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    An Honest Day's Work
    An Honest Day's Work
    An Honest Day's Work
    Ebook29 pages21 minutes

    An Honest Day's Work

    By Brent Jones

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Why is the right thing to do seldom the easy thing?

    And are we, as people, as compassionate as we’d like to believe?

    Jim Cooke, a baker, lends a helping hand to a homeless Vietnam veteran passing through the small town of Wakefield. But he soon discovers his good deed will test both his faith and compassion.

    This short story, from the author of FENDER and THE FIFTEENTH OF JUNE, explores the influence of popular opinion on morality, and the human tendency to fear what is unknown.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrent Jones
    Release dateSep 13, 2017
    ISBN9781370728732
    An Honest Day's Work
    Author

    Brent Jones

    Brent Jones is the global manager for land records and cadastre at Esri. His is responsible for strategic industry planning, business development, risk analysis and marketing, focusing on high accuracy GIS, advanced surveying data management, civil engineering, cadastre, land records, and land registration in the developing world. Brent Jones is president-elect for the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) and past president of the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA). He graduated from the University of Maine with a Bachelor of Science degree in survey engineering (1987).

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      Book preview

      An Honest Day's Work - Brent Jones

      · 1 ·

      The morning rush was drawing to a close, and next in line was Mrs. Henson. She’d been coming in for a fresh loaf of walnut-raisin bread every Monday for as long as I could remember. And that’s a long time, mind you. I’d opened Dough Re Mi almost thirty years ago.

      Mrs. Henson was a petite woman, a bit on the frail side, close to eighty, and always dressed in rich silks and bright colors. She was always cheerful and warm, too, even though she’d lost her husband a few years back. Half the town had shown up for his funeral.

      There were times I thought about shutting this place down and retiring, spending my days more like Mrs. Henson—gossiping about town, attending church socials, and playing bridge on Tuesdays at the rec hall. It was true that my hair got a bit thinner each passing year, and my stomach got a bit rounder, but there was something satisfying about an honest day’s work.

      Mrs. Henson took her loaf of walnut-raisin bread and smiled, showing off her false teeth. There were customers in line behind her, but that never stopped her from making idle chitchat. Not that anyone ever seemed to mind. Most people in Wakefield had nowhere to be.

      Smells lovely in here, Jim. Just wonderful.

      Thank you, Mrs. Henson.

      How ya been, anyway? Everything been good with you an’ Deb an’ the kids?

      She asked me that same question every week and my answer never changed. The kids were grown and gone, but that’s just the kind of town Wakefield was. Everybody knew everybody, and if you ever dared to have overnight guests, old Mae Boyd would be sure to write about it in the local gossip column.

      "Oh, I’m just

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