AFTERMATH is set in the blue-collar town of East Breed’s, Pennsylvania. It is the dead of winter and the town simmers with barely concealed prejudices and unspoken rules, dividing the rich from the poor, the successful from the struggling. One Friday night in the parking lot of a chain restaurant, the tension erupts in a brutal fight between the privileged boys from St. Brendan’s and a group of kids from the local high school. Casey Fielder, the restaurant’s manager, watches the melee but does nothing to stop it. Once before he had called the police, only to be reprimanded by the home office. This time, he sticks to the corporate rules. When the fight ends, Colin Chase, a handsome, cocky student at St. Brendan’s, is left severely brain-damaged. In a compelling and at times heartbreaking narrative, Brian Shawver portrays the lasting effects of one night. Casey, ostracized by his unforgivable failure to act, loses his job, his girlfriend, and his sense of self-worth. For Lea, Colin’s mother, the incident ironically offers a way to reclaim the defiant, arrogant son she hardly knew and could barely love. Although she hopes that the guilty boy will be found and punished, Lea can’t escape the feeling that Colin somehow brought the horror upon himself. As she looks for clues that will help her understand him, she discovers his apparent devotion to a young woman named Jenny, and she seizes on this relationship as the key that will finally allow her to love her son unconditionally. Read Less