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Dan's Big Adventure in the Summer of '46

by Richard E. Banister

257 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0296; ISBN 1-55369-483-X; US$23.00, C$26.97, EUR19.00, £13.50

The adventures of a sixteen year old runaway Nebraska fame boy in the summer of 1946. His search for freedom and adventure was stymied by his raging homones, which lead to his losing his freedom.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts      catalogue info

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About the Book Dan Hutchens was a typical Nebraska farm boy of sixteen. At least he looked like a typical farm boy. In reality, he was far from typical. He was dreaming about changing his life completely. He wanted to run away and leave all his worldly possessions and his small town far behind. He wanted to get out of Nebraska. He wanted freedom, adventure and travel to see the world. This desire led to his planning his escape down to the last detail. Early one June morning in 1946, before sunrise, he left a note to his parents on the kitchen table and rode off on his Schwinn bike south to adventure. His journey into adulthood brought him many challenges including teen sex and romance, the problem of birth control, murder, incest, flight from the law, undercover work for the government, racism and eventually marriage. In thirty two chapters spanning two and a half months, Dan faces many problems and experiences that cause him to quickly grow to be an adult. In the process, he completely changed his life's goals.

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About the Author The author, Richard E. Banister, came from a small rural Nebraska community, which gives him insight into the mind of Dan and his search for a more exciting fulfilling life. Like Dan, the author planned his escape from rural Nebraska. Unlike Dan, it took the author fifteen years to make his escape.

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Sample Excerpts

Ch. 4. A Sleepless Night Under the Elm

Thank God it was quiet again. All he could hear was the rustle of the wind in the leaves. He calmed down and fell asleep again. Several hours later he awoke to the sound of a car coming down the drive and skidding to a stop. The door opened and closed with a bang, The car drove off swiftly. He could hear someone sniffling. Then footsteps that came closer and closer to the tent. "Oh, no! What's happening now?" he said to himself. Just then the footsteps stopped in front of the tent.

"Are you awake in there?" Maggie's voice asked.

"I am now," he replied sarcastically.

"I've got to talk to someone and you're the only one who is awake."

"Well, let's keep it down. I don't want to wake up everyone," he said.

"Can I come in?" she pleaded.

"It's crowded in here, maybe I should come out," he said.

"No! I want to come in," she demanded.

"Have it your way," he said.

She crawled through the end of the tent and lay down next to him. Her body was warm and soft beside him. He wondered, what the hell was going on with this family anyway. Why do two daughters come to his tent in the same night. Who's going to be next? Bertie? He was overwhelmed and very nervous about this whole affair. "What is it you want from me?" he asked nervously.

"I'm upset and need to talk to someone," she stated.

"Go ahead, I"m all ears. The floor is all yours," he whispered.

"Jim took me to a show in town and then he drove me out to lovers lane where he necked with me for half an hour," she explained.

"So? Then what?" he asked.

"He then tried to undress me. I would have let him, but when I asked him if he had a rubber, he said he never used them. That's when I got mad. What did he think he was going to do? Get me pregnant? I don't want to marry him and I don't want to be one of those girls who has to leave town and have her life ruined by having a baby without a husband," she explained.

He thought a minute, and then said something that he knew he probably should not say, "That was not very considerate of him. He wasn't really thinking of you, but just of himself. I would never ever ask a girl to make love with me if I did not have a rubber."

"Do you carry a rubber with you when you go on a date?" she asked.

"Well, if I think the girl is the right girl, and she wants to go all the way with me, I do," he stated.

"Do you have a rubber with you now?" she asked.

He hesitated on answering that question. What did she want? Did she want to buy a rubber? Was she just curious? Or had she gotten so hot in the car that she wanted to have safe sex with anyone, including him? "Why do you ask?" he said.

"Well, I'm hot to trot. If you have a rubber, we could have sex right here, right now," she exclaimed.

"I don't think that would be a good idea," he explained. "We might wake up your folks, and your dad would throw me in jail, and all kinds of bad things would happen to us," he explained.

"They're all sound sleepers. They won't hear us," she pleaded.

"The house is only a hundred feet away and the windows are all open. Besides I have to move on in the morning and I will never see you again," he said.

"I'll be real quiet," she said. "They won't hear a thing." . . . She lied.

Ch. 6. The Discussion

"OH SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP!" Earl snapped. "I don't want to hear any more about it tonight." With that he turned over and shut her out.

Mabel cried for a while and then got up. She felt her way through the dark house to the kitchen. There she took a long butcher knife from the drawer and returned to the bedroom where Earl was dozing off to sleep. She approached the bed, raised the knife with both arms above her head and brought it down into Earl's right side. Earl let out a yell and then a groan. All was quiet for a moment, until Earl started to make a gurgling sound. After a minute, there was silence.

Dan said to himself, "OH SHIT! What's happened? I've got to get out of here!" He jumped out of bed, grabbed his clothes and gear and headed for the front door.

Mabel was standing in front of the door with the knife. "You're not leaving without me!" she stated sternly.

