Synopsis "Not Every Man is a Hero: A Novel Based on True Stories"
The cold, damp weather in Hampton Roads reminds Police Officer Andrew Dick of how miserable an unimposing evening can sometimes be. The cold night air triggers his thoughts to drift into the distant past-to an incident so dreadful he pretends the images are remnants of someone else's nightmare. Tonight, a concerned citizen has requested that the police check on her elderly neighbor's welfare because she hadn't seen him for several days. A short time after arriving, the routine call turns into a death investigation case after discovering the neighbor has committed suicide. After considering the visual evidence, he senses that the neighbor didn't want to die and believed just as much that he didn't want to live. Either way, the end is the same, but there is a difference. After the holidays, Officer Dick accepts an early retirement from the police department. His newfound situation at home unexpectedly exacerbates his already strained marriage. Unable to reconcile, his wife moves in with their oldest daughter. The separation proves overwhelming, so he opts to leave his home of thirty years for a small apartment nearby. His sterile existence is perplexing and leaves him unable to anchor his thoughts to the present. Directionless and incapable of dealing with the day-to-day task of living, he finds solace sitting in his favorite chair, where he incessantly stares out the bedroom window. Each night, he plunges into a voyage of changing paths, allowing his thoughts to travel back in time while growing up in Pittsburgh. A long and fruitful life had given him many moments to reflect upon, but something was missing. It was the therapeutic quality of hearing someone else's voice in his voiceless world. The more he dreams, the more he wants to remember long-forgotten moments. In his quest to understand his current situation, he discovers there are faceless memories hidden in his past. These were moments his eyes could not see but felt inside his heart. After a series of sleepless nights, he eventually fell into a deep slumber and pulled into a never-ending stream of dreams. Images appear out of thin air, each more pleasing than the one before until he senses something wrong. After waking, he realizes that the worst of all his memories had found their way into his dreams. Sometimes life doesn't make sense, and events don't always happen for the best of reasons. The inexplicable occurs just because it does, and when that happens, it can pull the unsuspecting into a never-ending nightmare.
