Cormorant Bay

Chapter One

September 1985

Kara sighed as she searched through her bulging handbag for the emergency supply of Tylenol tablets. Extra strength, she noted thankfully upon locating them, which hopefully will provide faster relief. Taking a couple of sips of almost cold coffee she grimaced after swallowing the two pills. She disliked taking medication of any kind, but sitting in the waiting area at Gate 6 of the International Terminal at Heathrow Airport, between flights, was not Kara’s idea of the most efficient way to spend one’s time. It provided an expanse of time to dwell upon matters which had given her the headache in the first place.

                Suddenly it felt cool. After the speedy helter-skelter from northern England, starting with the early flight from the local airport to Heathrow airport outside London, it had been a carefully structured journey. There had been little time for reminiscing. Until now! With one flight a day to Los Angeles there was a ninety minutes stop-over at the Heathrow airport waiting for this connection, which hung like a cloud over her head. Kara shrugged into her coat, accidentally knocking the arm of the young boy sitting in the seat beside her.

                “Oh, I’m terribly sorry. Are you all right?”

                His well-scrubbed face turned to look at Kara. He smiled shyly and nodded his head. She is a very beautiful lady with shining blonde hair tied back with a ribbon and large green eyes that even to his youthful awareness looked as if she had been crying. He had been watching her gazing into space with a sad expression on her face. When she smiled at him, his face lit up. The smile transformed her somber expression, releasing the sparkle in her eyes and showing even white teeth behind sensuously curved lips. Kara’s engaging smile was such an intrinsic part of her personality that she hardly noticed the impact on others.

                “My name is Kara, what’s yours?”

                “Kenneth,” he responded, “and this is my mum and sister.”

                Kara looked over and smiled at a nice looking woman about her own age sitting at the other side of Kenneth, with a little girl asleep on the seat beside her.

                “Hello. I’ve just met your son and if I’d realized how delightful it is to meet someone of the opposite sex in an airport, I’d have started much earlier.”

                She spoke with a twinkle in her eyes. He was a cute little fellow, with big curious eyes. Talking out aloud had broken her dismal thought pattern and that was a relief.

                The mother smiled tiredly.

                “I’m just getting over the flu, so please forgive my lack of social graces. ‘Fraid I’m just not very good company right now and the trip to Los Angeles is looming ahead.”

                “Can I help in any way?” Kara offered.

                “No, thanks, my husband should be here very soon. He went to the Duty Free Shop.”

                Her less than enthusiastic response was offset by a quick, though weary, smile.

                Kara pulled her coat collar up around her neck and settled back on the plastic chair, smiling at Kenneth once more.

                Flying was not her panacea of choice. Jet setters could have the firmament to themselves she conceded—she would just be thankful to get back into her normal daily routine. Kara loved her work and that had influenced her greatly in postponing one of the most difficult decisions she had to make in her life. This had taken place just a couple of days before her stay in England was to end, and she was still trying to cope with the extent of it.

                In California she was accustomed to running a very large operation that ran smoothly and efficiently, thanks to the groundwork meticulously established several years earlier. She had a sixth sense in its regard, detecting irregularities almost by intuition and Kara had come to rely upon her own sharp judgment in every way. She had come a long way from the days when she was a shy, introverted schoolgirl and, because she was annoyed that the current emotional turmoil could not be resolved, the dratted headache had crept up on her.

                Struggling to overcome the gloomy state of mind that enveloped her, Kara pulled a Monthly Planner out of her carry-on bag and flipped through toward September. No time like the present to start getting her life back on track, she concedes. Almost like an omen the pages open at the entries for August. Crammed into the small spaces were buzz words used to condense blocks of time into chapter and verse; “Wisherly beach/Jon,” “Coppice Farm/Jon.” The painful memories brought back intense feelings and reminded Kara that her headache was gathering impetus. Did she do the right thing? Her mind drifted.