Autumn Odyssey is the story of Richard Rouse an older American professor who is teaching English in a Czech university when he meets Helga Wintermantle, a German woman language teacher living in Prague where they fall in love. During the ensuing summer the story, which is told from the man's perspective, takes them on an exciting, love-filled auto trip across much of Western Europe. They tour city after fascinating city, and quaint little out-of-the-way-places and villages in France and Italy, and their final destination, an unbelievably wonderful little Greek island far out in the Aegean Sea. When the summer ends they move to New Orleans where Richard is on the faculty at Tulane University. They enjoy enchanting days and nights on Bourbon Street where Helga is fascinated by the wonders of the French Quarter, and which Richard seen entirely anew through her eyes. But Richard's old flame, professor Jennifer Smartley causes trouble at a faculty Mardi gras party, and a few days later Helga mysteriously disappears from New Orleans. Richard, his heart breaking, uses his spring break to hurry back to Europe to look for her, but he searches in vain, finding out nothing. He returns to New Orleans and convinces his department chairman he must take off the entire fall semester and go back to Europe and look for her more thoroughly; thus begins his autumn odyssey. Richard revisits each of the wonderfully romantic places they had visited on their magical summer trip: Prague, Brno, Paris, Chambord, an especially quaint little French village, Venice, Vernazza, a tiny picture-perfect Italian coastal village, then Rome where they unexpectedly come upon a photographer with a wedding couple which, of course, plays on Helga's most cherished wish that they marry and and have children; and at last he searches for her on their dreamed of little Greek island. And most miraculous of all, when he arrives she is there, too, and they share a love-filled reunion at their favorite secluded cove on the island. But then in another cruel twist of fate, Helga tells Richard she must leave him again, but she mysteriously adds that she has been following last summer's route where she has been "storing up memories for the difficult days that lie ahead." With no further explanation she hurries to board the ferry back to Athens. And Richard is left alone again, lost in disbelief, too stunned to understand, too numb to think of what to do next. If only I could find her again, he thinks, I'm sure I could make her understand how much I love her and what an empty shell of a man I had become without her. And how I dream of her filling this empty place she has left in my heart. But sadly he instinctively knows he could never find her again, and his hopes of telling her how perfect their lives could be together again lie shattered in the dust at his feet. With Helga gone for a second time and knowing all is lost, Richard decides to visit Paris one last time. But on the way along the Italian coast his train passes Vernazza, the perfect little village they had loved so much, and he chooses to stop there. And, forgetting Paris with its too many poignant memories, he decides to spend a few days in the village before heading back to America. A few days later he is sitting near the remains of a Medieval castle. And looking out to sea he is trying without success to forget her as he reluctantly begins making his sad plans for heading for Rome and the airline he knows will take him home and away from Europe for the last time. The setting sun reminds him of the many times they had sat there watching the sun disappear in the blue Mediterranean just as all his dreams were disappearing now. Nearby someone is calling in the gathering darkness. Probably a mother calling a child home? And did that voice sound a little familiar? But no, probably Giorgio, the tavern owner had sent one of his waitresses to find him. But why was she using his first name? "Richard?
About the Author: Thomas Wells, professor emeritus at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia is a native of North Carolina. He was educated at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC with a BS and an MA; and he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He has lived in Norfolk, Virginia; Los Angeles, California; New Orleans, Louisiana; Heidelberg, Germany; and the cities of Prague and Brno in the Czech Republic. After retirement he returned to his small eastern North Carolina hometown which had been the locale for many of his short stories. He has three grown sons. His earlier novel, RED PANTHERS, is a fictionalized version of a plot by a group of disgruntled old communists who hoped to reestablish communism in the Czech Republic and throughout all of Eastern Europe. The ideas for his novels have come from his two years teaching English as a foreign language at Masarykova University in the city of Brno, Czech Republic and from the many stories his students told him about their lives under the oppressive rule of the communists. Both books are available at Amazon.com.