Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Escapement
    Escapement
    Escapement
    Ebook96 pages1 hour

    Escapement

    By Rene Gutteridge

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In each installment of 7 Hours, a character is visited by the enigmatic Thomas Constant, who makes a heart-stopping statement: “You are about to die. But you may choose from one of three options: Live seven more hours, travel back in time and relive seven hours, or accept the inevitable and die now.”

    Mattie Bigham has lost his job, is losing his wife, and is not losing any weight. At just under four hundred and fifty pounds, he figures his doctor’s prediction that he's going to drop dead any second is about to come true. He is right.

    When Thomas Constant appears, Mattie chooses murder—to carry out revenge on the bully who tormented him all through school. Except when he arrives for the showdown, he’s shocked to find this man in a scenario not unlike his own. Things get complicated quickly, and time is running out.

    The clock is ticking. What will you do with the time you have left?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTyndale House Publishers
    Release dateApr 27, 2012
    ISBN9781414374857
    Escapement
    Author

    Rene Gutteridge

    RENE GUTTERIDGE has been writing professionally for twenty years, with published and produced work in fiction, comedy sketches, novelizations, non-fiction and screenwriting, and is co-director of WriterCon in Oklahoma City. Her novel My Life as a Doormat was adapted into the Hallmark movie Love's Complicated. She is head writer at Skit Guys Studios. She lives with her family in Oklahoma City.Read more about Rene's work with The Skit Guys and her other projects at renegutteridge.com

    Read more from Rene Gutteridge

    Related to Escapement

    Related ebooks

    Christian Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      WHO’S In The NEWS?

      Aug 26, 2022

      “This month we will be holding evangelism Conferences in two Ethiopian towns with very small born-again populations: one with less than 3% of its inhabitants and the other around 6%. We go to empower the believers for red-hot evangelism, with signs a

      4 min read

    • Article

      Without Tammy

      Jan 26, 2023

      Without Tammy
      6 min read

    • Article

      Let It Go

      Sep 26, 2022

      In 2013, Disney released the animated musical Frozen. Its signature song—“Let It Go”—was an instant classic. It wasn’t just Idina Menzel’s astonishing voice but also the song’s powerful message: Sometimes to move forward in life, you need to let go.

      1 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday, January 16

      Dec 15, 2023

      I WASHED YARN FROM LONG ago today—wool from one of our flock that I’d spun in grease, full of lanolin. Most of the lanolin had drained away, but some remained, leaving a sweet scent and softness behind. This is #208’s yarn, according to the index car

      1 min read

    • Article

      Born In The usa!

      Nov 12, 2021

      Born In The usa!
      6 min read

    • Article

      Just Passing

      Aug 17, 2020

      Zoe cracks the curtain in the bay window and watches as he bounces from one foot to another in the cold. Tap, tap, tap, he goes at the letterbox. But she shouldn’t even let him in. He’s trouble. He throws his arms out and shouts through the glass: “S

      5 min read

    • Article

      Saturday, November 19

      Oct 15, 2022

      LAST SATURDAY MORNING, KEVIN STOOD in the doorway of our bedroom with his cell phone in his hand. “I was going out to warm up the car when I got this text,” he said. “I think you should see it.” He snatched off his knit cap and took off his winter co

      1 min read

    • Article

      Cruella: The Real Story

      Jun 18, 2021

      Cruella: The Real Story
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Fury of a Mother, and the Story of Her Murdered Son

      Feb 28, 2017

      The Victim’s Song, published 32 years ago by the literary critic and SUNY-Cortland English professor Alice R. Kaminsky, is quite unlike most memoirs by parents of murdered children. As a group—tiny, because it’s a club no one would willingly join—suc

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Time Of Miracles

      Oct 16, 2023

      A Time Of Miracles
      3 min read

    • Article

      Saturday, April 20

      Feb 14, 2019

      I WOKE UP AT 4:30 a.m. The street lights were on, and the moon was still hanging in the sky. After tossing and turning, I got up and worked on my literature-class lesson plans. But before I did that? I turned on the lights. I don’t love the dark. I a

      1 min read

    • Article

      6 irksome CHURCH HABITS

      Nov 25, 2022

      Don’t get me wrong – I love my church; I love going to church, I love Christians, and – above all – I love Jesus with all my heart, but... I have a few things to get off my chest and recently discovered that I am apparently not the only one who is

      3 min read

    • Article

      Mysterious Ways

      Sep 26, 2022

      “We’ve got a problem here, folks,” our mechanic said over the phone. “What is it?” I asked. My husband, Matthew, and I had dropped off our truck for an oil change a couple hours earlier. We’d made an appointment with our usual mechanic, Randy, and de

