Synopsis

An unexpected phone call throws Tim Larson’s life into turmoil. His estranged father is dying and has reached out to his former family. He wants to see them. Over 40 years earlier, the man left Tim and his younger siblings and their mother and had no contact with any of them since. None of Tim’s four brothers and sisters want to have anything to do with the man who caused them all so much hurt and pain.

However, Tim feels he can’t leave the old man all alone. Against his better judgment, he decides to make the journey. He takes his nine-year-old grandson, who is dealing with issues of his own, with him.

Tim meets his father, and they begin to form a tentative relationship. Is it enough to offer the old man the solace he desires? And will it also provide Tim with the closure he didn’t know he needed?

This is the story of a reluctant man’s journey to do what he feels is the right thing and how he comes to appreciate what is truly important in his life.

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Excerpt

Tim shuffled the cards while watching Fred. Or his dad. He still wasn’t sure what to call him. The old man was propped up in his hospital bed, having been moved into the hospice care wing of the nursing home the week before last. The same week Tim had been notified of the move. Also, the same week he had been informed that the man he thought had been dead all these years was, in fact, still alive.

It had been forty years since Tim, then twenty, and his mom and his younger brothers and sisters had been told by Irv Lindenfelter, his dad’s best friend, that Fred, who had divorced their mom and moved to San Francisco, had gone missing. ‘He vanished without a trace,’ was the way it was put to them at the time.

At first, Tim and his family figured that Fred had just taken off and gone fishing or camping, his two favorite hobbies. But as time passed, that notion proved to be unverifiable. He didn’t return to his job at Tillotson and MaKray, the advertising firm he worked for. His phone went unanswered. Bills piled up in his mailbox at the apartment where he lived.

Finally, the police were called in. Days turned to weeks and then to months with no answers forthcoming. Finally, the missing person case of Fredrick Anthony Larson was put on the back burner and eventually filed away as “Missing-Unsolved”.

So that was that.

About the Author

Jim is an award-winning author who lives in a small town in Minnesota. He loves to write! His stories and poems have appeared in over five hundred online and print publications. He has also authored 27 books, including poetry, flash fiction, and short story collections, novellas, and novels, all of which are available through traditional outlets and on his website.

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