Saint Sebastian's Head

1997 Boston-Fifteen years ago an eleven-year-old girl died an unspeakable death in a small Midwestern city....As a child Weeble earns her nickname for her ability to stand up under difficult circumstances. Despite the squalor neglect and abuse of her home Weeble adopts the role of protector first for her younger sister Annie and then for her best friend Lauren. When Lauren dies Weeble hides her stark painful childhood from herself in order to survive.Years later and now a civil engineer living thousands of miles away Weebles tenuous hold on her emotional state has started to unravel. The methods she uses to cope with her shame and grief no longer work. After winning a grant to create a Web site dedicated to the victims of serial killers Weeble shuts out longtime friends and begins training for the Boston Sprint Triathlon. Running hard has always kept the nightmares at bay. Then during an early-morning run shes caught off guard by a Freegan named Tom Paul a glass artist and modern mystic. Weebles numb detachment shatters. As her past increasingly invades her present she will be forced to confront the truth of what happened that long ago summer.Using a structure that switches abruptly between radiant present and dark past Saint Sebastians Head tells the ultimately healing love story of a damaged woman and the faithful man who can see the hidden beauty of her soul.