Ch. 12. On the Road to Joplin

As she fell into a deep sleep, she began to dream. She was walking into the trees near where the carnival was set up. She walked deep into the woods. Soon she was lost. She did not know which way to go to get back to the carnival. It was dark and she could not see the stars or moon. She became frightened. She sat down on a log and began to cry.

Soon she heard a voice say, "Don't cry. I'll take you back to the carnival. I can find the way in these dark woods because I have a compass." The voice sounded familiar. It was Dan, the boy from the carnival! As he approached her, he held out his arms. She ran to embrace him and he held her in his arms.

His body was warm and firm. She felt shivers run up and down her body. He held her tight and picked her up in his arms and carried her to an open grassy area among the trees. There he set her down on the grass and sat down beside her. They embraced and kissed. Her hands were all over his body and his on hers. They rolled over in the grass. His hands went up her dress to her crotch. He rubbed her until her panties were wet. He then reached for the elastic at the top of her panties and began to pull them down.

Just then Harvey, her dad, ran into the opening with a gun. "Get off my daughter!" he shouted. As Dan rolled off Rosie, Harvey raised his gun and shot him.

Rosie abruptly woke up with a scream! She looked around. She was in her bed. There was no forest. No grass. No Dan. No Harvey. No gun. But she was aware that her panties were wet.

Chapter 16. Escape into the Wilderness

Dan looked down into Jenny's eyes. There was a look of shame, defeat and ultimate embarrassment in her eyes. Dan asked in a whisper, "What are you doing up here? Where's Mary Jane?"

Jenny didn't say anything. She just rolled her eyes towards the ladder. Tears were in her eyes. Dan was not sure what was going on. He decided to head for the ladder and get out of there, but Jenny caught hold of his pant leg and whispered, "Take her with you."

"What do you mean, take her with me?" he asked in a whisper.

"Get her away from her pa," Jenny answered in a whisper. "He sleeps with her every night. She hates him, but he is strong willed and has his way with her. She knows it is wrong and that we will all go to hell if he keeps sleeping with her."

Dan thought, JESUS CHRIST! What have I gotten into here?

He broke loose from Jenny and headed for the ladder. Climbing down the ladder, he headed for the door. He sat on the front steps briefly to put on his shoes. Then he headed for his bike, which was about fifty feet from the house in a clump of trees. There by his bike was Mary Jane. In her hand she held a cloth bag. "Ma and I want you to take me away from here," she said in a hushed voice.

"I can't take you with me, I'm on a bike. There's no room," Dan said. Then he looked at her. She was pleading with him. She was crying. Should he do the smart thing or the right thing? If he were smart he would get on his bike and peddle like hell and leave these miserable people behind. But how could he leave this little girl here with her abusive father? She would get pregnant and have an idiot child. But what could HE offer her?

Ch. 27 The Marriage Business

Dan and Mary Jane thought that getting married was as simple as standing up in front of a judge or minister and taking the marriage vows. The Reverend Jeremiah Brown knew better. To him marriage was a business. There was the legal side, the jewelry side, the haberdashery side, the photographic side, the floral side, the music side, the invitational side, the ceremonial side, the dietary side, and, in this case, the baptismal side. After all that was done, there was the honeymoon side, which involved the transportation side, the lodging side and the shivaree side. Marriage is a big business.

The Reverend Jeremiah Jones looked Dan and Mary Jane straight in the eyes and said, "You seem to think marriage is a quickie ceremony and you're out the door. Well it ain't anything like that. If a marriage is going to last, the bride and groom are go'na have to invest a lot in the up front part of the marriage. Do you get what I mean?

Chapter 32. The Train Ride to Jackson

The train had stopped at a station. It looked like they were loading something into the baggage car. Dan decided to get off and stretch his legs and get a little fresh air. He looked over at Mary Jane to tell her he was going to get off for couple of minutes to stretch his legs. She was sound asleep. He got to his feet and quietly walked to the end of the car and got off the train. It was a beautiful night. The train was stopped at Pine Bluff according to the sign on the depot. The moon was bright. The stars were out. The air was fresh. It reminded Dan of the freedom of the open road. He wondered, if he went to the baggage car and claimed his bike, he could ride out of town and hit the open road again. He wondered how Mary Jane would handle his leaving her. Would she be able to survive by herself? What about their marriage? Was that license legal? It had them listed as eighteen. The Reverend had lied about their age. Was it a legal marriage? Should he just take off and leave her?

Winter was coming. Did he want to be out in the cold of winter in a little tent by himself? He did not have any money to buy a tent, clothes, or food. Wouldn't it be better to spend the winter in a warm cabin sleeping with Mary Jane and making love to her?

The train whistle let out three short blasts. The train started to move. Dan ran for the step and got on board. He thought, I'm getting on board for life. We're going to move forward. We're going to have a life together. He quickly made his way to their car. Upon opening the door at the end of the car and entering, he stopped in his tracks. Mary Jane was not in the car.

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Catalogue Information

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