Read The Counting-Downers Online
Authors: A. J. Compton
The Counting-Downers
The Counting-Downers
Copyright © 2015 A.J. Compton www.ajcompton.com
Cover Design by Clarise Tan at CT Cover Creations Editing by Peggy Frese at Hot Tree Editing Formatting by JT Formatting
ISBN: 978-0-9933309-1-9
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products, bands, and/or restaurants referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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IN 11 DAYS, 4 hours, 23 minutes, and 17 seconds, my father, the most important man in my life, is going to die.
He doesn’t know how much time he has left.
But I do.
My mother, his childhood sweetheart, who still has 36 years, 8 months, 12 days, 16 hours, 19 minutes, and 4 seconds left on earth, knows it, too.
And so will my four-year-old brother, Oscar, who’ll be alive for the next 69 years, 5 months, 41 days, 22 hours, 8 minutes, and 12 seconds.
Though he’s too young to understand the cursed gift of the knowledge he will one day possess.
For him, numbers are not yet associated with feelings. His blissful ignorance protects him from grasping what he’s about to lose.
I am not so lucky. Or maybe I am.
For in just under a fortnight, I am all too aware that we will lose the foundation of our family.
The glue will evaporate, the strength will crumble, the backbone will snap, and the heartbeat will fall silent.
We live in a beautiful house, in a beautiful corner of the world. But it is not our home.
Our home
is
my father, and I don’t know what we will do, or who we will be, without him.