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    Seven Ages of Man: A Family Birthday = Troubles Ahead
    Seven Ages of Man: A Family Birthday = Troubles Ahead
    Seven Ages of Man: A Family Birthday = Troubles Ahead
    Ebook95 pages1 hour

    Seven Ages of Man: A Family Birthday = Troubles Ahead

    By Wilma Hayes

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    About this ebook

    The inspiration for these is pure Shakespeare. 'All the world's a stage...' Seven lovely characters fully drawn. There was little for me to do except put them into a stressful situation, preferably all together. Going against all advice, I did make this collection a reunion...an elderly man's birthday party. All the family is anticipating a major announcement, but what they get is not what they expect. The action covers one day from early morning until evening dinner. It takes place in the 1960s.

    The family is made up of the elderly man, head of the family, his two sons who each have two sons. Every one of them has a tale to tell.

    The infant has become his grandfather's instant soul mate. The little lad, allows his grandfather to become a child again and at the same time strengthens the old man's plan.

    The school boy has begun to feel eclipsed by his little brother and seeks to make up for his insignificance with a few threats.

    The lover is older and a cousin of these two boys. He is now beginning to understand sex, drugs and rock and roll - or thinks he is.

    The soldier is the eldest of this generation of boys and has had the opportunity to see that he has an adult future. He is not liking what he sees.

    The justice is the younger son of the old man. He has spent all his life in the shadow of his older brother and father. Along the way he has developed some secrets he'd rather his wife didn't know about.

    The sixth age, that of the older brother, brings expectations that he will be the heir of the family business. But he too has secrets - serious ones.

    The second childishness of the old man has them all worried. But he has been observing them and he does have something to tell them. It will change many things.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilma Hayes
    Release dateAug 16, 2019
    ISBN9780995787056
    Seven Ages of Man: A Family Birthday = Troubles Ahead
    Author

    Wilma Hayes

    'The Welsh Marches is an evocative place. Full of mystery, history, and tiny old houses, it leads easily into Wales - a perfect place to write and to set romantic novels with mysteries and crimes embedded in them.'This is how Wilma summarises the inspiration for her four novels in the Welsh Marches series and the forty-nine short stories which follow and make up Sevens, Stories to Commute By.Luckily for her, she was able to escape to this scenic area and begin to write. It is not a gift that many people are given, but with a tiny cottage of her own, an accompanying cottage garden and a husband who is handy with a computer and a coffee pot, the opportunity was too good to ignore.

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      Book preview

      Seven Ages of Man - Wilma Hayes

      SEVEN AGES OF MAN

      by Wilma Hayes

      A short novella about a family birthday. What could possibly go wrong?

      SEVEN AGES OF MAN

      by Wilma Hayes

      Published by Wilma Hayes at Smashwords

      Copyright 2019

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      ISBN 978-0-9957870-5-6

      All Kinds of Seven

      Whoever thought that writing forty-nine short stories was a good idea needs to lie down in a dark room for a short while until it passes. That would be me, and I didn’t.

      Seven is a lovely number and when I began these it seemed like an achievable task. The first little novella was quite good fun. I think you can see how it progressed from there and soon seven little novellas with seven chapters or stories each became the goal. It was a long slog.

      The stories or chapters are all of similar length and I thought that they would make nice stories for a commute taking 10 to 15 minutes each, so 2 in a 20 or 30 minute commute and so on. Or a short or longer tea break if you prefer! Naturally everyone reads at different rates, so these times are my best guess.

      Some of the stories in each set are like chapters in a book, in that one logically follows the other; some are quite individual tales but with commonality. None of them follow the Seven theme too strictly, but stories are like that; they wander off piste from time to time.

      Naturally, I like some stories better than others and I am sure you will too. But I hope that they will help your commute to work or give you a few minutes for a cuppa.

      See www.wilmahayes.co.uk for more information about me or other books.

      Wilma Hayes

      SEVEN AGES OF MAN

      The inspiration for these is pure Shakespeare. 'All the world's a stage...' Seven lovely characters fully drawn. There was little for me to do except put them into a stressful situation, preferably all together. Going against all advice, I did make this collection a reunion...an elderly man's birthday party. All the family is expecting a major announcement, but what they get is not what they expect. The action covers one day from early morning until evening dinner. It takes place in the 1960s.

