The Mystery of Fate consists of stories about the profound impact of Fate on people's lives. The stories come from accomplished writers around the world.  Here are excerpts from some of the stories.

Excerpt from "Miracle In Alexandria"

By Vicka Markov Surovtsov

The author and her father are trying to escape from war-torn Eqypt.  They have their passports, visas, all their money and a big police revolver in a leather attache case.  The father, who has resigned from the police force after an illness, plans to return the revolver to the police station. They first go to the shipping company to make arrangements to ship their belongings to the United States. 

       We · directed the [taxi] driver to go to the shipping company on Sherif Pasha Street, in the center of the busy downtown area.  Father was very nervous because we were carrying the revolver. During those dangerous days, it was a criminal offense to carry any firearm, and people were pitilessly jailed for less than that. However, we hoped that we would soon consign the revolver to the Central Precinct before anyone would spot it. 

       We arrived at our destination and went up the ancient elevator to the third floor of the massive old building, built at the turn of the century.  Greeted by the friendly manager of the shipping company, Father sank into a comfortable chair and turned to me to hand him the attache case. For a long moment, I stared at my father's face while my mind tried to cope with the realization that we no longer had the attaché case!

       We looked at each other in horror, unable to speak. I had believed that Father was holding the case, while he thought I was carrying it. While getting out of the taxi and paying the driver, neither of us noticed that the attache case was left in the taxi!

       Father leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. I knew the loss of the attache case meant that we had lost everything. We already had sold our house, our furniture and our car. Our passports, our only identification now, were gone.  Our money, our American visas, and, more ominously, the service revolver were gone.

       There was little hope of the taxi driver ever returning the contents of the attaché case. Even the most honest of men would be too frightened to admit that he had a revolver which could land him directly in jail.

       Unwilling to wait for the elevator, I rushed down the stairs and into the busy street. All taxis were yellow, and there were dozens of them speeding in opposite directions while I looked around in despair.

           Will Fate return the attache case to Vicka and her father? The answer appears in the full story in The Mystery of Fate.

 

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Excerpt from "Journey to Healing"

By Andrea Eberly

After Andrea Eberly gave up her dream of becoming a circus acrobat, she agonized for years over whether to become a medical doctor, even though every path she took seemed to lead in that direction and even while attending UCLA Medical School. When famed journalist Norman Cousins gave a speech at the university, she asked many questions during his presentation.

           Sensing my interest, Norman Cousins sought me out after class and invited me to lunch. I was deeply honored and spilled out my fears to him that modern medicine really might no longer be a healing profession. I confessed my serious doubts about continuing medical school. Finally, he said, "There is a need in the medical field for people with your kind of doubts and questions. What would it take for you to commit?"

        I thought for a long time (he finished his lunch) and finally answered, "I used to have this philosophy professor at San Jose University who really inspired me. If he were to tell me that medical school was the right thing for me, then I would finish.

       So, Norman Cousins asked, "how do you get in touch with your professor?" Sadly, I told him, this professor had left for Sweden several years before, and I no longer knew his whereabouts. Norman Cousins said that if I could locate this professor, he would pay for me to telephone him, or even visit him, in Sweden.

       I left the restaurant in deep thought and started to drive home, trying to remember to which city in Sweden my philosophy professor had moved.

       Will Fate help Andrea find her professor and finally make the decision whether or not to go into the field of medicine as a career? The answer appears in the full story in The Mystery of Fate.

 

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                     Excerpt from "Honor, Courage and Commitment':--Saving Jack Roush"

                                                       By Brenda Warneka

 Larry Hicks, a retired Sergeant Major with the marines, and his wife, Donna, watched from the window of their home as the small open-pit Air Cam flew down the shoreline of the private lake on which the home is located. Suddenly, the aircraft shuddered, flipped over, and headed down into the lake. Hicks rushed outside and took a johnboat to the site of the crash about 100 yards off shore.

 

        The engines of the Air-Cam were hot when it hit Palos Verdes Lake, and the airplane was smoking in the water.  High octane aviation fuel, from a ruptured fuel tank, floated over the surface in greasy patterns. The back half of the aircraft and a broken wing were sticking up from

the water. Hicks climbed out of the boat onto the wing and tethered a line to the plane to keep the boat from floating away.

       The heavy smell of gas assaulted his nostrils as Hicks turned and shouted at his wife before diving into the water, "Donna, no matter what happens, I love you!"  Donna got out a puzzled, "What?" before she, too, smelled the gas.  It was only later that Hicks thought about the danger of the plane blowing up.

       The water was murky from mud kicked up when the plane hit the bottom of the lake, and  Hicks had trouble getting his bearings underwater.  The plane had crashed in the middle of an underwater "stump field," but luckily had missed hitting any trees. 

       The first time down, Hicks felt only an empty seat and thought the pilot might have been thrown out of the plane; running out of air, he was forced to come back to the surface. It occurred to him that maybe the plane was a two-seater.

The second time down, just as  he started to push off to go back up, he felt the back of a manâs neck under his hand. The pilot was hanging upside down, still strapped into his harness.

       Read the rest of the thrilling rescue by Larry Hicks of Jack Roush, NASCAR and Winston Cup car owner since 1988, and CEO of Roush Industries, Inc., of Livonia, Michigan, and the aftermath in The Mystery of Fate.

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