Book Excerpts
Logan's Leap
Chapter 28
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In the darkness, illuminated by the light of the dying bonfire, are the hot glowing eyes of a silent predator. The eyes of the son of the cougar called One Eye—the killer of the village child a generation ago. The child of Chief Red Stone’s father.
Silently, Son of One Eye stalks the perimeter of the village. Slowly he circles, looking for his victim, smelling the breeze for his victim’s scent. His blood runs hot for the taste of her flesh, her blood. The sweet, tender flesh of a young girl.
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Tag is staying close to Many Good Things as she runs to Jack and Glory. The child snuggles into Glory’s lap and smiles up at Jack. “I have come to say goodnight.”
The stalker has found the one he wants. She is with a dog. The animal is of no consequence. A small animal compared to himself. He watches the child.
Glory hugs her favorite of all the children and kisses the top of her head. “You’ve had a busy day, young one. May your dreams be happy ones.” She kisses her again.
The child reaches out to Jack, and he takes her in his arms and hugs her. “Many Good Things, what a perfect name.” She squeezes him in a great hug.
“What a great hugger you are!” Jack says.
Son of One Eye will wait. He enjoys the anticipation. His time will come soon enough. He will not be denied his prize. He will have his child, and she will squirm and she will scream as he takes her. Takes her back into his lair. There he will tease her.
Play with her. Slowly watch her die. And then—he will eat her. It is his way. The way of his father and the father of his father. The taste of girl children runs deep in his lineage —the Son of One Eye.
The breeze speaks to Tag, raises his awareness. Something is wrong! He sniffs the air, looks into the darkness, cocks his head and listens. Too much confusion, laughter and chatter from those around him. There is danger in the night. It is the time of the prowler. Maybe a stalker is after the horses or mules in the stockade. Then the breeze picks it up again—closer, more intense. Yes, there it is—something. Something evil is lurking in the darkness. A predator prowling in the darkness! It is in the air, on the breeze! An attack is near. A vicious attack on the camp? Man or animal, he does not know! Maybe Tag can prevent it.
There is an awakening in the dog. Tag’s senses are becoming more acute than they have ever been. Firing in his brain are synapses that have never been active before. The answers to the questions of his purpose for life are about to unveil themselves: What is the purpose of my life? He has always wondered. Isn’t there more than simply seeking pleasure? More for me to do, a higher accomplishment I’m to fulfill?
And then the epiphany comes: It is the child! Many Good Things! Tag was born for this moment! This is his destiny! He was meant to be at this place, on this night, as a protector, a savior! He was born to be a warrior, a defender! It was always meant to be! Always! To save a child from a killer. The Son of One Eye!
The eyes of the cougar are watching. A rumbling purr throbs deep within his body, and a warm rush goes through his veins. His salivary glands discharge an overabundance of saliva, and his paws reflexively squeeze and extend, squeeze and extend. He is ready. He has only moments to wait. This child will be his. He will carry her to his den. There he will taunt her. Soothe and play with her in his own way. He will lick her salty, frightened skin. He will maul and tease her, nip and chew her. He will drink her blood as she dies.
Tag growls and paces back and forth, piercing the darkness with his eyes, looking for movement. His nostrils flare. His hackles rise. He tries to pick up the scent he knows is out there––somewhere. There it is, the killer’s scent! It comes and goes. This killer is staying mostly downwind. But it is unmistakable, the scent of a carnivorous killer!
The voice of Smiling Winds is heard coming from the doorway of their hogan. “Many Good Things, it is time. You must come in.”
The girl detaches herself from Jack’s embrace and darts into the dusky night and runs toward home! Tag, matching her pace, runs at her side, trying to shield her from what is to come! At all costs, Tag must protect this child!
The cougar’s adrenaline-gorged, powerful muscles explode into action. Springing from the darkness, he leaps for the running child!
Tag hears the rush of the beast’s paws on the ground, sees the cat launch itself into the air on an arc to intercept the running child! With all of his strength, Tag leaps to intercept the savage attack!
The two animals collide in midair with fangs bared! They bowl over the child, knocking her off of her feet as they engage in battle! The lion’s superior weight, speed, and power drives Tag backward and to the ground. He has no chance against the mass and strength of the killer!
