Silent Angel and Other Stories

By John Snider

"Silent Angel"- A unlikely bond between two people leads to revelations. A mystery is solved, but not without some quick thinking and heavy equipment.

"They Didn't Fall Far from the Tree"- A story of how friendships change throughout the years. It also points out how people seem to be destined to how they turned out.

"The Spider Witch"- A Halloween story to keep good boys from being bad.

"The Philanthropist"- A look at what someone would do if they had enough money. Who would they help? How would they help?

"Slip"- A story of cruelty, rescue, and revenge.

"The Sexton"- A look at how good and evil might co-exist. It also touches on what happens when good and evil collide.

"Roof Thumpers"- A story of how a an unusual childhood game could bring about glory, regret, and friendship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667833927

Book preview

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©2020 John Snider. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Print ISBN: 978-1-66783-391-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66783-392-7

Contents

Silent Angel

They Didn’t Fall Far From the Tree

The Spider Witch

The Philanthropist

Slip

The Sexton

Roof Thumpers

Silent Angel

Bill and Becky Crandall had been driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. They left Dayton, Ohio at 8:00 a.m. that morning. Now it was close to 4:30 p.m. and time to leave the parkway. They exited onto Route 58 toward Stuart, Virginia. Just a few miles past the small town of Vesta, Virginia, Becky saw a sign that said Lover’s Leap overlook one mile on the left.

She told Bill that since they were lovers, they shouldn’t overlook the overlook. Bill saw the gravel parking lot and turned in. As they walked to the low stone wall, they noticed the graffiti on top of the stones. There was forty feet of Betty loves Jack, Linda & George and a Veronica who seemed to be loved by many.

Finally, they saw the view of the valley. With the Blue Ridge mountains to their left and the green of the valley floor below stretching as far as the eye could see, the image seemed to rush back at them until it smacked their senses.

Becky thought the valley looked like a painting with an all-green background. The images in this painting were the irregular frames formed by farm, fields, ponds, and homes. Tree lines creeks and rivers traversed the valley causing one to wonder which way the waters flowered and if they held fish.

Bill wondered if all the homesites were farms, where did the people work who weren’t farmers, and how big were the fish in those rivers?

Suddenly, from the other side of the wall, a hand slapped the top of the Betty loves Jack stone. A second hand slapped the stone and a tall, black haired young man hoisted himself over the wall.

Bill and Becky were taken aback as they watched the man swing his legs to the gravel and start walking past them. He told them he was sorry for startling them and walked on down the road.

Bill walked to the wall and looked over it. He told Becky that it must be fifteen feet down to a small grass ledge. Below the ledge must be 2885 ft. because the copper plaque on the stone next to Bill read Elevation 2900 feet.

The young man returned and sat on the west end of the wall. Bill and Becky approached him, introduced themselves, and asked him where he came from. The young man grined and told them his name is J.J. and he came from the bottom of the mountain. He pointed out a white house with two red barns. Bill asked J.J. how did he get to the top of the wall. J.J. just smiled and told them that this wasn’t the first time he’d made this trip. He told them that over the years, he had dug hand and foot holds into the face of the overlook. They asked J.J. how far it was from his house to the overlook. He told them that it was about one and one-half miles. Becky told J.J. that must have been a tough hike.

J.J. grinned again and said I didn’t hike. I ran.

Without saying good bye, Bill and Becky started walking to their car, muttering to each other about the so-called humor of these backwoods people and off toward Stuart they drove.

J.J. just shook his head. He thought that if he had told those people the number of times that he’d run this mountain, cooled off and sat on this same part of this wall, they would have thought he was delirious, crazy, or both.

J.J. was thirty-seven years old last month. He first tried running the mountain when he was twelve. He completed the run (beat the mountain) just before his thirteenth birthday. So, over the last twenty-four years, he had run the mountain seventy-three times. That was three times a year. The year his mom and dad died in an automobile accident, he ran the mountain one extra time.

The mountain was an opponent J.J. tried to beat. Then it also became a helpful trainer. And, on occasion, it provided therapy when life gets unbalanced.

Life gets unbalanced. Now there’s a good word. Unbalanced. When your dreams of running in the Olympics are shattered like the car your parents were driving. When you have to quit college and come home to take care of the farm. That’s unbalanced.

But, the mountain had straightened him out. The mountain and Miss Addy.

Miss Addy is Adaline Joyner. She lives less than a quarter of a mile to the left of where he was now sitting. Her house was perched another one hundred feet higher and perched might not be the best way to describe it.

This log house was so big it could be considered a lodge. It had high ceilings, two stone fireplaces, and two front picture windows that were each the size of a garage door. The log walls were over two feet thick.

Miss Addy’s grandfather had built the lodge in the early 1900’s. Miss Addy grew up there just as her father had. After she finished college, she traveled the world. After several years, she moved into the second floor rooms. Now, she was the only one left.

J.J. laughed to himself and remembered the first time he had met Miss Addy. He had been making an attempt on running the mountain. It was a hot July day just one week before his thirteenth birthday. His dad told him that if he could run from the house up the mountain to the overlook, then he could beat anything.

