AFTER CARE

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>A novel</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Sequel to Taking CareI</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>In the preceding novel Taking Care Arnold Adams a retired country accountant in rural New South Wales enjoys a quiet life with his wife May until abruptly everything shifts.. On an otherwise ordinary day she asks him to take care of everyone and without giving it much thought he promises that he will.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>When he returns from shopping however she has had a stroke and has gone into a coma.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Her command stays with him and even while he sits at her bedside in the hospital he recalls what she has said.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>And so he sets out to fulfil her command. Whoever looks like they might need taking care of he offers.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Thomas Fortesque has a Ph D in physics but he is homeless and fraught with mental anguish. He becomes the first of Arn's protegees and moves into Arn's shed.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Ace is a sixteen year old runaway ward of the state. She is next as he becomes her guardian.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>The three of them along with Arn's beloved pooch Albert work gently to create a new kind of household.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>While May remains on life support in the hospital she continues to inspire him and perhaps somehow even instruct him. In moments where decisions have to be made she seems to be there in a subtle form urging him along. She even appears to be able to communicate with both Thomas and Ace as well.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Arn finds himself carried along by wave after wave of activity seemingly supported at every moment by his comatose wife. Small miracles keep happening.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Then he is told he can bring his wife home even though she is still unconscious. He sets his lounge up as a home ward and his neighbor Myra who is a nurse is employed to monitor her as she is connected to life support.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>To everyone's amazement within a day May opens her eyes. She is back. She wants a cup of tea she wants to see all the people that her husband has helped and she wants all the life support turned off.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>The doctor is horrified but she insists.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Once it is done she breathes and calmly she says what she needs to say to each of them.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>Then she closes her eyes for the last time.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>But it is not the end.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>What May has begun continues to unfold.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(83 90 98 1)>This is After Care.</span></p><p></p>