Son of One Eye leaps over the stunned dog and pins the child to the ground with a massive paw on her chest as she screams for help!
Jack, Glory, and Smiling Winds are all rushing to save the defenseless child as Tag again leaps on the big cat, clamping his jaws into Son of One Eye’s muzzle! He is swatted away by a powerful paw and goes rolling through the dirt.
Son of One Eye clamps his teeth into the girl’s arm and begins to drag her away. But Tag will not let this child die. He attacks the big cat with a frenzy greater than he knew he possessed, sinking his teeth into the cat’s muscular throat. Into cords of muscle designed to protect it from bites and claws far more devastating than a mere Airedale could possibly deliver.
Dropping the child, the cat turns his attention to ending the nuisance of this tenacious animal. They roll over and over in a cloud of dust as the cat attempts to shake Tag’s jaws from his throat.
Weaponless and seeing the flashing teeth and thrashing, to-the-death struggle between the animals, Jack holds Glory back from her attempt to reach the child. Red Stone and his braves rush up with spears and guns brandished but hold back as the animals brush against the stricken child in their bloody death lock on each other.
Now the cat is pummeling Tag and biting and tearing him to pieces. Tag’s strength begins to ebb, and he knows his battle with the cat is lost. He sees the child’s father rush to her side. Through dimming eyes, he sees the parents lift her from the ground, cradle her in their arms and rush her to their hogan.
Looking down on his adversary, the cat knows the battle is over. Tag’s shallow breathing and relaxing muscles are the prelude to death. Son of One eye has seen it often. For such a small animal, he was a determined fighter. He did not go peacefully. The cougar has become exhausted and spent, more so than ever before. It is time to retreat, to go into the darkness— the child, this night, is lost. In a moment—when I get my breath—weak, weak from the fight. Okay, I go now. He rises on his front legs, but his hindquarters don’t respond. What is this?
The cougar drags himself a few feet. But now he is losing control of his shoulder muscles. His head is becoming too heavy for his neck muscles to support. Then, like a child’s rag doll, the kind he has watched Indian children play with, he becomes limp and helpless, unable to move. What is this? What has gone wrong? Now his lungs! His lungs! They won’t expand! No air! Can’t get air! Can’t get––can’t—“
Tag’s eyes dimly focus on Jack at his side. Tears streak his friend’s cheeks. “You saved her life, Tag. You saved Many Good Things.” Jack strokes his friend’s head as the two of them share this final moment. “I will never forget you, my friend.” Tag lifts a paw and lays it on Jack’s arm. His eyes close, and he is gone.
AJ, Adam, & Adeline
Chapter 47
It’s the next day and Adam drives along the curvy French Broad River Road that he remembers so well from his boyhood. He has two places he will visit. Seeing them, he hopes will help him put things that have troubled him for so long in perspective.
His first stop is just off of a gravel side road that he is, at this moment, turning onto. Traveling half of a mile up it, he reaches his destination. He recognizes the spot because of the old pecan tree. It looks the same, just a bit taller and stronger. The rusted chains that held the hounds to it are still secured to its trunk.
There are no longer any visible remnants of the shack he torched. Just the cistern pump that stood next to the home he shared with his father. Other than that, all that remains of his past is an ash and debris square footprint of the shack itself.
Adam feels no remorse for what he did. In retrospect he thinks it was all for the good, for himself and the dogs. They all, all three of them, were prisoners of an embittered and abusive man.
He has thought little of his father’s whereabouts or condition in the intervening years. Whether the man is alive or dead, dead would be fine with Adam. He has thought little and cared less about the carnival barker, roustabout and thief that all of Sumner County had known as Warf Harden.
Looking again at the rusted chains secured to the tree trunk he realizes how right it all was. How that night he became unchained himself from: the Melungeon, the carney, the convict. And just like the hounds, he ran for it. Ran for and found his freedom. Freedom to explore life on his own terms. To become the man that now people in Sumner County will know as wealthy Adam James and none will remember as the scorned AJ the carney kid.
Returning to his truck he is satisfied with what he has accomplished. Any feeling of doubt about leaving the way he did has been erased.
