It reminded her of a picture of Julia Caesar she had once seen and she was quite impressed. They danced and talked until closing time. John asked if he could call on her and she gave him her telephone number even though she had been instructed never to do this.

John went to his parent’s house the next day and other people were living there. He found the landlord and asked what became of his parent’s furniture.

The Landlord said, I put it in a barn on my farm. I won’t charge you anything for storing it, but now that you’re home I will charge you ten dollars a month. Is that good enough?

That’s more than fair. It will take me awhile to get relocated again. I will pay you three months in advance, and handed the man thirty dollars.

John called Nina that evening and asked if she would like to go to a movie. She told him she had her duty at the USO, but could go the next night. She gave John her address and told him to pick her up at six-thirty as her parents wanted to meet him.

After looking all afternoon John finally found a room with an elderly couple. They had lost both their boys in the war. They rented the room for twenty-five dollars a month and told him he had kitchen privileges. John could see they sorely missed their boys and just wanted his company. John understood their grief and thought, We’ve all been scarred by the war.

John had worked at a water treatment plant for a year and a half before he entered the service and had obtained three of the five certificates the state offered in water quality. This enabled him to be rehired at his pre-service job, but this time as a lead man at the water treatment plant. The plant manager that rehired John took him to their break room and showed him the number of men who had served in the service. Many had a gold star by their name. He could see Lester’s name and it was all he could do to keep from crying.

Nina had followed her mother, Cara, into nursing and both worked at M. D. Anderson hospital that was very close to their home. Nina had been in registered nurse’s training for two years with her sister, Rita, until her father died, then she had to drop out to help her mother with expenses. Rita had married a crane operator and he insisted she stay in nurses training.

Cara had remarried the past year to a carpenter named Fred Burnett. Nina thought he was a good man and was happy for her mother.

John and Nina were together nearly every night after they met. They had been going together four months when Fred brought home the news that his company was moving to Austin. This meant that Nina would be out of a place to live.

She was telling this to John that night and he said, I know a simple solution to that.

Nina said, What?

We’ll get married and you can just stay in the house and I will move in.

Nina flew into his arms and said, I love you, John, you are the most thoughtful man in the world.

They were married and went on their honeymoon to Galveston. The first night Nina woke to John’s screaming. He was fighting one of his battles again. She took him in her arms and soothed him.

She cried, It’s alright, Baby, I have you now, those men can’t harm you anymore, because I won’t let them.

John was covered in sweat when he realized he was in Nina’s arms, he then cried like a baby. She patted him and said, it’s okay now, I’ll never let them hurt you."

The next day as they lay on the beach Nina said, "John, I think it will help if you tell me your experiences and I may be able to help you. I think just getting them out in the open and letting me see what you saw we can work this out so you don’t have those terrible nightmares.

John was desperate and he thought Nina could be right, so he began. It was hard to tell her how he had killed his best friend, Lester. He cried again and she could see how deeply he hurt. He then told of the horrors of fighting.

John said, "I killed so many men. Men who were as close as we are would have their heads blown off, but I was never hit. Their was a hundred and twenty in my company that hit the beach on this one island and when we were rotated seven days later their were only ten of us left. One night on Guadalcanal we were defending our position from the high ground of a place our captain had chosen. I was next to a man who was firing a machinegun. He was blinded by a mortar, but he kept firing even though his feed man was dead. He must have killed two or three hundred of them. He would change barrels on the machinegun and all the hide on his hands was gone, but he kept firing. I don’t know what happened to him, but had any other man on this earth been manning that machinegun, I wouldn’t be here today.

I must have killed fifty Japs that night. They just kept coming like lambs to a slaughter. I began to like killing them. I, like Lester, thought I would be killed everyday of my fighting. I knew I was dead and just wanted to give a good accounting of myself. I saw so many men die horrible deaths. I never would talk to a replacement. I didn’t want to know anyone. They all thought I was a cold-blooded killer, which I was, and everyone stayed away from me. The last first sergeant I had said I was a killing machine. He would put me at the point on every mission, but somehow everyone around me would die but me."

Nina said, Why don’t you see an army doctor. I’m sure they have specialists in that field who could help you.

I’ve seen a couple of those guys. They have no idea what we saw or what we had to deal with. They just subscribe some drug that makes your mind go into neutral. I can’t work and take those drugs.

