Pastense

In the 1980s, Mary Edwards watches as her daughter Emily fights for her life against leukemia. With each visit to the hospital, Mary finds herself drawn to the research floor, and meeting with a mysterious man named Bun who educates her on the advancement of stem cells, and the critical work being done by Dr. Randall Byrne, before he abandoned his research after a psychotic break and disappeared into the night many years ago.

As Emily finally succumbs to her cancer, Mary, in her grief, finds herself on the park bench outside the hospital where Emily suffered and fought, and meets the long-lost Dr. Byrne. Miraculously, he has found a way to travel back in time, to a pivotal moment. Mary takes a leap and is sent twenty-four years into the past to save Dr. Byrne and, through his research, her Emily.

A bittersweet story of grief, love, reconnections, and reflection, Pastense is a heartbreakingly beautiful take of one woman's journey through the past, present, and hopeful future.

©2023 Robert Gordon Johnson (P)2023 Dorrance Publishing