Land Run. Mark Graham
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LAND RUN
Mark Graham
Copyright © Mark Graham 2013
EPUB Edition
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, descriptions, entities, and incidents included in the story are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, events, and entities is entirely coincidental.
Published by Bumblebee House Ink Publishing
2933 NC HWY 39 N | Louisburg, North Carolina, 27549 USA | 1.919.453.0941
Book design copyright © 2013 by Bumblebee House Ink Publishing. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Mark Graham
Published in the United States of America
ISBN: 978-0-9893248-0-9
1. Fiction, General, Suspense, Literary
2. Fiction, Multi-Cultural
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Description
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Mark Graham
Description
Developer Rusty Watson is determined to acquire, by any means necessary, a plot of land owned by an elderly man in the Willow Springs, Oklahoma, community. Driven by greed and personal torment, Rusty is hell-bent on retaliation against the one he believes took his son. But his adversary has different ideas.
Elijah Montgomery is the grandson of a former slave to the Creek Indian Nation. He resides in the local nursing home, though he still owns the house and land his grandfather was once slave to. Rusty and his cohorts believe Elijah’s tie to the land is simply sentimental. They hope he can, therefore, be bought with a price, but Elijah’s dreams show him something that no one else knows.
The story of this modern day Land Run twists and turns through events of fate, and everyone, including Elijah, will find that these events, like the extreme weather of their region, are driven by forces beyond their control. No one in Willow Springs will be left untouched by this battle. The unexpected conclusion to this contest of wills shows to all that this battle is not theirs to fight.
Dedication
For my wife, Christa, and her capacity to love and believe in me and this work. And for my children Caitlin, Kristina, Abigail, Matthew, and Ethan—that they may know to never drop their dreams along their way.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Carla Taylor, Scott McAllister, Pastor Steve Cobb, and Charles Curtis, for their constant encouragement.
Thank you to all my family and friends for their encouragement along this journey.
Chapter One
The remaining light of the sun spread across the lake and seemed to mourn with Rusty Watson. He could only see in this evening event the impending darkness that would soon envelop him. The hazy red and orange reflection of the lake was probably a pretty sight to someone, seen as something like the hope of a new day only a fool could find. Cold darkness came packaged in every pointless day. He took another beer from the bag next to his lawn chair. Rusty imagined this day’s dying as a changing of the guard and, in a way, just a nasty little play God put on every day, something done just to say, “I’m in charge in case you forget.” He sat down before the lake alone.
Contentment never suited Rusty much. He was moving all the time and excited at everything he found to do. And he remembered having a reason for everything he did, even trusted that there was always something bigger going on around him with even greater reason. What crap, he thought. He opened his beer.
The horizon was the same from every angle in central Oklahoma. A flat, straight line always lay before him, a seemingly benign constant where in a sudden moment, the weather could upset with deadly force, terrorize with lightning shows unmatched anywhere on the planet, hail like golf balls, heat so sizzling a body forgets it has mass, freak ice storms that would immobilize whole cities and then dry the very next day—a country that once produced such a man as him and his ways, steady but never boring or predictable.
The dark was now in full both outside and inside Rusty. He finished his Corona and pulled a blanket from the bag. He closed his eyes and saw his wife for a moment and then the boy. Rusty finally moved into the familiar state somewhere between falling asleep and passing out.
Within four hours, he woke before the opening act of the new day. Rusty stumbled to the nearby woods to relieve himself before breaking his makeshift campsite. He dreaded that he would have to stop at his empty house before going to the trailer at the stagnant construction site. The traffic was busier than he expected coming back from the lake. Then he remembered it had been a weekend. Time had recently become a problem for him. Rusty sluggishly sorted and prioritized the day’s tasks when his cell phone rang. Since he was jammed in traffic, he decided to answer it. He knew better but СКАЧАТЬ