Rescue of the Heart

By joel wilson

Sabotage and a violent storm worked together to keep Stacy's' plane from reaching its destination. It went down in the stormy waters of the North Atlantic. No one could have survived the crash. Her body was never found. She was declared to be dead and a memorial service was held. Her husband, Jonas, was devastated. It had been a year since he had seen his wife, Stacy. She was on her way to join him when the tragedy struck. Jonas could not accept that she had died and was always on the watch, hoping that she would one day show up. Time and her absence took its toll on Jonas' heart and he found himself falling for another woman who resembled Stacy. Through it all, though, Jonas could not let Stacy go and he decided to search for her himself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: joel wilson
• Release date: Jan 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301430994

joel wilson

Hi! I’m Joel Wilson and the author of the novel, ”Rescue of the Heart.” I apologize that I don’t have the initials after my name that would represent my level of education. I did attend some college where I studied British Literature and English Composition, but due to an unfortunate event in my life, I ran out of money and could no longer afford college. That, however, has not derailed my desire to write. It seems to be the one thing I do best; of course you will be the judge of that and I will cherish your opinion deeply. Most of my education comes from life itself and the people I have known or come into contact with. I have worn many hats; from fast food cook, to garbage man; from warehouse worker to selling insurance and to computer specialist working for Uncle Sam. Yes, I’ve been kicked around a lot, but I’ve learned so much. I also spent several years as an aerobics instructor in Sherwood, Arkansas. If you were in my class you will remember me as Joe. I had more hair then...for a while. I love sports, dance, art, a good story and I think that school teachers are the greatest hero’s and are ridiculously underpaid and unappreciated. I was born in Little Rock, Arkansas where I lived most of my life. Thank God I finally met my wife on a trip to Denver, Colorado and that is where I now reside. My wife is Tina and she is my inspiration; the love of my life. All our children have left the nest and now we have two dogs that we call our kids. Thank you for taking the time to get to know me. I hope you like the work.

Book preview

Rescue of the Heart

Joel Wilson

©Copyright by Joel Wilson, June 2012

Smashwords Edition

Rescue of the Heart

Synopsis

Sabotage and a violent storm worked together to keep Stacy’s’ plane from reaching its destination. It went down in the vicious waters of the North Atlantic shortly before sundown. No one could have survived the crash. Her body was never found.

Her husband, Jonas, was devastated. It had been a year since he had seen his wife, Stacy. She was on her way to join him when the tragedy struck. Jonas could not accept that she had died and was always on the watch, hoping that she would one day show up.

Time and her absence took its toll on Jonas’ heart and he found himself falling for another woman who resembled Stacy.

Through it all, though, Jonas could not let Stacy go and he decided to find her himself.

Chapter One

Meet Jonas McInfree

He saw a mixture of race, age and gender strolling past in all directions. People were going in and out of the shops, cafés and pubs that were intertwined along the cobblestone walkway which ran the length of Barnacle Way in downtown Kilcreggan, Nova Scotia. The street drew its name for the cluster of barnacle’s that stuck to the rocks and pier near where Barnacle Way ran into the harbor.

His name was Jonas McInfree. He was the shopkeeper of the only shoe repair shop in town. Here you could find handmade shoes and leather purses of the finest quality crafted by Jonas himself, as well as the service of repairing those that you already have.

It wasn’t Jonas’ purpose this lovely fall evening to stand and stare at the people where he has lived these past 2 years, but there wasn’t much work to be done and he wasn’t even staring. No, he was just observing and greeting folks with a warm smile, if you were a woman or a handshake if you were a man that he knew. This time of the day there isn’t much demand for a cobbler. Still, Jonas kept his shop open till about 8 o’clock in the evening just in case one of the ladies in the town broke a heel on the cobblestones of the mall. Jonas figured that if nobody had stumbled into his shop by then they probably weren’t going to.

Kilcreggan wasn’t a large town, although it did draw a fair amount of tourists. The town had a population of about 2,000 souls but being located on the scenic drive of the east coast of Nova Scotia between Halifax and Bridgewater brought lots of people from all over the world to see the beauty of it. During summer months about half a million people either passed thru Kilcreggan or stopped to enjoy the music and arts. Its close proximity to Peggy’s Cove aided the town businesses as the lighthouse there attracted many tourists.

Closing time was approaching, but Jonas wasn’t ready to call it a day just yet. Besides, it was a beautiful night on this early fall evening and Jonas had nothing else to do. He’d already eaten his dinner across the street at the McDougal’s Steak House Tavern which was owned by Inus McDougal, one of his dad’s oldest friends. He’d do this every now and again because he could sit on the patio in front and eat his meal while he kept an eye on his shop. Rarely did he have to leave his dinner and run across the way to meet a customer. Most of the town folk knew to look for Jonas at McDougal’s anyway.

