Little Boy Lost

BOOK ONE HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO OUR PUBLISHER AFTER MANY HOURS OF WORKING ON OUR TRILOGY

LONG ROAD HOME SERIES BOOK ONE - LITTLE BOY LOST

PROLOGUE

Martha pushed back her bonnet and wiped the perspiration from her brow, using the hem of her faded cotton dress. She leaned on the hoe as she stood in the cotton field and closed her big blue eyes. Dark strands of sweat-dampened hair clung to her slender sun-kissed neck. Working during the Great Depression on the sharecropper's farm in the Texas heat left her breathless. All anyone could look forward to as a sharecropper was a difficult life with limited comfort.

In early spring, Poppa hooked his cultivator behind his old mule, Jenny, and prepared the soil. It was something that had to be done if he was to have a cotton crop that year. After planting the seeds, came the thinning of the plants and removing any weeds—around May or June. Later, in the summer's hottest months came harvesting the cotton.

Martha, her father, two brothers, and three sisters worked alongside the migratory workers on the black-land farm. Martha, two months shy of turning twenty, had a plan for leaving the farm. She heard on the radio the small town's hotel was hiring, and she had applied for the position.

She pulled her sunbonnet back in place and continued chopping in the field...until she heard her father.

"OK, kids, let's pack up; Momma will be waiting supper on us." Supper was modest, to say the least, but all were thankful for what they had. There were always fresh vegetables, cornbread, and some kind of meat...usually one of the chickens from the barnyard.

Martha and her sisters cleared the table and did the dishes once supper was over. Homes didn't have indoor plumbing. Water carried in from the outside pump and heated over the stove in a kettle provided hot water.

“Martha, this came for you,” Momma Daniels said, handing her an envelope.

Excitement struck to her core, when she saw the return address—Prairie Hotel. It was from the hotel where she’d applied for a job. Could this be the answer to her prayers? Was she finally going to get off the farm and away from her parents constant bickering and arguing?

“Thanks, Momma.” Looking at Helen, she said, “Take my place for a while.” She wiped her hands on a flour-sack dishtowel and reached for the envelope. Martha rushed onto the front porch of the wood-frame home, letting the screen-door slam behind her. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she read the letter, repeatedly. She folded the letter and slipped it back in the envelope, and walked inside the house.

“What is it Martha?”

“Mr. Lewinsky, the hotel owner, wants me to start working in three weeks, June 1, as assistant manager. After two months of intense training, I will be the hotel manager.”

Martha worked hard on the sharecropper’s farm even though she hated the hard work and dreamed of leaving. Wanting more from life, she found it after the town’s local hotel hired her—she met Joe.

Vada & Joe
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