Tag: family

Water in the Wilderness

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Excerpt

“We can’t go back.”
Bobby pulled away from her. “Why can’t we? I want to go.”
“Because they don’t want us, that’s why.”
He looked up, cherub cheeks turning red, big brown eyes full of fire. “Who said so? I don’t believe you.”
Rachael turned on him, her voice rising. “Aunt Ruby said so. She said Auntie Tyne didn’t want us, and was going to send us away. That’s why Auntie Ruby took us in.”
Bobby kicked out at her. “I don’t believe you, Rachael; that’s not true. Auntie Tyne did so want us.”
“She didn’t, Bobby, and neither did Uncle Morley. And Aunt Ruby says we’re not to call them aunt and uncle anymore, because they’re not related to us.”
Bobby’s eyes opened wide as he looked at her. “What are we s’posed to call them?”
“We have to call them Mr. Cresswell and Mrs. Cresswell.”
Defiance written all over his small face, Bobby leapt off the bed and stood there glaring at her, “No, I don’t want to. I won’t, Rachael. You can’t make me.”
Rachael took a deep breath. She felt helpless and frustrated, at a loss to know how to deal with Bobby’s sudden rebellion. She would soon be eight years old, and should be big enough to protect him and make him feel better. But she didn’t know how. She didn’t know if she even believed her aunt, but she had to go along with what the woman said for Bobby’s sake, and her own. Somehow she had to convince Bobby to calm down and not get either of them into trouble.
She reached out and pulled him back onto the bed. “Maybe what Aunt Ruby says isn’t true, Bobby. Let’s just forget it. Why don’t you go play with Freddie now until bedtime?”
Bobby’s lower lip stuck out, and Rachael could see that he was trying hard not to cry.
“Don’t want to play with Freddie. I want to go to bed now.”
Rachael hesitated. She didn’t know if he should go into the boys’ bedroom right away because Ronald had been sent there …

https://www.amazon.com/dp/192676319X

Still Waters

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Excerpt

Tyne wondered if she should show them her gift, but decided
against it. She knew Aunt Millie would admire it, but her mother
might appear less than pleased. She hoped to spare Morley, and herself,
that embarrassment. Today, of all days, people should be joyful
and of one accord.
Tyne picked up her handbag, and smiled at the two older women
who stood watching them. “Bye for now. I’ll see you both later. I’ll be
home in time to help with dinner.”
Tyne hoped, but did not expect, that her mother would invite
Morley for lunch. She saw Aunt Millie glance expectantly at her sister-
in-law, but Emily did not take the bait. Tyne kicked off her slippers
in the entrance way and pulled on her fur boots. Then they let
themselves out into the crisp winter morning. 
Morley’s parents were already seated when the young couple
walked into Emblem Evangelical Church. The usher, a man Tyne recognized
as an employee of one of the three grain elevators in town,
greeted them warmly and led them to the pew where the Cresswells
waited. Mr. Cresswell, a stocky man slightly shorter than his son,
stood and shook hands with Tyne. Mrs. Cresswell also stood to welcome
her. She, too, was stocky and short, and Tyne had to bend from
the shoulders to return her hug.
She turned towards Morley’s father. “I’m pleased to see you looking
well again, Mr. Cresswell.”
He nodded and smiled. “The Lord is faithful,” he said simply.
“We’re so happy you could come, Tyne,” Mrs. Creswell said quietly.
“Come, sit beside me, dear, and Morley can sit on your other side.”
The warmth of Morley’s parents, and their obvious pleasure at her
presence in their church filled Tyne with ambivalent feelings. How
different their attitude towards her than her parents’ attitude towards
Morley. Their acceptance pleased her, yet at the same time made her
heart ache for the rejection Morley must feel from her parents. She
hoped that Aunt Millie’s acceptance – and Jeremy’s as well – made up
somewhat for her parents’ lack of grace.
As soon as the service began, Tyne became caught up in the joy
of the congregation. They sang the beautiful Christmas carols with
passion and enthusiasm.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763068

