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The moon is hidden behind the houses of the harbor. Slowly, the sky above the masts changed color and the ship docked in the harbor. He has two days to get to the city tower and no good excuse was enough to keep him from telling the truth. Fortunately, the weather was on his side that morning, and, after walking all day, late in the afternoon he reached his final destination, a magnificent landmark of the city.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Title Page
Force Attack
Blame Ball
Jeremy McHarry
Force Attack / 15th of series: Blame Ball / By Jeremy McHarry
Published 2023 by Bentockiz
e-book Imprint: Calkden Norsh
e-book Registration: Stockholm, Sweden
e-book ISBN: 9789198826647
e-book editing: Athens, Greece
Cover Images created via AI art generators
Table of Contents
Title Page
Introduction
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Introduction
Through books we come into contact with everything important that has happened in the past, analyzing also current events and putting our thoughts together to predict the future. The book is a window to the world, acquiring valuable knowledge and sparking our vivid imagination. It is a means of entertainment and is generally seen as a best friend, or as a slave that carries together all valuable information for us. The book is a friend who stays together without demands, a friend you call upon at every moment and abandon when you want.
It accompanies us in the hours of boredom and loneliness, while at the same time it entertains us. In general, a book does not ask anything from us, while it waits patiently on a dusty shelf to give us its information, to get us out of dead ends and to travel us to magical worlds.
This may be the travel mission of our books. Abstract narration, weird or unconscious thoughts difficult to be understood, but always genuine and full of life experiences, these are stories of life that can’t be overlooked easily.
This may be the start of something amazing!
Chapter One
Alice nods her head as she says, “I wish more young women were in your position.”
“So do I, but how many of them would make the effort to learn to do it well? Even when I was in college and the older girls should have known better, they didn’t have the discipline or they thought they could charm any man or they figured it would never happen to them. For many years, I’ve avoided social settings or places where I was potentially vulnerable, I don’t flirt or dress provocatively, and it still happened to me.”
“What happened to you?”
They quickly turn.
Sharlene answers, “Hi, Mom. Uh, I had to use my martial arts to protect myself.”
Sarah visibly shutters then says, “I don’t like violence.”
“Neither do I, but it’s better than being a victim.”
“I . . . I know that up here,” Sarah points to her head, “but I don’t feel it.”
The silence stretches to awkwardness.
Although Sharlene remembers sending it in an email, she guesses her mom might not remember seeing it so she says, “Mom, come sit down. I have something you might like to see.”
“What is it?”
“Klara recorded me and a friend playing with another friend’s canine.”
“Oh, okay.” She sits down while Sharlene finds the right file on her computer. Soon they’re all laughing. When her laughter diminishes enough, Sarah asks, “Who’s your friend?”
“That’s Mariam. She’s my best friend at work.”
“That’s a big dog.”
“That’s Molly. We don’t know what breed she is or what mixture of breeds, but some in the community think she’s part wolf.”
Sarah looks at her in near shock and exclaims, “Wolf!?!”
“Mom, Molly is as gentle as can be, at least if a person is being good. If someone is being bad, they don’t want Molly around. She stopped a robbery at Aunt Paula’s and I’ve heard of several other crimes she’s stopped.”
“Oh. So she’s safe?”
“Very safe, Mom. Aunt Paula thinks Molly has taken a special interest in me. I don’t know, but apparently she’s requested hugs and petting from me earlier than from other people who are strange to her. We didn’t know it at the time, but she was pregnant when the video was taken. According to the veterinarian, she’s due in the next week or two.”
“Are you going to keep any of the puppies?”
“I don’t know, Mom. George insists that’s for Molly to decide.”
“Who’s George?”
“George is the man Molly adopted. He’s also Aunt Paula’s neighbor who I was able to help when he had a heart attack. Klara, Mariam, and I were at his place, along with Aunt Paula and Uncle Paul to help him celebrate his recovery.”
“Why would he think the dog should decide?”
“He thinks Molly is smart enough to decide. Molly seems smarter than any other dog I’ve met. She knew George was about to have a heart attack and got Aunt Paula and I there in time to save him.”
