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The Shadow Watchers

by Bert Nelson

281 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-0461; ISBN 1-4120-0098-X; US$24.50, C$27.70, EUR20.00, £14.00

John Webster, obsessed with the Nature of "time" vanished into thin air one summer day. Research by his friend pointed to the mind-over-matter power of the Shadow Watchers.

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about the book      sample excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book The Shadow Watchers is a mystery that unravels over a 40 year time span. In many ways the book is a mainstream novel about conventional people (a professor, a shoemaker, a librarian, a holy-roller preacher) trying to cope with loss, lust and loneliness. However, Adam's strange story in the final pages leans toward fantasy or science fiction. The events begin and end in a small central Alberta town, but many crucial incidents occur in British Columbia's Fraser Valley, California, Arizona and India. The story reaches back to pioneer days at the turn of the century and ends in the 1970s, but the event that triggers all of the subsequent action occured on June 20, 1934. On that day John Webster disappeared, vanishing without warning or explanation. He left behind a shrewish wife, his bewildered and devastated six year old son, Joel, and a young friend named Adam McLean. Adam, who reported the disappearance, found John Webster's clothing lying on the ground at John's favourite retreat beside the railroad bridge over the local creek. Later Adam found an old notebook with some strange and incoherent ideas about "Time", scribbled by Webster just before he vanished. Some forty years later (at the same spot where he had discovered John's clothing) Adam found a weathered little wooden carving of a volcano. The novel ends in the late 1970s when the emotional stress of a lifetime of loss, anger and uncertainty bring Joel and Adam back to the town of Webster. The climax-the disappearance of Adam himself-is provoked by Adam's story of his visit to India where a little old man confirmed his speculation that John's disappearance in 1934 may have had a mystical explanation: John Webster, just before he vanished, had become obsessed withthe subject of Time and the idea that it might be possible to cause Time to hesitate or even stop. He passed some of his intensity on to his son Joel and his friend Adam. Adam left home and became a professor at the University of Alberta, and it was his research that eventually resolved the mystery.

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Sample Excerpts

One - THE DISAPPEARANCE.

On June 20, 1934 John Webster disappeared without a trace. He simply vanished. His young friend, Adam Maclean, discovered clothing and personal effects, but no body was ever found.

The disappearance caused a brief stir. It set curious minds a-wondering and talkative tongues a-chattering for a day or two and then was forgotten. However, the events of that day, and the mystery surrounding the disappearance, had a profound effect on two people Adam Maclean, and John's son Joel.

That Wednesday in June was Joel's sixth birthday. His father's strange behavior before he vanished that morning, and his frantic remarks about "Time", left the boy with a lifelong obsession.

For many years John Webster had been fascinated by the subject of Time. That interest was sparked by Gus Hooper, a somewhat knowledgeable old fellow who operated a shoe-repair shop at Webster Corner in central Alberta.

John had learned the trade from Gus; and, while working for Hooper, mentioned casually one day that he had been born at midnight on January 1, 1900. Hooper was intrigued. In the same way that some people see portents in the arrival of the 7th son of a 7th son, he decided that John Webster must be something special: after all, he was born at the first moment of the first day of the first year of a new century. For Gus that simple event rang with overtones about one of his pet subjects - the nature of Time.

Hooper was a reader - as much as one could be a reader in the intellectual void of Webster Corner in the early 1900s. He was also an amateur thinker, part-time philosopher, and full-time talker; and because of the oddity of John's birthday Gus managed to pass on to young Webster his own preoccupation with Time.

He actually had more influence on the boy than did John's father, Jeremiah Webster. For one thing, at the age of 43, Jeremiah died in the war in Europe when John was only 17. Had he lived it probably wouldn't have made much difference. Jeremiah was a bitter, disillusioned man who was really a stranger to his son even before he went overseas.

John's interest in Time, whether justified or just plain crazy, deepened and strengthened. It became the focus of his life. He talked with Gus about Time, but seldom mentioned it to anyone else: he had tried on a couple of occasions and had been rewarded with indulgent smiles. He learned the safety of staying inside a shell of silence.

However, behind that silence was a lonely soul, drifting uncertainly from brief moments of elusive insights to days of deep despair. Now and then wisps of mystery would move across his mind: he would be sure he could 'hear' his inner mind forming words... "The Shadow Watchers"...and then, before he could get a grip on it, the pulse of meaning would be gone.

Early in June 1934 John took a tumble. He hit his head against a rock and was unconscious for more than an hour. For the next ten days he acted strangely and finally, on his son's sixth birthday, he vanished without a trace.

The day began with John's annual home-made birthday present for Joel. It was always made of wood, whittled with John's faithful pocket knife. He had progressed from a little whistle on Joel's first birthday to a spinning-top on his fifth. The gift was always a toy of some sort and Joel was expecting something pretty special in 1934. After all, he was going to be six...he would be starting school in the Fall. He thought his present this year might be a small car, maybe even a train engine, maybe even with wheels that turned.

The present he received left him disappointed and deeply confused.

John always hid the gift someplace in the house: hunting for it was part of the little ritual. On Joel's sixth birthday, however, his father came into his room very early. Gently, John wakened his son and whispered:

"Joel, Happy Birthday ! I've brought you your birthday present."

Joel sat up, rubbed his eyes, and stared at his father:

"But Daddy, you always hide it !"

"I know Joel, but this year is very special. I've brought it to you instead."

He held out a paper bag. It was not a parcel - not wrapped and tied - but simply a paper bag. John was holding it by the top, which had been neatly folded over.

Joel leaned back, avoiding the gift:

"I like it best when you hide it. That's more fun."

"I know Joel...I know...but this is very precious, very delicate. I was afraid it might get broken...or maybe somebody else might find it. This present is a secret. Nobody is to know about it except you and me."

"What about Mamma ?"

"No. Just you and me. You're six now ! Are you old enough to keep a secret ?"

Joel nodded solemnly and began to look with growing interest at the paper bag. He was becoming fully awake and his father's explanations were arousing his curiosity. However, he missed the fun of the hunt and so he hesitated again:

"What is it ?"

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Catalogue Information

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