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.

    Lucky Man
    Lucky Man
    Lucky Man
    Ebook83 pages1 hour

    Lucky Man

    By Kenneth George

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    John Fletcher is a Control Engineer, who feels that Life has passed him by. He was forced to give up a job that he loved and settled for a regular wage and a pension. He doesn't like what he has become. Caroline, his wife has shown a talent for management in the charity sector. John is unhappy that the job seems to have taken his wife away but when he sees someone else pawing her at a presentation, he realises that it isn't just the job that has claimed her. In a state of emotional turmoil, he crashes his car and is left paralysed. He tells Caroline that he knows and that he is not coming home.
    Part 2 finds John Walking again and becoming a celebrity because of his involvement in the development of a bionic arm. When he is presenting a paper on control systems, in London, he is ambushed by Caroline. She pretends that she wants his approval to take a job close to where he lived. She is really trying hard to reconcile. John is tempted, but her all-out approach convinces him that she is not being wholly truthful. He is deeply unhappy about it but is convinced there is no way back. He is comforted by his attractive deputy from work.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKenneth George
    Release dateJun 1, 2016
    ISBN9781310644801
    Lucky Man
    Author

    Kenneth George

    Kenneth George was born in Ashford Common Middlesex, more years ago than he cares to remember. In the 1980s he wrote, part-time for one of the computer magazines that were popular at the time. That ended when the publication folded. When he retired he returned to writing, fiction this time, writing for a number of websites. Two of his stories were "Cherry Picked" by ABCtales.com and his story "Two Widows" won the Shaftesbury Story Slam 2016. He has now produced four books and is working on a fourth. He currently lives in the most northerly town in Dorset.

    Related to Lucky Man

    Related ebooks

    Contemporary Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      “I Escaped My Grandfather’s Sex Cult”

      Mar 16, 2022

      I was born into the Family, a religious movement founded in Huntington Beach, California, in 1968 by my grandfather David Brandt Berg, with help from his four children, including my father, Hosea. It was known as the Children of God in its early days

      8 min read

    • Article

      Shame Is Ever-Present When You’re Sitting in a Cell

      Oct 23, 2020

      Between a strained relationship with my family and the death of a good friend, I’ve struggled to feel like I’m worth something.

      5 min read

    • Article

      I Forgave My Sex Attacker

      Apr 26, 2022

      I Forgave My Sex Attacker
      5 min read

    • Article

      The After

      Jun 10, 2023

      He is sitting opposite me, staring blankly like a dead fish. Stone eyes. Cobalt and lifeless. Pale gray skin, dripping scales. I imagine him hauled out of the water and dumped on the riverbank, gasping for breath. Just as he deserves. I only agreed t

      13 min read

    • Article

      The Girl I Knew Somewhere

      Dec 2, 2021

      The Girl I Knew Somewhere
      6 min read

    • Article

      Philip Roth

      Jun 4, 2018

      Philip Roth
      25 min read

    • Article

      I’m A Survivo

      Aug 6, 2020

      Hearing my phone ring for the umpteenth time, I sighed. Not again! And as I answered, I heard heavy, muffled breathing before the caller hung up in a matter of seconds. Over the last few months, I’d received dozens of these calls. And I had a suspici

      4 min read

    • Article

      My Husband Was A Paedophile

      May 11, 2021

      My Husband Was A Paedophile
      4 min read

    • Article

      I’ll Not Risk Myself

      Feb 10, 2024

      My phone reception is better outside the laundromat, so I spend most of my time waiting for laundry on the bench near the door. I don’t talk with my friends, but I surf the news. I like to know what’s going on. I don’t like people to know about me, t

      13 min read

    • Article

      A Good Samaritan

      Dec 6, 2022

      It was hot that day, hot for the morning and hot for April and with a stickiness in the air that suggested something had to break. I was headed up the street to ask my neighbor Meech to give me a jump when I heard a scream come from the fourplex next

      10 min read

    • Article

      Lording

      Jun 14, 2022

      It’s 4:38 P.M., eight minutes after I usually go home, but now I’m rooting around under my chair cushion, double-checking my shirt pocket, hunting for an unmarked baggie of white bars, which I shouldn’t have left in my office, which I shouldn’t have

      17 min read

    • Article

      Performance

      Nov 10, 2022

      “Wait here,” the guard said as he shut the door behind him, leaving me by myself. The floor inside the lab was polished, and the air smelled of disinfectant, and yet the room felt unclean. Leaves shook on a tree outside the window, making shadows on

      18 min read

    • Article

      Finding Peace—and Briefly, Freedom—at My Grandfather’s Funeral

      Oct 11, 2019

      “Saying goodbye with the people who loved him—and me—I remember that I am not the tomb that imprisons me.”

      6 min read

    • Article

      Nothing Could Stop Her

      Oct 7, 2021

      Nothing Could Stop Her
      2 min read

    • Article

      Truth Be Told

      Mar 26, 2022

      Truth Be Told
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Ultimatum

      Jun 30, 2022

      The Ultimatum
      5 min read

    • Article

      House Of Shadows

      Sep 1, 2020

      House Of Shadows
      4 min read

    • Article

      I’ll Burn You Alive

      Aug 19, 2021

      I’ll Burn You Alive
      5 min read

    • Article

      Here’s What I Don’t Say

      Jun 1, 2019

      Here’s What I Don’t Say
      13 min read

    • Article

      Prey

      May 10, 2021

      As I drove slowly towards the mob of angry protestors and my meeting with 200, I thought of 199. The ashes of a once hard man, staring at me with wide eyes that pleaded for hope like a dog begging for treats. I’d somehow found a way to give him that

      41 min read

    • Article

      Julia

      Oct 19, 2022

      Julia
      7 min read

    • Article

      Who's The daddy?