Alice nods her head and confirms, “A number of people in emergency situations have told me their pet saved them. Although I’ve never heard of a pet being aware of a heart attack before it happened.”
Sharlene asks her, “Aren’t some dogs trained to respond before a person has a seizure?”
“That’s true, but that’s when they’re in the same room, or at least the same house. So, how far is it from your aunt’s to George’s?”
“There’s a trail which goes more or less straight between the houses. I think George said it was about two miles. It’s somewhat longer by the road.”
“So Molly gave you and your aunt enough warning to get in a vehicle and travel more than two miles to get there in time to save him?”
“That’s right, Alice.”
“Amazing. I’ve never heard of an animal so in tune with their owner or be smart enough about it that they could get help in time. Most animals, if they did give warning, would give it to the owner, not somebody else.”
“That’s what I thought I had heard.”
* * * * *
2147-09-25 (a4>e1)
Alice asks, “How does George treat Molly?”
“Like a person in a canine’s body.” They look at Sharlene as though she said something in a foreign language. “I’m serious. He talks to Molly clearly and politely as though he knows she understands and she responds as though she understands him. Sometimes he’ll even get down to her physical level to talk to her. It’s really something to see.
“Before Klara took the video that I showed you, George needed to get something from town for dinner. Molly loves to ride in George’s pickup with him and almost anytime he opens the door, she’s there. That time he gently stopped her, said he was going to town and asked her, he literally asked Molly, to stay with us and protect us. She gave a ‘Woof’ of agreement and came and sat by me and stayed with Klara and I until George came back.”
“That’s a well-trained dog.”
“He didn’t train her. And George and Aunt Paula know Molly’s history from when she was only about half grown which would have been earlier than such training would occur, at least from what I understand.”
“So she just showed up half grown?”
“Not quite. George interrupted some men who were beating Molly. When they left, she was so badly injured, he almost put her out of her misery, but something stopped him. As he tried to gently pick her up, she bit his wrist and didn’t let go, even while he got her into his pickup and drove almost an hour to the next larger town where there was a veterinarian. After a shot of a muscle relaxant, they were able to get George’s wrist out of her jaws.
“He gave them almost a blank check to fix her up, went to the local clinic to get his wrist bandaged, and drove home. A few months later, a large healthy canine showed up with only a name tag of ‘Molly’ and spends most of the time either with George or at Aunt Paula’s. It wasn’t until later that Uncle Paul was able to do some investigating and figured out that Molly was the canine who George had rescued.”
“Wow. What a story. I’ve often thought that animals are smarter than we give them credit for.”
Sharlene asks, “Do you have a pet?”
Alice shakes her head as she answers, “No, not with my crazy hours, I couldn’t give it the time a pet should have. As a kid growing up, we always had pets, mostly dogs, sometimes a cat or two. And most of my friends and neighbors had pets. Sometimes when my friends and I got together to play or even just to hang out, there were more animals than people in the group.”
Sarah asks, “You said Molly was pregnant?”
“Yes, Mom.”
“Does anyone know who the daddy dog is?”
“I haven’t heard that anyone does.”
“That’s too bad,” they look at Sarah with puzzled expressions before she finishes, “every mother should have help with her babies.”
In the stunned silence, they hear the doorbell ring. Robert gets up to answer it and returns with Klara just in time to hear Sarah ask Sharlene, “Didn’t you say you had a boyfriend?”
“Yes, Mom.”
“Does he want to have children?”
“No.”
“That’s too bad. Maybe you should find someone else so you can have children.”
“Mom, I can’t have children.”
Sarah looks at her in surprise then asks, “You can’t? Why not?”
“I have a medical problem which won’t allow me to carry a child.”
“Oh. Have you told me about it?”
“Yes, Mom.”
“I guess I don’t remember.”
“That’s okay, none of us remembers everything.”
Before the silence goes very long, Robert speaks up, “How about some dinner? Alice, you’re more than welcome to stay.”
“I’d like that, thank you. Hold it, when did you and Sharlene have time to fix dinner? You’ve been talking to me all afternoon.”
“When we fixed lunch, we also got a slow cooker going for dinner.”
