Sequelae

Taking in the decade that ends in 1968, Sequelae follows Jasper Millwee and his sweetheart Lecky Greir to college in Chapel Hill and at Duke. The next summer Jas and a friend drive the Pan American Highway to the north coast of Honduras. Before entering the Army Security Agency, Jas trains to join the investment firm of Lecky’s great-uncle Tony LeCompte. Lecky enters Union Theological Seminary. They live in New York until the Army sends Jas to nearby Massachusetts. After long preparation, he ships out to Bangkok as a supposed civilian. Months later he is expelled and ends up in Saigon, next stop Phu Bai, a small outpost an hour’s drive from North Vietnam. During R and R, Jas and Lecky travel in South Vietnam and Hong Kong.

After a San Francisco discharge, Jas tricks the army out of a reserve obligation and resumes his career managing LeCompte’s New York office. His apartment in the town house office serves during his short workweek, but he and Lecky are making a home at the Berkshire farm of his mother-in-law. Lecky’s home-churching effort succeeds.

Jas’s passing the Foreign Service exam speeds his diplomatic commission. He trains in Washington before his assignment to a strife torn Caribbean island. Disappointed by government work the Millwee’s return to the Berkshires after resignation.

They expect other opportunities in their hometown. In the Carolinas, Jas’s old family farm is on the market and the Millwee’s plunge into equestrian life. Charleston society also offers a welcome relief from quirky New England.