So you know you’re getting older when you refer to 30 year-olds as kids. When you you catch the sly wink or smile of a cute gal, but do the mental math and nod wistfully. It’s inevitable. But more, it’s okay.
We’re not supposed to be young forever.
And how we grow old, and how we grow up, and how we treat the kids—that’s important stuff that a lot of people forget. Or never learn to start with.
There’s a lot (no, I mean a LOT) of bad in the world. But the worst is the abuse of kids. And that word—abuse—cuts a wide swath including manipulation and exploitation. Over-indulgence and neglect.
How the old ones treat the young ones —and what happens as a result—tends to show up often in my stories. Sometimes it’s subtle. Sometimes it’s not. Sometimes, as in Gatekeeper, a story included in Thomas Pluck’s acclaimed Protectors 2 anthology collection, it includes justice.
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This story was free during the first full week of June, 2018.
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“Gatekeeper” is one of several short stories in Protectors 2: Heroes, a collection edited by Thomas Pluck.
Each month this year, I will post a free crime story on the first Tuesday of the month, and a free western story two weeks later on the third Tuesday. The stories will stay up for seven days, and each will feature a “behind the story” post.