The Circle

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Excerpt

HAKIM ISONHISWAY to the Sheraton Hotel to meet his uncle so they can go
together to the medical center. He’s worried about what they will find out, but he
doesn’t want this to show. He wants to be courageous and strong for his uncle.
They arrive by limousine and a specialist meets them in a consultation room.
He confirms what’s already known about the tumor in Ibrahim’s liver. He
indicates it’s a very small-sized malignancy. At this stage, it’s unclear what type of
cancer it is, but he confirms that the tumor is a new type they don’t know very
much about. Therefore, it would be inappropriate for him to tell Ibrahim with any
certainty that it will respond positively to the new chemotherapy. For that reason,
he’ll start Ibrahim on a light dose. The specialist has arranged for Ibrahim to be
admitted to a private clinic where the medication is to be administered, and he’ll
be monitored twenty-four hours a day.
The specialist stops briefly, but continues to look at Ibrahim and Hakim to
ensure that, so far, everything is understood. Then he carries on.
“If we see that the drug doesn’t produce any adverse effects, the second dose,
and the third and fourth, can be given orally in the form of a pill that you can take
on your own, in the comfort of your own home. However, the first time the drug
is administered, we would like to monitor you very closely at the clinic. I’ll leave
you alone for a few minutes to absorb what I’ve told you. Then I’ll return with
further instructions.”
He gets up and the other two follow him out of the consultation room.
Hakim turns and gazes him. Ibrahim is pale and shaken. This is the first time
Hakim sees his uncle with fear in his eyes. The pride and gracefulness that he
possessed are gone. A layer of fear has taken over like a black shroud covering the
old man’s eyes.
“I wouldn’t worry they do miracles with medicine these days.” Hakim says
trying to relieve his uncle’s gloom.
“I guess so,” his uncle nods in agreement. “But, it means I cannot go home yet.”
“When were you planning to go home?”
“As soon as I’m done with these guys dear boy; Mara is most anxious for me
to get home; however, now she has to wait for a few more days.”
“You have to be here for only one or two more days so they can see …

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0978186524

Water in the Wilderness

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Excerpt

Jeff’s lean face took on a scowl, but his eyes twinkled. “I’ll thank you not to malign my good old Chevy, young lady. Sure, I still have it. It’s safe and sound in the shed in the back yard.”
Tyne groaned. “I might have known.”
Jeff’s long, slender body reclined against the back of his swivel desk chair. “So what brings you here? Have you been to see your mother?”
“Yes, I just left her. Aunt Millie was there, so we had a good visit. And as for what brings me here – Morley and I would like you all to come to dinner on Sunday evening.”
For just a moment, Jeff looked at her, then he swung his chair towards his typewriter at the side of his desk, and began to hit the keyboard with one determined finger.
Tyne took a deep breath. “Will you come, Dad?”
“I thought you have dinner at noon on the farm,” he said without looking at her.
“We usually do. But we’ll have a light meal after church, and dinner in the evening.”
The typewriter keys flew over the page in the carriage, surprisingly fast for one finger typing. Tyne waited. Finally, her dad turned to face her.
“I don’t know if I can make it … deadline, you know.”
Tyne tried to keep the exasperation out of her voice. “It’s Sunday, Dad. The paper doesn’t come out until Wednesday.” She sat forward. “Look, you’ve been out to the farm only once, and that was just after we were married to bring some of my things. Morley and I have been to see you and Mom several times. Just for a change, I’d like to cook dinner for my family.” She sat back in her chair, and said quietly, “You’re part of my family.”
Jeff drew his lips together in a tight line. “Have you asked your mother?”
“Yes I did. She’d like to come but she said she’d leave it up to you.” As always, Tyne thought. In that respect Emily Milligan had not changed.
Jeff nodded. “I’ll think about it. Your mother will call you tomorrow.” He turned back to his typewriter.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/192676319X

