Copyright (c) 2003 by John Moncure Wetterau Joe Burke's Last Stand Every Story Is A Love Story John Moncure Wetterau (c) 2000 by John Moncure Wetterau Library of Congress Number: 00-193498 ISBN #: Hardcover 0-7388-1663-9 ISBN #: Softcover 0-9729587-2-X This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial License. Essentially, anyone is free to copy, distribute, or perform this copyrighted work for non-commercial uses only, so long as the work is preserved verbatim and is attributed to the author. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/ or send a letter to: Creative Commons 559 Nathan Abbott Way Stanford, California 94305, USA. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, or to any events or locales is entirely coincidental. Published by: Fox Print Books 137 Emery Street Portland, Maine 04102 207.775.6860 foxprintbooks@earthlink.net Thanks to Larry Dake, Christopher Evers, Bruce Gordon, Majo Keleshian, Jane Lowenstein, Sylvester Pollet, and Nancy Wallace for valuable suggestions and invaluable support. Gino's poem, "Aesthetic," is by Sylvester Pollet and is used with his permission. Cover print: copy after Ogata Korin, 1658-1716. This book is for Rosy Joe Burke's Last Stand 1 "My rig's a little old, but that don't mean she's slow--Batman--that don't mean she's slow." Joe Burke was singing, driving south. His rig was a blue Ford pickup with a battered cap on the back. Batman, all six inches of him, was propped upright on the dash. Joe followed signs to the Weston Priory, climbing through woods and out onto an open plateau. A cluster of wooden buildings stood near a pond. A monk was raking leaves from a path that curved around the pond like a trotter's track. Joe got out, stretched, and entered a gift shop by the parking lot. A middle aged woman seated next to the cash register closed her book. "Where is everybody? Rehearsing?" She smiled slightly and remained silent. "Lovely day," Joe said. "Yes, isn't it." He bought a cassette made by the monks. "A bit stagy, Batman," he said climbing into the truck and closing the door. "We must continue to seek truth and contend with the forces of evil." Batman stared resolutely ahead. Joe cut over to the interstate. When he reached the highway, he played the cassette: resonant voices and a single guitar, encouraging. "Sappy," Ingrid had declared impatiently. Joe smiled. She was free of his taste in music now--had been for a year and a half.