Those We Leave Behind

Have you ever wished that you could be somebody else? Someone completely different? In a brand-new set of more favorable circumstances? Throw off your troubled (or even your nondescript) current life? That's just how Paul Marchildon, in 1963, San Antonio, Texas, felt-when everything was closing in on him. His marriage was quickly unraveling His modest house was under foreclosure And his car was about to be repossessed In addition, he faced an impossible, romantic, situation-vis-a-vis a woman with whom he'd once worked. Paul was sorely tempted to steal ＄1,000 from his employer He struggled to resist Then, when his wife announced that she was taking his four children-and moving in with her parents some 350 miles away-he took the money And ran In his flight, Paul was intercepted by an angel-spokesman for a small group of heavenly beings The angel offered to give him a new body, a new voice, a new name-and to set him up in a beautiful condo, on the beautiful Pacific Ocean beach, in beautiful Oregon. More than a thousand miles from his untenable situation. There was just one highly problematic difficulty: the "celestial deal" consisted of those few angels faking Paul's death He'd turn up as having died in an automobile crash Truly, this would be a brand-new beginning The troubled man accepted It was only after he had become the younger-and far more handsome- Taylor Young, that he begins worrying about those he'd left behind His "widow" ran off with some "snake oil" salesman, who won her over with a few lavish gifts. She joined a cult That left the children-all of whom Paul/Taylor missed terribly-in the hands of their grandparents. Grandma was dangerously harried-and Grandpa hated having the responsibility of having to raise kids that were not his own Further, there was another woman-one with whom Paul had had a romantic relationship. She was terribly upset by his "running out." She is completely shattered-to learn of his "death." Paul had also been close to her two children. None of this was helping It was only after he'd assumed his new lifestyle that the now-Taylor slowly learned of the many and varied difficulties confronting all these people from his past. The ones he'd left behind. Obviously, he became more and more concerned about them So he strived to do something-to do whatever he can-about their troubling circumstances. The effect that his sudden journey back to Texas had on the two women-with whom he'd formed a relationship in Oregon-only added to his rapidly accumulating difficulties. Trust me A "new beginning" is not always what it would seem to be