Delta Dawn: Whom Seek Ye

By John Kershaw

White Rose of Yorkshire

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468572650

John Kershaw

Dr. Kershaw has more than 47 years of experience in automotive technology. He is the author of 15 GM technical training publications, as well as the published author of 5 automotive textbooks. He has developed instructional materials for GM, Nissan, FIAT, Corinthian Colleges, Ohio Technical College, IntelliTec Colleges, General Mills, and the University of Missouri at Columbia along with Penn Foster College.

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© 2012 by John Kershaw. 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   03/24/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4685-7262-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-7265-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012905497

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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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

Dedication

Prologue

Sorrow

In the Bitterroots

Jackson

Maggot

Silver Wings

Alma

Blackjack Creek

Sadie

Nine Dragons

Point

Epilogue

Dedication

To Dawn

Helen

Rachel

and last but not least my beloved Kathleen

The Best Friend I Ever Had

When my brother and I reached our teen years we seemed to grow apart. He was a lot smaller then I was and did everything right. When I was struggling to get a D in algebra so I could play football, he was sliding through it with an A. I thought he was a nerd and let him know it all the time. But I never let anybody push him around or hurt him, he may have been a nerd but he was still my brother.

My father left us when I was about fourteen years old. I became so bitter over it that I took to the streets of Tacoma, Washington and took my anger out on anyone who would take me on. I was always in a fight and I didn’t care if I won or lost, I would fight anybody. I was put on probation for beating a cops son senseless, I knocked my school principal on his can. Judge Johnson was my judge and he had told me that if I got in anymore fights while on probation, he would lock me up for at least two weeks. When I hit my principal I knew I was in big trouble and I ran.

When I got home I laid in the bushes across from our house there in the Salishan Housing project. When my brother came home from school I stopped him and told him what had happen. I told him I was going to run that I couldn’t go to jail and ask to get me some clothes and the money I had in my pillow case. He said no that he wouldn’t, that I should just stay and face the problem. Then he turned and ran to house. As I lay there trying to figure my next move a black and white cop car pulled up to the curve in front of our house. Two of Tacoma’s finest got out and walked up to the door and knocked real loud. My kid brother opened the door. The one cop said something to him and my brother nodded his head yes. The cops handcuffed him and put him in the black and white and drove off. I couldn’t believe it my brother never got in trouble, man I couldn’t wait to see the look on mom’s face when she found out her little angel had been arrested. I realized mom was not at home or she would have scratched those two cop’s eyes out for busting the nerd. So slipped into the house and packed a bag and got something to eat but then decided to take a nap before I ran.

The next thing I knew mom was shaking me awake. She told me that the school had called and told her what I had done. She had already talked to my probation officer and he wanted her to take me to the detention center at Reman Hall in West Tacoma. I had learned early in my life not to argue with mom, so we got on a bus and made the trip to Reman Hall. Mom asked me if I had seen my brother. I lied and said no mainly because I didn’t want her to get any more upset then she was. We got to Reman Hall and checked in with the attendant at the front desk and mom told him that my probation officer had told her to bring me in. He looked at me and asked me my name and I told him, then he looked back at mom and said, he’s already locked up. Then he said wait just a minute I’ll be right back. He wasn’t gone long and with him was my kid brother. The attendant asked mom who he was and mom told him he had the wrong kid.

Judge Johnson put us both in the clink for two weeks, me for fighting and Larry for lying to the Police. Mom was ready to kick my tail, she blamed it all on me.

Now I thought that going to Reman Hall for two weeks would be the worst thing that could happen to me. But when they put my brother and me in the same cell together I thought I would die. I ask him why he had told the cops he was me. He looked at me and told me he couldn’t stand the thought of me running away. The little nerd told me couldn’t have slept at night knowing I was cold and hungry. But most of all he couldn’t stand the thought of one of those hobos down in the shanty town by the river hurting me. I puffed my chest up and said that no one could hurt me. Then with just a shimmer of a tear in his eyes, he told me yes they can Johnny remember what dad told us. All of a sudden I again saw the best friend I ever had. Before the tears came to my eye’s I turned to the little window in our wall and tried real hard to see Mount Rainier just long enough to hold back the tears. He and I had been through so much together. I just stood there wondering how I could ever have been ashamed of him.

Then he broke the silence and said to me that he was going to read his scriptures would I like to join him. I turned and look at him in amazement because no one ever got anything to read in Reman Hall. I ask him how he had got his scriptures into the cell and he said that his judge told him he could keep them with him. I couldn’t believe it old judge Johnson was getting soft as a grape.

