Unbroken Threads is my first adult fiction novella. The outline for the story lives on a napkin, scribed while enjoying a delicious Irish breakfast beer more than 30 years ago. I sat at a table in an Irish pub and inn in Milwaukee, WI, with two colleagues. It was so long ago that I can't remember their names. I truly wish that I did, because I would love to give credit where credit is due. Enjoy the summary:

One life hangs by a wire. Another begins with a whisper.

For five years, William has lived in a purgatory of grief. His wife, Katherine, has been trapped in a vegetative coma at St. Luke’s Hospital following a devastating crash on their tenth anniversary. Bound by their deep Catholic faith and the power of prayer, William and Katherine’s parents hold onto a fierce, desperate belief that she will one day awaken.

But the night of the crash harbored a miraculous, metaphysical secret.

Down the hall, a premature baby girl named Caitlyn took her very first breath at the exact, microscopic second Katherine’s mind went dark.

Now, five years later, fate brings Caitlyn back to St. Luke's. When she locks eyes with William, a veil of cosmic amnesia lifts. With an ancient, knowing look, the five-year-old child whispers a chilling greeting: “Hello William, I was waiting for you to find me.”

Suddenly, William and Caitlyn’s mother, Kelley, are thrust into a race against a cosmic countdown. The single, frayed silver cord anchoring the remaining fragment of Katherine's soul to her artificial life support is tearing more every day. To save her trapped essence, they must embark on a harrowing mission to convince a grieving, deeply religious family of an impossible reality.

Can William find the ultimate faith to release the physical form of the woman he loves, or will the cosmic cord snap too soon—shattering a soul forever?