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    The Sanctuary: And More Stories
    The Sanctuary: And More Stories
    The Sanctuary: And More Stories
    Ebook91 pages1 hour

    The Sanctuary: And More Stories

    By J. Wesley Brown

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    About this ebook

    The Sanctuary and Other Stories is a collection of four short works of varying content and subject matter. All are fictional and cater to readers of all ages.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateJun 18, 2013
    ISBN9781483501802
    The Sanctuary: And More Stories

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      Book preview

      The Sanctuary - J. Wesley Brown

      RIVER

      I. The Sanctuary

      In the sandy clay hills of north Florida on a double rutted dirt road sits an old, but well constructed farmhouse on a five acre tract of land, separated by the dirt road from what had once been a large working farm. On one side of the old home place is a large private timber tract that had been harvested years earlier. On the other side of the home is a pristine national forest. The two sections of timberland wrap around the home and end at the Caloosa River. The homesite juts into these forests like a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by a sea of trees.

      The old house is now home to a young boy named William and his parents. William was a two year old toddler when he and his parents moved to what was left of his maternal grandparent’s farm. His grandfather, with help from a realtor, had sold off in parcels the farmland across the road as well as the timbered tract to help pay for his grandmother’s cancer treatments. His grandmother passed away and only the heavily mortgaged home place was left. William and his parents moved from the city to care for his grandfather, who died the following year with an insufficient life policy. William’s father complains frequently about being stuck with a ‘deathly’ mortgage.

      Ten years later the land deal is still a source of contention between his parents. His father, the son-in-law, felt the property across the road should have been developed as a partnership with a reputable firm. With suitable roads and better organization the profits would have been greater.

      William’s mother, who works as a part-time secretary for the same realty company that sold-off the farmland (which doesn’t help to placate his father), is glad to be home again and simply tolerates her husband’s rants. She knows the town is growing and this is the only parcel suitable for commercial development between the home place and town. She also knows her son is going to college and even with scholarships it will be expensive.

      William’s father, an over the road truck driver, is home rarely. And when he is home, he piddles around fixing things that William doesn’t know how to fix. William watches to learn, but his father takes little time to teach. He mainly harps, Do good in school and get a good job. Don’t get stuck driving a truck.

      Sometimes after supper his father tells William and his mother about different sights he has seen and places he has been. He always finish with, Too bad there is no extra money to allow for a vacation. Then the arguing starts. William at one time thought his daddy was stuck driving a truck, but he began to suspect that his father secretly enjoyed being a truck driver. His father always seems eager to get back on the road; trucking gives his father another life.

      And William has another life. William lives for the outdoors. Anything to do with natural science fascinates him. He checks out books from school as well as the county library, all on natural science. There is never too much information. He worships Natural History Magazine, a Christmas gift subscription from his mother. He reads the new issue in a few days and then waits forever for the next one. He knows exactly what he wants to do with his life; he wants to go to the university and study biology. He wants to know more.

      William gives his mother joy in his enthusiasm for nature. After homework she and William enjoy the nature channel together until William’s bedtime.

      She smiles remembering the times she would have to fuss at William about finishing the mowing of the yard. She would find him stooped over an anthill watching the ants recuperating and rebuilding after being run-over with the mower. He could watch a red Cow Killer Ant transverse the yard for hours. He explained to her, The name ‘Cow Killer Ant’ is a misnomer it’s not even in the ant family. It’s a ground wasp. Ants don’t have stingers, they have mandibles.

      She would laugh and say. It’ll still hurt you. Be careful.

      Behind the house is a giant natural laboratory that William loves to explore every available chance. The combined forests contain several different Eco-systems from wetlands to un-timbered savannas. The flora and fauna are very diverse and well balanced. William enjoys observing the many different systems and how one system depends and flows into another. He keeps a notebook scrawled with writings and drawings. Where other boys have shelves filled with sports pictures of themselves and clippings of their heroes, William has labeled jars of specimens usually written in Latin. He wants a camera for Christmas; one he can mount on his microscope.

      William has spent many hours in the forests studying the different species and how they live. He knows their habitats so thoroughly that if he wants to observe a specific species he can go right where that species will be at certain times of the day as well as certain times of the year. He has learned how the change of behavior of one group affects other groups and how inter-related they are. He observes how weather and seasons and daily temperatures have an impact on animal behavior.

      He knows where the un-timbered government land butts the private land. The national forest, being a climax forest, is easier to walk through, while the timbered forest is thicker with underbrush. To aid in egress and ingress, William blazed several trails through both forests. This allows easier traveling and ease in observing. In the beginning William was reluctant to carve any trails, but he soon realized he was not the only animal using the trails. Several species began using them and using them often for the same reason, to get quickly from one area to another and to circumnavigate the huge swamp that lies a couple of miles deep in the woods. Insects began using the trails as flyways and spiders began to spin giant webs to trap them. Birds of all kinds are seen flittering in the trails. It quickly dawned on William he had created an elongated mini Eco-system. He was amazed and proud. Sometimes on the trails he found remains of kills probably from the sly coyote. He had heard grown-ups say that a coyote will eat your chickens and steal your baby. William knew this was only half-true because coyotes avoided humans, but he knew they were in the forests, lurking and watching.

      William loved being in the combined forests and often stayed as late as possible. But he knew that darkness came quicker under the canopy of trees and he didn’t like worrying his mother. He hated for her to become worried and have to ring the old farm bell to call him home as she did on rare occasions.

      William’s grandfather had owned several shotguns and a 22-caliber rifle. William, now twelve, was allowed by his mother to practice with the guns, but she stressed the danger and the respect that

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