Aborted Destinies

About the Book

Three stories of people facing life-changing events that could easily be referred to as aborted destinies. In Final Exam, a seemingly straightforward tryst turns out to be a fatal blunder. The tryst itself is tragic, but an act of incompetence compounds that into a set of circumstances both sad and ironic.

In Carlotta, a lonely and frustrated man performs an act of kindness. Little does he know that it will present him with yet another tragedy that will taint his life.

Finally, the title piece, Aborted Destinies, is a story of a teenager thrust into manhood during the Korean War. At a time when he should be worrying about which girl to take to the senior prom, he is exposed to that ultimate culture shock from which so many of our young men and women suffer: a foreign culture in a war-torn land.

About the Author

Hank (Henry E.) Lajoie has enjoyed three careers and now hopes that writing will become a part-time fourth.

He is a veteran of over 20 years in the Air Force; ten years in education at Utica College in Utica, NY; and, six years as a business publications/Advertising consultant in Rome, NY. He has also had broadcasting experience with CBC-TV in Goose Bay/Happy Valley, Labrador and as a radio talk show host on WIBX Radio, Utica/Rome, NY.

He has also written and produced a number of one-act plays for an annual community Café Theatre and will be publishing them in the near future. He also conducts a writers’ workshop for the community and is active in a number of community committees.

He is retired and resides with his wife at Pennbrooke Fairways, a retirement community in Leesburg, Florida.

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. - William Jennings Bryan