Sorry You Missed It

"I am absolutely certain about three things:

I want to do well in junior high and high school so I can get an appointment to West Point.

I promised I would help a friend, which means I have to fight a bully.

I also promised myself three years ago that I'd never fight again."

In a small beach town in Florida, twelve-year-old Matt Parker enters the mid-1950s full of life and confidence, ready to enjoy the growing freedoms of a teenager as he and his buddies enter junior high, and then trouble appears-a surly ninth-grader named Wayne.

Matt receives a phone call that turns the opening weeks of school into an exploit he never anticipated. The boys set out to protect Billy, who is being threatened by Wayne. Along the way, they encounter an unexpected visitor as they search for buried treasure on an island, try to catch a black snake named Lucille, and go to their first teenage dance party.

Sorry You Missed It... is a coming-of-age story of fun and laughter, sadness and tears-a dangerous adventure spiced with early rock n' roll and the innocence of a blossoming teenage romance.