Thomas of 1920

By Dennis C Teall Sr.

The book is about an eight year old boy that lost his mother under mysterious circumstances. Being left with a cruel and abusive father he choose to run away from the hopeless situation that he was in.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 21, 2024
• ISBN: 9798385016358

Dennis C Teall Sr.

Dennis is seventy five years young, ever sense he was a teenager there has been various stories floating around in his head. Several years ago he decided that he would start writing them down to share with others.

Book preview

THOMAS

OF

1920

DENNIS C TEALL SR.

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Copyright © 2024 Dennis C Teall Sr.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

844-714-3454

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.

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.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1634-1 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1636-5 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1635-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024900792

WestBow Press rev. date: 2/14/2024

Contents

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I

would like to dedicate this book to my mother, Evelyn R. Teall

who like God has stood beside me and never gave up on me.

Thanks mom. Rest in Peace. I will see you when I get there.

This story is fictional. But the truth of God’s words is

factual. Any names being used in this story, do not reflect

to any individual or individuals, known or unknown.

1

Thomas was born in 1920. His mother was loving, kind, and a God--fearing woman—Just the opposite of his father, who was stern, harsh, and cruel. Thomas’s mother went to church every Sunday and took Thomas with her. Thomas’s father was against religion and voiced his opinion quite often when it came to church and God.

At the age of six, Thomas went forward and gave his heart to God by inviting Jesus to be Lord and Savior of his life. Shortly thereafter, his mother died from mysterious circumstances. His father was questioned, but after sometime Thomas’s mother’s death was forgotten about.

After his mother’s death, Thomas’s aunt Hazel was to take Thomas into her home, but she moved away and left Thomas behind with his dad, who punished him over every little thing.

When he turned seven, one of the girls at school became his best friend. Connie was a real nice girl with curly brown her. They would study together and spend as much time together as was allowed.

When Thomas turned eight, school was out, and the summer months had just begun. A carnival came to town, and both Connie and Thomas wanted to go, but neither of them had any money.

One day, Thomas was supposed to be doing the dishes, which he was working at when Connie came by with two tickets to the carnival that her father had given her. Thomas asked his dad if he could go. His dad said, that does sound like fun and with a smile that Thomas knew, meant that his dad was up to no good. He told Thomas to get the dishes washed, while he and Connie went to the carnival.

Thomas watched as Connie and his dad walked out the door. He watched out the window as they both walked down the street with Connie holding his dad’s hand while skipping and laughing as they went.

With tears streaming down Thomas’s face, he took a bag and filled it with some clothes, along with a can of beans and two ham sandwiches. He then went into his dad’s bedroom and took some money from the dresser drawer. He walked out the back door and went down to the railroad tracks, where he found a box-car with an open door. He crawled inside just as the train was getting ready to leave.

Several hours later, the train started to slow down. Thomas remembered a hobo telling him once, that when the train slowed down enough, it was time to jump off before it came into the railyard where you could be found and turned over to the police. After the train had slowed down enough Thomas threw his bag off and jumped down. He walked around and past the train yard until he was on the opposite side of town. There he found another box-car with the door open and crawled inside. He scooted back into the far corner so that it would be harder to see him. The first train was headed west; this train was going south.

***

Back at home when Ralph, Thomas dad returned from the carnival, he noticed that Thomas wasn’t there, and the dishes were still not done. He figured he would deal with Thomas later. Because he and Connie were alone, he took advantage of her (this was not the first time he had taken advantage of her) and once again, he told her not to tell anyone, he warned her what would happen if she did. It would be their little secret and no one else needed to know. This was not the last time Ralph took advantage of Connie. Connie left the house and went home. Always too afraid to say anything. She kept quiet.

The next morning when Thomas was still not around, Ralph realized that Thomas had taken his clothes and some of the money and run away. The whole town came out looking for Thomas, searching high and low, but he could not be found anywhere. People were questioned, but no one remembered seeing Thomas.

2

As the train rumbled down the track Thomas had no idea where he was going to end up. He had eaten one