The Retreat

This story begins when Edmund Cyrus, a retired journalist, receives an unexpected phone call from a lawyer with unusual news: Cyrus's "Uncle Hank" has died and left a small estate. The lawyer states he needs to explain it in person. Cyrus figures he will be given a check or a deed to an old musty house somewhere in New England. He never expected any major change to his life. In person, the lawyer tells Cyrus that he represents the Heritage Retreat a few miles away in the village of New Castleton--and that Cyrus's uncle owned a room in that facility, which was now Cyrus's inheritance. The retreat, he learns, was an old monastery from the early 1800's that was later converted to a boarding school. Still years later, a foundation acquired the building and sold individual rooms to people wanting to use their space however they wished. When Cyrus visits the inherited room, he discovers an incomplete manuscript his Uncle Hank had been working on. Moved to finish it, he discovers that the life of the ancient King David provides multiple lessons for enriching his life and improving the lives of others.