The Baggage Handler

By David Rawlings

Publisher Thomas Nelson

ISBN# 978-0785224939

240 Pages

Amazon

NORA’S REVIEW: As I read this fun, moving story I imagined the adventure was like the Twilight Zone meets the Matrix as a baggage handler gives each of his customers a choice. One, they can keep their baggage – let’s call it the blue pill choice. The bag will stay just as heavy as it’s always been. Like taking the blue pill in the Matrix, “the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.” (quote from Wikipedia) – You are secure and comforted and live in a blissful ignorance.

OR choice number two, you can deal with your baggage and walk in a new light. Just like if you were to take the red pill, “Neo learns everything that he has believed isn’t real and in order for him to know the truth about his world, he has to make a choice. Same as these characters.

Three people have gotten their baggage mixed up at the airport. They go to an off-site baggage claim center that kind of looks like the white room in Matrix, it’s an unusual building where I think they enter the Twilight Zone, Wikipedia describes it “Is an unusual situation or mental state between reality and fantasy…”It’s the middle ground between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge.” Readers and customers enter this magical zone.

Each character is under a deadline and needs what’s in their luggage to go on with the next important stage of their lives. They didn’t have time to mess with any more delays. They needed their luggage; and it had to be now.

Gillian Short is first up to bat. Her sister Becky’s daughter is getting married. Gillian can’t help but be envious of her sister’s life.

Then there’s David Hawke a man on a mission at his company’s headquarters to discuss how well his branch was doing. He hoped the news would be better than the drama in his marriage. It wasn’t pretty. Especially after the ultimatum he gave his wife when he left.

Next up is Michael Downer a high school grad on his way to Clarendon University trying to secure a football scholarship. Michael was there to please his dad and make him proud, but his heart wasn’t into football. His passion was art. He made an appointment to see the head of the art dept hoping he might get in that program and obtain the football scholarship too.

Each one of these characters confront the baggage handler when they go to collect their bags. Each find items in there they didn’t pack. They discover some surprising revelations that unnerve them too. The baggage handler knows each customer intimately. Like the woman Jesus meets at the well. They were just as stunned by his revelations and what he offers them.

Each of these people try to figure out what is happening to them in this crazy place where they are asked to deal with more than their luggage. They can go as deep as they want OR not go anywhere at all. They have a choice. Quote, “What weights us down is not our baggage but the decision to keep carrying it.”

This is a powerful story that will touch your heart in unexpected ways. You will keep thinking about these characters and the message of this book long after you read the last word. This is the first book I’ve read by this author it won’t be the last. This would make a great book for your book club group. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the Publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”

Nora St. Laurent

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