Law of Escalation by Joe Hero

Author:Joe Hero [Hero, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Published: 2019-11-26T18:30:00+00:00

10

“This is like a dream,” commented Audra Coulon. She was so positively lovely, thought Jean Paul Patrie. The day was beautiful. The sky was blue and stuffed with puffy clouds that, coupled with a bit of haze that hung in the atmosphere, gave the world a surreal cotton candy tinge that suggested warmth and brightness. “Jean Paul, tell me that it’s all real. Tell me you are real.”

Rekindled feelings had roots deep and meaningful. Despite the gentle rolling hillside they had a blanket spread out on, a rural farmer having given them permission to picnic in his pasture, and despite the vineyard visible on the acreage adjacent to the field they sat, Patrie felt an empty pang. It didn’t matter that the breeze and little waving blue clematis and the woman he had longed for, unable to reach for over fifty years, were now in his company. Audra, very pretty even with hair streaked with gray, was sitting on her side propped up on one elbow with her back against him, her legs tucked up. It was the look on her sweet face that caused the hurt for Patrie.

He loved Audra Coulon. There was no denying it. To pretend otherwise or to downplay that emotion did nothing short of detracting from her character. Though Providence had shown kind mercy on them both, having allowed circumstances to bring them together once more, Patrie could clearly see fear in Audra’s eyes.

It wasn’t fear of Jean Paul. Patrie was an expert in psychological matters such as these, those traits and behaviors exhibited by people having undergone traumatic ordeals. Audra had a primal insecurity she couldn’t conceal from a behavioral psychological master.

She didn’t know he was one such professional, and that also was another piece of what hurt him. Audra wasn’t scared of their blooming relationship. Each in excess of 60 years, both were as mature as two adults would be entering into their later stage of life. For her, this was her second relationship, her first husband having passed after losing a battle with cancer only a couple years before.

For Jean Paul, it was as if this were also his second. That wasn’t exactly accurate, since his first infatuation with a girl had been Audra when they were only children. It had never really passed, so in that respect, she wasn’t his second. They had been separated from each other for over half a lifetime, to be reunited thanks to the careful research and diligence of Einer Freake.

No, Audra Coulon was not afraid of him or the serious direction their commitment was taking. Audra was afraid it would be stripped from her, just as her innocence had been by an unscrupulous bishop when she was a child. She was afraid of the figure who had set the near destruction of two wholesome children and countless others in motion.

She couldn’t help thinking she would wake up and find herself helpless once more at the hands of another, and her love wrenched away again. It was perfectly normal.

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