Adam hesitates at the intersection to the river road. He is about to face the truth about Adeline. To the right and only two and a half miles away is his final destination, Sundown Farm. The confused and unsure seventeen year old boy is once again coming to life in him again. Every unreasonable manifestation of doubt in himself he has ever had, has suddenly sprung back to life inside of him. With his fingers tremble on the steering wheel he feels all of the confidence in himself that he has built up throughout the past twelve years of his life suddenly abandoning him.
This is foolish! Forget it. It was a confused young boy’s dream that never could come true. She’s moved on with life. Close to thirty by now. Married and has a family of her own. Wouldn’t even remember you...Don’t go there! She told you to leave and never come back!...Thrashed you with her horse whip!...What are you doing here? Why are you doing this to yourself?
Minutes go by and still he sits with his fingers gripping the steering wheel. So much has happened in his life, the climb from poverty. Facing up to the terror, the cries, the smell of death in war, and so much more. He has become hardened into manhood. How can he now, find himself so shaken and fearful of what lies just ahead?
Adeline, after all was just a girl, no different really than any other. No more complicated or special. Just, for some reason he could never figure out...The One! In all of his life, The One! The only one he ever wanted, needed, whose arms, at the end of his life, he could die peacefully in. It is how he felt at seventeen...It’s how he feels now, these many years later...Revisiting where it all played out, he feels his love for her now, more than ever.
Finally, after taking a few calming breaths, he arcs the wheels of his truck to the right and turns back onto the French Broad River Road. Speaking to himself, he says, “Life will go on no matter what—it must. It will be how it will be...it will be how it will be.”
It all looks the same, the river, the road, the countryside, all the same. One more curve in the road will reveal the farm where he worked after school, on weekends and one summer, Sundown. Wouldn’t it be something to see Adeline on Bolt riding around the exercise track again, it’s possible. Both she and her wonderful horse older, but still the same. In a moment he will—
He grinds the truck to a stop! What happened? Sundown is gone! It’s all gone but for the house. And that is in poor repair. A weed patch where the beautiful one acre lawn once was. There are no barns—no out buildings—no nothing—all abandoned. Sundown has been lost and abandoned! It simply is not possible...and yet it is.
The Devil's Grapevine
It was 1939 when Betty was 18 years old and she became the victim of a sexual assault by a serial rapist. Sometime later he was caught and his trial made worldwide headlines: because of the vast number of women he had assaulted on 3 continents spanning more than 20 years.
During his trial, Betty was not associated with the man, but it was known by authorities
that she did have his child. A boy named Roddy. And she feared that in time, the hungry press would learn this and make sensational headlines of it, and it would ruin Roddy's life. She couldn't let that happen!
She moved them from Ohio to St. Louis where she was slowly able to save some money
and create a new identity, and when the boy was six, she and Roddy made the move to
California with a new name and false identity. And here the real story begins.
Chapter 68
Roddy and his mother sit on the slope just above the creek and a bit behind the motor court. Here they sometimes come to watch the sunset. To see the beautiful colors that radiate across the darkening sky and illuminate the puffy clouds and to watch the swallows flit, dive and dart above the trees before finally going into their nesting places for the night.
A thin strand of Ethel’s hair is lifted by an errant breeze and it lands on her forehead. It's part of the same strand that often annoys her when she's cooking and serving in the café. She brushes it away and looks down at the love of her life. The gentle, sweet, earnest and bright boy she must protect, at any and all costs, from the truth of how he was fathered.
Protecting him is what brought them be living in this desolate spot. This off-the-beaten-path, postage stamp sized village in the middle of nowhere. So far away from Janesville, Ohio and the family and friends she loved and lost. That she had always expected she would be with. Would share her life with. Would marry a local boy and have a family with.
This is certainly a desolate spot, but not desolate enough, it turns out: As fate would have it, this is the very spot where her secret has been discovered! Discovered by Whitey, a looser at life. Her boss, a man with evil intent. Her first thought was to flee from him. To take Roddy and do another disappearing act. But Whitey said if she tried that, he would go to the press and expose who she is and tell the world
about Roddy.