Colleen: Tales From The Bookcase

By Bronn Francis

In the years following the Reprisals, Colleen knew that being an orphan wasn't all that uncommon. But being that big girl as well made life doubly hard. But she was made of stern stuff, She knew that making her life a success was going to be all down to her.

Standing on the stage after collecting her two Degree certificates, Colleen was feeling pretty lonely in a sea of surging humanity. Until she saw her aunt frantically waving at her from the audience. An aunt accompanied by family and friends. But how did she find out that Colleen's graduation was today?

Then Aunt Dee gave her an even bigger surprise. One she didn't see coming.

One that was accompanied by the opportunity to meet the one man she hadn't even known she was looking for.

This story is set in the 2050's so it could happen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jonarma Publishing
• Release date: Oct 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201014131

Bronn Francis

Bronn Francis is an empty nester who lives with her husband and spoiled moggy cat in the Eastern part of the State of Victoria in Australia. When Covid 19 came and made everyone do things differently, Bronn and a couple of friends decided that they would stop being just readers and try their our hands at being authors too. One of their small group had been playing at creating a world for his stories to be located in. When Bronn asked to be allowed to use the world her friend has created, she was told to "go for it". As long as she agreed to let the others in the group use her characters in cameo roles. Bronn agreed in a flash. Bronn is a woman of a certain age, as they say in books. Bronn and the other group members wanted to publish as many books as possible which led to a group decision to focus on writing short stories.That way Bronn and her friends could get more stories written and published for you to read. Maybe some novellas will appear over time.. Bronn loves to read romances with a HEA so she's sticking to writing them for a while. When she's not writing Bronn loves to go and photograph interesting places in the bush. Then try painting them. Some are recognisable. If you enjoy Bronn's stories, do please tell your friends. If you don't, Please tell Bronn. So she can learn from her mistakes.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Colleen stood a little apart from outer graduates at the degree presentation ceremony being held at the end of winter at Deakin University’s Warrnambool campus. Always the big girl in her class at high school nothing seemed to have changed for her during her years at university. Everywhere around her other students were laughing as they collected their robes and mortar boards. Making sure that they had the correct colours that matched the faculty where they had earned their degrees.

Maybe she was a little envious of the other graduates. Being the plus sized young woman that she was, had always made her stand out from the crowd. It had been an advantage when she played netball and Australian Rules football. On the court and field her size and height made her an easy target for her teammates to aim for. That she was quick on her feet and easily able to manoeuvre herself into a good position was a bonus. It was off the playing grounds that she retreated into her shell. Being constantly teased and referred to as the heifer or worse made one do that, she thought to herself.

Taking a quick look in the mirror Colleen decided that she was ready for her walk across the stage to collect the degree in marketing, she had worked so hard for over the past four years. She’d decided to carry a second degree in public relations so that she would have two potential career paths available to her. After all she was alone in the world apart from her aunt that she saw only occasionally. Aunt Deirdre was a very senior policewoman and mother of two rambunctious little boys so she didn’t have time to spare for a niece who was already an adult and well used to living by herself.

Colleen knew that being an orphan was a state of mind. When the orphan is very young it matters because the State intervenes and arranges everything about where they live and go to school. According to some set formula known only to them. A formula founded on the probably reasonable belief that a young child can’t make those life changing decisions for themselves. None of that applied to Colleen because her mother had managed to raise her daughter until she had started at university before passing away. Her father was almost literally like some passing ship in the night. A sailor home on leave who had come across her mother while she was out enjoying herself with a group of friends while still a university student herself. Something that had changed virtually overnight when she discovered that she was pregnant a few weeks later. Enquiries had revealed that the ship her father had apparently been serving on had sailed the day after her mother’s chance meeting with him.

When the bell rang to call the graduates to line up in their faculty groups ready for their procession across the stage Colleen followed everyone else to the staging area. Everyone needed to be in the right order so there was pandemonium as graduates checked each other’s name tags to make sure they were standing in the right place in the lines. Then the slow walk up the stairs and onto the stage began. Colleen’s group was one of the last to make their way up onto the stage. Luckily, she’d thought to bring a bottle of water with her so she fished inside her black cloak and hauled the bottle out of her pocket and took a sip while she waited for her name to be called.

At last, the moment came.

Colleen Morris. Called the steward. Degrees in Marketing and Public Relations.

Colleen made her way across to where the Vice Chancellor stood with her certificates in his hand. As she walked towards him, he nodded his head and tapped the corner of his bonnet. Colleen responded as she arrived in front of her by nodding return and flipping the tassel on her mortar board to the other side to indicate that she was now a graduate.

After receiving the certificates, she walked across to the other side of the stage and waited while the graduate in front of her stood to allow her family to take photographs. Colleen didn’t have any family so there was no one to take photographs of her and she hadn’t thought to ask anyone to take any for her.

While she stood