GLADLY
by Andrew Hawcroft
OUTLINE
Cameron Callendar has just reached forty, and it’s all gone
wrong. At this point in his life, he was supposed to be a successful
writer of fiction, a happily married family man, fulfilled and secure, and he
certainly came close to these things in the past, but somehow it never came
together.
He barely makes a living with sales of his early novels (back when he
had an agent, publisher, optimism, ambition, confidence and a future) as
e-books, but it’s not enough. His days are spent still trying to get
the career that never came, and hopefully the richer, fuller life that was
supposed to come with it.
And then one day, at 3.17pm in the afternoon, everything
changes when his doorbell rings.
Standing there is a bizarre-looking young woman. Thin as a nail, bright
blue hair that might not be hair at all, dressed in the most garish and odd
mish-mash of clothes.
She seems barely to have the energy to stand upright, but seeing him
seems to make whatever trials she has clearly gone through to get here, worth
it. She regards Cameron as a door-stepping Jehovah’s Witness might
upon finding Jesus in jeans and a Blue Harbour jumper.
Whatever she is, (and Cameron quickly suspects she might be mentally
troubled) she is clearly on the limits of her physical strength. A
large glass of milk in his kitchen later, she seems restored enough to start
talking.
She says she is from the year 2372. That she has come on a one-way
journey to find the man whose books she discovered on an electronic book-reader
lying in junkyard. He is apparently her idol, her hero...her very
reason to keep living....
....Because 2372 sounds like hell. A world ruined by the
Corporation Wars, she, and the other 19, 000 humans left on the Earth live dire
lives of pure survival.
The only reason Cameron doesn’t call the police, is when he casually
asks her what her name is.
Gladly Higgins, she says.
The thing is, Gladly Higgins is the name Cameron has recently come up
with for a string of trashy sci-fi novels
he reluctantly plans to write to make some money.
Only he hasn’t told anyone that name.
As the day passes, Gladly will tell him more and more of her story, and
these conversations will begin to convince a lonely and jaded man that
perhaps....just perhaps...something incredible has come into his life.
And not a moment too soon....
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