Water in the Wilderness

excerpt

Please send a car to pick us up and take us to Uncle Morley’s. And make the snow stop, and the wind stop cause it’s awful cold, an’ Bobby’s shivering something terrible.” She thought of adding ‘Amen’, but decided she wouldn’t stop praying. She’d just keep on talking to God as they walked along. She didn’t need to talk out loud because she had to save her breath to walk, but Uncle Morley said God could hear you anyway, even if you just thought the prayer.
The wind was getting stronger and beginning to whip the falling snow into a frenzy. Rachael had only seen one blizzard in her nearly eight years, and that had been from the safety of her parents’ home. But it had still been scary, and she remembered hearing afterwards that a man had frozen to death that night, out there in the cold.
And then, as hard as she tried not to, she started to cry.
“Rachael! Bobby!”
She must be dreaming. She had not heard a car. There were no nearby buildings that she could see. Who was calling them? Had they been rescued? She swung around, peering behind them, trying to see who had called. Had she imagined it?
“Rachael, wait.”
Now she could see a dark form moving towards them out of the murkiness. Excitement and relief made her feel lightheaded. She didn’t care who it was; it didn’t matter because now they would be safe.
The person was running now, staggering towards them like a drunken man – like she’d seen her dad walk sometimes. Could it be their daddy?
Then she knew, but she could hardly believe her eyes. “Ronnie,” she gasped. “Ronnie, what ….”
He stood before them, bending from the waist, gasping for breath as if he’d been running for miles. His face was red, and a white beard of frost covered his chin where his breath had frozen around his woolen scarf. Bobby grabbed his cousin’s legs and held on, sobbing.
Rachael could hardly stop her own tears. Roughly she brushed them from her eyes with her wet mittens. “Oh Ronnie, I thought you’d left us.”
“I did, for a while.” His breath came easier now, and he straight…

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562884

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

The Circle

excerpt

Hakim is left alone and digs in to finish the report, but his mind simply
cannot concentrate on it; he calls George Pappas.
“Hey, George, how are you?”
“I’m okay, what is on your mind this morning, Hakim?”
“Call Edith. See whether you can get the keys to the apartment; we’d like to
look at it again. I’ll bring along my friend and Jennifer’s mom.”
“That’s not a problem; do you want to do this today?”
“Yes, if you can arrange it.”
“I’ll confirm with you later.”
Hakim goes back to his computer and promises himself not to stop unless he is
finished. He works for a while and completes the small report regarding their
newest products. With that off his mind, he calls Jennifer at work and lets her
know about visiting the new apartment later in the evening with Emily and Talal.
“Okay, honey. I’ll call my mom and you call Talal; do you want to have lunch
with me in an hour?”
“I’m afraid I cannot do that, baby. I have a business lunch with Peter and
another guy from the office. Sorry.”
“You never have time for me, these days.”
“Oh sweetheart, you complain for no reason again,” he argues.
“Bye, honey. See you later,” she says and puts the phone down.
By one o’clock, Hakim, Peter, and Robert are at Mario’s for lunch. They get a
booth, and when the server comes to get their order, Hakim asks the others
whether they would like to share a bottle of wine.
“I would,” Robert agrees.
“I’ll have a beer,” says Peter.
Hakim turns to the server and orders. “A bottle of red wine, a Shiraz, and a
beer for my friend, please.”
They are silent a few moments and then Peter breaks the ice, “We should
have lunch together more often.”
“What are you guys up to?” Robert asks, looking at Hakim.
Hakim waits until their server pours their wine then turns to Robert, “We are
concerned about the direction the company is headed Robert; we are concerned
that we the shareholders, aren’t receiving as much value as we should be getting,
looking at the price of our shares in the marketplace. We’d like to attract the
attention of a larger number of people and set our goals higher regarding
product quality. We don’t see ourselves getting much further ahead with these
goals if we stay the course. I simply don’t have much trust in the abilities of Lorne
to take us any further, to take this company to the next level. He has done what
he is capable of so far, but I want a lot more from this company.”

