Anniversary Blues: Southern Waters Adventure Series, #0.2

By Nate Littlefield

The year is 1976. Scuba diving instructors Rex and Rose Fisher, first introduced in the Southern Waters Adventure novel, Endangered Species, are living their dream. Owning and operating their own scuba shop may be a dream come true for the young couple, but keeping it afloat could prove to be more of a nightmare. For Rex and Rose, their upcoming anniversary may not be the cause for celebration they had hoped. Can they keep the future they had envisioned for themselves from sinking into the depths? And what impact could their actions have on the lives of others, even years later?

 

Anniversary Blues is a prequel short story set along Florida's Gulf Coast. This eBook also features a sample preview chapter from the first novel in the Southern Waters Adventure Series, Endangered Species, featuring divemaster Alex Nolen and friends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nate Littlefield
• Release date: Feb 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224060047

Nate Littlefield

Nate Littlefield draws on his lifelong passion for the marine environment, combining the craft of storytelling, to create the Southern Waters Adventure Series. An avid scuba diver, he enjoys most any activity that is on, under, or around the water. Nate spent his youth alternating between his native state of Florida and visiting relatives in Wisconsin, USA. The dual perspective of the warm salty waters and white sandy beaches of the Gulf of Mexico, and the beautiful freshwater lakes and rivers of Wisconsin and Florida, nurtured his love for the underwater world. Nate works to share this love with others through his writing. Creative writing has been a keen interest for Nate since his early school years. When not reading adventure books, he often occupied himself by making up and writing stories, mostly about sea monsters.

Book preview

Anniversary Blues

Southern Waters Prequel - A Rex & Rose Fisher Adventure

Nate Littlefield

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Copyright © 2023 by Nate Littlefield.

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact: [e-mail].

The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. The characters, events, businesses, and incidents portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Cover design by Jennifer Shafer.

Anniversary Blues first appeared in Five Shorts and a Brief: A Short Collection of Short Stories. (2022). Copyright © 2022 by Nate Littlefield.

Chapter Five preview of Endangered Species first appeared in the novel Endangered Species. (2021) Copyright © 2021 by Nate Littlefield.

This work, as with all my efforts, is dedicated to my wife, Penny. Your support and encouragement keep me afloat and anchored at the same time. Thank you!

Anniversary Blues is also dedicated to readers everywhere. Readers know that within the pages of books, print and digital alike, are worlds of wonder and adventure just waiting to be explored. Readers are smart people.

Contents

The year is 1976

1.Chapter 1

2.Chapter 2

3.Chapter 3

4.Chapter 4

5.Chapter 5

6.Chapter 6

7.Chapter 7

Afterword

Endangered Species Preview

About the Author

Also By Nate Littlefield

The year is 1976

KISS releases their fourth studio album, Destroyer.

The Apple Computer company is formed.

Popular television shows include Happy Days, M*A*S*H, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Charlie's Angels.

Lynyrd Skynyrd releases their albums, Gimme back my Bullets and One More from the Road.

A gallon of gas costs an average of fifty-nine cents.

NASA unveils the first space shuttle, the Enterprise. Cast members of the original Star Trek TV series attend the ceremony in Palmdale, California.

Blondie releases their debut album, Blondie.

The Viking I Lander reaches Mars.

Peter Benchley releases his novel, The Deep.

Bob Marley & The Wailers release the album, Rastaman Vibration.

The first commercial flight of the Concorde occurs.

The cost of a Big Mac at McDonald's is seventy-five cents.

The Allman Brothers Band releases their double live album, Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas.

And in February of that year, in Pensacola, Florida…

Chapter 1

February, 1976. Saturday. Pensacola, Florida

It was still dark as Rex Fisher eased himself out of bed, careful so as not to wake his wife, Rose, who lay under a bundle of blankets, her thick tangles of burgundy hair visible above the covers. The heat was out again in their northeast Pensacola apartment. Nighttime lows hovered in the forties, and their little space heater struggled to push back the moist cold that seemed to seep through the walls. The apartment manager, who lived off-site, promised days ago to look into the problem, but there was no contact from him since. One of the things that had attracted the young couple to the apartment complex was the central heat and air system that was included with the rent. It didn’t seem such an appealing incentive now though, as the air conditioning had broken down for most of July and August, and the heat had stopped working for the third time this winter.

Treading softly to the tiny bathroom, Rex adjusted the hot and cold knobs on the sink until he found just the right mixture. He ran his