Old Friends: The Adventures of Charlie and Harry

Charlie Goodman and Harry Blackman have been friends since they were 10. They met on the first school day in 1956 while waiting to be led to their fourth-grade class. They find out almost immediately that they're both psychic and can communicate through telepathy. They live in the River Oaks Housing projects in Sacramento, California.

The following two years are uneventful until they are struck by lightning while playing at the river. This is when the knowing begins, the ability to see visions of the future. This is not necessarily a good thing since the images are usually bad. It is later revealed that Charlie always had the "knowing," and he's sending it over to Harry.

One of their first "acts of mercy" (help for those undergoing suffering) involved Dan Booker, Charlie's malevolent stepfather. He was an evil ne'er do well who inflicted pain upon his family in regular doses.

After seeing a vision involving Amy and Netty, their good friend Bobby Fuller's 8-year-old twin sisters left them no choice but to tell Sam Fuller and Aunt Anna (Bobby and the girl's father and Auntie) about their abilities. Sam becomes their mentor and is instrumental in getting all three families out of poverty and out of the projects.

Charlie and Harry go through high school, staying way under the radar. Two events happen. Another phenomenon is revealed when Charlie slows down time and saves Sarah Treadmill (his future wife) from getting run down by a car in the school parking lot. Two days before graduation (1964), they encounter some bullies. The James brothers are successful in their bullying tactics because their father, Henry James, is the narcissistic Sacramento County Sheriff.

In 1968 Charlie and Harry were one semester away from graduating from Stanford University. Another extraordinary power of Charlie's is revealed; he can look into the past and future of anyone he chooses to. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Charlie and Harry spend two tours of duty in Nam; they return home and finish college. They stay in Palo Alto, disillusioned with life in general. Their moral compass has been shattered. The war has taken its toll. Sam gives the boys two years, then comes and gets them.

In 1974 they went to their 10-year high school reunion, where Charlie sees Sarah Treadmill and falls in love. As the story continues, Harry questions the morality of it all and fights his own demons.