Of Ghosts and Gods

by Ina Louise Jones

Louise Bishop fell headlong in love at seventeen with Raoul, but when she needed him most, he disappeared. Putting heartbreak aside, she moved on with her life, marrying Blake Davidson after a whirlwind romance. Twenty-three years as wife, mother, business partner, and carer of a menagerie of pets, she’s now forty-five years old and in therapy, needing answers for questions she doesn’t even understand. All she knows is she isn’t happy.

An unexpected inheritance of property sends her to Vermont. At the inn where she plans to stay while exploring the property, a tall broad-shouldered stranger reminds her of her first love. He wasn’t Raoul, but the quick reminder was enough to crack her composure and unleash the dam to the past.

As Louise wades through memories, feelings, demands, and hopes, she must decide whether to return to the predictable life with her husband that was driving her to the breaking point or accept that life can never be predictable and take a chance on something new. Can she walk away from the ghosts and gods of the past that have ruled and warped her life away from the Louise that might have been and step forward to grasp the Louise that is and can be? It’s more than a decision to divorce. It’s a decision to forgive and live.

​

​

​