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    A Story for Eloise
    A Story for Eloise
    A Story for Eloise
    Ebook71 pages1 hour

    A Story for Eloise

    By Robert James Allison

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    About this ebook

    Jake Sadler has a secret and along with that secret an unfulfilled dream. He has lived his entire life in the foothills of the Appalachians, working his farm from daylight to dark, and with the help of his wife, raising two children, but those children don’t and can’t know his secret.
    When a penniless and strange wandering man enters Jake's life his world is turned upside down and he soon discovers that his secret isn’t safe anymore. Jake is sure the man is not what he appears to be, but he isn’t sure what he is. Could the man be a blessing in disguise—the answer to Jake’s unspoken prayers?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRobert James Allison
    Release dateMar 30, 2013
    ISBN9781301556304
    A Story for Eloise
    Author

    Robert James Allison

    I was born and raised in Decatur, Illinois, but moved to the Moweaqua area around 1991. I like small towns and rural settings, as does my wife of thirty-five years, Barbara. We have two grown children, John and Anna to whom I dedicated my first book, The First Suitor. I started writing about fifteen years ago as a diversion from my regular job as an attorney. At that time I had been practicing law in Central Illinois for about fifteen years and was looking for another avenue to exercise my writing and organizational skills. Now after thirty years of practicing law I would like to write full time, but yet I find myself full time in the law and part time in writing. I enjoy telling stories and some would say that all lawyers are born fiction writers, because fiction is all they write in the first place. I have to admit that there is some truth to that.I have had five books published with Wings ePress, Inc., and more manuscripts in the works. I recently started the process of removing all of my books from Wings and putting them on Amazon in Kindle format and other digital sites. In the future I plan to publish all of my books in ebook format on various sites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Some new books will be going up soon, too.Recently I have retired from the private practice of law and have relocated to Louisville, Kentucky.I try to draw on my experiences in the practice of law and my life experiences in general to give realism to my stories and characters. In the 1970s I served in the U.S. Army as a Military Policeman and in the late '80s, I was a Captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps, Army National Guard. I have been to Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, and many of the United States. I like to work the settings of the places I've been and things I've done into my stories. I write romance into almost every book, but it isn't always the main theme and it is never explicit or vulgar.I am foremost and always an entertainer and that is why I write fiction, but I try to make it real and believable as well as entertaining.

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      Book preview

      A Story for Eloise - Robert James Allison

      A Story for Eloise

      by

      Robert James Allison

      Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. 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 publisher.

      First Suitor Enterprises

      www.RobertJamesAllison.com

      Copyright © 2012 by Robert James Allison

      Published by First Suitor Enterprises at Smashwords.com

      March 2013

      All rights reserved

      Jake Sadler sat on his front porch looking out over the dark valley to the far hills. The stars were brilliantly beaming down at him this cool, dry September night. He was tired, bone tired. All day he had worked in his fields getting ready to harvest his corn. From just before sunup to well after sundown Jake worked his small farm in West Virginia.

      The farm was nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and there wasn't a flat spot containing more than two acres at any one place. The 80 acres of corn that he harvested every year just barely kept him and his family alive. There was little cash at the end of the year to buy much of anything. Mostly the cash went to buy school things for his two kids and maybe some material for his wife to sew clothes.

      He was 35 years old this year and he felt 80 most of the time. Other than his old beat up truck, there were no machines on his farm. He farmed as his father had and his father before him. One mule and a single-bottom plow did all the work around his farm. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t have liked some machinery, but where was the money to come from. The kids needed schooling more than he needed farm machinery. He placed high emphasis on schooling. Any kid of his caught shirking his schooling was in for a trip to the woodshed. On that point, the old man was unyielding and the kids knew it well.

      The front porch was his favorite spot, second only to the living room where his son and daughter did their homework. He loved to watch them at their books and encouraged them to work extra hard. He was a poor man, from a poor family, living in a poor area, and he knew the value of an education.

      Now though, the kids were in bed and his wife was sewing in her chair by the light of a coal oil lamp on the kitchen table. There was no electricity out here in these foothills unless you were a lot richer than he was. It would have cost a fortune to run the electric transmission line up the long hill to his four-room cabin. There was running water only because he had rigged pipes to bring in water from a spring farther up the hill. The cabin was heated by wood which he spent most of the fall and winter chopping.

      His was a hard life, but a good one. No one bothered them way up here and they had pretty much what they needed. The land around his farm was heavily wooded and was seldom entered by anyone other than him, when hunting. He didn't buy a hunting license. First of all, he didn't have the money for one and second, there was no one to see him hunting. About the only strangers they got around here were the revenuers looking for the stills that many area residents had hid up in these hills making moonshine. Not him though, he had seen what that white lightning could do to someone and he wanted no part of it. So the revenuers didn't bother him and they weren't interested in his illegal hunting.

      Besides, he hunted to feed his family, not for sport. As inadequately educated as he was, he perceived a big difference in breaking the law to support your family and breaking the law for fun. He didn't do anything for fun. He worked to live.

      He decided he had better get up and head inside because daylight wouldn’t wait and he needed some rest. When he opened the old wooden screen door and stepped inside the cabin he was surprised to see his daughter still at the kitchen table. Eloise was his sweetheart. She was 9 years old, skinny, full of vim and vigor, and had the prettiest long blonde hair.

      As he closed the screen door he said, I thought both you young'ens was in bed. How come you’re still up, El?

      I had a lot of homework tonight, Pa and now I want a story read to me, Eloise answered pertly.

      A story read to you! What do we send you to school for? You’re old enough to read stories to yourself.

      It ain't the same, Pa. I like to have stories read to me sometimes, she answered with a pout on her face and continued, read me a story, Pa, Please!

      No honey, not tonight, I'm tired. Got to get up early in the morning. Maybe your Ma will read to you. I got to get to bed.

      Aw, Pa. Please. You never read me a story. You always got to get to bed or get up early or you’re too busy, she said with the pout on her face getting deeper.

      Well, I do have to get up early. I got to tend the crops or we won't have money to buy you no school stuff or cloth for clothes. Talk to your mother, he said gruffly and walked on through to his bedroom.

      Janice Sadler looked up from her sewing and said softly to Eloise still pouting at the table, "Eloise, you know better than to bug your Pa about reading and helping with homework. He has things to do and he has a lot on his mind just feeding us and keeping us

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