TFAV...1630...

Five years in the making... a teaser from my book. Enjoy...

Chapter 1

Jonathan stood in the midst of the village; a dead male Indian with a large gaping hole in his abdomen lay at his feet. Blood covered the ground. Jonathan looked at the dead man’s bowels still firmly grasped in his hand. He threw the intestines to the ground and licked the remaining blood from his fingers. With outstretched hands raised to the heavens, he screams in a voice that shook the earth, “Why God, why did this have to happen?” Jonathan looked to the sky for answers but found them not. He observed the entire landscape of the village. If not for a few dead Indian’s laying about the encampment, all seemed calm. Yes, it was calm indeed, tranquil in this vindictive massacre.

Jonathan sank to his knees and fell prostrate to the earth. Sorrow griped his soul. Sorrow for the tremendous lost he felt. How could this have happened? Why did it happen? How can I go on without her? These provocative questions gripped his soul. Jonathan began to think back, back to a time when the warmth of the suns rays beat upon his shoulders. A time before darkness ruled his world, a time before he came to this god-forsaken wilderness. Jonathan could still see the face of his mother as she looked down upon him as he lay there crying from the pain. “Jonathan, you mustn’t move if I am to help you.”
Sobbing he said, “I cannot help it mother, my leg hurts so badly.” Jonathan’s mother looked down at her son’s twisted leg with a feeling of sadness and regret. She felt sadness for his pain and regret that he must always learn things the hard way. “Jonathan, I told you not to go near that horse.”
“I know mother, I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you” Jonathan said through the tears streaming down his check.

At the age of ten, Jonathan crept up behind a neighbor’s horse and mischievously pulled at his tail. To Jonathan’s amazement, the horse reared up and kicked Jonathan in the left leg shattering several bones, leaving him screaming in pain and crying for his mother. The bones in his leg healed but he would never walk without a limp again. That seemed so long ago to Jonathan as he lay in the middle of the Indian village. Jonathan rolled over on his back and looked up into the stars, “Mother, am I destined to live with the pain of my mistakes forever?” Jonathan rose to his feet and began the long walk to his home.

Why did I come to this new world? What possible good has come from my being here… none, I tell you! Nothing but death and heartache has followed me across the Atlantic. Jonathan was in a moment of despair with nothing but the knowledge that loneliness was going to be his companion for all eternity. Eternity? How do I know the same will not happen to me… walking carefree and in a moment, gone? Jonathan felt such a horrible loss. The pain was intense. His heart felt empty and cold… it was a different kind of pain. Jonathan continued to think about the events that brought him to this new land.