MONTANA TEACHER PART 1 Sarah's Story: Montana Teacher, #1

By Susan Leigh Carlton

This is a clean, western romance; a short story of about 17,000 words. It is the first part of a serial that tells of Sarah Collins’ heartbreaking loss of her husband in a tornado, and her struggle to make a worthwhile life for herself and her two sons. It is set in frontier Montana in the 1904 time frame.

A tornado touched down on the Collins farm in Battle Ground, Indiana, snatching Bart Collins into the air as he tried to run to the safety of a creek bed. The same storm flattened his house and barn, trapping his wife Sarah, and their three year old twin sons in a root cellar, until they were rescued by a neighbor.

Sarah secured a teaching position that paid so little she was forced to live with her parents. After two years with little or no money, Sarah answered a newspaper ad offering a subsidized teaching slot paying more than double her salary. The only catch… it was in Mountain View, Montana.

Tal Evans became a widower when his wife died giving birth to twin daughters. Neglected by their father, who was wallowing in self-pity, the twins were raised by their 60+ year old grandmother. The girls are completely undisciplined, and run wild. They wind up in Sarah’s classroom after their original teacher gave up and quit teaching because of them.

Sarah has run-ins with Tal when she disciplines his children. Sarah’s father has a heart attack and to the dismay of Tal and the townspeople, she returns to Indiana, probably not to return. Read this heartbreaking story of a young widow and her struggle with her path in life.

In the book, here are several intentional errors in grammar. It is the way cowboys and rural folks talk.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Susan Leigh Carlton
• Release date: Aug 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781513054827

Susan Leigh Carlton

Susan Leigh Carlton lives just outside of Tomball, Texas, a suburb twenty-six miles northwest of Houston. She began writing and publishing on Amazon in August of 2012. Susan observed the eighty-first anniversary of her birth on April 17th. She says, “I quit having birthdays, because they are depressing.” Susan and her husband celebrated their forty-ninth wedding anniversary on April 16th, the day before her birthday.

Book preview

Description

This is a clean, western romance; a short story of about 17,000 words. It is the first part of a serial that tells of Sarah Collins’ heartbreaking loss of her husband in a tornado, and her struggle to make a worthwhile life for herself and her two sons. It is set in frontier Montana in the 1904 time frame.

A tornado touched down on the Collins farm in Battle Ground, Indiana, snatching Bart Collins into the air as he tried to run to the safety of a creek bed. The same storm flattened his house and barn, trapping his wife Sarah, and their three year old twin sons in a root cellar, until they were rescued by a neighbor.

Sarah secured a teaching position that paid so little she was forced to live with her parents. After two years with little or no money, Sarah answered a newspaper ad offering a subsidized teaching slot paying more than double her salary. The only catch... it was in Mountain View, Montana.

Tal Evans became a widower when his wife died giving birth to twin daughters. Neglected by their father, who was wallowing in self-pity, the twins were raised by their 60+ year old grandmother. The girls are completely undisciplined, and run wild. They wind up in Sarah’s classroom after their original teacher gave up and quit teaching because of them.

Sarah has run-ins with Tal when she disciplines his children. Sarah’s father has a heart attack and to the dismay of Tal and the townspeople, she returns to Indiana, probably not to return. Read this heartbreaking story of a young widow and her struggle with her path in life.

In the book, here are several intentional errors in grammar. It is the way cowboys and rural folks talk.

Prologue

Tornado a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud.

April 1904 West Lafayette, Indiana...

A tornado is one of the most powerful forces of nature. The spinning winds of a tornado attain speeds of 100MPH and higher. Trees are snapped in half, and homes flattened.

Many local folks in Tippecanoe County refer to their area as tornado alley. It is not uncommon to have at least one tornado sighting each year and an occasional one to touch down. To be caught in the open by a twister as they are called, means almost certain death.

When Bart Collins was plowing his field on a spring day in April, he paid no heed to the darkening sky. He had to get the field prepared so he could get the corn seed in the ground.

His mule began acting skittish and was hard to control. He flicked the reins and yelled. It didn’t help. The claps of thunder announced the impending storm. He unhitched the mule from the plow and left it and began to run for the creek that cut across the farm. The roaring sound was deafening. He didn’t make the shelter the creek might have afforded. The last thing his mind recorded was his mule being lifted into the air, before he was taken aloft and slammed into a black walnut tree two miles away.

The funnel remained on the ground for another five miles before ascending into the dark clouds overhead. It had destroyed five farmhouses and seven barns in that area. Bart’s house and barn were flattened. His wife and two boys had taken refuge in the root cellar. The door to the root cellar was blocked by a portion of the demolished barn, and they found themselves trapped until a neighboring farmer and his two teenaged sons removed the debris blocking the exit.

Are you folks okay? Jeremiah Wingate asked once they were free.

Scared out of our wits but we’re all right, Sarah said, running her fingers through the tangled mess her red hair had become. Have you seen Bart? she asked.

No, he’s not with you? Wingate said.

He was plowing the south field, Sarah said.

He’s probably all right, but I’ll send one of the boys to look for him.

Thank you Jeremiah. Your family all right?

It completely missed us but got the Yancey’s house. They are all okay.

Sam, why don’t you and Willy go looking for Bart?

Yes, Pa, Sam said.

Sometime later...

Pa, the plow was in the middle of the field, but there was no sign of Mr. Bart or his mule. You want us to keep looking?

Yeah, get one of our horses and keep at it. Willy and I will go see if there’s anyone else needing help.

Sarah, why don’t you go over to the house until Bart turns up? We’ll send him that direction when we see him.

Bart’s body was found crumpled at the base of the battered black walnut tree the next day.

––––––––

Chapter one

He’s Gone

Sarah had convinced herself Bart was busy helping the families hit by the storm. She kept looking out the window of the Wingate house, expecting to see him come down the road on the back of Maybelle,

Reviews for MONTANA TEACHER PART 1 Sarah's Story

[Samantha Cee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I lovedthe book , trouble is I want to know what happens. It's great to see she got back into her Christian upbringing, and was able to teach her boy's the right way to talk and act. Just great thankyou. Keep up the good work, its great to read a story and feel the emotions . Thankyou again