A Certain Kind of Mistake

A lot of people, just like Jim, some of whom are very successful in life, are haunted by memories from their childhood. Not so many of them, however, are likely to have made such a bizarre mistake as the one he has just made. He can't believe what actually happened with a girl he met in a church. Even if you feel a little unsympathetic towards people like him, who are hindered in their pathway through life by things like this, is it possible, as you read his story, that you will begin to see some of your own problems in a different light? Although you may have good reason to believe that you have the best boss in the world, like Alex Tennent, or that you have a partner beyond reproach, unlike Avril Hayes, are you absolutely sure about this? Jim himself isn't sure about any of these things but very gradually he begins to see a connection between a particularly unhappy memory from his boyhood and the precarious situation in which he now finds himself. As he wields his stopwatch and tries to compete in the rat race; is he becoming as some might say, an egocentric obsessive with social interaction problems? Or, is he really just a victim of one of these great evils that never find their way into the Statute Book? Whichever of the two you choose to believe may well have far-reaching consequences for it is possible that you are, or are about to become, one of these victims yourself.

About the Author :
The author's inability to express himself in metre and verse and his equally feeble performance in the art class at school belie the facts that his grandfather wrote poetry and his great uncle, Robert Gemmell Hutchison, painted works of art which are favourites with the Royal Family and are hanging in some of the highest houses in the land. All that seems to have been passed down to the author, apart from his long face, his square chin, and of course his surname, is a very active imagination. In his childhood this caused problems, for events in the imaginary world often took precedence over more important matters in the real world, such as his schoolwork. It did, however, account for the prominent position he occupied among his Glaswegian school friends in the lunchtime re-enactment of scenes from the latest films and for the skill he showed directing fights between cowboys and Indians, and this during the 2nd World War when German planes were dropping real bombs on the scene of the action. The state of mind that went with these games remained with him and later in life when he found out how difficult it was to direct fights between bosses and workers he took to writing about them instead. A widower with three married daughters, he dotes on every member of his growing family, including his sister, who used to stand in as a cowboy or a Red Indian in her younger days.