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562817

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

He Rode Tall

excerpt

“No Tyler, you can’t,” Joel replied. “Say, I sure appreciate your
help. You and Blue are one heck of a team. If you could finish fixing
that fence and bring the water for the cattle that would be just
fine. Tyler, if you told Buck that it was going to run dry why
wouldn’t he do something about it?”
“Don’t know for sure. Could only guess,” replied Tyler.
“And what would that guess be?”
“Well, Smith has a lot on his mind right now. More cattle than
land. You can see how bare this pasture is. We’ve run out of
descent pasture. You are going to find this hard to believe, but we
actually have other pastures that are in worse shape than this.
Right now, I know he would give his right arm for more pasture
in this part of the country, and a parcel of land, with water just
like yours, Mr. Hooper, would be a real bonus. If he doesn’t do
something soon, we are going to have to ship some cows to the
slaughterhouse, and you can see how marketable these cows are
right now. Not exactly the shape you would want to see them in if
you were hoping to get top-dollar.”
“Yes Tyler,” replied Joel. “I see exactly what you mean. Say,
thanks again for all of your help. You really pitched in and I
appreciate that.”
Joel now understood why Buck Smith was so desperate to buy the
Circle H. The only real question left in Joel’smind was why would a
nice kid like that Tyler have anything to do with Buck Smith.
That night Joel was escorted by his faithful companion Buddy as
he took his weary body for a walk in the quiet and the dark of the
ranch yard. Joel had come to enjoy his walks at night. The wind
died down in the evenings and the only light, other than the yard
light over by the barn, was from the twinkling stars high above.Millions
of stars. Stars like you have never seen—from one end of the
dark horizon to the other. Maybe it had been the years of city life
and the long absence from being able to see the stars that made it
special for him. Looking skyward, Joel felt humbled and small compared
to the vastness of the universe.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562862

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

Ken Kirkby, A Painter’s Quest for Canada

excerpt

The Dream of Nunavut
Back in Toronto, he pondered the persistent problem of disseminating
his Arctic message – and he recalled his insight on the morning his alarm
clock woke him – and he suddenly realized that all news was numbers.
I’d learned that in North America everything is quantified. Everything is
numbers. That’s how people talk to each other. So never mind talking about
art – never mind talking about politics. Let’s see what happens if we think
about all of this just in terms of numbers. So, given that everything has to
be bigger and bigger – like the Reichmann venture that I knew in my guts
was going to happen – then after that huge painting, then what? Where do
I go then?
I let my mind wander, and I didn’t try to rein it in. Quantification – a
giant painting – super giant! No – super, super giant! How about on the
scale of the Sistine Chapel ceiling? Yes, that was right. And what would it be
of? Well, a portrait of the Arctic. How about a portrait of the Northwest Passage?
The arrogance of Europeans, who wouldn’t even stop for two minutes
to question the people who built the Inuksuit – people who would have told
them where to find the passage – those Europeans who had to go and find
it all by themselves. They didn’t wear fur clothes and they weren’t savages
so they must have been superior, yet they all killed themselves – a cost of so
many lives and huge sums of money and they didn’t find the Northwest Passage.
Okay – portrait of the Northwest Passage. And yes – a portrait – that’s
what it would be. For the Inuit, the land is mother and the sky is father, so,
I am painting a portrait of the mother and the father. And, of course, the
people in the south will say, “No, it’s a landscape!” and we can get into a rhubarb
about it, and I can use that and point out they’re goddammed ignorant.
They don’t even know the reason behind this painting, where it comes from
or on whose behalf it’s being painted. I could see all sorts of things taking
shape here.
Where would it go? Obviously it would be too big to sell, and there would
be no point putting it in a church because there was no church big enough.
Besides, no one goes to church anymore. Where to put it? People aren’t religious.
Where do people go? Wait! Canadians are religious! Hockey is their
religion! Hockey arenas are right across the country.

https://draft2digital.com/book/3562830

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0981073573