D Raymond-Wryhte

FrostFire D Raymond-Wryhte

Jaclyn has run away from her abusive husband. At a café in a nearby village, desperate to begin her life anew and to make new acquaintances, she decides to approach a mysteriously attractive stranger reading a newspaper. She asks for the employment section. He invites her to sit, and he introduces himself as Frewin, a local minister. As the conversation proceeds, Frewin cannot help but notice that Jaclyn is in trouble, and so he attempts to offer pastoral counsel. The conversation is interrupted by Jaclyn's husband, Martin, who has been informed of his wife's whereabouts, comes in and orders her to return home. Jaclyn refuses. Martin forcefully insists. Frewin intervenes. Martin violently objects. Frewin puts a halt to the confrontation and escorts Jaclyn from the café. Martin and a number of his friends go after Jaclyn, and a chase ensues. She strives, with Frewin as escort, to make her escape. The chase becomes increasingly desperate and dangerous, with guns being fired and people getting hit. Throughout the struggle, Frewin strives, particularly during relatively calm interludes, to sort out the causes of so much violence in what is supposed to be a loving relationship. Coincidentally, he cannot help recalling the violence of his Vietnam experiences. Frewin offers advice. At the end of the story, with Martin critically wounded and asking once more that Jaclyn come home, the reader is left to answer the question: should she or shouldn't she?