Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Bitter Bread
    Bitter Bread
    Bitter Bread
    Ebook71 pages1 hour

    Bitter Bread

    By John Holland

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A disfigured and abused boy, Dexter Knight grows to manhood with only his own mind as a constructive guide for how to live and how to be a man. When he loses his childhood love to cancer, he pulls up stakes and moves to the west Queensland town of Brighton. Dexter makes a place for himself there, but remains a lonely outsider on the fringes of society until a bitter and dangerous industrial dispute draws battle lines through the community.

    Strong-willed and independent Maree Waldon is one of the few townspeople who always took the time to talk to Dexter. Her boyfriend flees, but Maree sticks with family and friends.

    Escalating stakes prove the true mettle of all. Where will "the man without a face" and the young woman with a big heart stand at the end of this bitter war?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Holland
    Release dateAug 23, 2014
    ISBN9781311896407
    Bitter Bread
    Author

    John Holland

    The author received a calling and anointing from the Lord to undertake a ministry of spiritual teaching. Following this call was a directive to engage in a Jonah type ministry of revealing to the Church her apostasies with a warning of oncoming judgement. A further anointing was received to discern the meaning of symbols and unveil the meaning of prophecies. This particular book started out to be a study, but was extended further by the Holy Spirit until it reached its current length. To see more of the author's work, see the Covenant Truth Christian website at(http://www.covenanttruth.com.au)

    Read more from John Holland

    Related to Bitter Bread

    Titles in the series (4)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      I'm in Prison During the Shutdown. I Didn't Get "Holiday Steak."

      Jan 18, 2019

      We wait by the door for our turn at chow. It's Christmas dinner—really, early lunch since it's only 10:30 in the morning. Here, holiday meals are something to look forward to. They're never great, but the guys in the kitchen try hard. Life

      5 min read

    • Article

      Sophie L Morgan

      Feb 6, 2023

      Sophie L Morgan
      8 min read

    • Article

      James O’Brien

      May 10, 2021

      James O’Brien
      5 min read

    • Article

      Final Determination

      May 10, 2023

      Living people get a lot wrong about the After Life. It isn’t binary Heaven or Hell but a spectrum where most people end up somewhere better than their Earthly life. There’s also a state of Abeyance where you stay if you have unfinished business. For

      12 min read

    • Article

      Strength Training

      Mar 25, 2023

      Strength Training
      7 min read

    • Article

      Joe Wicks

      May 23, 2022

      Joe Wicks
      5 min read

    • Article

      Here’s What I Don’t Say

      Jun 1, 2019

      Here’s What I Don’t Say
      13 min read

    • Article

      Dear Mariella

      Mar 24, 2020

      Dear Mariella
      5 min read

    • Article

      Clifford Owler

      Jul 14, 2019

      Clifford Owler
      4 min read

    • Article

      Family Ties

      May 2, 2021

      Family Ties
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Life On Pause

      May 6, 2021

      A Life On Pause
      4 min read

    • Article

      60 Seconds That Changed My Life

      Feb 5, 2023

      DATE: December 2D, 1999, 8:15pm EVENT: Writer and broadcaster BENJAMIN LAW comes out to his mum about his sexuality. I GREW UP on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, the last mainland state in Australia to decriminalise homosexuality. That meant for a

      3 min read

    • Article

      60 Seconds That Changed My Life

      Feb 5, 2023

      DATE: December 2D, 1999, 8:15pm EVENT: Writer and broadcaster BENJAMIN LAW comes out to his mum about his sexuality. I GREW UP on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, the last mainland state in Australia to decriminalise homosexuality. That meant for a

      3 min read

    • Article

      “We’re His Family”

      Oct 27, 2020

      “We’re His Family”
      6 min read

    • Article

      Anita Rani

      Jul 25, 2022

      Anita Rani
      5 min read

    • Article

      My Battle With Booze

      Oct 15, 2021

      My Battle With Booze
      4 min read

    • Article

      Cool Dads: Tough Times Edition

      Jul 3, 2022

      Cool Dads: Tough Times Edition
      7 min read

    • Article

      Escaping a Cult

      Nov 4, 2021

      Escaping a Cult
      5 min read

    • Article

      Raised in A CULT

      Aug 12, 2021

      Raised in A CULT
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Abortions I Have Known

