A Kindly Man

By Ann Stratton

Beau is a simple man. He leads a simple life and finds transcendent pleasure in simple things, like a shell on the beach, or cup of chocolate on a cool morning. It is a pleasure to do good for others, like his neighbor Wilson, who is building a whole new means to explore the universe.

 

Will Wilson make it to the moon, as he wants so fervently? Does he really need to steal everyone's batteries to get there? And is a wrecked phone booth really the best vehicle for the project?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ann Stratton
• Release date: Dec 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215317280

Ann Stratton

Ann Stratton started writing at age thirteen with the usual results. After a long stint in fan fiction, honing her skills, she hopes she has gotten better since then. She lives in Southeastern Arizona, trying to juggle all her varied interests. 

Book preview

A Kindly Man

Ann Stratton

A Blind Woman Production publication

Copyright © 2023 Ann Stratton

To give the reader more of a sample, the front matter appears at the end.

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It had been a dark and stormy night of stupendous proportions. Lightning had taken out half the city’s electric grid and that particular chaos still reigned in the streets. Thunder had literally shaken the city’s very foundations so that earthquake panic also reigned in the inhabitants’ subconscious. So much rain had fallen, along with hail, that the city’s drainage system had failed miserably, adding to the chaos. Many streets, especially at the lower elevations, had flooded completely, swamping homes and businesses. The city was a mess.

An intermittent light rain still fell between the shafts of morning sunlight. Off toward the west, a double rainbow arched across the cloudy sky in brilliant colors and definition. A lot of people along the shore stopped to take pictures. Beau Small admired it with his own eyes instead, saving the memory for another time. Those pictures on phones would never be looked at again, but he could look back at this memory any time he wished.

The city’s miniscule ocean shore had been well and thoroughly trashed too. All manner of human trash and oceanic detritus piled up on the narrow beach and against the sea wall, across the walkway into the parking lots. Scavengers picked through the piles of seaweed, fishing nets, and plastic bottles to collect whatever prizes they could. They scattered the piles, making an even bigger mess in their search.

Several food stalls had bravely opened up and were offering hot drinks and quick breakfast foods to passersby. The smell of hot chocolate drew Beau in to one booth, where the bleary eyed attendant sold him a cup of hot chocolate and a hot sausage roll. Their warmth and contrasting flavors were a comfort against the morning’s cool damp and the night’s fury. He found a bench to eat his morning meal on and watch the ocean.

A quick shower swept over the bench, gone almost before he could register the rain falling on his hat. The waterproofed duster protected his body from the wet, though it dampened his half eaten sausage roll. The roll was still very good, damp or not, and he washed the end of it down with the last of the cooling chocolate. He put the cup and wrapper into a concrete garbage can, and walked on down to the beach.

He had to step carefully in the wet sand. His high heeled boots were not the best for off road walking. Trash of all kinds practically covered the ground, trailing seaweed and fishing lines and nets for the unwary. He half wondered if he would find a shoe with a foot in it, as on some beaches. He half snickered to himself. What a surprise that would be to some scavenger!

He wandered down the beach toward the next set of stairs, watching the treasures