When Pigs Fly
Bob Sanchez
Reviewed
By Mary Lydon Simonsen, author of Pemberley
Remebered
After retiring from the
Lowell, Massachusetts police force, Mack Durgin has moved to
Pincushion,
Arizona where he is leading a mundane, shapeless, boring existence,
largely due
to the loss of Mary, his beloved wife of 30 years.
Meanwhile back in Massachusetts, Diet Cola, an unreformed and
dangerous ex-con,
goes looking for a winning lottery ticket that lay hidden in an urn
containing
the ashes of George Ashe, a former colleague of Mack’s.
During Diet Cola’s 11 months in prison, the
ticket remained undisturbed in the home of Mack’s parents, Carrick and
Brodie
Durgin; that is, until they mailed George’s remains to their son so
that he
could scatter them in the Grand Canyon.
Diet Cola and two
thieves, Frosty and Ace, as well Calliope Vrattos, a beautiful
waitress, and
the Elvis impersonator who is stalking her, are all headed in Mack’s
direction
where they will hook up with Juanita, an unfortunate choice for Mack’s
first
sexual encounter after his wife’s death, and her jealous boyfriend,
Zippy, so
named for the zipper he has tattooed on his bald head.
The cast is complete when Brodie, Mack’s
mother, who is in the early stages of dementia, and her loving husband,
Carrick, whose primary role is to keep his wife safe and happy, arrive
in
Arizona to visit their son.
If When Pigs Fly were
a movie, it would be a 1930s screwball
comedy. Zippy is after Mack because of
his one-night stand with his girlfriend; Elvis is after Calliope; Diet
Cola,
Frosty and Ace are after Mack’s ticket, which is complicated by the
arrival of
Mack’s parents. Mack knows nothing of
the ticket in the urn. He has been asked
to spread his friend’s ashes in the Grand Canyon,
and that’s what he’s going to do. All of
this is played out against the beautiful Arizona landscape.
Amidst all the chaos
created in the pursuit of the lottery ticket are two charming stories. Carrick Durgin knows that his wife is
suffering from dementia, and that it will only get worse.
He wants to make the most of the time left to
them, and so they go to Las Vegas with a side trip to see Mack.
Brodie, who’s brain has apparently deleted the fear mechanism
that keeps
human beings safe, finds herself in the company of Diet Cola and Zippy. Instead of being afraid of these two
hoodlums, she chastises them for their bad behavior.
All Carrick can do is hope and pray that his
wife will not come to any harm.
And then there is Mack
and Calliope. Mack is a handsome, kind,
thoughtful person who is trying to figure out how to live in a world no
longer
inhabited by his wife. Although he is
attracted to Calliope, he feels that if he became involved with the
former
waitress it would be the same as cheating on his wife.
For her own reasons, Calliope is reluctant to
commit to a relationship with Mack. Calliope
and Mack are like two people who see each other across a crowded dance
hall. They know that the attraction is
there, and step
by step, they move to the middle of the floor for that first slow dance.
This is a laugh-out-loud
type of book with some of the funniest writing I have read in years. The dialog sparkles and the characters are
funny and believable. And did I mention a
javelina named Poindexter?