Still Waters

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Excerpt

She felt Morley give her hand an extra squeeze to bring her attention
to the scene before her. People were coming out of the church,
laughing and talking, wishing each other a merry Christmas. Among
them, almost at the bottom of the steps, she saw her mother and
dad. Tyne drew in her breath and waited. Her mother looked in their
direction, and her eyes grew large with disbelief. Then she turned to
speak to her husband.
Jeff swung around. In the light from the doorway Tyne saw his expression
change from surprise to displeasure. Then he walked away
from his wife and came towards them.
Tyne let Morley’s hand go, and took a couple of steps to meet her
father. “Hello, Dad. Merry Christmas.” She lifted her face for his kiss.
It landed, cold and stiff, on her cheek.
“What are you doing here, Tyne? We didn’t know you were coming
home.” He glanced at Morley who had moved to her side. “We
would have met you at the bus depot, you know. You didn’t have to
bring Morley in from the farm. I’m sure he has better things to do
on Christmas Eve.”
“Not at all, sir,” Morley said. “I was only too happy to come. And
I’m pleased Tyne invited me to church with her.”
Jeff cleared his throat but did not reply. He turned back to his
daughter. “Well, I see you’re not afraid of being snowed in, after all. I
only hope, for your sake, that you don’t have to miss any days of your
training this close to the end.”
“I’m sure it will be all right, Dad,” Tyne murmured as she turned
to hug her mother who appeared bewildered and anxious.
Tyne felt her mother’s anxiety, and understood. All her married
life, Emily Milligan had lived in her husband’s shadow, obeying him,
pleasing him, keeping the peace within the family as far as it was in
her power to do so. Tyne knew that whatever her mother said to discourage
her daughter’s relationship with Morley was only a reflection
of her husband’s feelings. She said what she knew he would want her
to say, and felt about it the way she perceived her husband to feel.
Tyne hugged her mother hard as tears stung her eyes. Oh, Mom, I
don’t want to bring you grief. Please try to understand, and be strong
for my sake.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763068

The Circle

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Excerpt

Could she be cheating on him? Matthew has been married for a long time; he’s a
fifty-five-year-old established bureaucrat. Why suddenly does he have all this
anxiety about his wife being unfaithful?
He turns on his other side and crawls under the sheets. He changes the TV
channel and slowly his eyes grow tired. He feels all the emptiness in his stomach
and in his heart. Then his worrisome mind slows down and he falls asleep.
“What did Dad have to say, Mom?” Jennifer asks.
“Nothing important, honey, the same old story.”
“Is he coming home on the weekend? I heard you telling him Hakim has
gone to New York. Did he say anything about that?”
“No honey, nothing. He says he’ll be home on the weekend.”
Jennifer goes upstairs to her room and Emily pours herself a drink.

Wednesday morning in New York and the sky is clear. A tired city awakens from
a last night of excitement and partying. New York is a city that never sleeps, like
Las Vegas. New York has the reputation as being the best entertainment city in
North America, although the big corporations running the Las Vegas casinos
like to think their city is the best in that department.
Hakim is up. He gazes at the view of the waterway. Far to his right he can see
the boats as well as cars in the streets. He has been up for a while when Ibrahim
comes into his room, prepared for the day.
“Good morning, my uncle.”
“Good morning, my dear son.”
Ibrahim calls Rassan to order their breakfast. While they wait Ibrahim calls
his lawyer, William Polson.
He speaks to the receptionist, “Good morning, this is Ibrahim Mahdi. I amin
New York and I would like to talk to William.”
It takes a few moments before a person answers.
“Good morning, Ibrahim, how are you? Welcome to New York. Where are
you staying?”
“Good morning, William. I am at the Manhattan Sheraton as always. I want
you to get Bill Wanton and Regis Hudson and come over for an hour, some time
after eleven. I need you all for an hour or so. Get Regis and Bill to bring along the
necessary forms for new accounts. You also need to prepare a power of attorney
and bring it along.”
“That sounds good, Ibrahim; I’ll put everything together. I’ll confirm our
timing within half an hour.”

