Certain Things Happened

CERTAIN THINGS HAPPENED

By Bert Brun

After their parents’ marriage breakup, the Anderson siblings get on with their lives. Julia and Nora, following high school find jobs in Manhattan, while younger brother Kurt continues his schooling.

World War II is already beginning in Europe. Patriotic Nora joins the WAVES. Julia dates Air Corps bomber navigator, Lt. Bill Allen, who perishes when his B-17 crashes over Germany. On the rebound, Julia marries a dull, stingy engineer.

Nora meets and marries, not for love, but to avoid spinsterhood. After three children, she realizes that her husband, Larry Atkins, is a covert bisexual. Everything crashes tragically when Nora's dad fights with Larry during which an Atkins tot dashes away from the scene to be killed by a speeding young joyrider.

Kurt completes college, then, physically unfit for military service and unable to find suitable work, stumbles into a position running a small hotel in Costa Rica. Following a one night stand with a Boston College girl, he belatedly learns that she has born his daughter. By then he’s virtually engaged to a wealthy young Costa Rican woman. He solves the dilemma of what to do in the satisfying conclusion of Certain Things Happened.