Thornton's Apprentice

Description

SHORT STORY 5,000 words "Thornton's Apprentice": Roseburg, Oregon, 1974: adopted parents abandoned Daggett, a young man nearly out of high school, to work on the Alaska pipeline. He watches trains then hops a freight where he meets Jenny, an intellectual beauty who is starving. Sharing his food with her and watching her sleep he becomes entranced; then accepts her invitation to stay with her father in Reno, Thornton Oranbee, a retired English Literature professor there. Together they set up a book store in Thornton's house while Daggett takes writing lessons from the old man. Daggett gains ambition and is smitten by love, but Jenny's past catches up with her.