Hugh Centerville

Bobby Slater's World: an Early 1960s Summer Ghost Story Hugh Centerville

Summer, 1964 and for thirteen-year-old Bobby Slater, one of those rich summer kids up on Baker Lake, it's idyllic - swimming, fishing, baseball, hiking the mountains around the lake, camping on the islands, but what Bobby wants is a girlfriend. Be careful what you wish for, Bobby. Bobby gets his girl, a local girl, an Indian cutie and it's one soda, two straws, foreheads touching, eyes lost in love. It's bliss except the girl is fickle. Sometimes she's sweet and funny, sometimes not and it's because she's living with a deadly one hundred and fifty year old curse. Bobby will lead the fight against the curse and he'll have help from people living and dead. He'll have his sisters and his loyal cousin, Joe, who spends summers with the family and Bobby will have a grumpy Indian war chief and the local gypsy fortune teller and from the other side there's Sophronia, the Indian girl's mom, dead ten years, a victim of the curse. Mostly, though, it's on Bobby Slater. Can he break down the barrier that divides the summer people from the locals? Can he bring them all together to save the girl?