John Dziak

The Fourth Person John Dziak

The Fourth Person is a fictional story of fantasy, angels, and orphans. It is fictional in story and characters, but very real in its portrayal of orphans and individuals culled to loneliness within themselves. A nun for twelve years, Sister Margaret Anthony, has decided to leave the church; her high school sweetheart, Steve Risko, is suicidal. Can she save him from the ghosts of Viet Nam? More important - who is she? Dominated by parents, protected by the church, did she even know how to be a woman? Then there is Eli. The Catholic Charities lost his papers. The sixth-grade boy is not only an orphan, his origin is unknown. Sister Margaret Anthony, always impulsive, but never sorry, leaves St. Thomas Orphanage in Boston during the night, but not alone; Eli goes with her. Their bonding redefines the term "orphan", as well as "man" in the physical sense and "man" in the spiritual sense, when Eli's ability to astroproject is temporarily stifled by his own discipline. Many solitary years pass for Eli, then he meets Mira. His love for the young woman causes him to break his promise and return to astroprojecting in order to share it with her. Mira takes the ability to new horizons; when she returns to her body she inadvertently brings Sam, an infant Soul, with her. Her mind and body must now be shared. Through the known, the unknown, love, happiness, and tragedy, the journey eventually comes full circle to a stunning climax when a determined Eli discovers his origin.