Doug from the Novel Fate and Destiny by Claire Collins

Bertram: Doug, I’ve been told you are a quiet person, so I’m going to be gentle in my questions. Let’s start with you telling me your story?

Doug: I dunno if I have a story. I did some bad things and I had to make them right. I didn’t really want to hurt anybody.

Bertram: Okay, so let’s start with who you are?

Doug: My name is Douglas Mancuso. Everybody just calls me Doug, except my cousin Lenny. He calls me Dummy all the time.

Bertram: Lenny doesn’t sound very nice.

Doug: Lenny ain’t nice at all. He’s been mean and pushed me around since we were kids.

Bertram: Why do you hang around him?

Doug: Oh, I don’t anymore. I got Nancy now. But I was lonely as a kid. Nobody wanted me around except Mama and Lenny.

Bertram: I saw a twinkle in your eye when you mentioned Nancy. Who’s she?

Doug: Nancy owns the diner in town. She makes the best meatloaf and mashed taters I’ve ever had. And her pie.. uh, well there’s just nothing like her pie.

Bertram: How’d you meet Nancy?

Doug: Well, Sheriff Parker and his sister Doreen left me at Nancy’s when they went up the mountain at the end of town to check on Andrew and Destiny.

Bertram:  Yes, Destiny and Andrew. They said you’re kind of a hero around here. What do you think of that?

Doug: Shucks. I really ain’t no hero. It was all my fault to start with. I just made it right. Destiny was the real hero. She came out strong and she trusted me when she probably shoulda shot me instead.

Bertram: What did you do so wrong?

Doug: Well, I kinda shoved her out of a moving truck. But I swear, I thought she was dead when I did it.

Bertram: Why did you think she was dead?

Doug: Cause I tried to kill her. Lenny made me do it. I didn’t want to.

Bertram: So how did you make things right?

Doug: Sheriff Parker told me I can’t answer that. It’s classy filed information.

Bertram: Classy fi- oh, you mean classified?

Bertram: The recorder can’t hear you nodding Doug. Please answer so I can write it all out later.

Doug: Yeah, classy-fied. Sheriff Parker told me I can’t tell you some things ‘cause there’s another writer who talked to all of us. I think her name was Clara. No, that’s not it. Claire. Yeah, Claire Collins came up here and she’s taking the whole story to make it into a book. You gotta get her book to find out the rest.

Bertram: Well thank you for talking to me Doug. I will see if I can get a copy of it. What’s it called?

Doug: She called it Fate and Destiny. She tried to explain why she didn’t call it Andrew and Destiny, but I didn’t really get it.