February 19th, 2018: Reviving past efforts

After the publication of my unconventional ghost story (The Picture of the Ghost,) I decided to rework my first complete (unpublished) short story entitled "The Empath". I had an idea for a character who could read the emotions of others and interact with them on an internal level. That was James, the empath from a story I had written thirty years earlier about a young man who traveled around the country helping those with deep seated emotional problems.

Although James was the protagonist of the story, it was told from the perspective of an antagonist named Ann Harrison, an intern at a small country doctor's clinic. Having been mistreated by men most of her life, she trusted no one, so when the doctor called James in to help a young girl who had suffered the severe trauma of seeing her mother beheaded in a gruesome traffic accident, it was not surprising that Ann belittled the young man with his claims of some kind of paranormal ability to heal people by entering their minds.

Normally, James would not care whether anyone believed in his talent or not, but he saw a need in Ann that he thought he could help her with. The tale unfolds with James helping the young accident victim cope with her loss before turning his attention to Ann. He demonstrates his gift to her by allowing her to see what he experiences when he connects with a patient.

James has been a character that has been close to my heart because as is developed in the short story, his gift causes him a great deal of personal suffering, opening him up to some of the worst pain that the human race has to deal with. He takes that upon himself, allowing the destructive emotions to bleed off, bringing restoration to the patient. He sacrifices his own peace of mind to bring about the healing that is necessary.

If God grants me the days on this earth, it is my intention to write a full length novel about James, going into a great deal more detail about his activities. I already have a suspenseful tale worked out to some degree.