There are only two residents of the piney wetland along Wack Road: Finley Wack, recycler and handyman, and Sara-Lapis Hughes, “Slappy” to her family.

Regrettably, Sara-Lapis owns her first house, the derelict property inherited by herself and seven brothers. Disgusted by her brothers’ lack of responsibility, she has purchased their shabby former home for back taxes at a courthouse auction, intending to “flip” it.

Too late, she discovers the neighboring property has become a junkyard, owned and operated by Finley Wack.

In thirty years of living on her own, Sara-Lapis has learned to avoid drunks and pretend not to understand indecent proposals. But Finley Wack is irrepressible. She isn’t bothered as much by his public debates with God as by his constant admiration and offers to help.

Finley Wack’s former goal in life was to understand everything. But comprehending the universe proved nearly as difficult as understanding human behavior, and he was bothered by a growing awareness that the lifetime of study necessary to unlock a single secret would not satisfy all his other questions.

Life for Fin got a lot more interesting when he recycled all his books and began talking and arguing publicly with God. Now almost every day he walks through Newcomb’s sad five-block business district, the best place to hear God and make friends. God has told him to love his neighbor.

Then Fin meets his neighbor and falls in love.

In Miss Slappy Gets an Admirer, Fin pursues Slappy Hughes while she blocks his advances, finds herself ensnared in an old ladies’ club, pursues the elderly but gentlemanly Ed Wilcox, and experiences the best and the worst of her former hometown as everyone takes sides in a garbage war.

Will this midlife mismatch end in romance? Slappy is stubborn, but Fin has faith.

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