Deborah L. Kleist

She lies in bed, frozen with fear, as the same towering man reaches down, plunges his hand into her chest and extricates her heart. She can feel it pounding, trying to expand in his grasp, until finally it explodes in flames that engulf them both. Claire is plagued by the recurrent nightmare as she adjusts to her new life in Chicago researching the homeless subculture and soon becomes entrenched in an underground world beneath the rich cultural metropolis she has always loved. "Confidentiality'"s main characters are Claire and Abel. Claire is young and vibrant, bent on educating herself, when she encounters a homeless man who will play a major role in her life, but she was not in search of a man. Claire is in search of herself. She does not frequent singles bars, clubs, or even friends' homes. Her travels include the streets and the underground of Chicago. She doesn't go to Millennium Park; she goes below Millennium Park. Abel is not tall, dark, handsome, or inviting....at least not at first. Before Claire enrolls in graduate school to pursue a degree in psychology, she decides to do some research on the homeless culture of Chicago. She moves to the city and begins conducting interviews. Soon she meets Abel, who challenges her to "cross over." Against all of her fears and reservations, she accepts his invitation and enters a world she could never have imagined. Allowing herself to be guided by blind faith, she develops a fierce, primal love for a man who takes her underground....but who is Abel, really? She stumbles upon conflicting stories about this man, and yet she can't turn back. She has a nagging feeling of foreboding, but once the match has been lit, the fire rages forward. Claire pursues the knowledge she feels she needs, but she prays....she prays that God has some part in what is happening to her and she prays that the Devil does not.