Brotherly Love

Brotherly Love

by

Edmund J Gubbins

Ken Flood lived a quiet life with his wife and two daughters in Plymouth, working as a lecturer in the University, minding his own business and relatively happy and content. Until, that is, his brother Norman arrived unexpectedly one day asking for help in a proposition which, to Ken, appeared to verge on an attempt pull him into the murky waters on the edges of crime. Ken was forced to answer the question of what is more important to him, family loyalty or straightforward loyal citizenship? Was he to question what was being asked of him by his brother or just help in any way he could? What happens if the activity he is asked to undertake looks very dodgy, if not criminal to Ken?

It all started innocently enough when Ken arrived at work one early one morning to discover his brother Norman in his office seeking help.  Ken has to decide quickly whether to help his brother out of brotherly love or let his brother face his unknown pursuers alone? Reluctantly Ken agrees to help and soon finds himself outside the law being chased by people he does not know, trying to deliver a mysterious package given to him by his brother to a man in London. Running in panic, not know who are his enemies, who are his friends, not even whose side his brother is on, Ken draws some of his close friends into his game, the only source of help he can find. In a dramatic climax after fear filled weeks of running and hiding from enemies he could not identify, Ken comes to know the truth about his brother and how Ken has been fooled.

Ken realises the problem is his brother and he soon believes Norman is on the other side, though sides in this game are not easily distinguished to Ken. Finally in a fit of loyalty, Ken decides to help his brother escape from the country only to see him gunned down while escaping. Through this Ken finds the truth and vows never to become involved again.

It is a story of fear, of somebody out of their depth in a world made strange, of chance encounters with people willing to help, of finding hidden depths behind a placid exterior and of the extent which loyalty to ones family can led on down paths best left unexplored.

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