Amanda

By Donan Berg

Amanda snapped. Herbert, her husband of thirty-six years, caused it. There were little things he did and, oh, yes, the alluring backyard neighbor in the feminine short-shorts. That seemed to be the entire story, but it wasn't. A reader wrote that Donan Berg's short story "Amanda" provided a keen insight into the relationship of couples capped with an ending described as "very clever."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Donan Berg
• Release date: Feb 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781941244029

Donan Berg

Award-winning United States author Donan Berg tempts the reading world with First Place Gold Award romance, adventurous teen fantasy plus entertaining mystery, thrillers, police procedurals, and. from his first novel, A Body To Bones, entertaining mystery. "A winning plot ..." said Kirkus. "...Not only well written ... characters rich in depth and background.," wrote a reviewer.To quote another reviewer, Lucia's Fantasy World "is a captivating story ... and the author perfectly captures the innocence and imagination of the characters in the book." It joins Find the Girl, A Fantasy Story, for fascinating adventure filled with child-like imagination, friendship, magic, and sorcery. For 435 days, Find the Girl topped the AuthorsDen most popular book list, all genres. This chart-topping glory eclipsed both A Body To Bones and Alexa's Gold. The mystery and romance thriller, at separate times, both exceeded 100 days as Number One.A native of Ireland, Author Berg honed his writing skills as a United States journalist, corporate executive, and lawyer.The stimulating, page-turning bedrock, underpinning his twelve novels, explores the human drama of individual flaws and challenges before victory over a wide range of antagonists, outed to be societal monsters and/or deftly hidden. A dastardly scheme can be diabolical as in Aria's Bayou Child.His prior mystery, Into the Dark, brings intrigue front and center where unaccountable cash, threats, and societal ills bring twists and turns sprung with gusto. A thoroughly engaging Sheriff Jonas McHugh, first encountered in Baby Bones, Second Skeleton Mystery Series, adds a heightened imagination to grow stronger. Alexa's Gold, a five-star, new adult romance, combines a unique contemporary heroine and a thrilling mystery.Gold and five-star writing awards and reviewer accolades were on the horizon after he landed in the winner's circle four times at the Ninth Annual Dixie Kane Memorial Writing Contest. This bested his three awards in the prior year's eighth annual contest.The bedrock of his mystery writing is his three-part skeleton series mysteries: A Body To Bones, The Bones Dance Foxtrot, and Baby Bones. The series followed by Abbey Burning Love, Adolph's Gold, and One Paper Heart, his Gold Award romance.A reviewer of his short story, Amanda, notes that Author Berg offers a keen insight into couple relationships and a very clever ending.

Book preview

Amanda

Donan Berg

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and DOTDON Books, PO Box 1302, Moline, IL, 61266-1302 except for the inclusion of brief quotation in a review.

Published by DOTDON Books, PO Box 1302, Moline, IL 61266-1302

This is a work of fiction. The places, characters, and events exist only in this short story and the author’s mind. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is unintentional and purely coincidental.

Copyright Donan B. McAuley 2014

ISBN 13: 978-1-941244-02-9

ISBN 10: 1941244025

Amanda

Amanda Booth snapped, not her fingers, not a spent prize geranium bloom, not a button on her blouse. No one with any knowledge of Amanda’s mindset needed to hear more than the word snapped, only this one word, and it defined everything perfectly.

Amanda would have no more.

Husband Herbert did it, knowingly, deliberately, maybe without malice, but he consciously caused her to snap. She had suffered all these years from his constant smoking, his slothful habits, and his overbearing demands in treating her as little more than a menial household servant.

In Amanda’s mind she definitely needed to eliminate all the stress Herbert built up in her daily life for she knew he caused it all.

She could’ve possibly forgiven Herbert a one-time infidelity for the sake of the three children, now grown and living their own lives outside of their parents’ Beaverton, Illinois, home. More than two decades ago, when Amanda had been pregnant with Sally, their youngest child, Herbert had started to plant a never before cultivated backyard vegetable garden.

On the other side of the Booth’s four-foot high white picket lot-defining fence lived Emma Charleston. With her Arabian Night eyes; short black hair, styled as if replicating an old magazine photo of Jackie from the 1960s; and shapely legs below a thin, often bared, waist, Emma