      1 min read

    • Article

      Women Of Grace

      Nov 18, 2019

      God has an abundant life, and a great future planned for you. His plan is to take care of you, not to abandon you. God says in Revelation 22:13, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Nothing in your life s

      2 min read

    • Article

      ‘Lives Have Been Wrecked’

      Nov 6, 2020

      ‘Lives Have Been Wrecked’
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Pilgrim’s PASSION

      Aug 27, 2021

      A Pilgrim’s PASSION
      5 min read

    • Article

      Monday, January 3

      Dec 15, 2021

      I DIDN’T LINGER AFTER BIBLE study to chat with my friends as I usually did. I had too much to do. As I zoomed out of my parking spot, I caught sight of my friend Linda frantically waving at me. Not now, Jesus! She had a dead battery and needed a jump

      1 min read

    • Article

      Problems? She Can Relate

      Dec 28, 2020

      Problems? She Can Relate
      6 min read

    • Article

      We All Live in Uncertain

      Jul 30, 2020

      “Think of Caddo as a maze of lakes within lakes,” says John Winn, proprietor of Caddo Outback Tours, as the two of us settle into a small Go-Devil boat roped to a dock in Uncertain, on the border of northern Louisiana. For two decades, Winn has given

      6 min read

    • Article

      Mend Your Mood

      Jan 15, 2023

      Mend Your Mood
      1 min read

    • Article

      I Finally Feel Seen

      Mar 17, 2023

      I Finally Feel Seen
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Senseless Act

      Mar 18, 2022

      A Senseless Act
      4 min read

    • Article

      Joy! News

      Jun 24, 2022

      Joy! News
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday, March 1

      Feb 16, 2022

      THE OMINOUS CLOUDS BURST AND rain poured down as I left to run errands. Normally, I would have dreaded getting in and out of the car, but not today! I was the proud owner of a Better Brella, the nifty reverse-open umbrella that lets you open and clos

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Escapement

    4.5/5

    3 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      7 Hours is an anthology of 7 full length novellas by 7 different authors. Each story has a central theme — time and our place in it — and examines what a character does when faced with the choice of dying or 7 more hours. In Escapement, Rene Gutteridge takes Matthew on a journey to confront the childhood bully that he blames for many of the problems in his adult life. Matthew is morbidly overweight, unemployed and his wife has filed for divorce. His doctor warns of an imminent heart attack without some major life changes. When he opens the door to Thomas Constant, time personified, he is faced with his mortality. He chooses to live 7 more hours to right the wrong that was done to him so many years ago.Escapement is written from Matthew’s point of view. He doesn’t sugar coat his own culpability in the decisions he has made, but does place a lot of blame on his childhood nemesis, Abbott. His plans for vengeance take shape as he travels to Wichita from Oklahoma City, but when he arrives at Abbott’s home, Matthew is the one who is confronted. Matthew is forced to examine his life and death in a whole new light.I enjoyed Escapement. Because of its length the action takes place quickly, yet I never thought that the characters were flat. Matthew, Abbott and Rosemary (a surprise character for Matthew) are given a depth that is often hard to achieve in a novella. Gutteridge is one of my favorites, and Escapement just reinforces my opinion of her skill in writing thoughtful and suspenseful stories. The premise of the book is intriguing, and I cannot wait to see how the other authors handle Thomas Constant and his offer of death or 7 more hours.Recommended.(I received Escapement from NetGalley and Tyndale in exchange for a review. The opinions expressed are mine alone.)

    Book preview

    Escapement - Rene Gutteridge

    When you murder someone and want to get away with it, there are some things you should remember. Let me say ahead of time that I am not certain I’m going to need to get away with it. But if I did, here’s what I’d remember to do.

    First of all, grab the wallet. Always grab the wallet. People have scrubbed down entire houses with bleach and vacuumed many a trunk, only to forget the wallet or purse, keys, and cell phone. (Take the battery out of the cell phone first.) Even if you don’t scrub down the house, you still want to go ahead and take these things because when the victim’s personal property is missing, it always adds another element to the investigation. If none of those things are missing, then detectives assume it was some kind of revenge killing or a crime of passion or some such. If they are missing, then they’ve absolutely got to throw robbery, kidnapping, or carjacking into the mix.

    One poor fool murdered his girlfriend because he couldn’t bear to just break up with her like the rest of the world does it. The guy goes through the entire house scrubbing it like it’s got a communicable disease, vacuums, even uses air freshener. He wraps the body in a rug, puts it in the trunk, drives twenty-five miles outside the city limits, dumps the body, comes back and parks the car, wipes it clean, and leaves.

