Reynold's trilogy looks at the dark side of Mayport

Jetty Man has been a 22-year endeavor

The enthusiasm is undeniable, contagious. It's like a child with a new toy. No, children get tired of toys quickly. He never gets tired of talking about his book.

It's like someone who has won the lottery. Sort of, but winning the lottery involves a great deal of luck. His success is the fruition of years of work, and memories.

When Bill Reynolds talks about his soon-to-be-released trilogy, Jetty Man, he gets a bit excited. His arms fly, his eyes light up, his heart races. His explanation jumps from character to character, story to story, and back again.

He talks a mile a minute and all you can do is push the play and record buttons and sit back. Sooner or later he'll take a breath and you can sneak in a question.

In 1977, as a college student with a creative writing assignment, Reynolds wrote a 20-page story about a small, weak boy in Mayport who becomes traumatized by the violence and death that enveloped one evening in his young life. High Pitched Hum, the first of the trilogy, was born out of that short story.

But it almost didn't happen. The story, the concept, scared him and, questioning his ability to write, he practically abandoned the project. Reynolds' professor was Dr. Betty Flinchum and she may be the sole reason Jetty Man is being published.

"I tear it (High Pitched Hum) up. I'm mad. I throw it at her," Reynolds said. "I say, I can't do this kind of stuff. And here's how people save you and help you.

"I'm through with High Pitched Hum and I'm not writing anymore. A couple of weeks later, she tapes it all back together and sends it to me with a little note: When you stop acting like a fool, then maybe you can be something. "

That was 22 years ago. Flinchum helped Reynolds finish High Pitched Hum and together they got it published. There was talk of a movie and sights were even scouted, but nothing happened and only a few of the couple hundred copies were ever distributed.

The second story, Duckin', written 12 years ago, picks up seven years later, right before Jason turns 16 years old. For his age, Jason is still smaller and weaker than the other boys in Mayport and they thrive on his inferiority -- especially Willis.

Part of Jason's perceived weakness is his quietness, a shyness that can only be explained by his past. It's a shyness that bothers some, haunts others and heals a few. It's a shyness that serves as the perfect cover for his true personality -- that of a kid who has faced death and is prepared to fight evil as long as it hounds him.

There are very few light moments in Duckin', in fact the whole novel is described as Gothic. But, don't let that scare you. Duckin' is a coming out party for Jason, an introduction to manhood, another lesson in a life that has already seen too much.

The premise of Duckin' is the game duckin, but if Jason is the main character, the oak tree is his heart and soul. Duckin is a capture and release game played each summer by the Mayport kids right before the shrimp run. Captured players are only released when their teammates swing down from the oak and tag them. The bloodier and more violent the duckin, the better the shrimp harvest.

Willis and his cronies assure that the duckin is the bloodiest and deadliest and last one ever.

"Each story is the battle of good and evil," Reynolds said. "because of the tree. You can see the tree. On one side is where they play the game, with the ropes. A pretty nasty looking side. There's foliage on the other side.

"The superstitions surrounding the tree persist throughout the trilogy. Some folks believe in the tree's power, others dismiss it as hearsay. To doubt the tree is borderline heresy to some. If talk of the tree frightened the people of Mayport, the story Duckin' terrified Reynolds.

"I let three people read it," Reynolds said. "They all went crazy. Duckin' scared me. I put Duckin' in a closet and it got dusty because I didn't know if people were ready for Duckin'.

"They weren't and they aren't. But then again, were people ready for Elvis? Rap music? Disco?

Like High Pitched Hum, Duckin' leaves the reader begging for more. But more almost never happened. A terrible accident left Reynolds with the time to write The Lunch Rock, the final story of the trilogy, but hardly the end of the saga.

Last February, Reynolds was injured badly in a student-faculty basketball game at Mayport Middle. He was driving for a layup when he fell on the floor, slid into the wall and ripped his back to shreds. The injury required two surgeries and left him bedridden for six weeks.

"I didn't want to just sit there and watch TV, I couldn't," Reynolds said. "I had never been in bed that long. I was really hurt. I didn't think I was ever going to play basketball again.

"Six weeks and 380 pages later The Lunch Rock was done -- in longhand, scattered all over. Reynolds had the story in his head for about six years and now it was on paper.

"I'd sleep all day and write until about four, five six in the morning," Reynolds said. "Then I'd pop a pain pill and be gone until three that afternoon.

"Reynolds didn't want anybody to see The Lunch Rock, so he packed up all three stories and sent them to Rutledge Books, Inc. in Connecticut. One day, Art Salzfass, the owner of Rutledge, called Reynolds.

"He said, 'We don't know what to do with this manuscript. This is the wildest thing my company has ever received and we think this is really going to put us over the top,'" Reynolds said.

Salzfass wasn't done.

"He said Duckin' should be a movie tomorrow," Reynolds said. "When that boy leaves the tree on that rope to swing down there to meet the evil boy, people in the theaters are going to go crazy.

"The Lunch Rock again revolves around Jason, only now he is 21 and in the process of becoming a real man. Jason gets a good job and almost instantly earns respect and notoriety. He is sexually alluring to every available woman and girl in Mayport and his life is starting to take a turn for the better.

Then the evil returns. It haunts him, his uncle and his mother. It chases him, physically and mentally. He drifts, he fades and he goes to war against the evil. Battles from days gone by eventually cost him family, and his sanity.

All three stories rolled into Jetty Man are terrifying. Locals will recognize places and they'll think they know names. The story will dispel, and at the same time solidify, every rumor, superstition and belief about old Mayport.

"I think that some people are going to say, I can't believe Bill did this," Reynolds said. "The ones that like it are going to say, God I didn't know he could do that kind of stuff. The ones that don't are going to say, I can't believe he's teaching children and writing these scenes.

"One person who does love Reynolds' stuff is his publisher, Salzfass.

"I think it's an awesome book," Salzfass said. "It's a compelling story and the characters have substance. You can find it in the writing and that's important."

"He has taken us into another dimension. You understand the motives and that's what separates this from other books."

Salzfass added that he has sent a copy to the William Morris Agency in Hollywood for movie considerations.

Jetty Man will hit the beach the week of January 25 with a book signing at the Book Mark in Atlantic Beach. There will also be a signing at a breakfast at Cinotti's. A firm date has not been set for either, but the book will also be available, at first, at Singleton's, Turner Ace Hardware and Sherry's Bar-B-Que King.

While the possibilities are truly endless, Reynolds remains cautiously optimistic.

"If it makes a lot of money that's fine," he said. "But, I've got a good job. I'm hoping this is something I can do in my retirement time. It's just started a little earlier than I thought.

"To some he is simply Bill. Administrators and co-workers know him as Dr. Reynolds. A lot of people call him William and two call him Dad.

But after Jetty Man shocks the Beach, stuns the city and captivates the nation, he will be known forever as G.W. Reynolds, III.

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