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    Life at the Rectory
    Life at the Rectory
    Life at the Rectory
    Ebook29 pages27 minutes

    Life at the Rectory

    By David Halliday

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    About this ebook

    I wanted to believe in something. I prayed. But all I could hear was the echoed clang of a clapper against a bell. The bell ringer was dead. The universe was empty... I was the miserable beggar on the street, my palms slashed red with the cuts from freshly minted coins... I was the bitch, the poor cur whining in the overheated parked car in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of a parking lot in the middle of the suburbs... I waited in the middle earth between paradise and suicide... I studied. I studied with Plato in the coldness of his cave, huddled around the fire as reality played out on the walls. I tried to find the sun but I could never find the entrance to the cave... I argued with Sartre in a room with no doors... I studied. Running along the streets of Copenhagen with Kierkegaard as the Danish brats pelted us with stones and laughter. I wanted to roast the little buggers over an open fire... I wept. Like hills into ditches into an empty sky... I saw a lonely man hanging from a tree and mistook him for Santa Claus. He looked down at me and smiled like a drunk in an alley. ‘Follow me,’ he entreated. ‘Or buy me another glass of wine. Or if you do not have any loose change, cut me down from this tree where I have been abandoned by the wind.’

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDavid Halliday
    Release dateOct 23, 2016
    ISBN9781370679737
    Life at the Rectory
    Author

    David Halliday

    I have published poems, short stories, plays, art works in reviews and publications across the United States and Canada. I have several published books:murder by Coach House Press. This book is a series of poems and illustrations set up like scenes in a movie, describing the murder, trial, and mob execution of an innocent man. Winner of the 2001 Eppie for poetry.The Black Bird by. The Porcupine’s Quill. This is a book of poems, illustrations and short prose pieces describing the fictional making of the John Huston film, The Maltese Falcon.Making Movies by Press Porcepic. This is a book of long poems, interviews, short fiction pieces about a fictional BBC documentary about a fictional Canadian film maker, Samuel Bremmer and his company of actors and colleagues. It follows his career through the creation of a series of his movies.Church Street is Burning, a book of poems, was a finalist in the 2002 Eppie for poetry.The God of Six Points, published by Double-dragon-ebooks. A man who believes he is a god believes he has murdered one of his subjects.Sleeping Beauty, published by LTD ebooks.com is a murder mystery. A woman lands in a small village where the only escape is to be murdered. Finalist in the 2003 Dream Realm Awards. Winner of the 2004 IP Book Awards.The Hole, published by LTD ebooks is one in a series of cop stories. There are unusual happenings in the quiet suburb of Islington. People have begun to disappear. And they have been disappearing for generations. For the soon to retire Sam Kelly, this is his last case as a detective. All the clues point to a mysterious hole, which appears to have no bottom.In 2007 I was short listed for the C.B.C. Literary Contest in poetry.

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      Book preview

      Life at the Rectory - David Halliday

      Life at the Rectory

      by David Halliday

      The Invisible Man. Part 10

      Thank you for downloading this free ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

      Published by David Halliday at Smashwords

      Copyright 2016 David Halliday

      Life at the Rectory

      1. Greg Tower

      His father had died of cancer years after the Vietnam War ended. One of those Canadians who had volunteered to fight in the American Armed Forces. He had died from Agent Orange, that the American Air Force had sprayed like crop dusters over the jungles of South-East Asia.

      Greg was in constant trouble. Swearing. Fighting. He began smoking in grade five. By grade seven he was stealing from the local stores. His social worker had long ago given up on him. They were already measuring him for prison attire when he was placed under my wing. We met twice a week in the nurse’s office at Our Lady of Peace School.

      Take the gum out of your mouth! I closed the door behind Greg as he entered the office.

      Greg shrugged his shoulders and stuck the gum behind his ear. He took a seat in the only chair in the room. Greg slouched in the chair, his head cocked to one side.

      What’s up, Father? he smirked.

      I stepped across the room and sat on the desk next to Greg. I looked down at him.

      Have you been staying out of trouble, Greg?

      He looked up at me and grinned. Hey, Father, you got to expect a little trouble in life.

      I held my tongue. Silence was always a good weapon against Greg. He hated it, squirming in his chair, glancing out the window, looking around the room as if he was busying himself.

      You got a smoke, Father?

      I ignored Greg’s smart-ass question. He was trying to get me angry, to send him out of the room, to end the interview.

      "Mrs. Guido tells me

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