About It's a Calling

by Mara Ismine
33 pages / 7200 words
Ebook zipped file contains - html, lit, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub

Weary of life and of his job practicing medicine, Jock reevaluates his life when an old friend passes on. World travels eventually lead him back to the Scottish town where he grew up, where he must face his memories of Ewan, the lover he left behind many years before. Will Ewan still be there? And if he is, can they recapture the magic they once had together?

Sample

Jock left the rest of the funeral party admiring the flowers in the courtyard.

Louise had requested that no-one waste money on flowers, but enough people had ignored that request to give a respectable display. Jock stopped at Mary's marker for a few minutes, not that he had anything to share with his dead wife or any flowers for her either, before moving on to the lake.

He settled on the new bench, almost amused that the little plaque had been fixed in place already. "Louise Jones. Sorely missed" it said with the dates underneath.

"I'm a cantankerous old woman." Louise had said, "Nobody will miss me."

"I will," Jock said aloud. "I'll miss you, Louise."

He had said as much at the time and Louise had smacked his arm, lightly because her strength was nearly gone.

"You should stop running and go and face whatever it was sent you here in the first place," she had said, her eyes bright and determined. "You've given this place the best years of your life."

He'd never told anyone much about the years before he became a GP in Brickton.

Somehow Louise had known that he was hiding something. He snorted as he looked out over the perfect little lake, had he really expected to hide anything from Louise? But maybe she was right, maybe it was time he went back and faced the past.

Maybe? He could almost hear Louise's voice. I'm always right, young fella-me-lad!

He couldn't just walk away from the life he'd built here, not that there was really much holding him in Brickton anymore, but he would have to make arrangements for the practice and the house. He'd never given much thought to retiring, but the thought of carrying on no longer held the appeal it used to.

He would make his arrangements, let his children know that he was going to travel for a while before settling somewhere, and make his escape.

Jock smiled and, for the first time in months, it was a real smile that reached his eyes.