It Was Mine

By Jeanne Grunert

What would you do if you could live your life over again? Retired teacher Stanley Huckle wonders whether his life would have been different if he'd been a bolder, braver man. He's always put duty first: to his aged parents, to his students, to his community. What if he'd put himself first? One cold night when his furnace breaks down, a mysterious repairman appears, offering Stanley his second chance at life. If he takes it, he gets the road not taken. If he refuses, he loses what he thinks is his one chance at lost happiness. What would you do?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeanne Grunert
• Release date: May 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463900178

Jeanne Grunert

Jeanne Grunert is an award-winning writer, blogger, and marketing consultant. She is the author of The Majek Family Mysteries as well as other works of paranormal and supernatural fiction. Although originally from the Long Island and New York City areas, Jeanne currently lives and works on a 17-acre farm with her husband, John, and their menageries of pets.

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It Was Mine

Jeanne Grunert

Bricks and Brambles Press

Prospect, Virginia

Copyright © 2018 by Jeanne Grunert

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Bricks and Brambles Press

www.bricksandbramblespress.com

Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

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It Was Mine / Jeanne Grunert. -- 1st ed.

SMASHWORDS ISBN: 9780463900178

Other Books by Jeanne Grunert

The Majek Family Mysteries - I Believe You (Book 1)

The Majek Family Mysteries – I See You (Book 2)

The Last Run of the 6:01

An Ancient Gift and Other Stories

IT WAS MINE

Chapter One

Stanley Huckle blew on his hands and rubbed his shoulders to friction the chill away. The house’s radiators coughed and clanked. He checked the thermostat; 60 degrees.

He dropped the issue of National Geographic History he had been reading to the floor and pushed his feet into threadbare slippers. He padded down to the cellar. Old Bessy, the hulking red boiler ruling his home growled and thudded, pouring heat from her iron sides into the basement. The gravity-fed boiler depended on steam rising up the tangle of pipes and into the radiators, Stanley thought uneasily. He touched his fingertips to her flanks and snatched his hand back, astonished at the furnace’s ability to alternately burn and freeze those she served.

This can’t be good, he muttered. Since his mother had died, Stanley talked to himself. Sometimes he spoke to Sahara, their cat, or to the numerous strays he fed in the alley between his garage and the neighbor’s shed. But mostly he conversed with the only person he truly trusted – himself.

He stepped out of the basement’s gloom and back into the dining room. He fumbled in the sideboard for