Then he started to read at first I didn’t want to hear it. But by the second day he had me taking my turn reading. When they released us two weeks later I promised the Lord and my best friend, my brother, that I would stop fighting. I got in trouble one more time but that’s another story.

I worked at nights washing dishes to help my mother support my little brother’s and sister’s. I wouldn’t get home until one or two in the morning. Then I would have to get up and go to school. I would fall asleep in class or just find a place to hide and sleep. Then one day I looked around me and I was eighteen years old and still in the tenth grade. That night I went into mom’s room and sat down on the side of her bed. I told her I had to leave, that I was going to join the army and get on with my life, that I wanted to fight in Vietnam. I promised I would send her most of my pay, but I just had to go. She thought about it for a few minutes and then gave me her blessings.

I had been in the army about two years when I got a letter from mom. Telling me that my brother had joined the navy. I could tell by the tone of the letter that she was blaming me. She wanted him to go to college and now he decided to follow me into the service.

A year and a half had past and I was coming home from Vietnam for the second time. The big starlifter taking me home had just broke loose from the ground and was turning out over the South China Sea, when I remembered the letter from mom that was handed to me just before I left. I opened the envelope and read the letter. Mom told me that my brother would be landing in Vietnam about the time I would be taking off for home. I stood up and went to a window in

the door and look down at the sea and the coast line of Vietnam. My despair was almost over whelming, is all I could think of was getting back there to be with my brother.

When I got to Fort Brag I started asking all the A teams going to Nam if they needed a medic. I was lucky I guess medics were in short supply. Before I knew it I was on my way back. I called mom and told her I was going back to be with Larry and help him if I could. She called me a damn fool and asked what we were trying to do to her. She told me that if she lost one of her children she would surely die. I asked her to please stop crying that we would come home O.K.

When I got back to Vietnam I got a message to my brother that I was back and to meet me in Saigon on a certain day and place. I was sitting at a table in a side walk cafe where I told him I would meet him, when I looked up and saw him walking towards me. I stood up and waved, he walked up and we threw our arms around eachother and just held on for the longest time. We sat there for hours and talked about old times and what we were going to do when we got home. Then I told him that if he ever needed me, I would get there somehow. He looked into my eyes and said they won’t be able to keep us apart if one of us went down. Then he told me Johnny, I know mom half blames you for me being here, but you have to know I’m here because of me, I’m here because I believe we are trying to help this country. If anything happens to me don’t you dare blame yourself, it would only make what we are trying to do senseless.

My kid brother then stood and held his glass of 7up and said I want to make a toast. I stood and held my glass of 7up to his and he toasted David O’McKay the only living Profit. We spent two great days together. But it was the last time I would see him like that again. When my brother died awhile back in a veterans boarding home in Tacoma, WA. My other brother and sisters ask me to clean out his room because they didn’t think they could. After I had packed up all of his personal belongings and was standing there something caught my attention out of the side of my eyes. I turned and looked and there sticking out from under the pillow where he rested his head was a dark blue book. I stepped over and picked up my brothers scriptures. He lost control somewhere between the Mekong Delta river in South Vietnam and home, but he never stopped believing, his testimony in the lord and the lords church was the strongest thing about him.

I wasn’t ready for him to pass through the veil before me. I long for the days we fished together and side by side blessed the sacrament. When I stand at his bronze headstone and read his name and the words Vietnam, I miss the best friend I ever had. But my soul is at peace because I know we’ll be together again someday in a place where eternal peace rules.

Prologue

A missive from the darkness

The mist hung low over the Snake River. As I looked around I saw hieroglyphics, carved in stone by the ancient ones. The spirits of the lowland natives swirled around me. How could I read from those rocks when even the great Chief Joseph couldn’t explain those hieroglyphics?

I was dressed all in white as I took my position. John the Baptist questioned his worthiness when Christ came to him for baptism. John said No, my Lord you should baptize me. Then he baptized the Savior of man. I, like John the Baptist, questioned my worthiness as I stood there in the mist.

I could hear the roar of the rapids of Hells Canyon behind me. The sight of Christ standing in the boat with his hands outstretched came to me as he calmed the Sea of Galilee. It was like He stood there on those rocks and calmed this sacred pool for his salmon to rest in as they got ready to challenge the rapids of Hells Canyon in their circle of life.

I looked to the shore, and you stood there all dressed in white waiting for me to beckon. I glanced at the high priest who had positioned himself to witness full immersion. He smiled. I turned and put my hands out to you. You looked like a Celtic Princess all dressed in white as your feet mingled with the misty water and you floated into my arms