The Long Journey to Jake Palmer Read Online Free PDF

some good. You discover people’s areas of light—that they can’t see—point them out, then give them a plan on how to work from that perspective instead of the one where they’re emotionally crippled. You take them through exercises to discover and define the things they could accomplish if they’d only see the truth about themselves and believe it.”
    Jake opened his mouth slightly and frowned as the old man’s smile grew into a full-out grin.
    “Do you realize you’re quoting me almost word for word?”
    “Yep, I do. I sure do, bucko.”
    Jake shook his head as the obvious explanation filled his mind.
    “You’ve been to one of my seminars, haven’t you?”
    Leonard’s eyes narrowed. “Like I said, I think you’re doing people good. But don’t you think your talks would be more powerful if you were living what you’re preaching?”
    Jake’s face went hot. “What are you—”
    “The owner of the company you just spoke at is a friend of mine. She told me you were coming.” Leonard tapped his temple. “I read your book. I liked it. I happened to be in town visiting my daughter and decided since I was already here, I might as well hear you speak. So they let me sneak in a few minutes after you started and sit in the shadows in the back of the room. You didn’t spot me, I’m guessing.”
    “No,” Jake said.
    “I felt for you during your, uh, stumble at the end of the day.”
    Jake didn’t respond.
    “Tough getting back in the saddle after a long layoff.”
    “Yeah, it can be.”
    “But we both know that it’s more than the layoff, don’t we?” Leonard sighed. “Awhile back I watched your TED Talk after I finished your book. The guy who gave that talk and the guy I watched today are different people. Something happened to you.”
    Again, Jake didn’t respond.
    “You want to talk about it?”
    “Nope.”
    “No worries,” Leonard said. “You want to know what I think?”
    “No.”
    “I think you can relate to the guy who heckled you more than you’d ever want to let on.” He pointed at Jake’s ring finger. “I think you used to have a gold band too.”
    Jake glared at him. “Interesting coincidence that we wound up sitting next to each other.”
    “Yeah, quite a surprise.” Leonard winked, settled back in his seat, and continued at a volume that said he didn’t care if anyone else heard them. “So what’s the scoop? Not married any longer? Or do you take off the ring on trips so you can pick up women?”
    Jake considered making a joke to deflect the question, but chose not to. “Next week it’ll be nine months since we signed the papers.”
    “Pain in the butt, divorces,” Leonard muttered. “I’ve had two.”
    “Then why the ring?” Jake pointed at Leonard’s left hand.
    “Yeah, well, the third time stuck.”
    Leonard blinked as if dust had landed in his eyes, but Jake didn’t think it was dust. If Jake was guessing, Leonard wasn’t the type of man to admit to tears even if they were streaming down his cheeks. Jake turned away to give Leonard a moment and stared out at the dusk stealing the last of the sun. A minute or two later, Leonard cleared his throat.
    “Married to her for fourteen years. Till she decided to leave me for the world where there’s no more pain. But I’ll graduate from here someday, probably sooner than later. At that point maybe I’ll see her again. She said I would. Not sure, but it’s a thought, you know?”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Ah, what can you do? The moment we’re born we have a death sentence hanging over us.” Leonard leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. “Okay, Jake. We’re almost friends here. Tell your old pal Leonard what happened last year that makes you not want to go to the summer gathering this year.”
    “You listen to my phone calls too?”
    “Couldn’t be helped.” Leonard grinned and a laugh sputtered out.
    Jake joined Leonard and leaned his chair back, then scolded himself. “I always talk too loud