Stephanie’s Stepside: Episode Three: Hope from Toxic Ground

By Lonnie Mair

In this second sequel to Stephanie's Stepside, the first book by Lonnie Mair, Episode Three, Hope from Toxic Ground, continues Mair’s seamless blending of eco-thriller, love story, murder mystery, and Central California travelogue. In this episode Mair’s graduate student protagonist, turned California governor supported, eco-scientist researcher, Stephanie Carson, is back in the poisoned fields of the western San Joaquin Valley, with government support by a research team continuing her research, in the effort to restore to productivity the huge, once fertile semi-arid lakebed of the ancient Tulare Lake region of California, known as the Central Valley. Accompanying her, is Stephanie’s restored, customized and beloved, classic Chevrolet Stepside pickup. Again, serving as companion, portable laboratory, library, and goodwill emissary, not to mention transportation, to and from the fields. In this follow up, Mair demonstrates the importance of close political ties to high office in Sacramento in order to impact change in those California fields. Hope from Toxic Ground highlights the military arm that the California governor can exercise to effect change, as well as the restraints that are placed on the implementation of that force.
In this episode, Stephanie takes the evidence of deliberate toxic poisoning that she and her team have amassed, to the World Court in the Netherlands to get monetary recompense for the reclamation of the Central Valley. Supporting her efforts are Ethan, her husband, his ranch hands and the research team she was awarded by the California University at Davis and new-found friend, the California Governor, and the governor’s National Guard Military Police commander, Leigh Hunnicutt.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9781665573009

Lonnie Mair

Lonnie Mair is a retired high school teacher. Over the course of over thirty years in the high school classroom, he taught many subjects, but perhaps the one in which he spent the most time, was in teaching English and composition. After retirement, other responsibilities consumed the years. The characters brought to life in Stephanie’s Stepside took on a life of their own and the developing scenario led to the sequel which became Stephanie’s Stepside Episode 2: Blood on Toxic Ground, and now Stephanie’s Stepside Episode Three: Hope from Toxic Ground.

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© 2023 Lonnie Mair. All rights 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.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Although there are companies who operate similar-in-function business operations in the Central Valley, this work is not an accusation of them, their business practices, or their personnel, nor should it be construed to be.

The universities named are real, the people and conditions created in them are total fiction. Lonnie is not associated with the universities in any way, and although he does not think there are any negative aspersions that can legitimately be viewed as aspersions cast in this work, it was not his intention to do so.

The Central Valley does contain the geologic realities and potentialities referred to in this work and should an earthquake of the magnitude mentioned occur, there is no doubt that the damage would be extensive. To what extent, and to what degree, the damage would be, he leaves to other minds to calculate.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/13/2023

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7301-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7299-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7300-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022918754

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

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.

Stepside

The term Stepside, in connection with a pickup truck, is a description of a unique construction of the bed of the pickup. A Stepside pickup has the walls of the pickup bed inside the wheel wells of the truck’s bed. This construction allows for an exterior step forward of the rear wheels, yet behind the cab. This exterior step is meant to provide easy access to the contents of the truck’s bed. This construction allows for an exterior step forward of the rear wheels, yet behind the cab. This exterior step is meant to provide easy access to the contents of the truck’s bed from the side of the pickup, in addition to the access provided by the truck’s tailgate. Another advantage of this type of pickup bed construction is that the interior of the pickup bed is not restricted by the presence of the wheel wells, creating a completely rectangular storage volume of the space of the pickup bed. The Chevrolet Stepside pickup has a long history, first appearing in 1924.

Acknowledgement

As was the case in the previous episodes of Stephanie’s Stepside, much of the reason a reader might be able to experience pleasurable reading in this sequel is due to the reading patience and editing skills of Carol Mair, a multitalented woman, whom I am fortunate to be able to call my wife. It was she who sometimes struggled to untangle the grammatical Gordian knots that my writing became while I was in search of descriptive and picturesque phrases to carry the developing storyline, characters, setting, and symbolism of this effort. However, Stephanie’s Stepside and the subsequent sequels are mine. Whatever errors of structure or failures to enable the reader to follow the developing story, which may have slipped through the proofreader’s fine-toothed comb, are no fault of hers; rather, they are those of this writer, who too often knew what he wanted to say, thought he had said it, even read it as he proofed the drafts, but failed to see the reality that the grammatical constructions and descriptive phrases which he had created in his head, had not, in actuality, made the transitional jump from thought to the real keystrokes that produced the printed word of the manuscript.

In this work there are some references to navy craft and weaponry. The specific information on ships made reference to in this work, the author found freely available on the internet.

