Billy

By Travis Earle

Billy is about a young man in the Jim Crow era who is faced with a truth he does not want to believe and a destiny he does not want. He shares this fate with a woman he is forbidden to love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781984587152

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Copyright © 2020 by Travis Earle.

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.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 07/07/2020

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CONTENTS

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Chapter 1

Chapter 2     Fionna

Chapter 3     Elsa

Chapter 4     Demiurge

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

CHAPTER ONE

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It was a hot summer day in 1865, and Meredith Jackson was screaming at the top of her lungs as the young mother to be pushed with all her might. Tears rolled down her smooth cheeks as her mother, Elanor, told her to push.

Push, Meredith! Push! You’re almost there! Elanor shouted.

William, Meredith’s husband, stood nervously, outside the bedroom door. William had been praying for a boy all nine months of his wife’s pregnancy. Many thoughts were rushing through William’s mind. He fears that his child may not survive birth, and that Meredith may not as well. William tries to shake the negative thoughts from his head.

As William paced, he noticed that he no longer heard his wife screaming. His heart sank to his stomach. Had the worst come to be? Did they not survive? William thought. Just then, William heard the most beautiful sound. He heard the cries of a newborn baby.

Come William! Come meet your son! Elanor exclaimed.

William walked into the bedroom. He saw a most humbling sight. Meredith held in her arms a most incredible gift. William walks to the side of the bed. He looks into the eyes of his tired wife. He bends down and kisses her forehead.

William Jackson. Meet William Jr.

Meredith hands William Jr. to his Father.

William holds his son close and looks into his newly opened, brown eyes. Then, William looks up towards the sky. Lord, I thank you for this blessing. I will cherish my boy for the rest of my life. I promise to teach him the right way to live. Then, the devastating realization hits William like a knife in the chest. The joy of William Jr. being born gives way to the harsh reality of the world Jr. had been born into. William thinks about the hatred that his son will face. He also thought about his promise he had made to God about cherishing his son for the rest of his life. William wondered if he would live to raise his son. He thought about his son and wife being alone, and he said in a whisper to God, Dear God, what have I done? Tears roll down William’s face.

Twenty years pass and the town of Elsa, Tennessee has survived the aftermath of the Civil War. Tension between North and South are still high. And the tensions between black and white are even higher. The town had managed to not have much blood shed over race, but there had been many close calls. Meredith and William Jr., who is called Billy, had gotten along simply fine. William Sr. passed away when Billy was fifteen from a heart attack. Despite William’s worry, he did get to raise Billy,