John happened to run into his last first sergeant on the street one day. His first sergeant only had one arm now. He talked John into having a drink at bar and John agreed.

John said, How do you live with what we did, Sarge?

I drown it with whiskey, John. What do you do?

I wakeup most nights screaming, fighting one of those battles. I saw you get it by the way. It seemed you were blown to bits. I crossed you off my list and was happy for you.

Yeah, that’s how I began to feel about all the men who I saw die. I began to feel happy for them. They took me to a hospital and patched me up. I just lost my left arm and a lot of meat off my left leg. I thought I would die and looked forward to it, but with the miracles of modern medicine they kept me alive. For what I don’t know. I’m no good to anyone. I spend every night drinking until I pass out. The doctors have warned me that drinking like I do will kill me. I didn’t laugh in their face, but it was hard not to. I wanted to say, ‘why the hell do you think I’m drinking,’ and they both laughed.

John then said seriously, Do you have the nightmares after you drink?

No, John, that’s why I drink. It’s a wonderful cure.

John bought a quart of whiskey that night. As time passed John became more silent. He constantly saw pictures in his mind of the horrors of war. He would often sit in the living room in darkness drinking. Nina tried to get him to seek psychiatric help, but he said that the drinking helped him to sleep, and it did. Nina knew this would have consequences over a period of time if he continued his drinking.

Just five months after she married John, Nina found she was pregnant. She hoped that a baby would help John quit drinking and it did for awhile, but his nightmares returned shortly after and so did his drinking.

John loved their new baby, Nora, but it was difficult for him to show her love, but every night he would kiss her goodnight and tell her he loved her.

Nora had just turned twelve when her father passed away. He was only thirty-eight so it was hard for Nora to understand why he died. She had a few good times with him to remember, but mostly she recalled him sitting in his chair in the living room with the curtains drawn, drinking. He was kind to her, but she really had no relationship with him.

A week after her father died she asked her mother why he died so young. Nina said, It is better that he went on Nora. He could not live with the things he did during the war. He killed his best friend by mistake. That alone haunted him terribly. He said he killed hundreds of men. He said that killing these men didn’t hurt nearly as bad as seeing everyone he knew die. The only thing that helped him was drinking. That is why I never tried to get him to quit. I knew it would eventually kill him, but I wanted him to have peace of mind while he was here. Nora, I loved him so much. The war killed him as sure as bullets killed his friends. Always love him, Nora, he and men like him gave their lives for us. Nora never forgot that conversation and thought her father a wonderful person. She thought, Someday I would like to stand up for America like daddy did, he was so brave.

A month after John died Cara called Nina just as she was leaving for work and said, Oh Nina, Fred died this morning. He went out to get the paper and didn’t return. I found him on the front porch. The doctor said it was a massive heart attack.

I’ll be there tonight, Mother. I was just leaving for work, but we will pack now and be there as fast as we can. I’m so sorry, Mother.

Nina was given emergency leave and Nora and she were on their way by two that afternoon. When they arrived Cara and Nina embraced and cried together. Nora was not attached to Fred in the least. He was a nice man, but she knew little about him and thought Why shouldn’t he die, he was old and crippled.

Fred had sustained a terrible injury a few years back while working. He walked with a limp and had great pain bending his knee. The injury had caused him to retire. He received a disability retirement, but it was substantially less than his job had paid. The loss of income made it necessary to rent out the front bedroom to a nurse that worked at the same hospital as Cara. The nurse had left for another job just prior to Fred’s death.

As Cara and Nina talked Cara said, Why don’t you and Nora move to Austin and live with me? You could have the front bedroom and Nora could live in Fred’s hobby room upstairs.

I really don’t have anything that holds me in Houston now that John is gone. I would love to live with you, Mother, but it would hinge on me getting a job at your hospital.

Cara said, Let’s go over and talk with the hospital administrator tomorrow.

The next day Cara said, Nora, why don’t you explore Fred’s hobby room while we’re gone? and she pulled down the stairs from the ceiling in the hallway.

Fred had belonged to the Audubon Society. When they needed to rent the front bedroom he had to move his hobby. Thus, he constructed a room in the attic. He obtained the materials from his construction buddies so