Snippet from 'The Contract':
As Jackson headed to his room for his suit case, he walked past the old broken alarm clock on the fireplace mantle. The awkwardly large round, weathered clock with its pair of bells perched atop had never failed him even when he wished it would! Rain or shine, long as he kept the apparatus wound, the clapper religiously hammered out a wake up call against the two brass bells when the set hour arrived. More than once he’d hurled it across the room, once out the two story window and still, it refused to let him down. That is, until that fateful late August morning. Now this morning, as he’d done almost each day lately, he stopped to thank it again for its unusual gift. Imagine that, a man who had never been late a day in his life, being grateful to a clock for making him so! However, this particular morning there was something different about the antique. It was running! Suddenly he found himself more than a little tempted to open it, pull a spring or two, and disable it somehow. Yet its decision to start running now didn’t matter. He was just grateful he hadn’t worked a year ago. If he’d gotten that old thing fixed, he’d have been on time, and it never would have happened. It, the signing of the most important contract in his life and he called it, ‘it’! An updated adjustment he was again rushing out to ratify! He’d be damned if he’d be late this time! He was certain the old time piece would agree!
Snippet from 'Tuffy':
He’d seen Pearl Harbor once when they disembarked, but it was nothing like this!
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she asked, and the best Brody could do was nod. “I think this is one of my favorite places on the island.”
“I’ve never seen such a view.” Brody somehow managed to stammer. He and his brother had climbed the Black Hills every summer, and from their perch he was convinced there was no prettier place to be. Again he was wrong. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was like this. Beautiful said it all.
“The Hawaiians say the harbor was the home of the shark goddess. Though I’m not sure which one.”
“There’s more than one shark, goddess!? How many do you need?”
“There’s more than one island, Brody,” Tuffy reminded him with a giggle. “Sir Leo’s heard the one guarding the harbor below was named Ka’ahupahau. They depended on her to protect the fish in its waters from intruders. I’ve heard of others, Ukanipo, Moaalii, he’s the one I’ve heard is Oahu’s. Then there’s Apukohai . . .”
“Please tell me I can just say shark goddess?” Brody gasped, staring down into the water. From their cliff, the harbor below resembled a large bowl with a single narrow channel offering one way in and one way out, while in its center sat the Naval Air Station at Ford Island. He could make out the dry docks, Hickam Field, the barracks of the enlisted men, the grander-rented homes of the officers, even the hospital he’d been sequestered in on the land forming the three quarter circle, and the fuel tanks on Ford. All upon a lush green background and waters of glass. However, the view hardly held a candle to the woman beside him, one who knew more about the ships in Battleship Row than he did too!
“The Colonel told me those ships were given their names according to their model.”
“Their model?”
“Destroyer, cruisers, aircraft carriers, and so on.”
Brody hated to admit it, but he was pure infantry. The only thing he knew about the ships below was the fact he’d used a departed one for transportation. That and they came in a variety of sizes. Ever so carefully, he leaned forward just a hair, just enough to keep from slipping down the hill yet enough to grant him a slightly better focus upon the gray models beneath them.
__________________
As Jackson headed to his room for his suit case, he walked past the old broken alarm clock on the fireplace mantle. The awkwardly large round, weathered clock with its pair of bells perched atop had never failed him even when he wished it would! Rain or shine, long as he kept the apparatus wound, the clapper religiously hammered out a wake up call against the two brass bells when the set hour arrived. More than once he’d hurled it across the room, once out the two story window and still, it refused to let him down. That is, until that fateful late August morning. Now this morning, as he’d done almost each day lately, he stopped to thank it again for its unusual gift. Imagine that, a man who had never been late a day in his life, being grateful to a clock for making him so! However, this particular morning there was something different about the antique. It was running! Suddenly he found himself more than a little tempted to open it, pull a spring or two, and disable it somehow. Yet its decision to start running now didn’t matter. He was just grateful he hadn’t worked a year ago. If he’d gotten that old thing fixed, he’d have been on time, and it never would have happened. It, the signing of the most important contract in his life and he called it, ‘it’! An updated adjustment he was again rushing out to ratify! He’d be damned if he’d be late this time! He was certain the old time piece would agree!
Snippet from 'Tuffy':
He’d seen Pearl Harbor once when they disembarked, but it was nothing like this!
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she asked, and the best Brody could do was nod. “I think this is one of my favorite places on the island.”
“I’ve never seen such a view.” Brody somehow managed to stammer. He and his brother had climbed the Black Hills every summer, and from their perch he was convinced there was no prettier place to be. Again he was wrong. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was like this. Beautiful said it all.
