Forest of the Night

In 1794, William Blake wrote a hauntingly beautiful poem, The Tyger, exploring the genesis of and the relationship between evil and good. I borrowed the title for my work from his first stanza. As Blake explained, there is evil in the world. And there is good. And sometimes, the dividing line between the two gets blurred. Judy Wilson is a beautiful teenage girl in the initial bloom of womanhood, eagerly enjoying her first real romance and exploring a sweet and excating introduction to physical love. On the very night when she had planned to finally consummate her love, she is abducted and viciously ravaged by a ruthless criminal gang. She manages to escape with her life - but with little else intact. Southern justice often moves rapidly. But sometimes it does not move at all, especially when a big city mob is involved and when sizeble sums of money make problems go away. Judy and her family are left without a champion, without justice, and almost without hope. What can a poor, widowed mother, beset with a crippling illness and with only her three teenage children to help her, do against overwhelming injustice? What can they do against armed criminals who take what they want and who kill without remorse? In the silent forest of a deep, dark, Tennessee night, they find a way to achieve - if not justice - at least a measure of revenge. Not only will you want to finish this story with the lights on, you may want to double lock the doors. And you will want to give up going for walks in the woods. Alone. At night.