A quote: “Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.” ~~ Salvador Dali

I’m back! Let me start with a story …

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She stepped out the back porch to see her son James coming in early from the fields and, oh lord, no, Councilman Jack? Did that man ever take “No” for an answer?

They stopped short of the porch, dismounted and secured the horses within reach of the water trough.

She crossed her arms across her chest, glaring at Jack.

“Come on, mom. Listen to him.”

Jack stood quietly, didn’t seem anxious at all even as the last time he was here he had ended up on his keister in the dirt with a bloody lip. James Sr., Big Jim, had done that two years ago and now …

She felt all the spit and vinegar drain out of her, “Please, Jack. You can’t. We could hardly make it before and now with himself dead, if my son leaves …”

James slipped an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him.

Jack stepped forward, “Nothing much has changed these past few years. Jimmy here is heads and shoulders above all the youngsters in The Territory and we’re so very short of doctors. What few we have need people like Jimmy to train up. We lose too many good men and women to accidents and disease – things being in The City were simple to fix but here.”

She knew he was talking about Big Jim … how bitter the taste knowing his own son could’ve saved him if he had been right trained back then. Jimmy yearned to be a doctor like his dad had yearned to farm.

“But we’ll lose this place …”

Jack shook his head, “Not now. I am arranging hired hands – Council’s expense – to help while he’s away.”

She looked up into James’ face, then glanced past his shoulder, towards the distant oak tree when Big Jim was buried. She had to do what he couldn’t and let her son go.

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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license.