miller's ford

MILLER’S FORD begins in October 1964 in Mintucket, the small Long Island town where 16-year-old best friends Ben Russo and Wayne Knudsen were born and raised. They passionately want to experience more than Mintucket offers. Wayne—an adrenalin addict—is sometimes his own worst enemy. Ben provides both a stabilizing influence and, often enough, a partner. He is drawn equally by Wayne’s outrageous sense of adventure and fun, and by his protective desire to save Wayne from his rash impulsiveness. A sequence of events brings FBI Agent Ed Norton into Ben's and Wayne’s lives and launches a behind-the-scenes strategy to use them as unwitting messenger boys with dispensable lives , and by early summer Ben’s loyalty to Wayne has snared them—unawares—in the dangerous crosscurrents of a diamond smuggling ring led from inside the law. It launches their secret escapade, a modern-day Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn journey south to Miami Beach. MILLER’S FORD follows their joy ride , their cat-and-mouse chase with a faceless pursuer, their sly survival strategies, and their hair-raising confrontation with the dangerous truth on the Argentinean cargo ship Rangitoto. Ben narrates in his distinctive voice, with wryly observant, sometimes bitingly funny, commentary.