“Freddie put his head in his hands and sobbed so violently that it shook the boat back and forth. He cried for a long time. He cried until all that existed was his crying. It affected the tides and dimmed the starlight. It gathered mass and gravity and pulled everything toward it, the waves, the shoreline. It pulled the water so taut that a grown man could walk on it. His tears spilled over into the water and raised sea levels around the globe.”
Christians are taught that the answer to such grief is forgiveness. But the characters in “Lures” learn that it is easier said than done.
In these 9 stories, readers meet characters who feel compelled to perturb the still waters of their lives and go fishing through them to satisfy undefined longings, and each learn they must be very careful what they fish for. There is the man who belittles his 9-year-old son for still believing in myths and learns a powerful lesson in faith from his wife. There are the bizarre connections among a husband, a wife, and a fertility specialist who helps them conceive. There are two brothers torn apart by lust and betrayal who must choose to forgive each other. But how can they ever be convinced of that forgiveness?
These are the stories in “Lures,” a collection of short fiction and poems by John DiFelice.