      Mar 17, 2019

      The Abortions I Have Known
      10 min read

    • Article

      NADIYA Queen Of Cooks

      Sep 23, 2021

      NADIYA Queen Of Cooks
      4 min read

    • Article

      Winning Letter

      Sep 22, 2023

      THOSE of you who read YOU regularly will by now know I’m not a natural when it comes to exercise. My husband has managed to get a great routine going and is at it at least four days a week. Although I’m always impressed with his efforts I can’t seem

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Bitter Bread

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Bitter Bread - John Holland

      Bitter Bread

      Book three in the Heartland series of novellas focusing on Australian outback themes.

      John Holland

      Published by:

      Copyright 2014 John Holland

      Smashwords Edition

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Other Titles by John Holland

      About the Author

      A Note from the Editor

      Chapter 1

      Life in the hot one-man bakery in the western Queensland town of Brighton was even more pointless than most lives are. I worked long tired hours for little reward. The only real pleasure I felt was from the sense of satisfaction I got from the aroma and taste of fresh cooked bread. There’s a good yeasty smell to fresh baked bread that appeals to the elemental side of our senses. Something that has a good smell and taste has a comforting effect on most of us. On that level I was happy and satisfied.

      My name is Dexter Knight, and if I was lucky I made enough to equal the basic wage. If I wasn’t lucky I made less.

      I figured it was pretty much the same for most people in Brighton. Life was all about trial and endurance. Most of the time I saw little point in the exercise. If it was all about the survival of the species, as some folks said, then why bother? For what purpose should we fight for its continuation? This species has done nothing more than crap in its own nest ever since it first stood upright.

      Okay. Maybe my views are a bit cynical, but I reckon I’d earned my cynicism honestly. Sometimes we need a good jolt, though. Sometimes bad things have to happen around us to help us open our eyes to the presence of good and decent people.

      Things were bad in Brighton and seemed set to get worse. There was strife brewing out at the meatworks on the edge of town. Looked like there was going to be a strike.

      The foreign owners of the meatworks were hell bent on screwing the workers out of hard-won wages and conditions. This could mean a long fight. A nasty one too, if the owners brought in scab labour. My empathy was always with the workers, but no wages meant less money for the workers to spend, which equalled less bread sold. I was already teetering on the edge.

      I’d been in Brighton seven years. I was still an outsider, and I had no friends. I was just the weird silent bloke who ran the bakery. I didn’t visit the temples of hope and illusion the others frequented. I didn’t visit the churches, the pubs, or the sports ground on Sundays, where they watched two teams of young men try to belt the living daylights out of each other. I didn’t even frequent the open-air movie theatre.

      People don’t like people who don’t fit into the right grooves on the big machine. They are suspicious of those who don’t talk much and keep to themselves. I know I was considered a bit crazy or at least considered different. Most times it didn’t bother me too much even when I heard the whispers. The fact I have scarring and muscle damage to most of the left side of my face didn’t help much either. I looked dog ugly as well as different.

      I figure the bread doesn’t care if you are ugly or handsome. It will rise for whoever treats it right. Pop Brandino had taught me how to treat it right.

      ###

      I was eight when my dad, dead drunk and tired, veered off the highway, and hit a tree with the family car. The accident killed him, and it tore away much of the left side of my face. The doctors did everything they could, but I was left with a disfigured face. They said cosmetic surgery could get me looking pretty normal, but who had the money for that?

      After the accident, even in school, it was the same. I got teased constantly, and when I stood up to the bullies, I got bashed. Life at home was even worse. My mother hid me away most of the time. If any of her church friends visited, I was to go straight to my room and stay there until they had gone. If I didn’t, she would whip me with a thin plastic belt. She was careful to do it on my buttocks or back only, though, where my school uniform would hide the welts and bruises.

      Life was hard for her too. I knew she suffered. She was a churchgoer and believed in what she read in her big black book with the gold lettering on the front. She made me read it too. But I couldn’t figure out how she could claim to be a Christian and still treat me like she did. I seemed to get a totally different message from the book than she did.

      I think religion is fine for those who see a message of love and tolerance in it.

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1