The Final Cruise, Story Idea

Story Idea Behind "The Final Cruise"

By F. Ellsworth Lockwood

TJ Auldman's Paradise is threatened when his estranged wife, Elizabeth, leaves her home in Oak City and moves back into TJ’s tiny cabin. TJ dreads living with her.

As for Elizabeth, she hates TJ's creatures, the pet lizards that scamper beneath his bed, the centipedes beneath the steppingstones. Hates the poison oak-lined paths, the acorns that crunch beneath the feet, and the mold that creeps up from beneath the sinks. Hates the squirrels and the racoons and the skunks that raid the garbage cans.

JJ, on the other hand, fears for the millipedes, banana slugs, and salamanders; Elizabeth will eradicate all insects; she will demand that he burn every decaying stump. She will pit TJ against nature, that is, against God himself and she will try in vain to turn his cabin, which is on the edge of a redwood forest, into a regular city residence. She would remake the wooded acre into a city plot, and in her fruitless battle against weeds, decay, dust and dirt, Elizabeth would spoil Paradise.

On the other hand, God willing … she might die. This book is likely to be a mixture of adventure, myth, romance and tragedy, and about navigating the seas of life. Happy sailing.