Sentence Sneak Peek - Wednesday's Child

Wednesday’s Child by Alan Zendell

The first sentence from each chapter of Wednesday’s Child, it's a mini summary of what you can expect to read.

* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)
* Book received from the author for review

"I didn’t realize Wednesday was missing right away."

"If you’ve ever looked into the eyes of an Alzheimer’s patient and seen the horror of realizing everything that makes him who he is is slipping away, you’ll have some idea how I felt when I was once again alone with my thoughts."

"The name “Gayle Burdak” on the wall outside her hospital room reminded me of the first time I saw it on her office door."

"I got back to the office around 3:00, feeling like I was losing my mind, wanting only to hunker down for the rest of the day."

"Ilene and I went home and spent a quiet evening."

"I considered calling Romanelli myself, but part of my effectiveness was staying in the background, and Jim would be in later."

"I must have lain there in a fugue."

"Forty-eight hours after her accident, Gayle seemed to be her old self, rejecting medication, snapping at nurses, demanding to be discharged."

"Ilene wasn’t home when I got there."

"Attempts to use dirty bombs as military weapons in the Iran-Iraq war proved impractical, but their potential use by terrorists was another matter."

"Sunday morning, the second day in a row that Ilene and I awoke with no temporal disconnect, was a lovely morning, perfect for a drive in the country, except that we left the interstate well within the suburban sprawl of northern New Jersey."

"We were quiet on the drive home."

"There was nothing to be gained by rehashing everything with Ilene, and it was restorative to let things be normal for a couple of days."

"“Dylan!"

"I considered calling William when I got to work Thursday morning, but rejected the idea."

"The pain in my head had lessened and the fog had lifted somewhat."

"I slept so soundly I didn’t hear Ilene’s alarm clock."

"Opening up to Ilene had energized me."

"Samir’s acceptance of my flimsy explanation, followed later by William’s, taught me a valuable lesson."

"A common interrogation technique is preventing prisoners from getting adequate sleep on the theory, I suppose, that a sleepy terrorist is a sloppy terrorist."

"APL was located in the suburbs halfway between Baltimore and Washington, an area of beautiful countryside rapidly filling with upscale housing developments and chic new Town Centers."

"The pilot met us in the loading bay, a cavernous space filled with hoists and miscellaneous equipment, like something out of Dr. Frankenstein."

"I told John what I saw, omitting the fact that I’d recognized Rod."

"Special Agent Henry White was misnamed."

"It was almost 6:30 when I reached the hotel."

"I felt no remorse about putting the fatal shot into the Arab who’d tried to kill me, but hours later, as my train pulled out of the station, I still reeled from knowing that terrorist or not, I’d killed someone."

"Friday morning, I called Samir."

"Rod understood precisely what he needed to do."

"Ilene, Jerry, and I worked out a way to document everything that happened as a result of my day-switching."

"I’d promised I would share everything with Ilene from now on, but there would always be things I couldn’t or shouldn’t say."

"“Did William try to reach me yesterday after the news broke?"

"The Baltimore field office of the FBI was located in an urban-looking suburb west of the city."

"The adrenaline coursing through my veins made my body hum like a finely tuned Maserati as we waited on First Street NE in our conspicuous-as-hell SUV."

"Faced with two possibilities – either I had escaped from an asylum or I was telling the truth – Henry reserved judgment until he could study the web downloads and videos I’d brought."

"I awoke Friday morning eager to learn about Ilene’s Thursday, the one I’d skipped, on which William surely must have been looking for me."

"Friday evenings aren’t usually times when I hear from my friends, but an hour after I said goodbye to John, Gayle called."

"Was I weaving an overly complex web with Gayle and Rod?"

"Most intelligence failures are the result of bureaucratic breakdowns or failure to coordinate information."

"I went looking for Henry when I arrived at Federal Plaza at 7:30 Thursday morning."

"Thursday evening."

"Wednesday afternoon, we were all in the Agency conference room.."

"Friday, Henry and Rod experienced what Ilene had been living with for the first time."

"The push to locate the terrorists continued unabated through the weekend with William conducting a daily five o’clock briefing."

"The world was still there, Thursday morning."

"Ilene hadn’t met Henry before."

"Wednesday morning, I couldn’t think of a reason to alter my encounter with Ilene."

"I shook myself out of the trance I’d slipped into."

"I pulled on my protective gloves and fastened my hood."

"I still don’t know whether HE was God, and I have no regrets about my last words to HIM, but it turned out that the Übermensch wasn’t done with me yet."

"Sunday night, I called William."

"William and Henry spent some of their capital getting us a hearing the following afternoon."

"The first interview was a ratings blockbuster for the three networks that aired it."