What Separates a Hero from a Mere Mortal?

Ace fighter pilot, Captain Oley Washington Jr. confidently guides his warplane into the teeth of danger.

As a scarred veteran of the Vietnam War, flying into enemy territory, with the constant threat of being shot down by buzzing anti-aircraft guns and rockets, no longer daunts him. It is a fact of life. When an enemy rocket hits his aircraft, the prospect of being captured by the enemy looms large on the horizon as he ejects and parachutes away from the burning plane. 

A painful capture

Hobbled by a broken leg upon landing, the hard and woody ground offers him scant protection. He scrambles to hide beneath a fallen tree while enemy soldiers, who pinpointed his location because of his parachute, scoured the jungle. He manages to call for help using his emergency radio. The extraction fails because the enemy sees the rescue helicopter and mercilessly brings it down. The slight hope that Captain Washington nurtured that he can evade capture by the enemy is slowly slipping away from his grasp. He fights back with all the energy he can muster but the enemy surrounds and subdues him. A miserable life or death in a prison camp awaits him.

A hero prevails

Carl Kegerreis’ I Wish I Had Those Gasoline Pellets begins with an exciting tale of the exploits of Captain Oley Washington, Jr., the heroic fighter pilot. His capture at enemy hands could have easily thrown him into a fit of despondency and apathy at the hopelessness of it all. Instead, he is still able to find the courage to face his incarceration. With an iron will and indomitable spirit, he manages to craft an escape plan along with other prisoners. The adage that one can never put a good man down is proven to be true in this novel.

by Carl Kegerreis

The Interesting Life of a Retired FBI Agent

The rising prices of gasoline, a pellet that transforms water into gasoline, and an ominous plot to keep the knowledge of and use of the pellets to a select few are the challenges that retired FBI agent Haywood Runyan and his beautiful wife, Lilly, must navigate in Carl Kagerreis’ stunning work of fiction, I Wish I Had Those Gasoline Pellets. Viewed against the backdrop of runaway fuel prices in the US and most places of the globe, the novel is almost too prophetic to be ignored. At the same time, the down-to-earth characterizations of Haywood and Lilly resonate with readers who, at one time or another, spent their lives as ordinary working men and women.

Life After a Stint at the FBI

Haywood Runyan is not the typical FBI retiree. Instead of calmly enjoying the bliss of being put out to pasture, he goes out of his way to look for exciting things to do-the more exotic the concept, the better. He is encouraged to do so by Lilly, his charming wife, who supports him through thick and thin. It leads them to Captain Oley Washington, Jr., a war hero who possesses a mind-blowing and long-held secret that can change the world. For Haywood and Lilly, their involvement with Oley unwittingly turns retirement into endless excitement.

Dealing with Conspiracies and Demagogues

The green pellets that Oley keeps with him turn out to be a revolutionary wonder, a literal philosopher’s stone that converts ordinary water into gasoline in the blink of an eye. For the common man, it is the answer to a prayer. He would not become a slave, anymore, to prohibitive gasoline prices. The discovery, however, attracts the unwarranted attention of demagogues, like King Hassmen Tavio of the Saudi Oil Cartel, who would go to any length to preserve their control of the world’s energy sources. Life has suddenly become more complicated for Oley, Haywood, and Lilly.  

by Carl Kegerreis

Love, Devotion, and Long-Kept Secrets

When Carl Kegerreis wrote I Wish I Had Those Gasoline Pellets, he could not have anticipated that the characters of this sumptuous novel will become larger than life. If one talks about love and devotion, the tight bond exhibited by the leading characters, Haywood and Lilly Runyan is unparalleled. Lilly’s spontaneous revelation of a dark secret that she had kept hidden for years strengthened her relationship with Haywood even more, instead of eliciting cracks. The leading sentiment that love can, indeed, endure all things must have been plucked by the author from the ideals of his late wife who passed away because of Alzheimer’s disease.

A Love to Last

Haywood Runyan met his wife in the most improbable of circumstances. As an up-and-coming FBI agent, he was in a rush to attend his first court hearing and had only stopped to get coffee. When he inadvertently knocked down to the ground the plastic cup held by the woman standing in the doorway, he did not know that it was to be the start of a romantic relationship that will define his life. He and Lilly have been inseparable from the time Haywood decided to buy her a fresh cup of coffee in exchange for the one he spilled. 

Secrets and Trials

Like the author who experienced the agony of his wife’s bout with Alzheimer’s disease, Haywood and Lilly’s relationship was also tested by tribulation. Lilly, who was a college war protester so many years ago, was involved in a beating incident. Chancing upon Captain Oley Washington, Jr., the group she was with nearly beat the war hero to death. Although she made a supreme effort to stop the beating, the thought that she had not done enough to save Oley had always hounded her. When fate brought her, Haywood, and Oley together, she confessed her role in the dastardly deed to Haywood. Instead of blaming her, Haywood accepted her explanation that she had not meant the incident to happen. His love for Lilly triumphed over any other consideration. That Oley regained his memory because of Lilly’s intervention served as the icing on the cake.

With an inspiring story of love, devotion, and acceptance, the author has transcended himself in this literary work of art. 

by Carl Kegerreis

Making Sense of Gasoline Pellets and Alzheimer’s Disease

With the price of oil hitting US$115 per barrel in the world market because of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Carl Kegerreis’ explosive tour de force, I Wish I Had Those Gasoline Pellets, seems almost prophetic. Its revolutionary concept of gasoline pellets as an alternative source of energy, although fictional, is what the US and the entire world need at this time of rising gasoline prices. Strongmen like King Hassmen Tavio come and go but their desire to dominate keeps the world in suspense. It is up to unlikely heroes like the main character, Haywood Runyan, to foil their grand schemes.

The gasoline pellets were a legacy of the scientist, Oley Washington Sr. to the world. Before his untimely death, he entrusted the pellets’ safekeeping to his son, Oley Washington Jr., who was about to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his exploits as an escaped prisoner of war in Vietnam.  Hitting two birds with one stone, Oley Jr. was to deliver in secret the highly sought-after gasoline pellets directly to the American president on the day he was to receive the award. In an unfortunate twist of events, Oley Jr. was violently assaulted by a group of protesters and lost his memory. After more than a decade of wretched existence as a vagabond, Haywood found Oley Jr. and brought him back to the mainstream along with the precious gasoline pellets. It led to a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with the sinister Tavio and his henchmen with Haywood and his beautiful wife, Lilly, caught squarely in the middle. 

The author, Carl Kegerreis, wrote the book as a tribute to his beloved wife who suffered from dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease. Interestingly, it was the war hero, Oley Jr. who lost his memory instead of Lilly, whose character closely resembled the author’s wife. Nonetheless, it is a story that was forged by the author from the emotional and physical trauma foisted by the debilitating Alzheimer’s disease on the author and his wife. It is a celebration of the triumph of the indomitable human spirit against overwhelming odds.  

by Carl Kegerreis