The Bibliophile

'The Bibliophile' is an attempt at a short story with a twist, in which I draw a character called 'Willard', a confused man who is going through a mid-life crisis.  I won't reproduce the whole story here, just an extract.

THE BIBLIOPHILE

Willard took the call from McKay at 9 sharp.  It was the early hours of the morning in Kingston, but McKay was concerned.

"Please don't leave me financially embarrassed, Willard.  You know how much it costs to maintain Easy Rider."

Willard said little.  His legendary booming voice had long departed into the ether of dirty tricks, false hopes and lost confidences.  He wilted back into his large, comfortable leather chair and searched skyward.  A short, pathetic man, it would be easy to lose Willard in that visage.  There seemed no escape, soon he would be bankrupt.  The books were all the valuables he had left.

Willard collected books.  He was obsessed with them.  You might say Willard was a bibliophile.  Books consumed his life, but now that life - a carefully-crafted pretense of acuity and success, honed over many years in business - was about to collapse.  

Things had really started to go downhill on the death of Mother.  She was the rock among willows.  She was the steer and the dominating spirit of Willard's life.  

It was Mother who had told him not to marry Maria.  He had met Maria at the Rock Dance Hall, their favourite place in the village, but Mother had disapproved of her, said she was not good enough for my Willard, and so the love dream had gone and to Mother Willard capitulated.  Today, without Mother, Willard was lost.