Embraced: The Love That Can Only Come from the Father

By Paul Phillips Jr.

"Embraced" is the story of a boy named Taylor Mitchell growing up in present day kansas. Taylor lives with his seemingly strict and disciplinary father and feels that life is unbearable and hard. It is not until Taylor accidentally finds his father's journal he wrote regardng growing up in the 50's and 60's that he realize that his life is not as bad as he thought it was.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468541779

Paul Phillips Jr.

Paul Phillips Jr. is a minister who presides in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife of thirty years, Elaine. He has three daughters, three son-in-laws, and five grandsons. Paul is a Graduate of Valor Collage and is a member of the World Harvest Ministerial Alliance I Columbus Ohio. He has written four other books including “From Trials To Blessings” written in 2007. In his leisure time, Paul enjoys the great outdoors and spending time with family.

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© 2012 Paul Phillips Jr. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 1/11/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4178-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-4178-6 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Characters

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Actors take your bow

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank those individuals who continue to inspire me to write. My best friend and wife Elaine, my three daughters Tanisha, Jocelyn and Amber, thanks for your love and support. My sister Paula and my sisters in Christ Sherry and Adrianne, you two are a true blessing. I will never forget my Heavenly Father Jesus Christ who keeps me under his covering, If I forgot anyone, please charge it to my head and not my heart,

I love you all.

Paul Phillips Jr.

Characters

Taylor Mitchell

A young boy, fifteen years old. He lives with his widowed father. Taylor is rebellious and going through the typical trials that a teenager goes through in life. He has many run ins with his father. It is only when he discovers the true reasons for his father’s strict behavior that he realizes the way he is.

Mark Andrews

Taylor’s best friend

Ralph Mitchell

Ralph is a widowed hard working father who is trying to raise a rebellious son. Ralph is an ex-Army man who is trained and taught to live by strict rules, which he is trying to instill in his son Taylor.

Elizabeth Mitchell

Taylor’s mom and Ralph’s wife

Mrs. Robinson

Teacher at the Primrose Junior High School. She teaches English literature.

I pray that you will enjoy reading this book. This project was several years in the making. So sit back, cuddle under the fireplace, relax and enjoy.

And now I present to you for your reading pleasure:

EMBRACED

DAH!

DAH!!

DAH!!!

DAH!!!

(Curtains open: 6 am finds 12 year old Taylor Mitchell lying in bed. It’s the last day of the Primrose Junior high school year.)

Chapter 1

Childhood & School

Present day

When I opened my eyes to the bright Kansas morning sunlight, a feeling of warmth, tranquility and calmness came over me. Even though I had such a feeling of joy, I had no idea what I was to be so happy about. As I laid my head down, I placed my hands behind my head and propped my legs up. I began to day dream of all the possibilities that a summer break could bring. When school lets out I am going to have fun in the sun. I didn’t even realize it that my whole face was a big smile as I day dreamed. My imagination was cut short by reality settling in and once again I began to feel stressed.

Taylor Embray Mitchell! Hurry up, Get up! You are going to miss the bus; you’ll be late for the last day of school, Dad yelled.

I’m coming, I heard you the first time Dad, you don’t have to yell, I said.

I jumped out the bed, snatched my clothes, grabbed my book bag and began to frown because I knew that if I would miss catching the school bus, my Dad would never let me hear the last of it. Not to mention that, I would have to walk to school which was about a hundred miles away; at least that is what it felt like. I began thinking how life would be so much better if only he would lay off and not be so hard on me. Most times I felt like I was in the army or some kind of boot camp.

Taylor, Talk with intelligence and quit mumbling!

Taylor, sit up straight!

Taylor, early to bed, early to rise, Dad would say.

Taylor, a grade of a B is not acceptable, you need more!

Taylor, do this, Taylor do that!

My Dad, Ralph Mitchell was an ex-army man and he ran everything based on timing and in order. Every day, I was to wake up at five am, even on the weekends. I guess today I must have over slept. My uniforms for the entire week were already laid out pressed and ironed. White shirt, Blue pants and black shoes. Not just any white shirt, these shirts had collars and the school emblem was placed on the shoulder. Homework was error free and done to perfection then neatly placed in my back pack. My Dad had it so that every second of my day was planned out and I was to stick with it. Every moment of my day was to be accounted for. Still, I hurried out the door and ran to the bus stop with several friends. Standing at the bus stop, I could hear everyone talking about his or her upcoming summer vacation.

My family is going to Disney World, Sally said with a huge smile.

My family is going to Canada for the summer, Todd said.

When the bus finally arrived I waited on the bottom step for my best friend Mark who I could see coming.

Hurry up Mark, you are holding up the bus I said with a smile.

Ah, thanks man, Mark said as he climbed the steps. We went to our seats and I could hear Mark trying to catch his breath.

What took you so long to get to the bus stop Mark? I asked.

Nearly out of breath Mark replied, Got up late again.

