The Dove's Eye
by
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He resumed running down the path; when he met the brook, he turned towards home. He stopped suddenly and looked back up the path. He shook. All he could hear was his pulse—a steady throbbing sound in his ears.
“Get anything, Daddy?” he yelled hopefully.
His impulse was to run home …
He turned slowly around to walk upstream towards where his father should have come down the hill, towards the sound of gunfire. His legs refused to carry him along. He trembled and felt cold. He felt like there was an invisible string holding him back, preventing him from advancing. He was afraid to see what had happened. Maybe his dad was just being quiet. Maybe his dad was hunting, and he would be mad at him for yelling. No, something was wrong—he could feel it. He could not run home like a baby; his daddy might need him. He crept forward.
He could see the form of his father lying on the path ahead.
“Daddy?” he whispered. “Daddy?”
He stared at his father who lay on his back with his legs twisted awkwardly under him.
“DADDY!”
Blood covered his father’s entire chest.
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About the Book
Six-year-old Jacob Thompson is not supposed to be home this Friday afternoon; he should be spending the night with a friend. Instead, his drunken father takes him hunting, during which Jacob witnesses his father’s death—an event that for years afterward Jacob believes was an accidental shooting.
Only two people know the truth about Fred’s death. Shelly Thompson is tired of her husband’s physical abuse and fears for her children’s safety. She feels trapped and, with the help of her new love, Scott MacKinnon, plots to murder her husband.
Jacob’s youth is tormented by nightmares about watching his father die. When he recedes into a depression after a tragic event, he seeks psychiatric help and begins to explore his memories via hypnosis. Guilt and fear block Shelly from telling Jacob what his father was really like and how he died. As a young man, Jacob finally discovers the awful truth about his father’s death. His family’s future now relies on whether he responds with understanding—or more violence.
About the Author
SHAWN JENNINGS, MD, had a brainstem stroke at the age of forty-five that left him completely paralyzed except for his eyelids. He now lives with his wife Jill in Rothesay, New Brunswick. The ideas for this story emerge from experiences working as a family doctor for over twenty years.