Jasper and the Well of Wizdom
Linda McNabb
eBook
(Southern Star Publishing, Nov. 27, 2017)
Jasper Street was used to danger but lately he had far more of it than he wanted. Now a disgraced clairvoyant and on the run from some rather ruthless thugs, Jasper thought things couldn’t get much worse. But when he chances across a mysterious coin he discovers that his talents for telling the future did not extend to his own! Trapped in a world where everyone expects him to be their saviour, Jasper struggles to save himself, let alone an entire world that he hadn’t even known existed.Street's CornerJasper pulled his thin jacket tighter as if it would somehow keep both the cold and the crowds away from him. His heavy winter jacket had been stolen while he slept last night. He supposed he was lucky not to lose his shoes as well.This was a new city block and he hadn’t worked out the rules yet. Who had claimed what streets and where he could sleep. What city it was — he had no idea. It did look familiar but it could be anywhere. It was just a city like all the rest he had been to in the last six months. He had stowed away on trains, boats and buses so it could be anywhere in the world. Keep moving. Keep moving. That was his mantra now and he lived by it. He had to if he had any chance of keeping ahead of those who were tracking him. His stomach growled and he stumbled on a kerb as he crossed the street. It was beginning to rain and it was already night. He didn’t want to be out on the streets for a second night. A poster on a bus stop wall caught his attention. His picture dominated the once full-colour poster with a crowd of clapping people in the background. The poster was old, torn and weather worn. He barely recognised the clean-shaven, well-dressed young man in the picture. He was only ten years older than the fresh-faced fourteen year old on the poster but it seemed a lifetime ago.He laughed out loud and saw the furtive, scared looks of those pedestrians near him. It had sounded as grim and hopeless as he felt. He was living on the streets where he had started his career. If he wasn’t in such a dire situation he would have found it quite ironic.Voices drifted out an open shop door and he turned to see a display of televisions in the window. All of them were on the same channel and a well-presented news anchor was delivering the news with an expressionless face. He paused in the doorway, not only for the heat that was seeping out into the street, but because the face in the top section of the screen was one very familiar to him.‘… And Mr Park’s fortunes continue to tumble as his investors abandon him. His multi-billion empire has been in free fall since his connection with drug trafficking was revealed last year on the often controversial Hollywood sensation show, Jasper Street — A Private Audience.’The image changed to a short clip of Jasper’s hit TV show and the moment Park went pale as his secrets were exposed.‘Once the darling of Hollywood’s elite, Mr Street has not been seen in almost six months and there are fears for his safety. Allegations about his own unsavoury past have also surfaced…’‘Off with you!’ the shopkeeper shouted. He swept a broom at Jasper’s feet and ushered him out of the doorway. ‘You’ll scare off my customers. The homeless shelter is down the next street!’Jasper kept his head down and moved off into the dark streets. The last thing he needed was an attention seeking citizen phoning the media to say they had spotted Jasper Street.