Books

What Happened to Yesterday? - Book One

Billy Carlton is born in Chicago in 1955 to a single mother who places him in a foundling home. Months later, he is adopted by Bill and Barbie Carlton, who later adopt a baby girl they name, Bethie. In 1959, Bill’s job takes the family to Alhambra, California, where Billy’s childhood unfolds against the rapidly changing landscape of the 1960s.

At five, Billy learns he is adopted during a family trip to Disneyland. Barbie tells him his biological parents died in an automobile accident, but the greater wound comes that night when Billy overhears a drunken Bill declare that Billy will never be his son. Confused about where he belongs, Billy goes outside, looks toward the stars, and asks God to become his father. Faith becomes a private refuge he will return to throughout his childhood.

The Carlton home grows increasingly unstable. Bill, unhappy with California and trapped in a job and marriage he resents, drinks heavily. Barbie is volatile, demanding and hungry for a life beyond her marriage. Billy learns early to compensate for both parents. He secretly finishes yard work Bill is too drunk to complete, protects his father from Barbie's anger and gradually assumes responsibility for Bethie. Baseball, neighborhood adventures and an elaborate backyard route through the properties along Ross Avenue give Billy places to escape and test himself.

Meanwhile, two other lives begin moving toward Billy's. Murray Gordon, a deeply religious young man from North Carolina, comes to California to prepare for the Methodist ministry. At college he meets Thomas Whitaker, a wealthy, charismatic California surfer whose friendship awakens feelings Murray has spent his life believing he should never experience. Murray loves Thomas but also believes he has been called to serve God. The conflict between those two truths follows him into adulthood.

On Ross Avenue, Fred DiMarco becomes another powerful presence. Charming, prosperous and increasingly involved in marijuana trafficking, Fred befriends young Billy while beginning an affair with Barbie. What starts discreetly becomes impossible for the family to ignore. Fred gives Barbie gifts, takes her on trips and eventually asks her to leave Bill and bring the children with her.

Billy refuses.

For all of Bill's weaknesses, Billy cannot abandon the man he still considers his father. His refusal enrages Barbie. She tells Billy that he was adopted for the tax deduction and promises that when he turns eighteen and is no longer financially useful to her, he will be thrown out of the house. Billy knows Bill will not protect him.

As the marriage deteriorates, Bill's alcoholism deepens. Humiliated by Barbie's affair and overwhelmed by his failures, he reaches a point of despair where a loaded handgun offers an escape. Billy increasingly finds himself caught between two damaged adults while trying to shield Bethie from the worst of their household. Barbie's relationship with Fred continues, but Fred's own ambitions and criminal activities gradually pull him away from her.

Murray, now Reverend Murray, eventually receives the Southern California church assignment he has wanted. He moves into a church-owned house on Ross Avenue, only doors from Billy. Without knowing how important the relationship will become, Billy finds in him something missing at home: an adult who listens without humiliating him and speaks about faith without using it as a weapon.

Thomas's life takes a radically different course. He enters the Army and is sent to Vietnam, where combat transforms the carefree surfer Murray once knew. Thomas proves himself a natural leader, responsible for men whose lives may depend upon his decisions. Murray and Thomas remain connected through letters, each confronting a different kind of conflict—Thomas in the jungle and Murray between his religious calling and the man he cannot stop loving.

Billy grows taller, stronger and more independent. Baseball gives him confidence, but home continues to teach him self-reliance. When Barbie announces that his personal expenses are now his responsibility, Billy leaves his paper route for a union job at Fremont Market and begins saving money. Barbie's eighteenth-birthday deadline no longer sounds like an angry threat. It sounds like a date he must prepare for.

As adolescence opens the world beyond Ross Avenue, Billy begins discovering girls, alcohol, work and the possibility of a life separate from his parents. He falls in love with Amy, and through her and Reverend Murray experiences something unfamiliar: acceptance without conditions. After a day at the beach with them, Billy realizes that safety may not mean the absence of fear but the presence of people who genuinely care about him.

Still, he cannot escape the approaching deadline.

Billy tells Reverend Murray that Barbie intends to throw him out when he turns eighteen and admits that he has no idea where he will go. Murray tells him that when one door closes, God opens another—even if sometimes a person has to wait for that new door.

Across the world, Thomas survives the escalating violence of Vietnam and earns the trust of his men and commanders. His leadership brings him a Bronze Star and an offer to attend Officer Candidate School. Accepting would mean becoming an officer and committing himself to another tour. Thomas has forty-eight hours to decide whether his responsibility to the men he leads is worth continuing to risk his life.

Then Billy's eighteenth birthday arrives.

For a moment, he allows himself to hope Barbie has changed her mind. She prepares his requested birthday dinner of tacos, and Bill gives him a Craftsman crescent wrench, telling him that someday he will have a toolbox of his own. But the family peace disintegrates into another argument. Barbie storms from the house, and Billy spends the remainder of his birthday away from home.

The following morning, Barbie enters Billy's bedroom carrying a bucket of cold water and dumps it over him. She gives him fifteen minutes to pack and threatens to call the police if he does not leave.

Bill appears in the hallway. He starts to object, but when Barbie orders him to stay out of it, he falls silent.

The father Billy has protected throughout his childhood does not protect him.

Billy hurriedly packs what he can into his car. Then Bethie appears carrying a suitcase of her own. Despite Barbie's order that she remain home, Bethie walks past her and leaves with Billy. Brother and sister drive away from Ross Avenue together.

Billy takes Bethie to friends in Temple City, where their separation leaves him heartbroken. Alone and uncertain where to go, he stops at a pay phone and calls Reverend Murray.

Murray opens his home to him.

Billy has moved only two houses away from Bill and Barbie, yet the distance between them now feels like a canyon. He understands that his life with his parents is over. He has a temporary roof, a job and someone willing to help him, but the rest will be his responsibility. At eighteen, Billy must finally make his own way.

That night, after returning from work to Murray's quiet house, Billy cannot sleep. A full moon hangs over Ross Avenue. He remembers the secret backyard route he ran as a boy—the dangerous nighttime journey through fences, yards and shadows that once allowed him to test his courage.

The old route calls to him again.

Billy goes to his room, removes his clothes and walks out the back door.

This time, he leaves by choice.