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    Ebook93 pages1 hour

    Listen

    By Hazel McHaffie

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    About this ebook

    Thanks to an airline strike, Professor Jocelyn Grammaticus faces a whole day sitting on the 8.20 through train from Aberdeen to Penzance. The most difficult ethical choice of her life awaits her at the end of her journey, and she seeks respite from her internal conflict in preparing a keynote conference speech due the following week. Unwittingly her fellow passengers give her intriguing real-life material to illustrate her arguments as they flit in and out of Coach C. But four hours before she’s due to arrive at her destination a phonecall turns her world upside down. Will she have the moral courage to fulfill her promise? Will she be too late?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHazel McHaffie
    Release dateMar 13, 2017
    ISBN9780992623142
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      Book preview

      Listen - Hazel McHaffie

      Contents

      Acknowledgements

      By the same author

      About the author

      Publishing information

      Chapter 1 The Journey

      Chapter 2 Aberdeen to Edinburgh Waverley

      Chapter 3 Edinburgh to Berwick-upon-Tweed

      Chapter 4 Berwick-upon-Tweed to York

      Chapter 5 York to Derby

      Chapter 6 Derby to Birmingham

      Chapter 7 Birmingham to Bristol

      Chapter 8 Bristol to Plymouth

      Chapter 9 Plymouth to Penzance

      Chapter 10 Penzance

      Chapter 11 Exeter

      Discussion points for bookclubs

      Questions exploring ethical issues raised in this novel

      Other novels by the same author

      Inside of Me

      Over my Dead Body

      Saving Sebastian

      Remember Remember

      Right to Die

      Vacant Possession

      Paternity

      Double Trouble

      McHaffie has demonstrated that hard cases make good reading.

      Alexander McCall Smith

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      I am indebted to Professor Kenneth Boyd, Dr Sophie Etherington, and Julian Halstead for their expert input (ethics, biomedical science and trains respectively) at a draft stage of this book. Dr Jonathan McHaffie took time out of writing his own novel to give me the benefit of his experience and critical analysis of technique and structure. Rosalyn Crich and David McHaffie homed in on literary anomalies and offered ongoing encouragement and support. I’m grateful to them all.

      BY THE SAME AUTHOR

      Fiction

      Inside of Me

      Over my Dead Body

      Saving Sebastian

      Remember Remember

      Right to Die

      Double Trouble

      Paternity

      Vacant Possession

      Non-fiction

      Crucial Decisions at the Beginning of Life

      Life, Death and Decisions

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      Hazel McHaffie trained as a nurse and midwife, gained a PhD in Social Sciences from Edinburgh University, and was Deputy Director of Research in the Institute of Medical Ethics. She is the author of about one hundred published articles and books. Crucial Decisions at the Beginning of Life won the British Medical Association Medical Book of the Year in 2002. Right to Die was shortlisted for the BMA Popular Medicine Prize in 2008. Listen is Hazel’s tenth novel set in the world of medical ethics.

      Website: http://www.hazelmchaffie.com

      Weekly blog: http://www.hazelmchaffie.com/blog

      PUBLISHING INFORMATION

      First published 2017

      ISBN: 978-0-9926231-4-2

      References to medical and scientific matters in this publication are believed to be accurate at the time of publication; however all characters and events are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

      The author’s right to be identified as author of this book under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been asserted.

      Published by VelvetEthics Press

      12 Mayburn Terrace, Loanhead, Scotland EH20 9EJ

      Cover image © Shutterstock

      © Hazel McHaffie 2017

      LISTEN

      Hazel McHaffie

      CHAPTER 1

      THE JOURNEY

      I have murder in mind.

      There, I’ve said it.

      I ... murder ... in the same sentence.

      What d’you think would happen if I stood up in this train and shouted it out loud: I HAVE MURDER IN MIND!?

      Any self-respecting law enforcer would probably shoot me on sight given our current high security alert. Fire first, ask questions later. That’d solve all my problems!

      More likely there’d be no police or military personnel around, and I’d just be wrestled to the ground by some would-be hero who can see I’m a weakling in body if not in mind, sat on until the heavyweights can be summoned, marched off in handcuffs in full view of the goggling multitudes. Not a scenario to relish.

      Anyway, I don’t intend to broadcast my intentions so no point in speculating about that eventuality. And in real life, if I’m found out, I certainly shan’t hang around for the consequences. Takes a load of the pressure off.

      Being here, today, on the train, helps to consolidate that bit of the whole process. Process? Heck! Even this bizarre act is subject to my careful use of language. Don’t want to upset other people’s sensitivities, do we? Wouldn’t be seemly, would it? Yahdee yahdee yah.

      But it’s true. Knowing I definitely won’t be around to take the rap for my actions is somewhat liberating. On the other hand, that’s a strange thought in itself: the world spinning on without me. Nothingness. Gone in the blink of an eye. And it would be as quick as that.

      I lean back, close my eyes, feel the power of 282 tonnes of gleaming metal and velvet upholstery hurtling down the track, at 100 miles per hour, a thunderous blur through minor stations, single minded in its mission to arrive 785 miles away at the other end of the country, exactly and precisely 13 hours 23 minutes after gliding out of the granite city.

      See, I’ve done the calculations. 282 tonnes, 125 mph at its fastest. And that’s just the empty train. Add to that over 250 people, strangers, average weight 12 stone 7, average height 5 foot 6. Luggage. Food and drink. Driver, all unsuspecting, relaxed, smiling at the memory of Saturday’s win at the football match. Train manager, clicking, counting, advising; expensively trained to deal with emergencies like the one I’m contemplating; stoical, calm, reassuring. Outwardly at least.

      In the face of that onslaught, one solitary figure, 5 foot 7, 10 stone 2 of soft human tissue, standing there, on the track, listening … listening … glimpsing the monster approaching ... A lifetime of memories, emotions, dreams, opinions, principles, all nestling in those soft walnut hemispheres, protected by no more than a thin, probably-calcium-deficient skull.

      The moment of impact. Strawberry jam in a nanosecond. No more guilt. No more dilemmas. No more problems.

      Ever.

      The buzz of an incoming message on my phone interrupts my macabre imaginings.

      Are you still coming today?

      Yes. I’m on the train. On my

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