There wasn’t a lot of business for Jonas in the evenings either as most folks these days don’t wear the kind of shoes that would need repair. Rubber has taken over the shoe business and when those wear out people just throw them away and buy a new pair. Jonas was very good at repairing and crafting shoes, but he wasn’t in the shoe repair business because it was what he had wanted to do for a living.

He was an only child, the proud son of his mother and father. When his mother passed away Jonas was living in Virginia. Though everyone knew her as Becky, her name was Rebecca. As a maiden, she was known as Rebecca Jane Dunleavy, until she married his father. She was a good mother, a wonderful wife and she lived to be 54 years of age. His father was a little older than his mom. He was 62 when Rebecca went on to Heaven. Arthritis was eating him away but he still would work every day making and repairing shoes. It was all he knew to do and his only source of income except for the $800 a month that Jonas would send him. His name was Liam Hogan McInfree and the shoe repair shop was what he had hoped that Jonas would one day take over.

When his mother died, Jonas resigned his position as a reporter for the Hazleton Echo. It was just a small weekly paper, but Jonas did graduate from college with a degree in journalism and this was his first job after graduation that allowed him to make use of his education. His father was getting older and the passing of the wife he’d loved for 33 years devastated him. Jonas had come home to take care of his father and to take over the business that his dad had worked so hard to build. Liam’s health worsened so, after the death of Rebecca that he too passed away not 4 months later from pneumonia.

Everyone in the town, it seemed, knew Liam well as he had been a fixture in the town for thirty-five years. Having come over from his homeland of Scotland when he was but a young man, he found work as a carpenter around the small town and eventually opened his shop just a few years later. Liam had made friends with everyone who came to his shop and those that just passed by as he stood on the corner smiling and shaking hands. This was a trait that Jonas picked up on as a child and had stayed with him all his life.

As Jonas grew up he worked with his father in the shop learning the craft of making and repairing shoes and through the years became quite good at this trade. Jonas’ dream though was to use his mind rather than his hands. He had seen how the arthritis had eaten away at his father and made his life more difficult. There was no television to distract Jonas when he was growing up and even though the family eventually did finally purchase one, Jonas found that he rather preferred to read and observe the things going on around him.

As a young lad getting his education from the local school, Jonas took an interest in writing. He learned how to research, take that information and write it in his own words, viewing things from his own perspective. His teachers enjoyed reading what he had written and encouraged him to take his learned skill to another level. He worked on the school newsletter when he was in high school and at graduation received a 4 year scholarship to Brown University in Providence, R.I.

The scholarship wasn’t enough to pay for everything and like so many other students Jonas found that working in the college bookstore helped him to make ends meet. He took on different jobs while attending college and he graduated in 6 years with a B.A. in journalism.

After college he began working wherever he could find work. A couple of his short stories were published in the Reader’s Digest and were his proudest accomplishments during this time. Two years later he was hired by the Hazleton Echo and wrote about county events in the entertainment section. He quickly moved up the ladder and became a columnist covering all things political in and around the Virginia State House.

The Hazleton Echo wasn’t going to turn Jonas into a famous reporter and he doubted he’d ever win the Pulitzer. He didn’t even concern himself with such things. He liked the town of Hazleton, Virginia. Its propinquity to Richmond, and not all that far from Washington, D.C. did provide Jonas with a lot of opportunity. With all the politicians in that geographical area there was a lot to write about.

Jonas lived in a townhouse he’d purchased on Rolling Creek Road near the Stonewall Golf Course. He enjoyed playing golf whenever he could and would often meet one of his political contacts there to gather information for his article while they played. When he wasn’t writing or playing golf, Jonas liked that he was only a couple hours drive to Hampton. That is where he kept his 34 foot Catalina, the sailboat that he gave himself for his 26th birthday. This was also how Jonas moved back to Kilcreggan after his mother died.

Stacy was a lovely young woman that Jonas met one day on the golf course while entertaining a few of his friends. She was the administrative assistant to the Secretary of Commerce and Trade of the State of Virginia, Roger Stillwater.

Jonas was going to do an editorial piece on the impact of tourism on the State, but found he was concentrating more on Stacy than on his game. Roger didn’t mind. He and Jonas were good friends and Roger had brought Stacy along as a distraction so that he would have an advantage to aid him in winning the match. Jonas found that he rather enjoyed the distraction and often struck up a conversation with Stacy that would tend to hold up play. Jonas was so taken by Stacy that she had to remind him on occasion that it was his shot.

Afterwards, Jonas and Stacy became an item and on his trips to Richmond he would always spend time with her. She would often come to Hazleton to see Jonas and the two spent many a weekend on his boat. They fell in love and that love grew. They were joined in marriage in mid October, Jonas was 28 years of age and Stacy was 26.