Ooh, aah everybody was saying as I just sat and listened. When it came to my turn to tell about my summer vacation details I was going to say that my family is going to Sea World, naw that’s too babyish. Maybe I should say something like We’re going to Gatlinburg Tenn. to stay in the mountains for the whole summer. Why did I have to lie? I knew that the only place that I was going was home, 3101 Maple St. I turned around to look at my old run down house that I lived in every since I could remember. Well it really wasn’t run down; I guess that I was just tired of looking at it.

What did I have to talk about? My Dad and I had no plans for the summer and besides that, we were always strapped for money.

Dad worked hard and struggled just to pay bills every month not to mention saving for a summer vacation. Sharon was a friend of mine who lived next door to me. We practically grew up together. Even though I knew she was just being nice, I always considered her as being my girlfriend because she always treated me nice and one time she even gave me a kiss on my cheeks for swapping a bird out of her house. It scared her a lot but I just kept hitting and swapping that ole bird with the broom hoping that it wouldn’t come close to me because I might have screamed louder than her. The bird eventually flew out the window by itself.

School

Sitting next to Mark on the school bus was nice because he always had something good to eat. I could smell the breakfast sandwich, which his mom had prepared for him every morning, how lucky I felt he was. If it was not a bacon and egg sandwich, it was a ham and egg sandwich. Mark has been my best friend every since I can remember. We were together every day, in some school classes together, played sports together. We even got into trouble together, he is like my brother.

Hey man what’s on your mind? Mark asked chomping down on his sandwich.

Oh nothing, I just wish Dad would lay off on me, he’s so hard and so strict all the time plus, and I can’t stand it when he calls me by my middle name Embray.

What, your middle name is Embray, who ever came up with a name like that? Mark asked.

I guess my parents did, I don’t know, I’ve got more important things to worry about rather than trying to figure out who named me.

As long as I have known you, I never knew you even had a middle name. Uh just kidding Taylor don’t worry about it, want a bite?" Mark asked holding up the sandwich.

Naw no thanks, I said hoping he would tear me off a piece anyway.

Hey, it’s the last day of school and we are going to have so much fun, just stick with me Taylor, Mark said.

As we approached Primrose Junior High School, I could see students running to class.

Trouble with Thomas

Students in the classroom were excited more than ever now because it’s the last day of school. Thomas was my archenemy every since Pre-school. In the first grade my parents had saved up money to buy me the nicest outfit. I had gotten my hair neatly cut and I had on new shoes. I had to stay clean because it was the first grade Graduation picture day. Right before class as I was walking to the school Thomas ran past me and pushed me into the sidewalk. I tripped and fell into a puddle of mud which splattered all over me and several kids walking next to me. All five of us were dirty and had to go back home to change clothes. I had to wear an old outfit for the Graduation picture day. Thomas just laughed. In the Second grade, Thomas stabbed me with a pencil, which he said was an accident. I had to wear a bandage over my entire hand which made me look like a mummy. The fourth grade was the worst of all when he almost got me expelled from school, elementary school I must say. Now tell me, how does anyone get expelled from elementary school? I will tell you. As usual our teacher would give out homework a week in advance on Mondays. I always had my homework done by Tuesday, thanks to my Dad Drill Sgt. Ralph Mitchell Senior. Anyway, Thomas went into my book bag, stole my week’s worth of homework and ripped up everything else. He then erased my name on the top of the pages and put his name there instead. When we got to class, I looked everywhere for my homework. At first I thought that I had left it at home. I looked around the class with a puzzled look. When I turned around I saw Thomas who was staring at me with a skirmish grin. I looked at the homework on his desk and recognized my hand writing.

I said to Thomas Is that my school work?

He just grinned.

Thomas is that my homework, I asked him again.

So, what if it is, you can’t prove it, Thomas said.

Thomas got up and went to the bathroom. The teacher would soon be asking for it. With that I stood up to get a closer look to make sure the homework was mine and realized it was the work that I spent all day doing. I could tell by the eraser marks I had made from correcting my mistakes. I reached over to Thomas desk and snatched my papers and his. While still thinking of ways to get Thomas back, I sat back down in my seat. Before the teacher could call for our homework I tried to erase his name and put mine back on them. The teacher was walking around the classroom collecting the homework from everyone. She looked over to see me erasing Thomas name and asked what I was doing. I said that Thomas stole my homework and I was taking it back. Thomas cane out of the bathroom and realized what was going on and yelled out Mrs. Graves, Taylor is stealing my homework. Mrs. Graves looked at me as if I had stolen from a bank or something. You know that a person can get into a lot of trouble for stealing, you will have to go the Principal’s office Taylor, the teacher said. Thomas was always getting me into trouble I thought.

As I sat in class, I thought about summer vacation, just being out of school for the entire summer was enough for me to smile.

Hey Taylor, what is your poor family going to do this summer, oh I forgot, that your Dad does not have a job and you don’t have a Mama anymore Thomas said.

My Dad does have a job, and you had better not say anything else about my Mama any more, I mean it Thomas.

I looked at Thomas with a big frown but remembered my summer vacation and it quickly went away.

Don’t let that get to you, my friend Mark said.

When class lets out, I’m going to scream with joy. All the years worth of paper and junk thrown out of my locker and tossed to the floor never to be seen or