CHAPTER 1
Someone or something was following him. He didnt know if it was a man or an animal, but it had been coming after him all day. He sensed it at first, never actually seeing it, but shortly before noon he had turned quickly enough to catch a glimpse of it, but he still couldnt determine if it was man or beast.
He had walked since early morning, pacing himself to get as far away as he could before he got too tired to go on. After discovering he was being followed however, he had quickened his pace, and now knew that soon he would have to find a place to rest.
Another half hour had passed when he came upon a large oak tree covering a natural bed of moss and leaves. It was just too inviting to pass up, so he stopped for the night. He lay down on his back, stretched his long lanky frame, and looked up through the tree branches at the sky still light from the setting sun. He watched as a squirrel played on the limbs above and wished he could have it for supper, but the noise of his gun would certainly give away his location, so he dozed and thought about all that had brought him to this place.
The date was July 2, 1862, and he, Ezra Parker, had deserted his post with the Union Army.
He didnt want to go to war in the first place, and wouldnt have if he hadnt been drunk on the day they recruited him. He had heard about all the festivities going on in town at the general store. An Army officer was there recruiting young men for the war. He knew they would have brought musicians so there would be dancing, and different men would speak, and maybe the womenfolk would bring a picnic lunch. It would be a day-long affair, and would offer a time of fun for the folks of Rocky Creek, Kentucky.
On that morning in August, 1861, Ezra had met his friends, Oscar Perkins and Simon Littlejohn, and off to the store they had gone to enjoy the day of fun. Oscar had a jar of home brew, and it wasnt long before the three of them were feeling mighty fine. Their entire day had been planned around drinking the home brew, dancing with the prettiest girls, and just having a good time in general. But sometime during the afternoon a man came by and put them in line to sign up to fight for the North. They had written their names without a thought. It was the next day when they fully realized what they had done.
They were taken to Camp Dick Robinson in Garrard County. They had been fitted with uniforms and issued guns, and before they knew it, were on their way toward an area in the eastern Kentucky mountains where a small camp of Confederate soldiers was located. There were fierce battles with casualties on both sides. They had very little food and very little rest, but they marched on to another Confederate encampment. And on to another battle and another march and another battle until Ezra hardly knew what day it was and wouldnt have known which direction they were going except for the rising and setting of the sun.
Finally by January, 1862, they had secured the area and had driven the Rebs back into Virginia. The weather was miserably cold, so their unit made camp near Prestonsburg and quartered there to wait out the winter.
By the spring of 1862, the Confederates had regrouped, and skirmishes were becoming more and more frequent. The soldiers in Ezras unit were suffering from battle fatigue, camp diseases, and serious food shortage.
Ezra, Oscar and Simon were very homesick, and as they talked the war over, had decided they wanted no more of it. Ezra remembered, as he lay under the oak tree, that it was only two days ago that the three of them had made their plans to walk away. They were going back home. They didnt exactly know why they were fighting anyway other than it had something to do with colored people and slavery.
Well I dont see why they cant settle the problem instead of fightin this stupid war, Simon had remarked.
But it couldnt be settled that simply. And yesterdays battle had claimed the lives of Ezras two best friends, and this morning, before dawn, he had slipped away from camp and had walked all day in the direction he hoped was toward home.
He thought of them as the sunlight began to fade from above the trees, and he realized his face was wet from tears for his lifelong friends. Oscar Perkins and Simon Littlejohn were only 18 years old and they were dead. And for what? Maybe one day he would understand it. But he couldnt now.
He wiped his face with his hands, turned on his side and tried to sleep. The snap of a breaking twig brought him wide awake. He did not move, but was well aware that whatever had been following him all day was now standing over him. To his own surprise he wasnt afraid. He was too tired and too hungry and too weary to even care.
Slowly he turned on his back, fully expecting to look directly into the gun barrel of an Army guard. But what he saw when he looked up took him totally by surprise. It was a woman! A beautiful young woman with the sweetest, most gentle face he had ever seen.
For the longest time they stared at each other he, sitting on the ground, leaning back with his hands behind him, and she, standing over him holding a pistol at her side. Ezras eyes moved slowly from the womans face down to the gun and back to her eyes.
You gonna use that? he asked.
Are you going to hurt me? she replied.
No. Unless you give me reason to.
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