It was in their 3rd year of marriage that Jonas’ mother died in her sleep. He left his job with the Echo and sailed his boat to Nova Scotia to take care of his father who had taken ill. Together they decided that Stacy would remain behind to sell their home and would then rejoin him in Kilcreggan.

As Jonas leaned against the stone façade of the old wooden building that housed his shop, Sir Readalot Book Store, the Wherefore ART Thou art gallery and the Old Wharf Inn, he thought of how well preserved the town was.

Over the years, not much of anything has changed and the town council had done a good job of protecting much of the downtown area, especially Barnacle Way from the advances of society that seemed to bring in too many cars, noise and pollution. You’ll not find a single automobile along Barnacle Way and few along the two streets that run parallel. If you prefer not to walk, you are welcome to ride your bicycle or hop a ride on one of the many pedicabs serving the area.

The town had plans of constructing a trolley car system that would run from the northwest end of the mall down to the wharf. This kind of old time atmosphere was very popular with the tourists and much appreciated by the town folk.

It was Friday night, the end of the week for Jonas. He didn’t work on Saturday or Sunday. He left his shop to the charge of his friend Will. Will was employed by Jonas’ father and when Jonas took over the business he kept Will on as his assistant.

Will was a good man and that was good for business. He, too, had learned under Liam, Jonas’ father and had become very popular with the town folk. His presence allowed Jonas to have some free time and it provided a way for the business to run an extra day each week. At the end of each month, Jonas would give him a portion of the profits that month as a bonus. Will appreciated that and he enjoyed having his days off on Sunday and Monday. On Sunday he was in church because Will loved to sing in the choir. Monday, though, was for fishing.

Jonas enjoyed his free time. He still loved playing golf or sailing his boat Boudica which he named in honor of the first century Celtic warrior queen who lead the Iceni tribe in victory against the Romans. Golf relaxed him and the boat allowed him to get away from it all so that he could concentrate on his writing.

Jonas no longer worked covering the political arena for the Hazleton Echo, but he did write a monthly political satire for the Halifax Daily News and an occasional tourism column for the Queens County Times. It was the tourism column he enjoyed the most because it allowed him to visit the small towns along the Nova Scotia coast and get to know the people there. It also brought back to mind a happier time in Jonas’ life.

The boat offered privacy and a quiet place to work on the book he hoped to have published one day. It was also the place Jonas called home. He wanted to stay near the water.

This evening though, Jonas’ thoughts turned towards the joyfulness that seemed to fill the people’s mall and brought new life to everything it touched. The atmosphere of this evening lifted his spirit so that, if no one were to see, Jonas would dance a jig in the street in front of his shop.

The sounds of the fiddle had inspired the sounds of the bagpipe and the guitar to join in the fun. Even the pipers were piping. People were dancing along the mall and singing the songs that the Celtic bands were playing inside and outside the pubs along the Way.

Jonas just couldn’t stand there any longer. He closed his shop for the evening and began his weekend. He enjoyed a good beer just like everyone else so he headed down the Way to the wharf where his favorite pub, the Weather Eye was located.

While Jonas walked along the mall, he found his eye was caught by the sight of someone familiar. As she stood in the shadow offered by the awning covering a portion of that patio outside the Crows Nest Tavern he stopped in his tracks. Something about her smile, albeit not easy to see, commanded his attention. He was almost certain that smile belonged to someone he knew. He felt like calling out her name but he didn’t want to act like a schoolboy trying to get the attention of some young girl. He was too old for that, but not so old that he could just let this pass.

As he drew closer to the tavern across the Way he was interrupted by some young ladies outside the tavern who took him by the arm and made him dance a little with them. When the song was over, he thanked the young ladies, for the dance and continued to cross the street. The brief interruption caused him to lose sight of the smile that drew him there. Still he knew he had seen her. Jonas decided to go inside.

It was a busy night at the Crows Nest. There were a lot of people there, probably too many for the fire laws but since the Fire Chief was there having a great time Jonas figured he might as well too. He walked up to a waitress and requested a beer as he went to sit down on a stool near the bar.

Peering out over the crowd, which was singing and dancing to the Celtic sounds emanating from the band there, Jonas tried to find her. The waitress brought Jonas his beer. He paid her and thanked her with a nice tip. She thanked him with a kiss on the cheek. This brought a smile to Jonas’ heart and you could see it on his face. Taking a sip from his beer he continued to search the room for her, the woman with the smile commanding his attention and causing his heart to race.

The people at the bar and those throughout the tavern began singing with the band and Jonas joined in. As the song came to a close and everyone was toasting everyone and everything, Jonas turned to face the bar. He could see all that was going on behind him by looking in the mirror behind the bar.

He sipped from his beer, now about half gone, and looked in the mirror with one eye. There! He saw that smile again. Then it was gone, but Jonas had noticed the area of the tavern from which it came.

He took