Extraordinary Circumstances

Walter Courtney

Description

This book of stories that combines action, adventure, inspiration, courage, faith, mystery, love, science fiction, humor, and irony in kind of a lighthearted yet entertaining way.

Informations

• Publié par: Inspiring Voices
• Date de parution: 25 septembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781462407521
• Langue: English

Extrait

Extraordinary Circumstances
A book, of short stories, of ordinary people finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances, and how they handled it.
The stories are from different times of the the United States’ history up to the present day.
 
Walter Courtney


 
Copyright © 2013 Walter J. Courtney.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
Inspiring Voices books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:
 
Inspiring Voices
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.inspiringvoices.com
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
 
ISBN: 978-1-4624-0753-8 (sc)
ISBN:978-1-4624-0752-1 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013916863
 
 
 
Inspiring Voices rev. date: 9/24/2013

Table of Contents
Old Man Jake
A Rift in Time
Day One
Setting in
Some Answers
Everything Changes
Worth Waiting For
A Moment of Confusion
Wake Up Call
The Andersons
Moving In
The Andersons Go Golfing
The Andersons’ Plane Ride
The Andersons Decide to Buy an Automobile
Garden Party
Visiting Aunt Bea
The Anderson’s Limo Ride
Assignment: The Andersons
Frank’s Investigation
The Beginning
More Answers
Walt Anderson’s School Days
Town
Summer’s End
School
Lunch
Their Education Continues
What They Were Learning
School Life
CVMMM
The President That Time Forgot
The Story
The Rescue
Nosey Neighbor
SAM’s Story
Just a Country Church
Just Keeping in Touch
True Value
Go West Young Girl, Go West
The Professional
Old Jake
The Diner
Billy the Kid
Chance Change of Fortune
Email from the Hereafter
The Email Arrives
Mack Arrives
The Answers to Mack’s Questions
So, What’s Left to Say?
Almost the End

 
 
 
 
 
This book is dedicated to my wife Susan, where without her encouragement would not have been written.

Old Man Jake
Jake and his wife June moved into the western part of Virginia after full productive lives in Chicago. Jake was a large man of Irish heritage, with the large meaty hands of a working man. He had spent his life working hard as a tradesman, having spent the last six years before retirement as a foreman for the company he had spent working the previous twenty-five years with.
His wife June, who he never understood why such a refined, graceful and attractive woman three years his senior would have wanted to share her life, much less having had and raised two children with him. But June did and Jake was very much in love with her, more today than even when he first set his blue eyes on her.
June had been raised with all of life’s best presented to her by her successful father. She went to the best school for ladies and had the sons of the best families chasing after her attention. Instead of choosing one of these fine gentlemen, she fell for the large; red haired tradesman her father had hired to fix up their summer cottage near the lake.
When June first set her eyes on this mountain of a man with hands the size of frying pans and shoulders so wide he had to turn ever so slightly so they would not touch both sides of the door when he entered, she was taken by his handsome features.
But his handsome features and muscular body was not what won June’s heart, it was Jake’s gentleness of speech and kind nature. He was honest, hard working and had a confidence not usually displayed by the working class when in the presence of her father. Jake also did not seemed impressed with wealth, only with her.
They married and raised two children together. A daughter who married an engineer employed with a good company. And a son who once he had served in the navy, then left to pilot a ship on the Great Lakes and having married a Canadian lass with hair as red as Jake’s.
June and Jake had been talking of moving further south to somewhere that had winters less harsh and windy than Chicago. Jake having been raised in the city wanted somewhere with a little space that he could have a vegetable garden and keep some chickens. June always wanted a milk cow.
So when June’s father passed away, after having survived his wife by four years, June insisted they invest her inheritance in a house she saw advertised in Virginia that had several acres, and retire there.
June was sixty-three and Jake had just turned sixty. Both of their children were full-grown and were starting families of their own. They were still young enough to handle the move and to enjoy country life with lust.
It did not take much for June to convince Jake that this was a good idea, so they purchased the property, sold their house and items they did not want to move or give to their children and headed south in Jake’s pickup.
Having only seen pictures of the house and talked to the real estate broker by phone, they were pleasantly surprised to see the house in the condition stated in the advertisement when they pulled in the driveway.
So for the next ten years Jake and June lived the retirement years they always talked about. Fresh home grown vegetables, fresh eggs and milk and cheese they processed themselves. They even made a little money selling the excess they could not consume, or canned, to the country store nearby.
Not that they needed the extra cash, but Jake was always glad to get it instead of using the money from the bank. In truth, though the money June had inherited was not a fortune once it had been divided by her and her six siblings, it was more than enough to last them with their meager needs.
But as usual with couples, one person would pass away before the other one. In this case it was June. One morning she just did not wake up when Jake did. Jake and June had one of the few homes with a phone in this region in 1930, so Jake called the doctor right away that morning.
While waiting for the doctor to arrive Jake sat, holding his wife’s now still and rather cool feeling hand. He looked at her face, which had a slight smile on her lips. He smoothed her hair, noting that to spite her age was still mostly brown, and very soft unlike his very curly and stiff feeling full head of gray hair. Only his eyebrows had a hint of the red his hair was when he was younger.
Jake knew June was no longer in her still body, having gone on to a better place, but he did not want to give up hope or to leave her side yet. He sat there holding her still, soft and small hand in his big powerful hands like the precious feeling he still had for her until the doctor arrived.
The doctor arrived within the hour and checked June’s body. He told Jake that based on June’s temperature that she probably passed away shortly after midnight. And that without having to do an autopsy it appears that her heart just stopped.
Jake already knew his love was gone, but on hearing these words finalizing it he felt like his big heart was going to stop as well. After the doctor had left, Jake took the first drink he had taken in years.
The next few days went by fast, he got word to his children but due to the tough economic times and distance they would not be able to arrive in time for the burial. Instead the minister took care of things for Jake since he was feeling rather numb and just shut down.
The service was nice, if anyone could describe it as such. Church members were there for support as well as the minister, and Jake thanked them all and went into the house alone.
Months went by and Jake had gotten into a routine of doing his chores, eating and sleeping on a non-varying schedule. Jake had even gotten into the habit of milking the cow on schedule instead of thinking June had already done this since she always wanted to do that chore herself.
Then one day he noticed that some bread he had left on the kitchen table was missing as well as a chunk of homemade cheese he had set out for lunch. Jake looked around for any signs of an animal having gotten in the house, but he did not see any signs. So questioning his memory he went ahead and cut some more bread and cheese and sat down for lunch.
Days went by and Jake started noticing more vegetables than normal were missing from his garden and he had started getting fewer eggs than he used to. His cow started giving a little less milk and then one day he noticed that a chicken was missing.
Jake had trouble in the past with foxes getting a chicken now and then, but he had constructed the last chicken coop so well that it has been years since he had any problems with foxes. And there were no signs of forced entry.
Now the other things happening could be explained with the animals getting older or perhaps a change due to June not being around. And since he did not need as much food he would not miss a little change in the output. But the missing chicken could not be explained. He did not want to think so, but it must have been stolen.
The next day Jake went to the gene