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    Left of the Rising Sun
    Left of the Rising Sun
    Left of the Rising Sun
    Ebook82 pages1 hour

    Left of the Rising Sun

    By John Holland

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    About this ebook

    Ten-year-old Buck Brown is the sole survivor of a plane crash in the interior of Australia's Northern Territory. Watching the plane sink into the murky water of a remote outback billabong, he remembers the pilot saying they had been flying off-course for hours. Search parties will never find Buck, he decides. There is only one way out, to walk several hundred kilometres home.
    With grim resolve, Buck sets out on a trek that will require resolve, knowledge, and ingenuity, a journey that will test his strength to the limit. He will be a participant in the elemental struggle for life and survival.
    Buck’s gruelling trial will also teach him surprising lessons about friendship and loyalty. If he is successful it will be a trek that leads not only back to his family and home but also to a maturity not always achieved in a full lifetime.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Holland
    Release dateOct 2, 2014
    ISBN9781311167286
    Left of the Rising Sun
    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)

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    • 5/5
      This is a story about endurance against all odds. At its center is ten years old Buck Brown, who is most comfortable in the back of things, as an observer. “This invisibility helped him hear lots of things not meant for young ears.” Oh his flight home, you know that things will go from bad to worst in a hurry as the pilot says, “Been flying blind a bit, used a bit of gas, but I think we know about where we are.” At first we watch the landscape from above, “Far below, a patchwork quilt of dry savannah country unfurled beneath the plane.” During the crush, objects come at us fast and furious: “Tall trees loomed close. An explosion of sound tore through the plane throwing everyone forward. Something hit Buck in the back of the head. Everything went black for a brief instant of tortured time. When he came to, muddy billabong water sprayed over the windshield and windows, partially blocking out the light.”The landscape is a character in this story, and together with the sole survivor, Buck, we experience it in an intimate way, forming a partnership with nature. Figuring out how to make his journey back home, a distance of 400 kilometers, he invents ways of hunting and gathering in this harsh environment. He strikes a friendship with Sammy, an old, blind man. “Nights were a time for talk around the fire. Buck loved the fact that Sammy never talked to him as if he were a child.”Through the conversations with Sammy, we hear Buck’s longing for home, for his mom and dad. “That night they ate the snake. It tasted a bit like the goanna had tasted and that had tasted a bit like greasy chicken. Buck was amazed at how easily this was coming to him now. His mother had always complained he was a ‘picky eater.’”This is not only about his survival, but about how the journey forces him to mature. If he makes it home, will he be able to enjoy school games, will he regain a child’s innocence, or will this harrowing experience change him forever?Five stars.

    Book preview

    Left of the Rising Sun - John Holland

    Left of the Rising Sun

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

    John Holland

    Smashwords Edition

    Published by

    Copyright 2014 John Holland

    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. All rights reserved.

    Table of Contents

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    Other Titles by John Holland

    About the Author

    A Note from the Editor

    Chapter 1

    The mail plane rumbled through the sky. Far below, a patchwork quilt of dry savannah country unfurled beneath the plane. The scenery changed often as they crossed pale yellow grasslands, red gibber plains, and orange-red hills dotted with olive foliage. Every so often Buck could see long twisting green lines that marked the courses of creeks and rivers.

    It was early spring 1993, and Buck Brown was returning home from Wyndham on the northwest coast of Australia where he’d spent a week with his grandparents. Home was Corrigan, a huddle of buildings straddling the north-south highway in the Northern Territory.

    The airplane carried mail and passengers to remote areas in the Northern Territory. The light plane services in that part of the outback carried passengers as well as mail, with the mail in the back and passengers sitting in the seats up front near the pilot. Having everyone collected together at the front of the plane suited Buck just fine. For all of being just ten years old, he was a student of human behaviour, and he could see and hear everything being said in the front of the plane. He tended to keep quiet, not attracting too much attention, too. This invisibility helped him hear lots of things not meant for young ears. Today was no exception.

    Buck’s flying companions included the big pilot, a serious looking man in city clothes, and a tall thin man in a flat hat that Buck had seen in Corrigan. He was a cattle buyer. The last passenger was a young woman who was heading to Corrigan to work for a station family as a governess to their small tribe of unruly children.

    Buck listened to the adults talk and carefully noted their mannerisms. The governess was nervous but resigned to her fate. She couldn’t turn back now. The heavily built pilot was bored and impatient to be back at home base. The cattle buyer was hungry and eager for business. The man in the city clothes looked over his shoulder from time to time like he was running away from something.

    One of the twin engines in the mail plane sputtered and misfired, interrupting Buck’s pastime. The set of the pilot’s shoulders changed. Before the engine noise, the pilot’s shoulders were set square. Now they tensed up higher as his neck thrust forward.

    No worries, the pilot said. Don’t be alarmed, but we lost our electrics some time back. Been flying blind a bit, used a bit of gas, but I think we know about where we are. We got plenty more gas. May have got a drop of water in it, that new gas I topped off with. That could make the engine misfire like you just heard. His tone was reassuring, but his head swivelled on his neck, and he reached down and turned something.

    Again the engine coughed, but this time instead of returning to normal, it shuddered and went silent. The prop slowed from a blur. Buck could see the individual blades now. The plane lurched toward the engine that just died, like a row boat with one oar. The pilot was stomping on the pedal and adjusting something on the control panel. The prop blades turned parallel to the plane and stopped.

    The pilot rapidly spun a wheel sideways on the control panel. He pushed the wheel forward and the plane pitched down.

    Buck’s heart pounded in his head. His mouth was dry as summer dust. Would they have to land? Down below, open range had turned to heavily timbered country. There weren't any clearings down there where a plane could land. Even a clearing would be likely to have lots of big anthills. Running into one of those would be as bad as hitting a tree.

    Folks, the pilot said, we should be okay. We still have the right engine. And this bird’ll get us all the way to Corrigan on one engine, no problem.

    The girl looked ghastly white and terrified. One slim hand clutched at her pale throat as if to choke back cries of fear. The city man was a stone figure with big eyes. Only his lips moved. The cattle buyer sat grim-faced and rigid.

    The other engine started to splutter.

    The pilot swore. He spoke again, his voice less soothing than before, commanding now. Listen up, and remain calm. We’re going to have to make an emergency landing. The good engine is starting to act up. Just to be safe, we’re going to land down there on the billabong. Buckle up tightly. I’ll take the wings off in those trees if I can. So the fuel isn’t a fire hazard. That will be loud but safe. Remain calm. There could be a pretty rough moment or two as we hit the water.

    Buck didn't see why they would land on a waterhole just to be safe. What about taking the wings off? How could that be safe? But what did he know? He was just a kid.

    The plane banked hard. Buck gripped his seat with one hand and his seatbelt with the other. He had his thumb poised on the release clip. He didn’t people-watch now. His eyes were fixed on the pilot’s big shoulders and what he could see through the windscreen. He wasn’t afraid he was going to die. The pilot had sounded convinced they would be all right. But he'd also said it was going to be a rough landing.

    When the plane hit the water, Buck would release the seat belt and jump to the door. He was the closest to the door,

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