THE RIGHT MEDICINE
Single mom Carly moves to the country to start a new life with her two kids, and finds love where she least expects it...
The Right Medicine: A Romantic Short Story is a nine-page short story from romance author Ginny Baird. This download also contains extended excerpts (the first 6 chapters) from each of Ginny's bestselling novels THE SOMETIME BRIDE and REAL ROMANCE. Please note that the entire short story may appear in the online preview. Download book to read novel samples.
THE RIGHT MEDICINE...
Now the burden was exclusively hers. When she ached, she took acetaminophen. When she cried, she pulled the pillows over her head so the children wouldn't hear. When the sting of a life being cleaved in two seemed almost too much to bear, she tried to imagine she wouldn't always be alone. But she understood the illusion for what it was. She'd left a world of greater opportunity for herself, in exchange for a more wholesome existence for her children.
The trade-off was a demanding job with supervisory duties, an occupation that took her into town before the kids boarded the morning bus, but fortunately allowed her to get home before they returned each afternoon. The real downside to life in the rural community was the apparent lack of eligible bachelors. Not that Carly was looking. It was just that, if ever she were to change her mind, it would be nice to have the option.
The Story Behind the Story...
THE RIGHT MEDICINE
The Right Medicine: A Romantic Short Story is truly a tale about place. There's the place the story is set (rural Central Virginia), and then the sense of "place" the main character, Carly, is trying to develop. When I conceived of the plot, both ideas came to mind. First, I'd personally fallen in love with a place I'd hoped to buy, but couldn't talk my family into. It was a lovely historic farmhouse, in a five acre apple orchard and down a country lane. The views of the mountains were stunning, and haunting at once. A certain melancholy permeated the vista, particularly at sunset.
That house has come back to me in different ways, and appeared in more than one story. If you can't get it, write it, I suppose. In any case, dreaming of living there seemed fine. So what if my family didn't want to come along? What if they'd had no choice? Say, for instance, if I were a single mom, leaving big city life and venturing out into the countryside to start life anew? But wait, what kind of life would that be? Clean air and a slower pace for the kids, but likely no romantic opportunities for me. Despite the busyness of her job and her role as a mom, we get a sense of Carly's loneliness. When you sacrifice one ideal for another, is there ever a way to wind up having it all? I guess, a whole lot depends on cupid, and maybe... just maybe... your favorite flavor of ice cream.
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