[Cape May, NJ]

“Mom, what are you doing?” asked Brittany.

Melissa was standing at the window of their apartment, peering into nowhere.

The dinner was far better than Melissa had envisaged. It was made even better by Jack’s Father, Henry, who proved to be quite a raconteur.

[Sunday evening, Washington DC]

“Thank you for not being angry with me over all this,” said Jeff as he poured some wine.

[Monday morning]

“Thanks for seeing me at such short notice, Dana,” Melissa said as she sat down in her office.

A tale of three halves is set in both the USA and UK. It is fairly contemporary in that it starts in 2022 and I hope reflects at least partially the Political Scene in the USA then and sadly now.

The promised rain had finally caught up with me around two miles from home. The shower was heavy, so much for the forecast of just the odd light shower.

Dido sent her team of ‘dips’ off for their summer break in late June. That allowed her to see how being on the ‘right’ side of the law felt.

Dido went back to her 'panhandling' early the next morning. This time, she settled down outside the entrance to Farringdon Thameslink Station.

Dido left early the next morning to avoid speaking with John. She did leave a scrawled note on her neatly made bed that just said,

“Thank you for being there yesterday. Dido.”

I returned to my hotel with a lot to think about. Corey had shown me a picture of the ‘RV’ that he was going to travel around in. It wasn’t anything like the bog standard white ‘box on wheels’ that you see almost everywhere clogging up the roads.

The Christmas period was very quiet for me. That was a godsend as the last few days of the old company were pretty hectic, so a few days of chilling out in front of the TV, eating and sleeping was very welcome.

Any worries I might have had about Casey and her weekend trip to the wilds of North Yorkshire were dispelled by her smiling face when she came out of the 'Royal Oak' to begin another day of work towards what I hoped would be the saving of what I'd begun referring to as my company.

[authors note]
If you love formulaic and, in my opinion, cringeworthy ‘Christmas Movies’ or similar ‘Made for TV Romances’ that use an ensemble cast of ‘almost perfect specimens of humanity’ then stop reading now.

[The following Friday]
I had finished making all the parts for the device the previous evening. I caressed the smooth wood like you do a newborn baby. Like all my custom pieces I’d grown to love it despite its primary use. I went to bed satisfied that I had made a piece of furniture and one that I was proud to put my signature on.

I’d just finished putting the last coat of varnish on my latest job when I saw the silhouette of someone standing in the doorway of my Workshop.

“I’ll be with you in a minute or so. I need to clean the brush before the varnish on it dries,” I called out to the person. The person didn’t answer so I took it as they didn’t object.

Roberta saw the stick drawing of a person being hung and for a moment, she momentarily panicked before her training kicked in. Immediately, she dropped the photo and the envelope onto the floor.

The next day was a big anti-climax compared to the previous one. Working on the catalytic converter thefts was right up her street and the sort of policing that she loved. From that high, there was always a new low not far away.

Roberta’s mind was not really on her family-related duties even though it was the anniversary of her mother’s passing. She was a crack shot and had been close to representing the country at the Olympics so in her honour, a clay pigeon shoot in aid of charity was held every year.

“This is good. Thanks,” said David as he wiped the last of the Lasagne sauce from his plate with a piece of bread.

“Only ‘good’?”

The day that Ms Sondra King started work at Briggs and Co., Engineers would last a long time in the memory of most employees.

Sally and I continued working out how we could downsize our lives smoothly and simply. It soon became evident that once you have put down roots in one place for any length of time, those roots spread out and it all gets rather complicated.

“I’m done!” I said to my wife when I arrived home from work.

While this tale has a BSDM theme at the start, it is not about putting anyone into Bondage. Quite the reverse. It is more of a tale of redemption and a change of direction.