This is a further revised version of the original Trumped story.

(The original was crafted long before we have been plagued by the man who has dominated the headlines over the last decade.)

It is a romance, set in Glasgow of the late 1950s.

Louisa at our Writers’ Circus set us the challenge of “Betrayal”.

The idea of setting this story against a background of Greyhound Racing came at once. My Dad was an occasional weekend gambler, not addicted, but he did enjoy Friday nights at Shawfield Stadium, which still exists as a Greyhound Racing venue.

The ambiance I am trying for is post-war Glasgow, seeking to contrast the gulf between the lives of the rich (living in the grand mansions of Pollokshields) and the poor (living in the Oatlands district, where my Dad was born).

I have re-formatted it and re-edited the original using Read Aloud in Word. If you a typo or logic error, please forgive, make your best judgement and read on.

Thank you Kareth for editing the original version all those years ago.

The first version of this mini-treatise was tapped out on my iPad while sitting on our veranda in Tenerife during a recent winter sun break.

It began with a morning chorus of the birds in our garden and expanded to uncover a few new surpises.

Ah, Tenerife, ‘The Island of Eternal Spring’ is indeed full of suprises.

The images were provided ‘royalty free’ from the Internet. Much of the other information came from Google.

This final version was self-edited using the ‘Read Aloud in ‘Microsoft Word’.

Please forgive typos etc.

If you spot any, please make your own judgement as to meaning and read on. Thanks.

This story was written for Writers’ Circus in response to the topic ‘St Valentine’s Day’.

The main protagonist is a single woman called Jean, a career-minded Chartered Accountant who set her sights on becoming a Partner in Ernst & Young.

Although not miserly, Jean is careful with money, risk-averse.

As she approaches retirement, Jean has a nice house, adequate savings and a good occupational pension to draw on.

But then her health fails.

This not a rags to riches story but their are elements of this notion in this tale.

Jean’s birthday is 14th Fenruary and she has adopted # 142 as her lucky number for raffles.

Jean has a clever nephew, her godson Trevor whom she adopts when her sister dies.

You have around 4,500 words to entertain you.

I invite you to download the PDF and ‘Read On’.

(The final version was self-edited using Read Aloud in Word so please forgive any typos and missing words etc and make your best guess to allow the story to flow.)

This tale, entirely fictional, is based on a chance meeting with a very chatty lady as we travelled on the link bus from Edinburgh Airport to the city centre. I had been in London the previous day and was heading for our Edinburgh office.

She was from Northern Ireland, born and bred. During the years her daughter had studied at Edinburgh University, my link bus companion had grown fond of the city. When her husband sold their business he took up golf as his new passion, making her a golfing widow.

It was a siutuation she decided to use to her advantage and, to fill her free time, she started taking the short and inexpensive flight from Belfast to Edinburgh, often just for the day, sometimes for several if he was away on a longer golf trip.

These were her secret ‘Blue Moon Days’, she said, visits her husband and family knew nothing about.

Note: I have added a Contents list which enable readers to navigate directly to each chapter by CLICK ing on the heading in this list.

Apologies to the several people I told that this story was available to download.

I did circulate it to Writers’ Circus but forgot to follow up by posting it to the website.

It was written in Peurto Pollensa in November in response to a toipc entitled: “A stormy night”.

It’s one of my favorites.