Free Another Way to Fall by Amanda Brooke

in front of her, sharing his fears, she didn’t think there was anything she couldn’t trust him with.
    ‘Not when there’s still so much left to do,’ Emma told him. ‘I won’t rest until I’ve knocked Louise into shape so she can run this place properly on her own, and then there are things happening at work that would have me turning in my grave, so I suppose you’re right. Giving up isn’t an option.’ Emma took an excited breath. At last she had found someone she could talk to who wouldn’t wince at the vaguest mention of death and she was tempted to take Ben hostage.
    ‘So why were you frowning at your laptop?’ Ben asked.
    As if Ben had magically summoned its return, the frown reappeared on Emma’s brow. ‘That would be because of the book I’m trying to write.’
    ‘And is this how great writers work? Direct thought transfer rather than actual typing?’
    ‘Hmm, very funny. I was waiting for inspiration to strike.’
    ‘So what’s this story about?’ Ben asked, little knowing that so far only Mr Spelling had been trusted with the premise of her opus.
    There was something in Ben’s eyes that made Emma pause only briefly before opening up her heart. ‘OK, this is top secret. You tell no-one,’ she said, as if he had spent hours trying to wear her down into a confession. ‘It’s a story about someone like me, who has battled illness but, in her case, she wins. She gets the one thing I never did, the all-clear.’ Emma paused long enough for Ben’s nod of agreement, which he dutifully provided. ‘I need to write about what she would then do with her life. I know you’re supposed to write about what you know but that’s the whole point, I’m writing about what hasn’t happened in my life.’
    ‘Your life? So this someone that’s like you, is you?’
    Emma pursed her lips but it was too late to take it back. ‘I still can’t escape the fact that I haven’t experienced enough to draw upon,’ she said.
    ‘Somehow I think you’re doing yourself a disservice. I would have thought that someone who’s gone through what you’ve been through has had more than their fair share of experiences.’
    ‘Experiences of facing death, yes, but not of living. I haven’t been anywhere, I haven’t done anything,’ Emma said, almost in a whisper that sizzled with emotion. Her head dropped, as she felt the little hope she clung to fizzle and die.
    Ben leaned over and, hooking his finger under her chin, lifted her head so she had to look back at him. ‘I thought we had just agreed that you hadn’t given up on life yet. There’s still time to make those experiences happen and write about them.’
    Emma dropped her eyes and tried to lower her head but Ben’s hand remained firmly in place. She turned her head to escape him. ‘Time to write about them, perhaps, but not time to experience them too,’ she said softly.
    Ben took his hand away and Emma’s gaze came back to meet his. ‘Tell me what I have to do to stop you simply frowning at that computer all day and make something happen,’ he demanded.
    ‘I need to do some research, I suppose,’ conceded Emma. ‘Trying to decide on the plot is hard enough but I can’t even describe the places I want to go to.’
    ‘And where do you want to go?’
    ‘Everywhere,’ Emma said, as if it would be that easy. Her imagination was supposed to be limitless but her experiences weren’t. ‘I’m on my way to New York but I don’t want to stop there. I want to see, I don’t know, the Seven Wonders of the World and then some. But in reality I haven’t been further than Spain.’
    Ben grimaced. ‘I don’t want to burst your bubble, but I’m afraid the only one of the original Seven Wonders of the World still in existence is the Great Pyramid at Giza.’
    ‘See! I don’t even know where I can go.’
    ‘May I?’ he asked, turning Emma’s computer towards him.
    Emma watched as he tapped a few buttons. There was a look of concern on his face that