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The Stories by DAF

 Excerpt from my novel FATE.     A Rebel Father Dies                               “A mortal cannot put fate on trial, nor punish it, nor defend it … but simply coexist with it.”        Fionn’s death came quietly and without warning.        On a still morning that had the promise of a dry day in a wet week, he had risen early, as was his habit, made the turf fire in the open grate that would burn till he retired to bed, prepared a breakfast of salted porridge, a soft egg with soda bread, and strong black tea that a fly would have difficulty sinking in.        That morning was Fionn's last day in his beloved Ireland.        After breakfast, Fionn took a ramble to check the nets he had strung out in the sma...
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 Excerpt from my novel FATE.                                The Promise of Eternal Bliss Beyond                                                                       It became a daily habit for Emmet to go to the waterfront and sit not too far from where his mother was blown off. He knew why, but his gut‑feeling told him to say nothing, because it would only give reason for others to gossip … as if there was not enough of that being done already.        It happened one afternoon when a sea fog was coming in to settle over the village for the night. After lighting his pipe and drawing on that sweet, rough plug he favored, he found himself looking toward the place where his mother fell, the last thought th...
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 Excerpt from my novel FATE.   Edwina's Curse                            “I’m telling it as it happened … not dressing it up, but maybe … I will allow myself to dance a bit with it.”        In Captain Berek’s absence, Edwina’s condition worsened. She seldom ventured outdoors, and when she did, it was only as far as the garden gate or along the cliff path where the north wind came cold off the sea at Devil’s Leap. She spent long hours in her husband’s work shed, at the back of their stone house, reading his old logbooks, tracing her fingers over his handwriting as though she might feel his presence through the ink, mumbling to herself and asking…   “Why … why … you damp fool … why?”        She spoke not only to the man she married ... but to the seaman he was ... a man who carried...
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 Excerpt from my novel FATE.                                                               Hard to Be a Child                                     It was always the innocent children of a ‘wedlock, stock, and barrel’ who could hone their survival reasoning by sensing the tension within the home. Ask the infamous Captain Crabbe about his childhood, and he will tell you that body language was the first language he learned in order to survive in the Crabbe household.        The act of being born is an essential aspect of human existence, yet it is one that occurs without the consent or choice of the child. Children enter the world as a result of...
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