Shelter From the Storm

Kindle direct 2020

Lucas Barrett has it all—family, friends, success. Then one by one he loses everything. Success is taken away, friends betray him, and he is left alone. A massive storm sends his ship to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and leaves him half-dead on the Cuban shoreline. Before he can find his way home, he must decide if life is still worth living.

Her is an excerpt from Shelter From the Storm

The line between unconscious and conscious is not unlike the horizon at twilight. Much of the world is murky and obscure, but a glimmer of light resists the darkness.

Lucas gradually becomes aware of that distant light. Before he sees anything, he hears nothing. No howling winds, no crashing waves, only silence and a gentle humming from somewhere above his head.

It takes time and effort, but he opens his eyes. All appears to be blurry, unrecognizable shapes and shadows—nothing to tell him where he is or how long he has been there. He tries to sit up and feels a gentle but firm hand against his shoulder.

A faceless voice whispers, “No, Se r, por favor.”

The voice is firm but tender. He can’t tell if the owner of the voice is male or female, but he knows it is a voice he has not heard before. He doesn’t resist, but drifts back into the silence.

The next time he opens his eyes, the room is brighter. Squinting against the glare, he looks around the small, sparsely furnished room. He is lying on a cot against a wall across from a doorway. On one side of him, two chairs and a small table rest beneath the only window in the room. Tattered simple curtains hang well below the windowsill but do little to keep out the daylight. A well-worn dresser stands to the other side of him beneath a rustic hand-carved wooden crucifix hanging on the wall. Overhead, an ancient ceiling fan whirs and wobbles as it stirs the moist air.

Lucas senses he is not alone. He turns and he sees an old man seated by the head of the bed. The man smiles and nods to him. His face, sun-worn, and wrinkled, is crowned with disheveled white hair that hangs over the tops of his ears below the brim of his frayed straw hat. His eyes shine a brilliant blue, and make Lucas think of the Caribbean in the early morning when the sun sets the waters aglow.