“The Hawaiians say the harbor was the home of the shark goddess. Though I’m not sure which one.”
“There’s more than one shark, goddess!? How many do you need?”
“There’s more than one island, Brody,” Tuffy reminded him with a giggle. “Sir Leo’s heard the one guarding the harbor below was named Ka’ahupahau. They depended on her to protect the fish in its waters from intruders. I’ve heard of others, Ukanipo, Moaalii, he’s the one I’ve heard is Oahu’s. Then there’s Apukohai . . .”
“Please tell me I can just say shark goddess?” Brody gasped, staring down into the water. From their cliff, the harbor below resembled a large bowl with a single narrow channel offering one way in and one way out, while in its center sat the Naval Air Station at Ford Island. He could make out the dry docks, Hickam Field, the barracks of the enlisted men, the grander-rented homes of the officers, even the hospital he’d been sequestered in on the land forming the three quarter circle, and the fuel tanks on Ford. All upon a lush green background and waters of glass. However, the view hardly held a candle to the woman beside him, one who knew more about the ships in Battleship Row than he did too!
“The Colonel told me those ships were given their names according to their model.”
“Their model?”
“Destroyer, cruisers, aircraft carriers, and so on.”
Brody hated to admit it, but he was pure infantry. The only thing he knew about the ships below was the fact he’d used a departed one for transportation. That and they came in a variety of sizes. Ever so carefully, he leaned forward just a hair, just enough to keep from slipping down the hill yet enough to grant him a slightly better focus upon the gray models beneath them.
__________________
From The Favor:
No sooner had Emma climbed into bed than the rain that Mack and Hunter predicted began to fall. The humidity that had ruled the day disappeared rapidly, leaving a damp chill in the air, calling for a small fire in her bedroom fireplace before crawling into the covers with her book.
The sound of the droplets dancing upon the old tin roof began as light and easy as any summer rain with no hint of what was to come. Their softness, joined with the far away muffled thunder, lulled Emma to sleep quickly, leaving her book cast aside.
She slipped into a much needed sleep when, suddenly, the rain became a storm to be reckoned with! The muffled thunder no longer whispered, but rather screamed out in bursts of loud, angered fury while the once dim flashes of lightening exploded overhead in bright, brilliant flashes, illuminating her room and casting shadows about wildly. Even the breeze she had so enjoyed turned against her, whistling, screeching around the cabin. The storms she had weathered up north could be terrifying, tornado laced, at times, but nothing like this!
All at once, she found herself recounting the tales of terror Griffin had shared with her about the lashings the summer storms could bring in Mississippi. What scared her most were his tales of the hurricanes he and Hunter had weathered, and this was their season!
Suddenly, she was thrown into a state of panic. She threw on her bathrobe, and placed Major Pelham's harness around him quickly, still uncertain just where to go as the strength of the storm seemed to be growing. As it had been up north, here there was no storm cellar that she knew of. The bathroom being the center of the structure would have to do. With the large Irish Setter leading the way, she grabbed a flashlight and made her way into the bathroom, just as the loudest clap of thunder yet shook the old cabin to it's very foundation! The rattling of the walls startled her so she sent the flashlight crashing to the floor and bringing Major Pelham to full attention. The dogs sixth sense knew the danger the storm could carry and he began to pull upon her robe, urging her out of her chair and into the iron claw footed tub. Cowering in the bathtub as the wind wailed and the thunder grew still more intense, she never heard Hunter calling out to her from the cabin's front porch.
"Emma! Emma!" He unlocked the door, grateful Griffin had told him to keep a key, just in case. "Emma! Answer me," he called out, stepping inside, his voice drowned in the pounding, raging storm overhead.
Inside the bathroom, Major Pelham had heard him and began to bark frantically, refusing to leave Emma's side. His barking grew louder when a tree branch crashed against a cabin wall.
____________________
Tidbit Snippet from Pieces of the Past:
When Doctor Tienshaw wrote to Memphis for a young doctor to become his replacement, it had been exactly what Nathan hoped for. He hadn’t experienced a fight on his hands either. Most young men in his profession wished to practice in a big city, rub elbows with the finer folks, then charge them more than his services truly were worth. Not Nathan Mahone. He’d grown up in the back-country where medical care was far from caught up with the rest of the world and he always planned to change
that, for a dozen eggs, a hot meal, or a simple thank you. Whatever his patients could afford, not what he could get them to pay, that was what he’d accept. Nathan had no idea when he glanced over the notes Doc Tienshaw left him regarding the people he cared for over the years that he would find himself loving more than medicine.
________________________
