The year was 1964.¿ Leslie Kovacs Jr. was a socially awkwardsenior at a small Catholic high school in the Miami, Florida area.¿ Margie Smithfield was a shy, plainsophomore.¿ These two young people weredrawn to each other, and pledged their pure, chaste love until the end of the"long, long journey" when they could be married. But that long journey had to passthrough the time of troubles known as the Sixties.¿ Their dream of a life together would betested by their dysfunctional families, a thousand miles of distance and agreater divergence in their interests; it would be shaken by the turmoil in thecountry and in their Church; and ultimately shattered by an act of brutality.Twenty years later, against allodds, they meet again in the offices of the State Department in Washington DC.¿She is a single mother struggling to make a new life for herself and hertroubled¿ son.¿ He is a high-ranking political appointee,deeply involved in a covert operation to destabilize Soviet rule in Eastern Europe.¿ He has abandonedthe Faith that once gave meaning to his life,¿ leaving him cynical and selfish.¿ Can Margie bring back the Leslie she onceknew?¿ Can she break the hold of a womanas selfish as himself?¿Can their long-dead love, and Leslie"slong-dead Faith, live again?This first novel by Randall Matke is an affirmation of faith in God, freedom,and the power of prayer and pure love.