CITIES, DARK CITIES
 DARK CITIES
by Clay Brown

The twentieth century,

the  ELECTRIC CENTURY!

     DARK CITIES  begins at the cemetery where LINEHAND  ended. It then follows Glade Elliott through a fascinating career and life in the electric utility business.  He experiences many of the events and characters that make up the industry and the brotherhood of linehands.

        The reader will journey with the young man as he explores the life of these very special workers, high above the rest of the world and among the lethal high voltage lines.  Also the journey through life as he faces the lineman's ultimate decision.  Does he continue the nomadic and exciting life of the 'tramp' lineman, or should he settle down in a community with a family as a utility lineman?

      At the same time Elliott experiences the highs and lows of life and love, he also becomes involved between the worlds of the workmen and the business of management. He gets another view of the changing times and conditions that continue the evolution of the trade and the industry through the last half of the twentieth century.


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1
February, 1992
       Glade Elliott drove through the steady, pre-dawn rain as the Interstate 5-freeway traffic moved laboriously North toward Portland. The hard rain, combined with the relentless spray from other vehicles, then distorting the lights from headlights and occasional highway lighting, presented an eerie specter. Like an older Hitchcock horror movie, it served to deepen his sour feeling of despair. His windshield wipers beat a rhythm, the radio was off, but the song kept running through his head.

Where were you the night the lights went out in Georgia?

Where were you when they hung an innocent man?

      Elliott had many things on his mind but he was having difficulty concentrating, with the haunting stanza blocking his thoughts. It was still too early for the real morning traffic jams but the rain slowed movement enough to make driving difficult and aggravating.

     Finally Glade turned his company car, a new Ford Taurus, into the parking garage, drove up four floors, and nosed it into his assigned parking space. His special key allowed direct entry into a semi-private hallway on the third floor of the corporate office building where the executive elevator whisked him to the fourteenth floor and his office. There were only a few in at this hour, but he knew more would be arriving during the next ninety minutes.

      Glade Elliott had never felt so alone or discouraged in the fifty-eight years of his life. During these past five, his friends and associates had left or retired, replaced by the younger "high rollers" as he thought of them. Lots of education, very little experience, and almost no understanding of the things Glade felt nearest to his heart. Even Morgan Eddy, his closest ally, had taken his early retirement and eluded the misery of the metamorphosis of this company, and the entire industry.

      Now there was just Davic Valencourt.

This was the morning of the Executive Committee session, intended to discuss extensive problems concerning the blackouts, the diminished earnings, and the pressures from three of the state utility commissions. Glade’s appointment to meet with Davic Valencourt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, was set for 8:15, followed by the Executive session which was scheduled for 9:00 AM. As he was the Chief Operating Officer, all fingers would be pointed at Glade, and he knew it.

Where were you the night the lights went out in Georgia?

The lights were not yet going out in Georgia, but they were in California, and soon this would be spreading to other states and regions.

Where were you when they hung an innocent man?

When things go wrong, someone must be at fault. This would be scapegoating at its worst, and he knew that he had a bulls-eye on his backside.

Interested?

Synopsis

email Clay@darkcities.biz

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LINEHAND
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