We Won’t Forget You Mr. McGillicuddy

“Child,” Gil’s mother told him when he was four years old, “don’t you never say, ‘It won’t happen to me.’” Then, as if she could see the question forming in his young mind, she said, “Because the moment you say it ain’t a-gonna happen, sure as God’s glory, the devil gonna take out his bag of tricks and it gonna happen to you.”

So went the warning Gil McGillicuddy received from his mother just before she died, leaving him an orphan. Gil kept this lesson in mind. It was all he had of his immediate family.

Over eighty years later, the flirtatious WWII veteran who loves to sing to the ladies, tries to keep it together as the menace of dementia takes its toll. He is troubled by nighttime visitors: his wife, dead five years, who talks to him and a mysterious dark man whose wordless visits make Gil wonder about his sanity.

"He appeared to be a dark man, but not comparable to a black man- not dark as in having dark skin. He remained obscured as if he was a shadow. The features of his face were concealed by the shadow that he was. His darkness made Gil’s skin crawl with the realization that through this man ran a cold, black streak that extended forever into the void of time and space."

Mostly Gil worries. He worries about his son, Robert, who writes radical blogs that Robert is sure will not get him in trouble as he never advocates violence and is a law abiding citizen. Gil is convinced otherwise.

"If we stand together, shoulder to shoulder, and we tell those who would be our masters, 'There will be no cars, no trains, no airplanes move today. There will be no commerce take place. No money will change hands, nothing will be bought or sold until we have justice and those who have taken our freedoms and perverted our justice have been pulled from their thrones and led out into the street.'"

Robert McGillicuddy

Robert would have done well to have heeded his grandmother’s last lesson to his father. Instead, he plods ahead keeping up his blogging while helping care for his dad. Robert’s wife passed away near the same time as his mother and he has retired early from his career to help his dad. The situation is complicated when his oldest daughter, Ruby, her preteen daughter, Sapphire, and Ruby’s unborn fetus take refuge in his home from her boyfriend who has turned to meth and violence.

The McGillicuddy family is dealing with many of the same challenges most of the other 99% are dealing with in the year 2012: the financial crisis, housing bubble, lack of employment, cutbacks in social services, high prices, low incomes... We see a girl turn to a teen, a baby being born and the family pulling together to face tough circumstances. But there is a hidden danger, a danger from someone with a grudge who is in a position to do harm to a family member. Fedder is a man from Robert’s past with revenge on his mind: “Ah, yes, revenge is a dish best served cold, very cold.” He is a floor manager for a security firm contracted out to the NSA. Information is at his finger tips and can be recalled, manipulated and presented any way he wishes. The many eyes and ears of the surveillance society are at his beck and call. The McGillicuddys can’t see it coming.

As Fedder’s thirst for revenge nears its conclusion, the McGillicuddys are suddenly aware of the plot. Sapphire emerges with some quick thinking and heroic actions, mirroring her Grandpa Great’s heroism in WWII. Will it be enough?

"That same sweat and fear gave him an energetic burst, which catapulted the sailor to the upper deck to man the anti-aircraft gun when he saw the gunner who had been assigned there jump into the ocean, dealing with his horror in a different way. It was that apprehension added to a rush of adrenaline which caused Gil to overcome the taboo against killing members of his own species, to draw a bead on one of the planes strafing and preparing to bomb their ship again, pull the trigger in short bursts while leading the aircraft like he did back home when he hunted doves flying out of the grain fields and then watch it fall, flaming into the sea, knowing that he had killed another human being."