The same three words echo inside her head. Lucy Watts calls them a mantra but they are not self- affirming. Instead, the words haunt her.
Intentional - Malicious - Accidental
No matter where she wanders, this constant wondering about a decade old mystery persists. And Lucy Watts is a wanderer, perhaps a dromomaniac. She climbs to high places, runs stretches of lonely miles, swims infinite numbers of laps, and moves so often her furniture is collapsible corrugated cardboard. But she can never outrun her mantra.
One day, Dr. Lucy Watts lands a job in Kentucky where she befriends Ava, another doctor, and begins to read Taber’s Medical Dictionary. Their small college town weaves Lucy into its fabric like a thread in a beautiful tapestry. She meets with students to talk about words in Taber’s, joins a drum circle, calms the worries of Ava’s husband and grows close to a handsome man she meets at Redbud Music.
Too soon, a call from Belize reactivates her wanderlust. In this distant paradise, Lucy finds the answer to her mantra and, eventually, an end to her wandering.
The Mantra of Lucy Watts explores the common human themes and questions about selflessness, uncertainty and the ultimate purpose of life. Sprinkled with a special kind of humor and unforgettable characters, the story unfolds like a flower in a vase.
The Mantra of Lucy Watts, by Ann Colbert
The author, Dr. Ann Colbert, has worked in Eastern Kentucky for three decades as a family physician and palliative care/hospice doctor. This has given her a unique insight into Appalachia’s stories, voices, and people. Dr. Colbert has dedicated her life to caring for the underserved both in Kentucky and in global medicine. A lifelong writer, her blog posts can be found at anncolbez.wordpress.com.