{"id":8089,"date":"2019-01-04T00:01:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T06:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jackofharts.com\/?p=8089"},"modified":"2019-01-03T05:21:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T11:21:47","slug":"the-thunderbird-affair-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/?p=8089","title":{"rendered":"The Thunderbird Affair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/jackofharts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/The-Thunderbird-Affair-200-x-259.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/jackofharts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/The-Thunderbird-Affair-200-x-259.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"259\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-8074\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Fingers played over an acoustic guitar and an old, familiar song filled the Avenger\u2019s cockpit as it drifted through the outskirts of the system scientists still called Psi Tauri.  The song came from the shores of a hometown lake he hadn\u2019t seen in five years.  It had been longer still since he and two girls who\u2019d meant more than life to him had last played it together.<\/p>\n<p>He played the old version with a single acoustic guitar, meant for only the closest of friends to hear, and the music soothed his soul.  It was a song that reminded him of sunlight and sand on fresh spring mornings.  Memories of relaxing in cool water on midsummer nights flitted through his head.  There was singing and dancing around a crackling bonfire under bronze autumn sunsets.  They\u2019d been kids living life to the fullest as they rushed to make the most of their youth and enjoy the first flowers of adulthood before winter&#8217;s cold set in.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;d all been innocent in that golden age, living each day with all the energy they had and looking forward to the next one.  They\u2019d never noticed the storm fronts on the horizon.  They\u2019d missed the thunder rumbling in the distance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJack?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jack opened his eyes and came out of his fugue state of fusion with the guitar that had become his world.  His fingers had stopped moving in response to Betty\u2019s single word, but he remembered every note he&#8217;d played.  They were dark and foreboding, foretelling pain and suffering to come.<\/p>\n<p>His eyes snapped to Betty as he suddenly understood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomeone\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Thunderbird Affair is now available at the following retailers:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B07MDNJ6CT\/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&#038;ie=UTF8&#038;qid=1546107065&#038;sr=1-1\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/books\/1130046985?ean=2940155921042\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Barnes and Noble<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/book\/the-thunderbird-affair-jack-of-harts-short-story-2\/id1447910212?mt=11\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">iTunes<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/the-thunderbird-affair-jack-of-harts-short-story-2\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kobo<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.smashwords.com\/books\/view\/914204\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Smashwords<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fingers played over an acoustic guitar and an old, familiar song filled the Avenger\u2019s cockpit as it drifted through the outskirts of the system scientists still called Psi Tauri. The song came from the shores of a hometown lake he[&hellip;]<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/?p=8089\">&darr; Read the rest of this entry&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diaries","uentry","postonpage-1","odd","post-author-medron-pryde"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8089"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8090,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8089\/revisions\/8090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}