The Will

By Jamie J. Buchanan

Glen was surprised to hear his father had three wills. But what he read in them taught him more about his father, his life and about himself. This is a tale about being a father, a son and a brother - and the bonds that bind for life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jamie J. Buchanan
• Release date: Jul 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301549061

Jamie J. Buchanan

Jamie J. Buchanan is based in Perth, Western Australia. He spent many years playing in rock bands, mostly loud, fast, punk rock and heavy metal bands - the sort your parents warned you about. He is currently playing guitar, singing and writing songs for melodic punk band "Incomplete" based in Perth, Australia. But he has always been writing stories - long and short. Jamie has had a short story "On My Goat" published by Cardigan Press in 2006 in the anthology "Allnighter" as well as having several short stories published on the Smashwords website for free download (www.smashwords.com). The short story "Sanguine Saviour" won second place in the monthly "Darker Times" competition (www.darkertimes.co.uk) and was included in the inaugural Darker Times anthology as well. The short story "The Woman on the Pavement" is published in an upcoming Editor's Choice anthology by Stringybark Press called "Hitler Did It". Jamie's short story "Battle of Wits" has won the Raspberry and Vine short story comp for 2012 - you can read it here: http://home.people.net.au/~raspberryandvine/ Jamie has had several stories short-listed as well including "Insights" in the 2013 Carmel Bird Short Story Award and "Imagine This" in the 2014 Bundaberg Writers' Writefest Award 2014. Jamie's short story "The End of Death" has won the "Spinetinglers" short story competition for Jan 2015. His short story "Mr Shmoopie" has also won 1st Prize in "Spinetinglers" short story competition for October 2015 and both stories were supposed to be featured in an upcoming anthology of award winning short fiction. (http://www.spinetinglers.co.uk). You can read them below (soon to be published late 2017) Jamie enjoys the films of Robert Rodriguez, The Coen Brothers and Guy Richie, music by Bad Religion, Muse, The Offspring, Clutch, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica, and books by James Ellroy, Irvine Welsh, Chuck Palahniuk and Stephen King. His only hates are people who talk about themselves in the third person. And Brussel Sprouts. He hates Brussel Sprouts.

Book preview

The Will

A Short Story by

Jamie J. Buchanan

Copyright 2013 Jamie Buchanan

Smashwords Edition

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Glen was shocked to find out that his father had three wills. Dealing with the death of a man he thought was virtually invincible was hard enough to handle, let alone learning that his father’s life wasn’t exactly what he thought it was. As he sat in Uncle Ken’s office, he slowly began to piece together the life that he thought he knew.

Pieces fell into place.

Hints linked, gaps were filled.

Glen felt the penny drop.

Uncle Ken, Glen’s Dad’s brother, was someone Glen always knew he could trust. It was one of those innate, immeasurable, intangible beliefs that he had – he knew that Uncle Ken was staunch.

After the reading of his Dad’s will, this perception became confirmed fact.

The first part of Leonard MacGill’s will read as Glen had expected. Everything was left to Glen’s mother (Julie) who had passed away several years before. After that, all Leonard’s earthly possessions, the house, the car, the savings… it all reverted to be sold off and split 50/50 between Glenn and his brother Joseph.

Poor Joey – he never got the chance to see this.

So that just left Glen.

Then there was the second part to the will – an addendum that Glen did not expect. It ran like this:

"That takes care of the basics in regards to my will and testimony. However, there is more to this. I know that this type of addition is highly irregular but it is important for my family to know the truth after I am gone.

"I haven’t always been an importer of steel products and fabricated farm machinery. As you all know, I was in the army for many years and served two tours of