      The family is made up of the elderly man, head of the family, his two sons who each have two sons. Each of them has a have a tale to tell.

      The infant has become his grandfather's instant soul mate. The little lad, allows his grandfather to become a child again and at the same time strengthens the old man's plan.

      The school boy has begun to feel eclipsed by his little brother and seeks to make up for his insignificance.

      The lover is older and a cousin of these two boys. He is now beginning to understand sex, drugs and rock and roll - or thinks he is.

      The soldier is the eldest of this generation of boys and has had the opportunity to see that he has an adult future. He is not liking what he sees.

      The justice is the younger son of the old man. He has spent all his life in the shadow of his older brother and father. Along the way he has developed some secrets.

      The sixth age, that of the older brother, brings expectations that he will be the heir of the family business. But he too has secrets - serious ones.

      The second childishness of the old man has them all worried. But he has been observing them all and he does have something to tell them.

      Wilma Hayes

      Table of Contents

      Infant

      School Boy

      Lover

      Soldier

      Justice

      Pantaloon

      Second Childishness

      Other Stuff You Might Find Interesting

      You Might Also like Seven Ancient Wonders of the World

      Infant

      All the world's a stage.... and one man plays many parts...at first, the infant.

      'James!’ The shriek from his wife bolted him upright in the bed. ‘He’s gone! Ben’s gone!’ Before James got one leg out from under the bedclothes, she was standing in front of him, her peacock blue quilted dressing gown trembling in the early morning light.

      ‘What? Ann, what do...’ It was as far as he got.

      ‘Ben’s missing – he’s been kidnapped – the crib – it’s empty!’

      Struggling into each other, they pushed through the doorway into the little room next to theirs and stared into an empty crib, the covers folded back and tidy. Ann was still screaming and running from window to crib, to closet, to window again. Then she tried to lift the heavy old sash. James grabbed her arm. ‘Calm down a minute.’ She snatched it away and continued to rush from one window to the next and back again, searching in near hysteria, through wardrobes, stacks of linen, calling the child's name and sobbing at the same time.

      James looked around the little room; windows still shut tight, door to the hallway likewise, dresser drawer ajar and a wet overnight nappy in the bucket beside the changing table.

      ‘Ann, for heaven’s sake. Just stop.’ He opened the little closet door. ‘Ben’s coat is gone, but his night things are here. Whoever has him, took the time to change and dress him. It doesn’t sound like a kidnapper to me.’

      But Ann wrenched open the bedroom door and careered into the hallway, running for the stairs. James ran back to their room for his slippers and robe and rushed back into the corridor, crashing into his brother as he came out of his room opposite.

      ‘What’s going on?’ Arthur’s hair was parted on the wrong side and hung in an untidy grey-brown clump over one ear. He was hopping on one foot pulling up the back of a slipper on the other.

      ‘Ben’s missing – Ann thinks he’s been kidnapped.’

      Arthur yanked the cord on his dressing gown and raked his hair back to the right side. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake…’ James disappeared down the stairs before he could finish.

      Arthur rolled his eyes to the ceiling and went back to his room. Discarding his paisley printed robe and slippers he lifted the corner of the bedclothes and got back into bed.

      ‘Whassa matter?’ his wife mumbled from the other side of the bed.

      ‘Oh, it’s Ann again – thinks Ben’s the next Lindberg baby. Anyway, they’ve both rushed off – no doubt to report it to the security services.’ He thought he heard a giggle from under the quilt cover.

      The mud made a wonderful sound as it smacked on the bank. Another whack spewed sloppy globs across the old man’s jacket and onto his face. He cackled with child-like glee and so did the little boy.

      ‘Hey, hey, hey! This is the best mud fort ever.’ The old man threw another clump at the mound. The impact made a satisfactory sound and they laughed again. ‘Come on, we need more mud.’

      Together they walked back to the edge of the stream, filled the little bucket and dragged it back to the mound. Handful after handful splattered onto the growing pile.

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