Well, he had paced himself for what was to come. As he found the grown over deer trail at the base of the mountain, his legs were already burning and he was gasping for air. He kept going. He followed that trail as it switched back and forth up the mountains. Briars scratched his legs. Tree branches slapped his face. He kept going. On and on. What were minutes seemed like hours. His vision became blurred. Then everything was spinning. Then ….!

As he came to, he could hear a voice ask Are you okay, boy? Through his confused eyes he asked, Are you a black lady? She laughed and said Yes, I’m a black lady and you’re a white boy. Now, let’s get you cleaned up and bandaged.

As she led him to the house, he noticed that they were higher than the overlook. I beat you mountain! he shouted.

Are you still dazed boy?

No. Dad said if I could run the mountain, I could beat anything.

Well, maybe you didn’t beat the mountain. Maybe it gave you something. Maybe it gave you confidence. Maybe it gave you training. Maybe ‘gave’ isn’t the right word. This old mountain made you earn it. And earning it is a gift in itself. Oh, by the way, my name is Adeline Joyner. What’s your name?

I’m J.J. Martin.

What’s the J.J. stand for?

My full name is Jedidiah Justice Martin. I’ve always been called J.J.

Well, I’ll call you J.J. and you can call me Miss Addy.

And, that’s how they met. He remembered how she had taught him a lesson about competing before they even knew each other’s names. He also remembered the way her face seemed to change when he told her his full name.

She quickly went in the house and brought him water and bandages. As she took care of his cuts and scrapes, she asked him about himself and his family. She now knew a lot more about him than he knew about her.

He thanked her and started walking down the mountain toward home.

She asked Do you want me to drive you home?

No. Downhill is an easy walk, he said.

I thought you’d say that, she laughed. Stop in anytime.

Seventy-three times, including today, he stopped in. They talked to each other. They listened to each other. Miss Addy would always find a way to interject why integrity needs to be the foundation for all human interaction. A person who does the right thing even when no one is watching is a fine example of the highest integrity.

One day they were talking about the upcoming elections. Miss Addy asked, J.J., do you know why Congress never seems to get anything done?

At that time, a sixteen-year-old J.J. answered, Because the Republicans and Democrats can’t work together.

Miss Addy sighed and said You know some of those legislators have been not getting along for over twenty-five years.

She goes into another room and comes back with a small three-legged table and puts a beautiful vase on top of the table. J.J. knows about the three parts of the U.S. government and he’s about to tell her when Miss Addy starts tapping one of the three legs with a ruler.

J.J., this is the integrity leg.

Then she taps the other two back and forth between the two. These two legs are the Democratic and Republican Congressmen and Congresswomen. If these legislators are looking out for our country (vase) with an attitude of honesty and good moral standards in an atmosphere of unity, then the integrity leg will be strong and stable. Sometimes the integrity leg gets weakened.

She starts tapping the integrity leg with the ruler.

Let’s say a special interest group lobbies for their interests that have a negative effect on our country and a legislator buys in or is bought in.

She taps faster.

Here comes a bill that should not be passed for health or safety reasons, but he or she is pressured by other legislators and he or she concedes.

She taps even faster. The vase is now vibrating toward the edge of the table.

There are those legislators who have never had any integrity and should never have been elected.

Suddenly, Miss Addy whacks the table. The vase flies off and J.J. makes a diving catch.

Miss Addy is almost bent double laughing so hard.

She says, I wish our country wasn’t always being saved by a diving catch.

J.J. still uses Miss Addy’s lesson when he teaches his government class at Patrick County Community College. Though, he doesn’t use any expensive vases.

Miss Addy could sound and act like the most down-home southern lady. Then, in the blink of any eye, you would swear you were talking to a doctoral student (she was) who had traveled the world (she had). She was an amazing lady and probably J.J.’s best friend.

As J.J. sat on the wall, he checked his watch. It was close to time that Miss Addy wanted to see him. He took one more look out over the valley. He was reminded of sitting on the wall after a run and having the pleasant aroma of his mother’s baking traveling up from the valley floor, heated by the afternoon sun. J.J. missed that smell.

J.J. knocked on Miss Addy’s door. He heard the familiar shuffle of her feet. She opened the door and stood there with her cane, a glass, and a big smile.

Get in here, J.J. I’m glad you could make it, she said.

J.J. smiled and said, I see this must be a turkey tumbler day.

Miss Addy would sometimes pour herself a big glass full of Wild Turkey bourbon and then sip a little bit throughout the day. It usually took her three or four days to finish the glass.

You know I only drink this for my arthritis and to keep the chill off, she said.

Miss Addy, it must be close to ninety degrees outside, J.J. said.

Well, it’s working then, she laughed. Come in and sit down.

Miss Addy poured J.J. a bourbon. When J.J. turned twenty-one, she would pour him one finger of bourbon every time he visited her. Today, he noticed that she gave him three fingers in a glass that he hadn’t seen before. He thought that this must be a special occasion. Miss Addy sat down in her old wicker platform rocker and began.

"J.J., I know that over the years I might have influenced you. I told you that a college major