Jobs Like That

Note: This is a novella that became a novel (Nightfall) and then a series of four novels: The Nick Spalding series.

In this Hemingway-esque tale, Nick Spalding has been a warrior. He's been in places and situations where decisive action is not only allowed, but necessary. But he's grown weary of that life.

Now he's opted to drop out of life and out of his chosen profession. He takes a job on the docks, one where the biggest decisions are whether and how tightly to snug the boats to the pilings against an incoming storm.

The only other Anglo around, Mary Jo McWherter has also experienced war, hers in Northern Ireland. She too has dropped out and is escaping her own past. She works as a waitress in a road house near town.

But where you work doesn't change who you are.

Some folks are just cut of a particular cloth. Some folks are only suited for "jobs like that."