Engagement: A Short Story

By P.B. Cannon

Appearances can be deceiving. He’s not what he seems to be. Neither is she.

They represent opposing factions in an engagement on which a lot is riding. He has always been a wily fighter for his team and has many victories under his belt. She has certain attributes that led her Captain to specifically choose her for the contest.

But there is a loophole and winning is not a given - for either participant.

• Language: English
• Publisher: P.B. Cannon
• Release date: Nov 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005383923

P.B. Cannon

P.B. Cannon was born and raised in Charlotte, NC, and though she has visited other cities and states, she has a preference for Charlotte and expects to live there for the rest of her life.She is a teller of tales who enjoys concocting yarns of science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, and other stuff. She relishes reading, drawing and painting, walking, working crossword puzzles, and she likes to dance.She is a retired electronics technician and admits to having worked at a variety of other jobs during her life, including being a dishwasher, a busgirl, a housemaid, a motel/hotel maid, working in a fast-food joint, a telephone operator, and a store clerk. There have been other, even-less-glamorous jobs.She also daydreams a lot.

Book preview

Engagement

A Short Story

P.B. Cannon

Engagement Copyright © 2019 by P.B. Cannon

Edited by Ainsley Morris

License Notes:

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval without permission in writing from the author.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed herein are imaginary, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

Image used in the composition of this cover courtesy of Pixabay contributors, SilviaP_Design, Gordon Johnson, and Enrique Meseguer, and used under Creative Commons CCO.

Title layout and design by P.B. Cannon.

Content Advisory: Contains some material that some may find offensive and which is not appropriate for a young audience. Very mild profanity.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Other Works by the Author

About the Author

Chapter One

A small shrine huddled in the damp brown grass at the base of a ten-foot-high concrete block wall. It consisted of melted down candles with dead flowers scattered amid sodden teddy bears. The wall, caked with dozens of coats of paint, bore one piece of graffiti, a word in colossal rounded red letters on a gold background.

A man appeared on the cracked sidewalk that staggered its way past the wall and shrine. The wall, in itself, was not important. It was the remnant of a building knocked down long ago for a replacement that never happened, and no one noticed the neglected shrine anymore. What was significant to him was the word sprawling across the wall: Hallelujah! He studied it with glittering eyes. A recent cloudburst left streaks that ran down through the grime coated letters. The word appeared to have been there for a long time, but he knew it hadn’t.

He peered at the sky where the barely discernable late afternoon sun struggled behind thick dark clouds bent on bringing an early nightfall along with more rain. He needed to get out of range. Casting a final glance at the wall, he made off down the sidewalk and disappeared around a corner.

The clouds began spitting out a cold drizzle, and the wind picked up, stirring and flapping layers of multicolored flyers on a wooden utility pole that leaned near the curb. The premature darkness cast wall and shrine into deep shadows, blurring the words and pictures on the flyers, dimming the graffiti on the