Stan Mason - Myriad of Corridors

Title Page

Myriad of Corridors

by

Stan Mason

Publisher Information

Myriad of Corridors published in 2014 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

The right of Stan Mason to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998

Copyright 2014 Stan Mason

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

It was the time of year when darkness fell early like a great blanket blotting out the light. The cold weather was in evidence and the weather forecasters predicted that snow was about to arrive. Hunter started to clear his desk at the office and sat still in his executive chair for a moment reflecting the events of the day. At breakfast, that morning, he had read his horoscope in the national newspaper which told him that his stars were in the wrong places and that he would face incidents that were not going to please him. It was true in every respect for it was his destiny to experience them, First of all, his car wouldnt start because the battery was flat so he was late for work which didnt go down well with his senior manager. Then he accidentally spilled a cup of coffee on his desk which ran out over his trousers. After that, he was forced to fire a member of staff under orders from his boss, on the grounds that the woman was incompetent, forcing her to leave by the end of the week. And lastly, he had to deal with a case of theft by a member of staff who fervently denied the crime.

He left the office under a cloud and arrived home a short while later. He was puzzled to note that none of the lights had been switched on. His wife, Ruth, should have been cooking the evening mean but she couldnt do it in the dark. They had been married for seven years and were without children mainly because Ruth had a problem conceiving and the IVF treatment hadnt worked. Nonetheless, they carried on regardless although their attitudes towards each other had begun to change and, over the past year. The marriage had started to founder. Hunter had arranged for them to go on a holiday abroad in an effort to change their environment so that they might be able to restore the situation. Relationships were such a delicate thing to handle and it was common knowledge that after a number of years of marriage many people began to feel differently about each other. The Hunters were no different!

He opened the front door and called out her name but there was no reply as he switched on the lights. Moving into the kitchen, he was surprised to find that no one was there and after going into the lounge he went upstairs to the bedrooms. Where was she? All the lights were out and his wife wasnt there. He returned to the lounge and sat on the settee trying to think whether she had told him that she was going somewhere but he had forgotten, but nothing came to mind. It had turned out to be one of those bad days in his life... a dark evil day. In due course he went to the kitchen to make himself a meal and then saw an envelope resting on the table. He opened it to read a Dear John letter. She told him that she was bored with her life and wanted time to herself. There was no one else in her life but she was leaving him for good to do something exciting and romantic. She would come and see the children in due course but their marriage was at an end.

He read the letter twice and was devastated. Although things hadnt been right with them for some time, this was a bolt from the blue. He returned to the lounge and reflected the situation. It was true that he had been unfaithful with a female client, Arabella, and had spent some nights with her, having told his wife that he had to visit a client in the north for the company. It had been quite clear to him that Arabella only had the affair with him to obtain a lucrative contract but he had taken advantage of the situation. It was then that news came to shake him even further.

The doorbell rang and he faced two plain-clothed policemen who showed him their warrant cards.

Im afraid we have some bad news, Mr. Hunter, stated the first officer. Were sorry to have to tell you that your wife has been killed in a hit-and-run accident about half a mile away from here. Wed like you to come to the morgue tomorrow to identify the body,

Hunter stood there in a state of shock. Ruth dead! He couldnt believe it. He had a sinking feeling about the fate of his wife at that moment because throughout his life, death had followed him closely albeit he was given a reprieve on each occasion. In truth, he was often aware of the score before the deathly event actually happened. It began when his sister died of leukaemia at the age of six. His mother was distraught at the loss. However less than three months later she stepped off the kerb on a zebra crossing without looking and was knocked down by a passing vehicle. Then there was the case of him and two friends, Jake and Henry, going down to the local lake for a swim when he was fifteen years of age. They spent an hour in the water enjoying themselves when Henry made the poor decision to go to the edge of the bay and dive below the water. Unfortunately, he went too far down too swiftly to strike his head on a rock. When his body surfaced he was dead. Five years later, Hunter went on a climbing trip with three other experienced mountaineers. Foolishly, it was their intention to climb the north face of the Eiger in a very swift time so that they could have their names published in the Guinness Book of Records. The journey was progressing well on the difficult snow-covered slopes when a piton wrenched itself loose and one of the men left the side of the mountain to hover over dangerous jagged rocks over a thousand feet below. The force of the fall caused the rope to rub and fray against the rocks. Within a few minutes, the strands gradually tore themselves apart and the rope snapped causing the mountaineer to fall to an untimely death. To prove that the Grim Reaper followed him everywhere, there was another event when he and two others flew in a Cessna aeroplane one weekend to travel to Lyons in France. They cleared the English Channel and continued across the French countryside until they came to the Massif Central. At that point the engine cut out and it became necessary for the aircraft to make a crash landing. The pilot lost control of the plane which had the misfortune to hit a cottage in a clearing. Hunter emerge from the wreckage with a cut on his forehead and a few sore ribs but the pilot sitting beside him died of serious head wounds. And so it was with his wife, Ruth. The death syndrome had overwhelmed her as a result of his closeness to her. It was quite clear to him that anyone who befriended him made a date with death.

He stood looking out of the bedroom window of his house convincing himself that he was a fool... a complete and utter fool. He considered that it was a punishment for his affair with Arabella. Her unsolicited visit to his office had been made in the hope of winning a substantial contract to decorate his office building. As a professional commercial decorator she was not indifferent to cold calling. However, in truth, she was a femme fatale! He had been strongly attracted to her from the moment he had cast his eyes on her. After all, she was a very beautiful woman, who could easily have passed for a fashion model, wearing a smart low-cut light grey dress which displayed a large cleft of a full-blown bosom and ending high above her long lovely stylish knees. He had stared at her gorgeous face, her sensuous lips, her beautiful large dark eyes and, within seconds, he became so overwhelmed by her presence that he began to experience strong feelings of sexual emotion rising within him. It had never happened to him so strongly before but suddenly he began to throw caution to the winds in a moment of lust. Hunter knew the danger of breaking his vows but Arabella was so different to any woman he had ever seen before that he became overwhelmed by her. As far as she was concerned, as a professional woman, she cared little what she did as long as she won a contract. When she saw the look of lust in Hunters eyes, she knew immediately that her battle had been won. Without wasting any time, the dialogue between them advanced at a rate of knots and he took her on a number of occasions to a hotel booking in with the name of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. It had all happened so quickly that it took his breath away. Each time, they made passionate love in bed together. The architect had given way to his lust and was on the way to destroy his marriage; for Arabella it was simply a means of concluding the contract. However, as the great poet Robbie Burns once said, the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley After the policemen had gone, he became very angry. A hit-and-run driver had killed his wife and driven off without even stopping to see whether she needed help. How reprehensible! How callous! How thoughtless and unfeeling!