Dedication

This sequel to Stephanie’s Stepside is dedicated to our daughter, Tiffany. Although Stephanie Carson is an entirely fictional invention, there are aspects of her character that were inspired by Tiffany, a Masters’ Degree student herself while this was being written and is now a Masters’ Degree graduate and working librarian. Her mother and I are proud of her for the individual she became, and we are enthused, not only by her desire for advanced education, but for the excellence she demonstrated in the pursuit of its completion. I am sure I, once again, have probably made her want to hide, but as proud parents, we claim the right to extol her many accomplishments. An academically talented, critical reader, I hope she finds much to enjoy, and little cause to groan while reading Stephanie’s Stepside Episode Three: Hope from Toxic Ground.

Contents

Chapter 1 Some Encouraging Data

Chapter 2 A Welcome Visitor

Chapter 3 The Visitor’s Message

Chapter 4 Some Initial Preparation

Chapter 5 The Taping Begins

Chapter 6 Final Preparation Begins

Chapter 7 The Journey

Chapter 8 The Hotel

Chapter 9 A Secure Conference

Chapter 10 Safely Afloat

Chapter 11 A Caring Captain

Chapter 12 A Restful Interlude

Chapter 13 Ship to Ship in a Storm

Chapter 14 An Increase in Security

Chapter 15 Colonel Hunnecutt Testifies

Chapter 16 Ethan Testifies

Chapter 17 Stephanie’s Idea

Chapter 18 An Attack on the Cruiser

Chapter 19 Stephanie Testifies

Chapter 20 Back to the Cruiser

Chapter 21 On Board

Chapter 22 Stephanie Testifies Again

Chapter 23 Safely Back on Board

Chapter 24 Another Message

Chapter 25 The New Way Home

Chapter 26 A Homecoming Celebration

Chapter 27 The Governor Makes an Offer

Chapter 28 Finish the First Job First

Chapter 29 Recognition of a Job Well Done

Chapter 30 An Update on Progress

Chapter 31 A New Possibility

Chapter 32 Viable Strategy Report

Chapter 33 Preparations for Renewed Security

Chapter 34 Help Arrives

Chapter 35 Full Scale Assault

Chapter 36 Mopping Up

Chapter 37 Checking Her Charges

Chapter 38 Govenor’s Reaction

Chapter 39 Capitol Square

Afterword

Stephanie’s Stepside: Episode Three:

Hope from Toxic Ground

A Stephanie Carson novella of California’s Central Valley

Chapter One

Some Encouraging Data

Heat radiated down from the merciless sun and back up again in undulating waves from the gray, lifeless soil of California’s west Central Valley. The waves of heat almost entirely obscured the azure violet shimmering hills that lay to the west. A figure coalesced out of the rolling heat and walked southeast toward an old, but well-kept red Stepside pickup parked on the unplowed shoulder of the dirty gray asphalt. The road itself could only be seen for a short distance before it dissolved in the heated undulations and disappeared into the roiling heat. A figure reached the bed of the truck, a hand reached up and removed the sweat-stained hat and revealed what would be an attractive head of hair, once it had experienced the refreshment of a shower. The tanned face was attractive as well, as was the well-kept, fit and comely young woman’s body that came with it.

The instruments that she had carried from the field and had been temporarily placed on the tailgate, were then carefully cleaned and stowed into their protective cases on the pickup bed. Satisfied with the safety of the instruments, the young woman reached into the pickup bed and took a brush, a rag, and a whisk broom from a plastic bucket and brushed her boots and wiped them down. Then, with the small whisk broom, she brushed off the jeans. These three new habits had been started as a precaution against the increased toxins in the soil, due to the leach pond that had been dug and filled as a measure to detoxify the soil.

A smile helped reveal and increase the comeliness of the young woman as she wrote in the notebook which she had retrieved from the pickup.

Test field 123:

Location: west of Interstate 5 and north of California State Highway 198

Excavation of leach ponding basin has been completed.

Flooding of the ponding basin has been completed.

Tests of leach water and the immediately surrounding soil show an increase in toxicity, consistent with the initial experiment.

Tests of soil beyond proximity show a slight, but measurable, corresponding decrease in the specific toxicity that the leach pond was designed to remove.

This procedure, although time consuming, is working!

As she finished writing, the winsome smile got wider as she realized that this test field was showing promising results. When she closed the notebook, her eyes were drawn to the freshly gilt lettering.

"Presented to Stephanie Carson

Use this to record the implementation of your research!

With love,

Ethan"

Stephanie frizzoned as she thought of Ethan, their mutual love, and of Ethan’s quick thinking that had probably saved her life more than once. Her body flinched as it seemed to remember feeling the bullets thudding into Ethan as he had shielded her outside the university’s science building during one of the attempted assassinations. The useful gift of a notebook was one of many mute practical testaments to his support of her work, even to the extent of turning over much of his ranch to house first, the research team who had validated Stephanie’s earlier master’s project, and now many of the same team who were beginning the actual implementation of Stephanie’s methods of reclaiming the land that had been so callously poisoned.

An 8.0 earthquake had triggered a failure of the containment facilities at a toxic waste disposal site and had released its dangerous contents into the surrounding shallow water table. The poisoned water had, in turn, poisoned the land for miles, transforming,