a friend or loved one, the living are left to contemplate the mystery; to fascinate over the abstraction. But, if time is a portal, as many believe, and the spirit can walk again on this earth in a new form, it bridges the gap between the dark abyss and reality. Such considerings, then, excite the mind for who we were; how we lived; and, more curiously, were we loved by someone. Though time may wash clean all memories, the passions that lie buried in the subconscious can so securely tether us to a past life that the soul is unquiet, searching for the intangible like that will bring it contentment.

In the summer of 1988, while on vacation, handsome computer whiz Sam Baker becomes drawn into involvement with a group of citizens trying to halt a developer from acquiring an old farm that adjoins the Antietam Battlefield. When a bulldozer unearths the forgotten remains of a Civil War soldier at the site, Sam learns that the grave may be his from a past life. When he and Kelly Gracie, the lovely talented secretary for the citizens' group, learn that their attorney is really in the employ of the developer, Sam fears the grave may only portend their own demise. Since the unscrupulous developer seems willing to murder to gain ownership of the ground, fate may doom the two to that dark portal once again.

Revealed in vivid, mystical dreams that have been haunting both Sam and Kelly since arriving at Antietam, the story unfolds of a handsome cavalry captain and his affair with the beautiful young lady. He meets an untimely death at Antietam and is buried in an unmarked grave. She, then, dies of pneumonia, her body fatigued from her futile search for his remains.

ANTIETAM AFFAIRS touches the spark of hope for immortality that exists deep in the soul. It offers compassionate justification for lives untimely ended, and why rewards, though often deserved, are not always forthcoming.