The Delivery
Page 16
Uriah stayed in Sweetwater and worked for Jason Sr. all of senior’s life. After Senior passed away, he left half of his ranch to Uriah and the other half to Jason and Millicent. There was some discussion about it before the old man changed his will, but no complaints from Jason or Millicent. They had long since accepted Uriah as family.
He and Senior were close friends from the day they met until Senior passed away. Uriah was beside him when the Lord came to take him home.
In the end, they all ended up as business partners and friends.
Uriah took a herd of cattle all the way to Kansas City in the early 1880’s and brought back some gal that he met there. They were married and they had two sons of their own. It wasn’t the end of prejudice in Uriah’s life, but he had found a safe haven where he was accepted for who he was and not for the color of his skin or what he’d been.
In a world where people can’t seem to find common ground, a mail order bride named Millicent and an ex-slave named Uriah Parsons found something that transcended color race and gender. They found friendship, acceptance and together they both found their home in a far away place.
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
James Edwin Branch was raised in west Texas. After attending high school, he joined the U.S. Army.
He is a Viet Nam veteran and after leaving the Army, he attended colleges in both Dallas, Texas and North Carolina. After college, he settled into a business career always working in or around the music business.
Through his years in the music business, he became an avid songwriter, writing over 200 songs that range from rock to country. In the late 1980s, he decided to take his writing to the next level and began writing short stories from his song characters. As the years slipped by the stories grew in size until his stories became novels and novellas.
James is a cancer survivor and now lives in South Texas. He is an avid writer and continues to work on the craft he loves the most.
In his youth, he was obsessed with paperback action books and read them one after another. Now he creates them. James writes from the heart and without lines. His characters often transcend racial and gender lines. As he says in one of his Westerns, “I was taught to see a man’s purpose, what skills he has and not where he came from.”
The pivotal character in one of James’ stories might be any nationality or gender, it’s hard to say, but to those of us who read them, we find them all human, never perfect, and always with soul and heart.
Other Works by
JAMES EDWIN BRANCH
Novels:
Tribulation
Rogan
Heart of Steele
Desperate Hope
Publishers Row
The Delivery
ARROWHEAD (THE SERIES)
The Columbian Connection
A Favor for the President
Chain of Command
Dance With the Devil
The Blue Horizon
Novellas:
Terror in the Valley
BILL PARKS U.S. MARSHAL WESTERNS
Big Spring
The Benton Bank Job
Broken Chains
Anger Rides a Bay
Sweetwater
Short stories:
The Adventures of Willis Hornsby
Shallow River
Along the High Trail
It Happened in Pinewood
WWW.jamesedwinbranch@webs.com