    But he forgets the wallet, keys, and cell phone.

    She would’ve never left the house without those things. So naturally, she never left the house alive.

    Then they go in, find tiny traces of blood (you have to know that you’re not going to be able to mop up all the blood), and the next thing he knows, he’s being interrogated.

    That leads to point number two: If it gets to the interrogation, and it probably will, you’ve got to get yourself together. And by together, I mean fall completely apart.

    Detectives are smart, and they study a lot of human behavior. So if you’re brought in and asked questions about a murder, let your hands shake a little. That’s nerve-racking stuff, man. I mean, innocent or not, if you’ve got two burly detectives asking where you were on Tuesday night at ten, it’s going to rattle you. So if you’re all spa-calm, it’s going to raise a red flag. Also, you need to ask some questions. What happened? Where did this happen? When do you think she went missing? Were there signs that something bad happened? See what I’m talking about? If you want to act innocent, then you better start sounding innocent too. Innocent people know nothing about what happened, so they ask a lot of questions. And if you’re really, really innocent, you’re less concerned for yourself and more for whoever is six feet under.

    If you were close to the person but recently broke up . . . whatever leads police to think you might have had something to do with it . . . you better get your distraught on. If your ex was murdered, that’s going to wig you out, you know? Broken up or not. So for crying out loud, act the part.

    Look, you have to be the picture of innocence, and sometimes innocence looks real messy.

    These thoughts were going through my mind on a hot Wednesday in July. I had stopped to take a rest before the second crosswalk that led into the airport. I’d found the only patch of shade within ten feet and staked my ground. A little old lady with a walker looked my way, her beady blue eyes widening as she observed my shade, but I cast her a glare that told her to move on by.

    Within ten minutes, I was pretty sure I could make it, so I kept walking. A taxi honked, probably because I was moving slow. I threw out some words that would get me fined by the FCC if I were a Super Bowl halftime show and kept walking. The truth was that I’d like to see him take me on. I bet I’d leave his bumper with a good dent.

    Once across the street, I stopped and stared down the rotating door. Who came up with this nonsensical way to enter a building, I don’t know, but it terrified me as a child and it still does. I mean, who doesn’t have a memory of a parent grabbing your arm and yanking you in like your life depended on it? Then you’re standing there awkwardly, all six of you shuffling your feet and trying not to touch the four people you don’t know.

    It was now awkward for a whole other reason, and I didn’t have to worry about being with five other people I didn’t know.

    The large sliding door was only twenty feet down the sidewalk, but my knees were killing me. Had to go for it, I decided. You get stuck in one of those rotating doors once and trust me, you’d walk the twenty feet too.

    Inside, the air-conditioning hit me like a back draft. So I stood under the large, loud fan, blocking traffic but not really caring. I was starting to get the belly button ring.

    The only thing that got me moving again was that I noticed there was no line at the ticket counter.

    Misty greeted me with the tight smile I was accustomed to.

    Hi, Misty, I said with the overly eager, please-like-me smile I was accustomed to. I’d like to book a flight to Wichita.

    Okay, she said pleasantly, her fingers gliding across the keyboard like there might be a recital and sheet music involved. Looks like we have one departing in thirty-five minutes.

    Yes! I said, my tone fist-pumping my enthusiasm. That is perfect. I’m on a tight schedule.

    All right. I just need to see your ID and a credit card.

    I don’t have an actual credit card credit card. But I have a debit card that acts like a credit card when I need it to, except I can’t spend over what I have in the account. Long story that includes my low credit score and a porcelain donkey, but I can fill you in on that later.

    I slid both cards across the counter.

    Then her sparkly eyes fixed intently on me, so intently that I thought she was about to make a pass at me. But I knew better.

    Mr. . . . Big . . . Ham?

    "Bigham. One word. Soft on the ham, you see? Almost like um and not so much like pork."

    I’m sorry. Of course. She lowered her voice, but nobody else was in line. I need to inform you that you’re going to have to buy two seats.

    No. No, no. That’s not fair. Four years ago I was topping 480 and I got to Milwaukee just fine, seat belt extender and all. I’m way under that right now, like by fifty. Okay, I fudged by fifty pounds.

    I’m sorry, but—

    "Listen, I know I’m screaming wide load here, but when I sit, it kind of all smooshes together and goes forward. I won’t lie to you—there’s no way I’m getting the tray down, but I can live with that. And I just thread my fingers together over my belly and I swear I don’t even touch elbows with whoever is next to me."

    "Sir, please. I’m

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1