Debbie Number Three

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Synopsis

It’s the summer of 1966 — just after Beatlemania and just before America’s belly flop into the Vietnam quagmire. Eddie Dodson is a sensitive smart-ass who comes from a dysfunctional family. His father is a feckless man-child. Eddie has a tortured relationship with him for reasons he doesn't understand. His mother is fierce but exhausted from being forced to carry the full load. Eddie assumes he is as dysfunctional as his family and occasionally works extra hard to fulfill that prophesy. He redeems himself on an open lot where the neighborhood kids play football. He's the best football player in his neighborhood, and that's no small thing. So, Eddie is a jumble of generational insecurity, willful idiocy, and soulful empathy. Eddie’s best friend (Debbie #1) is Debra Mayfield, although she goes by her middle name, Lynn. She is also his roadie, shrink, alter ego, and oracle. She has a crush on him, and he adores her, but he has no romantic interest in her. He has a crush on a neighborhood girl (Debbie #2) whose actual name is Debby — not Debra or Deborah. She comes from a stable family, headed by a decorated World War II veteran and successful businessman who carries a briefcase to work. He’s the kind of father Eddie wishes he had. Debby's the kind of girl whose hand he wants to hold. That is, he'd be happy just to dance with her. Unfortunately, his parents’ marriage is unraveling, so he's sent to work on his aunt and uncle’s dairy farm while they work to decide whether it's worth saving. While Eddie's at the farm, he meets (Debbie #3) Deborah Gehring at the public swimming pool. She is volatile, daring, and determined. She concocts a way to coax Eddie from one side of the city pool to the other so that she can meet and size him up. She invites him to watch a Little League baseball game that night, then takes him for a walk around the neighborhood. On their stroll, they pass an empty house that had belonged to his recently deceased grandmother. Though it’s boarded up, h