Western Walker
()
About this ebook
young man who represents us all as we seek to fi nd ourselves in life. He graduates
from college yet declares himself a conscientious objector against the Viet Nam
War and has to serve his time. He experiences the loss of his father and other
loved ones. He also experiences good and wonderful times in his travels. While
he can cry for all the pain that he or the rain can never cure, he still fi nds a way
to remain hopeful. He can still fi nd something to dream about while he takes out
the trash.
John A. Richter
Has a varied background with a love for the arts and science. Received various writing awards in his youth. A graduate of Purdue University. Has lived East and West coasts for several years and traveled to Europe several times. Has a 25-year-old son from a 22-year-old marriage. Continues to work as a home improvement contractor in the New England area. Enjoys playing trumpet and primitive camping. Presently resides in Connecticut with his fiancé, Julia, who share their time in the States and England. Enjoys writing when he can about the human condition
Read more from John A. Richter
A Trilogy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDiamond in the Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Western Walker
Related ebooks
Western Walker Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAsh Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Life Without End Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClaire The Blind Love of a Blind Hero, By a Blind Author Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDead to Get Ready--and Go: The Dead Detective Mysteries, #4 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Death is for the Living Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Storm Sister: Book Two Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Moons Of Gemini Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Potarium Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVengeance of Orion Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Refrain Of The Fallen: Pieces Of Eight, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDark Night and Brighter Days: ''Reflections to Myself'' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBehind Lead Doors: Freedom's Cry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFish Gather to Listen: A Horror Anthology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Place: A Tess Monaghan Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Legend of the Butterfly Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChardelia Foss and the River of Fear (Teen Edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCruise of the Snark Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Unfortunate Carp! and Other Watery Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTill I Bleed No More Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlue Flame Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Adventures of the Summerswill: Book 2: the Legacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlood and Bone, River and Stone Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSounding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Fang Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Thickness of Ice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStriketeam Book Three: Whale Song Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fishing Life: An Angler's Tales of Wild Rivers and Other Restless Metaphors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Our Stars Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Taking Lottie Home: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
General Fiction For You
The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anonymous Sex Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Ends with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The King James Version of the Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mythos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Sister's Keeper: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nettle & Bone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unhoneymooners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsider: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Good and Evil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beartown: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of Dreaming Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Candy House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Other Black Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Western Walker
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Western Walker - John A. Richter
Copyright © 2013 by John A. Richter.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013900249
ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4797-7535-4
Softcover 978-1-4797-7534-7
Ebook 978-1-4797-7536-1
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
To order additional copies of this book, contact:
Xlibris Corporation
1-888-795-4274
www.Xlibris.com
Orders@Xlibris.com
128440
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Night Bird in Field
Give me the sweet sound of silence.
Don’t bridge the gap, don’t try.
No crescendo, no human intervention,
no display.
Just listen to the air molecules bounce
in your ears with the quiet rush of clouds
over a radiant moon.
Love is like that…
it takes a piece of you when it comes and when
it goes.
How deep the sigh.
—John Richter
Chapter I
1
T his is a book about the quick and the dead. Now it all might sound like nonsense, but that is because most of us are fools. It began when he slipped on algae-covered rocks heading for the first sand bar from a Huron Lake cottage. The second sand bar was yet to come in his life then, for then was a time of tag and skinny dips on full-moon nights. Faintly seeing, but not really seeing, as he opened his eyes under water, that thick fierce darkness of the senses. The moon mirrored the water surface, making his soul blind to the world underneath. Imagination was the demon and the delight, while goose bumps told him he was real. The run to the cloth towel made all the difference—that fresh, dry towel smell, one of warmth, amidst the night’s cold, silvery world of rawness. The sand was always like ice when it caked on his wet feet. But Seth looked forward to it. And this and other sensations were the beginnings of an innocent, naïve, sensitive, empathic type who ate Rice Krispies for breakfast high on a bluff above the shore in a beveled-windowed dinet.
The game of tag with his cousins continued and Seth was simply it. But there were subtle, nonverbal seconds in his life. Just how or why a person’s fate can be decided in such times is hard to say. He never talked about them as days passed, but they were there, along with a certain feeling he had. What was it? All he knew was that it was like the time he saw a wolf at the zoo. The wolf paced up and down in a cage, ignoring the people in front of it. He kept staring at the animal’s eyes, and while his fourth-grade school teacher rushed the class along, he knew there were worlds beyond those than what humans allowed themselves to see.
2
Bow, hit it!
yelled the coxswain.
Seth was the bow oarsman. He pulled his blade one quick stroke through the rough water to bring the boat in line. Again!
cried the cox. The cox was the boat’s eyes and ears.
In six minutes the race would be over, but funny how Seth’s mind wandered to more pleasant times than to what he was about to face. He dared not let his mind wander too much. He would need all his concentration now as he waited for the coxie’s commands and the gun to start. How different each race was for him and how each seemed a lifetime!
With an overcast sky five boats awaited the gun like slender pointed sticks transfixed on the water surface. The wind rippled their sides and changed the water’s blues into fuzzy greys. The rocky bottom became opaque to the eye. The race would be more grueling against the hard wind. This water contest called rowing was more than just a sport for some, for it often asked one to row on pure nerve. The choice was up to each oarsman. And as the boats sat fixed, tense with explosion, Seth hoped, he prayed he would have the nerve when his time came. No one expected him to kill himself; it was more a personal thing each man had to work out for himself. What mattered would be the best each man pulling his own. And when each did, everyone knew it, just as when everyone knew when one didn’t. There was no getting around yourself or the others. Some unspoken feeling traveled through the boat and was never mentioned. Everyone suffered, but it was more than that. He had been smelling these guys’ sweat for three years, they had ached together, they had laughed, they had cried. He had no choice now; he loved them.
So time stood still, as Seth and seven other men with cox waited for the start. Images flashed in and out of his mind—the hot days of long miles rowed up