The Long Journey Home

By William Powers

The Long Journey Home takes place in the American mid-west during the late 1880s.

Ben Owens, a young man in his late teens had a devastating argument with his father and left home, traveling west to become a cowboy. He writes to his mother who patiently encourages both father and son to reconcile, but pride and stubbornness thwart her wishes. After five years Ben must face his uncertainties when his mother falls ill and asks him to return home to see her.

This memorable story is suitable for all ages and is rich in the emotions of conflict, family, love and hope.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Powers
• Release date: Jun 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476192437

William Powers

William F. (Bill) Powers worked in electrical machine design for most of his adult life but has written articles for a number of years and recently branched out into writing books and short stories.His first book is a children’s story titled The New Blue Zoo, a story written in rhyming verse about a town which loves the color blue and decides to build a zoo to showcase their little community. All the animals are blue, except for the Dweekers of course. Available now in paperback from Amazon.com and directly from the publisher, Tate Publishing.com.Two other children’s books are in the works and like The New Blue Zoo, they also follow a color theme: The Amazing Green Flying Machine (about an imaginative boy and his plans to build the best, fastest airplane in the world) and The Pretty Purple Princess (about a young princess and her misguided passion for her favorite color.)Bill’s recent efforts include 5 short stories and a novel, all of which may be reviewed at http://www.williamfpowers.com/. One of the short stories is available free as a sample of Mr. Powers' writing style; you can download it in PDF format at that web site. The novel and the other short stories also have several sample pages to give you a flavor of each of those works. Several of the short stories are available one SmashWords.comAdults will find the short stories engaging, but they are also suitable for mid-teens.The novel, Streams of Mercy in the Valley of Shadows, is about a young American soldier who returns from Vietnam in the early 1970s only to watch his life fall apart in front of his eyes. Through a series of events he comes to find peace, hope and redemption. Several Vietnam veterans have reviewed it positively and given it thumbs up for its authenticity. Like the short stories, Stream Of Mercy is suitable for mid-teens and up.Bill and his wife, Jerian live in southwestern Ohio. They have eight children and eleven grandchildren.

Book preview

The Long Journey Home

A Short Story by

William F. Powers

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Copyright 2012 by William F. Powers

***

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This work remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to purchase their own copy at Smashwords.com, where they can also discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

This book is a work of fiction; the characters, places and events are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places or events is coincidental and unintentional.

***

Thanks to you, my reader for downloading and reading The Long Journey Home. I hope reading it is as enjoyable for you as writing it was for me. Also a plethora of thanks to my precious wife, Jerian for her editing and critical skills. Additional thanks to the friends who endured pre-edited manuscripts to offer comments and suggestions. Last but most important, thanks to God for giving me the skills and imagination from which this story emanates. May He be honored in all I do.

Please see a list of some of my other titles at the end of the story.

Enjoy!

* * * Initio * * *

It was the ultimate dread in the life of an only child … or of any child. His tall, slender, twenty-two-year-old frame tensed and his hands began to shake as his eye scanned the telegraph message a third time for any suggestion of hope. The first time he read it, he got the message, although he wasn't absorbing very much after the first few words. The second time he read it, he was filling in the gaps his wandering mind had left the first time through. Now as he read it again, his eyes pled with the small piece of paper to give him some reason to believe that things were better than his first readings had hinted. MOTHER GRAVELY ILL. ASKING FOR YOU. COME QUICKLY. FATHER.

The cook hadn't read it; he got it when he went into town for supplies and just put it in his pocket. He remembered the message a half-hour before Ben came back and gave it to the foreman, Mike Reed. Mike didn't read it either and just gave it to the young cowhand Ben as he came in from riding fences in the west pasture. The time and date were scribbled at the top; it had come over the wires early this morning.