Adam Henry — John Boston

Over public scanners, police use the polite euphemism of “Adam Henry” to describe eye-wateringly difficult people. The world of “Adam Henry” is maybe five minutes in the future. It's filled with tyrants petty to splendiferous, thieves, perverts, liars, bullies, cheats, terrorists, people who sneak illegal extra charges onto your credit card bills and the waitress who spits phlegm into your soup.

What would the world look like if you could remove every acrimonious monkey bucket? Our nameless hero is TV features reporter, a good but modern man who can only walk away from difficult decisions. The reporter is offered a chance to become the most influential person in history. In a tony San Francisco pub, he meets Wesley, a mysterious figure who has been chained in a basement cell of a Jerusalem monastery and closely guarded by Vatican security. Wesley constantly escapes. He shows up in odd places -- wilderness videos, remote Afghan villages, the White House. Wesley shadows the reporter, saving him from assassins and pressuring him to push the mysterious Adam Henry Button. Even the hero's childhood best friend and military intelligence operative, the haunted David Forrester, is following him.

There are many questions. How do you know who is a villain or who is just having a bad day? If there is a soul, will the hero lose his in such an act of spiritual pride? International events spin wildly in the hunt for the mysterious Wesley and our hero.

The clock is ticking down toward this apocalypse of common monsters. The humble reporter is the target of a worldwide manhunt because behind many structures of power are Adam Henrys. Wesley points out that many times, Earth has been visited by mass extinctions. Wouldn't it be refreshing if the next were attitude-oriented? But our hero is visited with another rare opportunity. He finally gets to be with his soul mate, a beautiful teacher named Riley. He loves Riley and her 8-year-old boy. He just wants to live in his yuppie concentration camp condo, play basketball, eat ice cream and be happy within the endless confines of the rarest of dimensions -- the perfect marriage.

After the deadline seems to pass without event, the world opens up for the reporter. He gains wealth, fame, freedom and even contentment.

“Adam Henry” isn't about saving the Super Bowl or some black-hearted, smiling-out-of-context politician. It isn't about stopping a bomb or rocket launch, rescuing the World Cup or saving the Pope or the Girl Scouts.

“Adam Henry” is about what happens to each of us, every day, when we turn our back and walk away from tough choices, whether it's standing up to evil or pushing the “Adam Henry” button.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: With more than 100 major awards, author John Boston is noted as one of America's top writers. Several times, he has been named both Best Humorous, and, Best Serious Columnist in North America, the U.S., California and Los Angeles. Boston is the recipient of the Will Rogers Lifetime Humanitarian Achievement Award. His novel, “Naked Came the Sasquatch,” enjoys a 5-star rating on Amazon.com and was required reading at Harvard. ‘Sasquatch' will be released as an e-book by Vook in summer of 2014.

Boston is a former NBC news director, ranch hand, newspaper and magazine editor. He lives in the bucolic farmland of Fillmore, California. You can read his weekly blogs at santaclarita.com and scvbeacon.com.

Will Fleet, past president of the California Newspaper Publishers' Association, once wrote of Boston: “Of all the writers I have known in my 30 years in the newspaper business, John Boston is the best. By far.”