      Mar 28, 2024

      Digging my CV out of my bag, I handed it to the lady sitting opposite me. An attractive single woman in her mid30s, she scanned the page. After taking in my work history, she flicked through a bundle of health records. ‘All seems in order,’ she said.

      4 min read

    • Article

      No sex please!

      Sep 14, 2023

      No sex please!
      4 min read

    • Article

      She’s so LOUD!

      Feb 23, 2022

      She’s so LOUD!
      2 min read

    • Article

      Loving Our Children For WHO THEY REALLY ARE

      Sep 29, 2020

      Caroline Martin, 62, is from Lincolnshire. As soon as he started school, my little boy changed from being happy and carefree to quiet and withdrawn. He would cry at night and be in sheer terror whenever the school holidays ended. I’d ask him what wa

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Lucky Man

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Lucky Man - Kenneth George

      Lucky Man

      By

      Kenneth George

      Copyright 2016 Kenneth George

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

      Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      *****

      Contents

      Part one

      The presentation

      In the hospital

      Decision time

      PART 2

      Five years later

      At the Institute

      One night in London

      Full Court Press

      The Day After

      The Journey Home

      Epilogue. Two years later.

      Other books by Kenneth George

      Contact the Author Online

      About the Author

      Part one

      The presentation

      I hate things like this, I feel like a spare part. All the great and the good are milling around glad handing each, other while Caroline, my wife, talks to them about helping her charity. I've already met the local MP. Then there is Roger Dewey, the local head of Children's Services; I swear if he lays his hands on her again, I'll deck the bastard. The only reason they are here is because Caroline is doing so well. They are hoping to claim credit. They make me sick. The problem is I also make myself sick.

      Look at me; a college lecturer. I teach engineering. I've settled for semi-security and a good pension, and I hate myself for it. Before the company went broke I was the top man for control engineering. Then came the crunch, and it was a matter of move away or take a job at the college. We couldn't disrupt the children's education, so I settled for a secure salary and a pension. Ten years later the children are at university and I'm still there. Meanwhile, Caroline has taken her new freedom and shown the world what she can do.

      Caroline always said that I was the clever one; she always put herself down. I knew different. She was smart, but in a different way; Caroline was an organiser, a persuader of people. She trained as a nursery nurse but she was wasted doing that; I knew it even if she didn't. By the time the children left school she worked as a frustrated nursery manager, for an organisation, she was perfectly capable of running. When the manager resigned I urged her to take it on. She had the ability but lacked the confidence, so I did my best to give her that confidence. I wanted her to fulfil her true potential. Because that's what you do when you love someone. She'd given her all for us, now it was her turn.

      I didn't realise would take over her life leaving no room for me. OK, I admit I'm jealous. I'm jealous of her job, not jealous because it's better than mine, but jealous because it gets all her time and attention leaving nothing for me. I don't resent her success, I'm proud of her, proud of what she has achieved. It's just that it's ruined the plan. When the children left it was supposed to be our time. Time to do things together, see the world. Now the plan's gone to hell and I hardly see her. That's the reason I'm here. If I don't show up to these events I never get to spend time with her. Who knows if it goes well, we might even share a small moment of intimacy when we get home.

      We take our seats for the presentation ceremony. Caroline waves as she makes her way up to the stage. I move to the far side of the room and can just see her take her seat in the wings, next to that lecherous bastard from Children's Services. I watch Caroline going through her speech. Until recently she would have asked for my help, but I have no idea what's in this speech.

      A local radio celebrity steps up to the podium and outlines the agenda for the evening and the room becomes quiet. Caroline is up for two awards one for her organisation and one individual.

      I sit through the first part waiting for the Non-Government Organisations awards. We've known for months Caroline's project had won this award she was even asked who she wanted to present it. Like a fool, I'd suggested the head of Children's Services. 'Doesn't hurt to get these people on side,' I'd told her. That was before I found out what a letch he was.

      'Now we come to the organisation that has made the most progress in childcare,' said our master of ceremonies. 'Presenting this award is the head of Children's Services for Welfordshire, Mr Roger Dewey.'

      People applaud, but not me. This bloke is an arsehole of the first order. I've seen him groping any woman he can get close to. He's only been in the job six months and already he's got a reputation. He's talking to us all about how the organisation rose from the ashes. You'd think he was there, but that was two years ago, and the council he represents were part of the original problem. Someone has briefed him well, though. He tells us all who the winner is and Caroline steps forward to receive her award.

      He walks back to his seat and I wait for the speech. Normally I'm as familiar with the speech as she is. I'm her trial audience, her advisor; cut that; expand on this, but this time I have no idea what she will say. She looks back at Dewey and he nods to her. Almost immediately I sense something is wrong. She's talking politics, telling us of the problems caused by the government's funding cuts.

      'Keep politics out of it,' I always said. 'The

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1