Metolius Blue

METOLIUS BLUE

John Harrington is dead-or not. Either way, Terri White, a middle-aged geologist and nature girl is suspicious about the phone call that informed her of her ex's demise. Even though she can see underground, into the deep past, and even across the barrier to the world of the dead, she feels oddly blind when it comes to facts about her ex.

Metolius Blue. follows Terri on a journey across Nevada's notorious Highway 50, peppered with defunct mining towns, through northern California and the coast of Oregon, trailed by the menacing presence of her ex. Her deceased friend, Dave O'Malley, rides with her on the road trip and provides an ear for her stories and flashbacks about John, the farm boy, reluctant Vietnam vet, and bisexual wild child of the sixties. Along the way she tracks down John's brother, acquires her dead husband's ashes, learns of John's suicide attempt on the McKenzie River and retells another one, years later. As she struggles to sort facts from habitual and extravagant lies, she finds herself dogged by nightmares and sympathetic symptoms of her dead mate's PTSD. Terri tries to dispose of John's ashes on the banks of the Metolius River, which precipitates a final encounter with her ex. Throughout the road trip, Terri taps her deep connection to land as a means to heal.