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0978186524

Swamped

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Excerpt

Logan getting up and walking to the shower. The sound of the water
mixed with the chirping of birds in the trees around the house. Logan
came down ready for an early departure to the office.
“You’re up very early today, son,” Eteo said.
“Yes, earlier than usual, but let me share a coffee with you before
I go,” Logan replied. He walked to the kitchen and poured himself a
cup, then sat next to his father.
“What should we focus on today, Dad?”
“Keep on buying slowly in the new company. We have plenty of
orders, right?”
“God, yes, at least half a million, but I’ll do it slowly.”
“Yes, and carefully. If you notice anything strange, let me know
right away. And don’t forget we have plenty to allocate to our clients
from the private placement.”
“Yes, I remember, and yet we still have lots of orders. When the
market goes after it like we do, what do you think will happen to the
price?”
“We don’t like to chase it up ourselves, you know. We want other
people to do that.”
“Yes, of course.”
“And something else. Let’s try to unload some of that loser we
bought a year ago, that real estate deal that didn’t do well. Let’s call a
few of our people who invested in it and convince some of them to
take the loss and reposition into this one. They’ll have a better chance
of recovering their losses and maybe even making a few dollars this
time. Get Helena to talk to some of them. Let’s see where that takes
us.”
“Okay, will do.”
“Have you got enough stock for your key people?”
“Not for all, but I’ll keep on buying. Slowly, as you said. We have
enough right now for the two brothers and Angelo. Have you talked
to them?”
“Yes, I talked to them and to Yannis. Kenny too. Position him
and his friends in this one, but slowly, as long as we get some stock
for all of them, okay?”

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08WP3LMPX

The Circle

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Excerpt

Their flight is a five-hour affair. They have first-class seats and are served a
light lunch once the plane is in the air. Hakim is hungry and enjoys the food,
although Ibrahim eats only a bit of his. They each enjoy a glass of red wine.
Hakim asks the same question as on the previous day.
“My uncle, you promised to tell me more about the work Matthew Roberts and
the Admiral do for the CIA, do you remember?”
Ibrahim takes a deep breath, smiles, and says,
“It is a long story, my dear boy; however, in a nutshell, this is it. They both
work for a department that goes by the code name the ‘Circle’. They are located
in Washington D.C., not in Langley. In their department 130 people analyze
intelligence, data, and information, and make recommendations to the
Executive Branch. This is where decisions about war take place. Based on the
recommendations of the Admiral, who bases his decisions on the analyses of
Matthew’s people, the war room as some call it, takes its stand against any enemy
as circumstances dictate.”
He stops and takes a deep breath. Ibrahim does that a lot more often, Hakim
notices. The old man looks at his nephew, wondering how far he can still go with
this.
“They are the basis of a detailed system that undermines the governments of
various countries, based on what their goals are and serving their interests the
best way possible. They formed the basis for the decision to go against Saddam
Hussein in the war of 2003. That department of the CIA is the one which sexed
up the propaganda before the war.”
“In other words, they are the reason the war started?”
“Well, I wouldn’t put it that way exactly; however, they had a lot to do with it.
You see, they are not the final decision makers of the government, but they make
recommendations based on data. They have a plan of action for any foreseeable
event, which could turn the outcome of their strategy one way or another. They
plan with various options always before them, and even then they prove to be
wrong on many occasions. There’s always a variable that cannot be predicted
ahead of time, and when it comes to play, it alters the results time and time again.
This is the same reason they are wrong so many times—the unpredictability of
the reactions of people to certain events and to intelligence. Every time you think
how or why a decision has to be made, it’s like being in a maze, and you can only
hope for the outcome you have predicted.”
He stops for a while, calls the flight attendant and orders two glasses of wine.
Hakim takes a sip of his wine, looks at his watch, and estimates they are halfway
to New York. His uncle looks tired. Yet Hakim wants to know more.
“What else do you know, my uncle?”

