mainly bills and one envelope addressed to me stood out from the others. It was a neat handwriting which I didn’t recognize. It had a postmark of Beachmere, a suburb only twenty minutes drive from my home.
Anxious to know what it contained I ripped open the envelope and pulled a folded letter from inside. My eyes fastened to the address and name. It was addressed from a friend I’d known more than forty years ago. We’d been acquainted. She was sixteen and I seventeen at the time.
Isn’t it strange how these times of your life come back to bite you on the bum? My sister visited us on our vacation and produced photographs of when I was in my teens. One of the photographs showed me with my arm around the waist of a young girl. ‘Do you remember her; she was one of your first true loves.’ My sister eagerly told my wife and me. A flush of red covered my face with shame.
The letter was sent by this same person. I hadn’t seen nor heard from her in over forty years. She explained she wanted to catch-up-with-me again and hope we could take over from where we left off.
Her husband bashed her throughout their marriage and she’d finally left him.
Memories flooded back forty years. I placed the letter inside my pocket and instantly forget about receiving it. Should I tell my wife?
‘What mail did you get?’ My wife asked when I met her in the kitchen.
‘Bills…and ah a letter from the person you saw in the photo my sister showed you the other night.’ I was calm, butterflies erupted in my stomach.
‘What did it say?’ My wife looked at me with sharp eyes piecing into mine. I didn’t feel guilty. It was a long time ago and to receive this letter today after returning home from a holiday like a second honeymoon. It wasn’t fair.
‘She wanted to catch up with me and hope we could take over from where we left off.’ I stated calmly.
‘She did! Did she! You can write and tell her you’re already taken and no old flame is going to get you back, Right!’
I totally understood.
I never did reply to the letter but it was a great lift for my ego to think a girl contacted me after forty years. Life was more simple back then.
Word count: 439.
Don’t Go Out In The Rain.
What goes through the mind of a twelve year old lad whose parents uproot him from the school he attended since grade one? His small world collapsed the night his father told the family they were moving to the city.
Did his parents ask him for his opinion? Not on your Nellie. In those times there was a code of ethics in parent groups - children should be seen and not heard.
He went along with the course of action decided by his parents and moved to the city. Grade seven was difficult; he found it hard to make friends, they were not like his friends he’d left behind in the country.
Abuse followed - including intimation, caused him to fall in with the wrong group. He was accepted by this group, a special group of lads similar in age whom couldn’t fit into school. Each hated school and instead fretted away each day getting up to mischief.
One day these so-called friends decided to break into a building and steal. The lad joined in the fray not knowing at the time the consequences this event in his life would become.
One Sunday afternoon the owner of the building where the break and enter took place, came to the lad’s home to interrogate him about the break-in. To the astonishment of the lad, his father stuck up for him to inform the owner his lad wouldn’t do such a thing because he was at school. He believed his son when told he didn’t do it.
This lad felt humiliated and swore to never wag school again. His father punished him by grounding him for six weeks. Not to leave home only to attend school. He’d lost the trust of his father and had to regain it.
When the lad attended school, because he was absent a lot of the time; he never understood any of the teachings in class.
Science was being taught. The teacher said to the class, ‘don’t go out in the rain.’
Everyone in the class, except for the lad, chorused ‘because you’ll dissolve – salt melts in water.’
The lad then and there made a decision. He would gain his father’s trust at whatever cost. To recover from his indiscretion, he decided to pull up his socks and apply his mind to study rather than wag school and hang around with the wrong group.
This was a turning point in his life. If he’d followed his mates down their pathway in life, he would have gone in the wrong direction.
These words, don’t go out in the rain, became his totem.
Whenever a ping shot off in his mind to indicate something wasn’t right, the words, don’t go out in the rain, entered his thoughts and immediately signalled him to stop and think about what he was about to do.
Word count: 482.
Life Has Been Good To Me So Far.
To be truthful, yes, it has. I’m retired from the workforce and enjoy each moment of every day more than I can ever have imagined. Early morning I submit details of a page from a book I’ve written for all to read on facebook, continue writing and publishing a book I’m presently writing. My days are filled with plenty to occupy my mind. It’s wonderful to be doing what you want in life. It’s a dream come true.
You may ask, ‘what is there to write about?’ This is a fair question, however, after a lifetime of adventure, career, medical issues, losing my wife through cancer, taking on the role of grandparent; there is a reservoir of information banked to be released when needed.
We are an aging population with expectation to live and celebrate our one hundred year birthday. To reach this milestone, I know, I need to keep healthy and to do what I’ve always wanted to do. I can see me writing and publishing books well into my century.
To look back on my life, I consider myself to be a very lucky person to be where I am in my life today. For instance, when I was youngster, I almost drowned, and luckily was saved otherwise I wouldn’t be here to tell you so. Not long after I turned twenty-one years I was caught in a truck fire which exploded. I was lucky to escape and recover from the mental torment of almost being fried alive.
From early twenty years old to my early forties, I served as a police officer for the State of Queensland protecting the citizens of the State. In my early forties I undertook an emotional and stressful change to my life by having a pacemaker implanted. This resulted in tumbling down a deep black hole of depression for a couple of years.
Rising from the ashes I changed course in my life to become an alcohol and drug counsellor. This direction was completely on the opposite end of the spectrum compared to my previous life as a police officer.
I look back on those adventures and seek solace and peace to wonder how on earth I ever survived. Without experiencing this life’s journey I would never be able to write the stories I now write.
My wish in life is to help others. I think that wish has always helped me through life. If one of my books can help another human being overcome their difficulties forced upon them at anytime; I am satisfied to have been a cog in the huge wheel of life.
Word count: 445
The Connection
The art of writing has been around since Adam shared the apple with Eve. Apart from speech, it has been the next best thing for communicating with one another.
With technology, such as the internet, mobile phones, and any other gadget to connect with one another, there is no reason why any person cannot be connected.
Take for instance Facebook. More than three quarters of people living today are connected to facebook. This is a programme to use as a social network linking people together through words, photographs, video, and any other electronic device.
Speaking of myself I have a facebook page. This page acts as a marketing tool to inform readers of various books I write and publish. Recently I developed a Facebook Author Page to illustrate the method I use to write a book taking the reader on a journey of my writing career.
It’s a simple process of sharing my story with outsiders who obviously share a common i
nterest in the power of words. The major reason I use facebook and more particularly the author page, is to connect people to my facebook page and in turn hope they purchase a book I’ve written.
It’s fascinating to link to a friend and when they accept or hit the ‘like’ button on your writing, the message connects with all of their friends on their facebook page.
Let me share with you how I became so engrossed with facebook. Before I registered on facebook, my family were always begging me to register because they were already registered. My reason for not being connected was because I didn’t understand the programme.
After seeing an interview with the author of the book ‘Facebook – the social network’ I decided to see the movie. This movie was one of the best I’d ever seen. Afterwards I went and purchased the book and read it.
Since reading the book and seeing the movie I am an avid user of the programme. It is the best thing since sliced bread and I doubt if there is any other programme available to connect such a broad scope of people in this way.
My grandson is twelve years old. He uses facebook to keep in touch with his friends. To become a friend he sent me a message so I could link his facebook page with mine. Now we communicate through the message system where only he and I share what we write. This is the perfect connection for grandson and grandfather.
Word count: 420
The Promise.
I am an alcoholic. On the 13th January 1977 I had my