Stephen Crews Wylder

Way Back in the 1960s Stephen Crews Wylder

"Chicago, August 1968," the man was saying. "A very troubled time, but perhaps a wonderful time as well. Still, to send a soul into the past is an act of desperation. Helena and I wouldn't be sending you there if you weren't our best hope. Maybe last hope..."In the Christian Republic of America, Leader Simon Magnus has imposed draconian punishments, including death by stoning for blasphemers, adulterers, and declared Enemies of Freedom. Magnus, whose Church of the Revealed Spirit, which began as a 1960s cult, was about to launch a nationwide purge of his enemies, real and imagined, beginning with his nemesis, Helena McKechnie, who had once helped him found his church. Thomas Leirmont, an obscure professor of medieval history at a small Philadelphia college, may be the only one to undo the evil--as Helena, his former lover writes, to "make Simon's reign little more than a fleeting nightmare."But to do so, he must return to Chicago, and from there to Convention Week, 1968, when he was a youth reporter for an Indianapolis newspaper, and Helena was in hiding from her ex-lover SimonIt was a time and place, Thomas was reminded, where Helena was "21, drop-dead gorgeous, and madly in love with you. Not too many people get a second chance, but you get to live that crazy week all over again..." But at the end of the week, Helena had returned to Simon, where she would build up the church that turned the United States into the Christian Republic."Helena never would tell me what happened," Thomas is told, "but she was furious with you. When she was angry, she could lash out with psychic energy. But the effort took so much out of her that she was vulnerable to outside influences. I think Simon, or someone more powerful, got control of her during that weakness. That flash of anger was her terrible mistake, and perhaps a mistake of your own led to it." If it was his mistake, he might be able to undo it.it was also a place where corrupt policemen, neo-Nazis, and a powerful enemy allied to the Prince of Hell were doing their worst to make sure Helena returned to Simon and his cult. And Thomas would have only his 18-year-old memory to work with, enhanced only by a more mature soul.