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0978186524

He Rode Tall

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Excerpt

He’s probably just starting out, Joel thought. He guessed that
the doctor was a city person who was using the small community
to get started in the profession, with the intentions of moving to a
bigger city when he had more experience and had paid off some of
his debts from school.
After a brief explanation of the accident he had in the pasture
with the big buckskin, the doctor told him to take off his boot, his
sock, and roll up the leg of his Wranglers. As he leaned forward to
get a closer look, the young doctor asked, “Related to Edward
Hooper?”
“Yes I am. He was my father.”
“Thought so,” the doctor replied as he continued to poke and
prod at the ankle. Joel wasn’t sure if the young doctor was really
examining him or just buying time to think of what to say next.
“Well, Mr. Hooper, it looks like your ankle is on the way to a full
recovery. From what I can tell, nothing is broken. A few more
days and you should be back in the saddle again. How’s the
pain?”
Joel was surprised to hear himself replying, “Not bad.” In fact,
his ankle was hurting like hell.
The doctor, having treated his share of cowboys in his short
career since graduating from medical school, quickly translated
“not bad” to mean “it is hurting like heck, but I’ll be darned if I
admit it to you,” and offered Joel a sample box of Tylenol 3s, “just
in case it hurts you might want to take a few of these.”
With that, the doctor turned to the door, “Have a good day,
Mr. Hooper.”
“Thank you, Doctor. How did you know my father?”
“Mr. Hooper, you might not be aware of it, but not only have
you just been attended to by a doctor but also by the Montana
State Team Roping Champion. Two years in a row now since
coming back home from medical school in Seattle. When I was a
kid here, I did pretty fair at the high school rodeos as well. I roped
off a horse your dad sold me. Even back when I was a kid, my
father always said that there was only one place to go …

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0980897955

Still Waters

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Excerpt

By seven o’clock that night, Tyne had her emotions under control.
She must not sound upset when she called Morley. Should she
refuse to go to church with him if he asked her, as he almost certainly
would? But no, why should she keep giving in? She took her wallet
from her handbag and removed the necessary change for the call.
On her way to the phone she met the house mother hurrying towards
her in the hallway. “Oh, Miss Milligan, there’s a call for you. I
think it’s your father. You may take it in the office.”
Tyne’s heart jumped. “Thank you, Mrs. Edge.” She had to stop herself
from running to the office. Why is Dad calling? What’s wrong?
Has something happened to Mom? Aunt Millie?
“Dad,” she spoke almost before she lifted the receiver, “is something
wrong?”
“No, no, Tyne, sorry if I frightened you. Everyone’s fine.”
Tyne let her breath out on a sigh. “Oh, it startled me, that’s all.
Especially since I talked to Mom just this afternoon.”
“Yes, she told me you have Christmas off and plan on coming
home.”
Something in his tone made Tyne wary. She did not hear excitement
in his voice. He was not calling to say he would be happy to see
her. “Yes. Will that be all right?”
Why did she say it? She had never before had to ask permission to
come home.
“Tyne, please know we’d love to have you home for Christmas.” He
cleared his throat. “But I don’t think it will be wise for you to come at
this time of year. For one thing, they’re predicting a big snowstorm
and blizzard over the holidays.”
Who’s predicting it, Dad? You?
“I haven’t heard that,” she said quietly. A sick, empty feeling began
to settle in the pit of her stomach. Her dad did not want her to come
home for Christmas.
“Well, I heard it, and we would be very worried if you were caught
in it. Those buses aren’t very reliable, you know. You wouldn’t want
to be here, and not be able to get back to Calgary, would you?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763068