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This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

The author was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, raised in Erie, Illinois, and is presently living in Wichita, Kansas.

He is a Mechanical Engineer for a major aerospace company, a member of United States Navy Reserve, a Fourth Degree Black-Belt Instructor in Tae Kwon Do and Open Water certified in SCUBA.

The collection of papers, as seen through the eyes of the average high school teenager, is an eye opening and surprising experience.

The Test - is the story of a seventh grade boy preparing for his Black Belt test in the Korean martial art of Tae Kwon Do. As he continues to train in preparation, he finds himself confronting the true meaning of the Five Tenants of Tae Kwon Do: Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self Control, and Indomitable Spirit.

Brian finds himself having to put up with his older sister and her teenage attitude. He has also promised his neighbors to walk their son to school and watch out for him since he has been targeted by a bully.

Between his training, his family, the promise to his neighbors, and the bully, Brian was able to experience each of the tenants first hand and find out for himself, his ability to understand them and live up to them.

Brian walks to school every morning with his best friends, Derrick, Barb, and Carie. Derrick is Brian’s bets friend and the two stick by each other in all matters. Along with the three friends, Brian also picks up Keith, his neighbor kid who is in the fifth grade.

Keith ahs been bothered by an eighth grade bully and Brian has offered to walk him to school everyday and watch out for him. In doing so, Brian becomes the bully’s new target.

The bully, Dan, and his friend, Steve, go out of their way to torment and goad Brian into a confrontation. The Black Belt Test only a few days away, Brian tries his best to avoid the confrontation and live up to his martial arts oath by avoiding a fight as bets as possible. Derrick is always with Brian, willing to be there if he should be needed to help keep the fight fair.

Eventually, Brian can no longer avoid the confrontation and agrees to meet Dan after school in the park. Derrick skips football practice to stand by Brian’s side, just in case.

At the park, a large crowd of students has gathered to watch the upcoming event and cheer on their chosen champion. Brain is now faced with having to be a spectacle in front of his fellow students, something he has never wanted to do as he has always tried to keep his martial arts a secret. Now everyone will have to be let in on the secret. As the confrontation progresses, Dan becomes angered at the fact the fact that he has not been able to lay a hand on Brian, but Brian has been able to throw him on the ground, repeatedly.

Brian puts his self-defense training to the test and finds that it all works just as he had been taught. He eventually puts Dan in a submission hold and forces Dan to agree to end the fight and stop being a bully.

The night of the Black Belt test arrives and Brian gives it his all. His entire family is there to watch and support him, as well as Keith and his parents. At the end of it all, Brian realizes that the true test was not in the Black Belt test, but in his dealings with Dan, his school friends, Keith, his sister, and his parents.

Karol spends most of her day training hard for an upcoming competition. She is intent on being the Grand Champion of the tournament. She makes time for her homework and keeps her grades up, but neglects her social life.

Karen becomes concerned with her sisters’ lack of fun and takes steps to get her involved in activities with her and her new boyfriend, Mark, as well as Karol’s boyfriend, Paul. Karol goes along to please her sister and to spend time with Paul.

Paul has also become concerned with Karol’s over zealous attitude towards the tournament and works with Karen in trying to show Karol how to balance her life. The two team to try and make her understand that the true competition is not with other, but within herself.

Karol becomes consumed with winning the upcoming tournament and being the best. She spends all of her spare time studying martial arts books and practicing, when her sister hasn’t made other plans for her.

Karen talks her sister into attending a New Year’s Eve Party at the farm of the parents of some fellow students. During the celebration, some party crashers start a fight with the hosts two sons, Paul, and Mark. Karol steps in as one of the uninvited guests throws the first punch and ends up taking out all four of the intruders. This causes a conflict with Paul and he tries to explain to her that she doesn’t have to prove how good she is to everyone. Karol doesn’t understand what he is talking about.

The competition arrives and Karol takes first place in all of the events. Now she has the Grand Championship to win. She is ecstatic at her success and confident the Grand Championship will be hers to Karen’s and Paul’s dismay. The two allow Karol to rejoice, but tell her that they will be there when she finally understands what they have been trying to tell her all along.

Karen ends up taken third place in the overall tournament with the Grand Championship going to a senior, more experienced, and more balanced Black Belt. Second place was awarded to a senior, ore experienced, and more balanced Black Belt.

In the end, both senior Black Belts give Karol the same advice. On her way home with Paul, Mark, and Karen, the advice finally sinks in with Karol. She realizes that the true competition is not against others, but against her self, her own abilities, and her own life.

Relive The Magic -

Wilson Hawkins is a high school senior with an extraordinary musical talent, as well as a very pleasant and likable personality. He is also vice-president of the Senior class.

His girlfriend, Sandra Breckhart, has been his friend and companion since they were young. It’s Prom night and Wilson and Sandra make their plans and final preparations to attend. Wilson is to provide the entertainment with his musical talents and talks Sandra into assisting him with her voice. Sandra is very musically talented also and the two perform show-tunes and swing era numbers together.

Wilson’s Parents, Harold and Agatha, are both professional musicians and their talents have been passed on to Wilson, as well as his younger sister and brother, Meredith and Allen. They are a very close and very musical family. Sandra, if no one knew better, could be one of them.

Sandra’s parents, Gene and Terri, have been life long friends of the Hawkins. Gene and Harold served in the Navy on the same ship during WWII. Agatha and Terri went to school together and were USO volunteers during WWII. They were the closest of friends.

Wilson’s antagonistic rivals in life are the Saunders. Frank and Elizabeth Saunders were very wealthy and owned a major manufacturing plant in the town. They were very prominent individuals, not because of their personality, because of their money and how they flaunted it as well as purchased what they wanted in life. Their children, Jillian, the Senior class President, and Marcus were spitting images of their parents.

Wilson’s parent’s tolerated the Saunders since they had know them from childhood and WWII acquaintances. Wilson had no tolerance for them. He was annoyed by their arrogance and flaunting of wealth. HE was also holding grudges against Frank and Elizabeth for trying to slander his parent’s names. He made it his personal goal to annoy the Saunders, all of them, every chance he got.

The Prom was to be held in an old USO hall that had been fixed up and renovated. It had been arranged to be identical to the way it appeared in WWII for the Prom.

The night of Prom, 6 June 1970, the anniversary of the D-Day invasion, the hall is filled with students and chaperones dressed in WWII era regalia. Wilson, in one of his many escapades to irritate the Saunders, who were also head of the Prom committee, decides to give the attendees a preview of the evening’s entertainment. He talks Sandra into assisting him in his plan by adding her voice to accompany his music.

As Wilson starts to play and Sandra begins to sing, a very magical event occurs to their surprise. Spirits of the past begin to materialize and soon the whole hall and all in attendance are transformed and taken back to a time of joy, a time of fear, and a time remembrance.

The living are reunited with fellow servicemen whom had fallen in battle. They experience the transformation to their youth as their eyes fill with tears and their hearts fill with song and joy.

Sandra’s mother, Terri, has her own personal reunion with one she has missed since the tragic event. Sandra finds that this special reunion will have a major impact on her life as well.

Wilson learns of the love shared by his parents. He comes to understand what it is and witnesses their first meeting and first spark of love. He also comes to understand the relationship of those that lived during that time and why it was so important to let the little things go and accept people for who they are and not what they are.

The evening is filled with reunions of the living and the dead, laughter and tears, and the past and the present. It is truly a magical evening. It is a magic, which continues to go on.

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