What You Need

By Rachel Wifall

What You Need is a collection of three tales of service and love, in varied forms. "Haunted Heart": Although Edward Heatherton, an Oxford graduate from southwestern England, has grown up enjoying every possible privilege, he lacks the love he desires. After he volunteers to fly with the Royal Air Force in World War II, he realizes that he may be incapable of such intimacy. "Stairways": Fergus McNamara came from Ireland to Hollywood, to pursue a career in acting. Four years later, he lives in Queens, New York with his wife and two children, and works as a house manager for multi-millionaire investor Abe Goldman, whose Manhattan residence spans a city block. Goldman employs a staff the size of a small army, which takes care of the minutiae of his business and his daily life-from tracking the values of his stocks to purchasing his toothpaste. His wife Julia, a former actress-turned dilettante, also keeps the help busy with her many needs and desires-and her changeable moods. Life is quite stressful for Fergus and his coworkers in this contemporary "Upstairs Downstairs," until the despotic Mr. Goldman suffers an accident and is no longer in complete control of anything. "What You Need (Ce dont vous avez besoin)": Mary is a thirty-two year old who cannot seem to "get it together." Her life is a bundle of contradictions: she lives alone in a tiny apartment in an idyllic setting-overlooking a harbor on the North Shore of Long Island-but she's surrounded by disruptive and frustrating neighbors. She holds multiple graduate degrees, but makes ends meet, barely, waitressing alongside a cast of colorful characters at a local bistro and tutoring the children of wealthy families on the side. She dates eligible men (and sometimes not-so-eligible men), but can never seem to find one who "sticks." When her confrontational neighbor Mark-an artist with a life even more complicated than hers-is mysteriously murdered one night, Mary assumes it is his past coming to haunt him. However, she soon finds that Mark's demise has more to do with her life than she could guess.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1514215233
• ISBN13: 9781514215234
• Release Date: June 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 214 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.5" x 5.9"