An Orphan With A Destiny eBook #29
Description
by Raymond Cook
©2018 (All Rights Reserved)
Page Length: 195
Word Count: 61,000
Reader’s Favorite Book Review 5-Star Rating Definition
5 Stars — Great! You would definitely buy this book. You would definitely recommend it to your friends. You really loved the characters and the plot and would consider looking for this authors back list or making her an autobuy. The writing and editing were superb.
-5-Star Reader’s Favorite Book Review-
“This is a story for readers who enjoy tales with great pathos woven into them, a well-crafted and cleverly plotted story. Apart from being the story of a young orphan, An Orphan With A Destiny explores the dynamics of life in a small town, capturing important historical elements and painting a powerful picture of the locale. Raymond Cook’s prose is also beautiful and delightful to read, filled with interesting dialogues and infused with humanity. It’s a character-driven, entertaining story that will evoke all kinds of emotions in readers.” Reader’s Favorite Book Review January 25, 2018 by Ruffina Oserio
Story Excerpt…
There’s a killer in Carbondale and he’d already killed nine orphans. Now the streets were empty of any children holding a tin can begging for money. The sheriff asked Katelyn if she had any idea where the orphans were hiding. She nodded and led him to an abandoned livery stable on a side street. They pulled both tall doors open to let light in. Katelyn cautiously walked in and called out if anyone was there.
Slowly children began stepping out of the shadows and they were scared. Each child, even the young ones held a makeshift weapon in their hands. The moment Katelyn saw Laurie she ran to her. She saw her the left shoulder of her shirt was drenched in blood where she’d been stabbed a few hours ago. It was a miracle she was alive. Katelyn shouted, “Sheriff, they’re all here, and my friend’s bleeding, please help her.”
He hurried in and came to where Katelyn stood. He looked at the child’s blood-stained left arm, bent over and picked her up in his arms. “You kids close both them doors, and protect yourself. I’m taking this child to the doctor. Then I’m coming back here to talk to you,” the sheriff said. The tallest and oldest boy nodded and looked over at two other boys who were also tall. “You heard the sheriff, shut them doors and everyone go hide.”
As Katelyn followed behind and kept up with the sheriff, she didn’t know nine orphans had been murdered and Laurie’s death would make it ten. When the sheriff and Katelyn neared the doctor’s office, she ran ahead of him and opened the door for him. When she saw the doctor behind his desk, Katelyn pleaded, “Please don’t let my best friend bleed to death. He looked shocked and stood up as the sheriff entered the room holding a child.
“Bring her over to this table, and lie her down on her back,” shouted the doctor. Tears were flowing down Laurie’s cheeks, and her face was pale as she looked in the distance at Katelyn. Try as she might, Katelyn couldn’t stop her tears. Quickly the doctor ripped off Laurie’s left sleeve to see the wound, and it was a vicious wound. As he pressed a towel against her arm to stop the bleeding, he looked over at the sheriff.
“Bring me a washcloth, and a bottle of laudanum off the middle shelf, and make it quick,” the doctor yelled. With Laurie asleep, the doctor could do his sewing quicker. “Hold your hand down on this towel sheriff,” the doctor said. He went to another shelf and came back with a needle and a spool of black thread. When she stood beside the sheriff again, he said in a worried voice, “This is where it gets tricky, sheriff.
You have to lift some of that towel off the wound so I can pinch the two parts of her arm together so I can sew her up. She’s lost so much blood I’m surprised she’s still alive. She’ll lose more blood but there ain’t a thing I can do about it.” Suddenly Katelyn was beside the two men. In a tearful voice, she said to them, “I’ll press both sides of her arm together so you can keep sewing up her arm. Please don’t let her die.”
The doctor knew the child would bleed less, but she may have already bled too much. He nodded at Katelyn and the sheriff. When the doctor had a good length of thread through the eye of the needle, he looked at both of his helpers. “I need about four inches of that towel pulled back, and at the same time both sides of the child’s skin on her arm pushed together, I’ll do the rest,” he said. The knife wound was deep and long, nearly eight inches long.
The wound went from the child’s shoulder to her elbow. There was no time for Katelyn to wipe her eyes if she wanted to see her friend live, so she let her tears fall. By the time the last stitch was made and the thread tied off, the doctor brought back a large bandage and some tape. When her arm was bandaged, he looked down at his blood-stained apron, then to Katelyn’s bloodied hands, and to the blood on the sheriff’s hands.
He felt on the child’s neck for a pulse and almost didn’t feel one. It should’ve been Katelyn who asked the doctor if the child would make it or not. But the sheriff beat her to it. “Will she live?” the sheriff asked. The doctor dipped his hands in a basin of water which turned red, and wiped them with a towel. Katelyn knew the answer before he spoke. “I don’t think so, sheriff. She’s lost so much blood. I could barely feel a pulse. Only her will to live and God’s mercy will tell if she’s alive come morning,” the doctor said.
Katelyn lay her head down on the blanket covering Laurie, and sobbed. Then she leaned close to Laurie’s ear, moved her hair back and whispered, “You can’t die, Laurie, you can’t. I’m going to see to it an orphanage is built for the orphan children in this poor excuse of a town.” Then she kissed the side of her head and stood up.
In a fit of anger, Katelyn shouted at the sheriff, “You and I need to talk, and I mean right now!” She turned around and walked about eight feet away. She stood there with her arms crossed as her eyes flashed with anger. “You’re going to help me catch and kill the bastard who’s murdering the orphans in this town, or I’ll stop him all by myself, which will it be?” Katelyn asked in a vengeful voice.
The sheriff in a calm but equally cold voice asked, “What do you want from me?” Katelyn made one request with a catch. “I want a double-barreled derringer and I don’t care who you get it from. I’m going to dirty up my clothes and walk the back alleys of this town until I’m dead or there’s a foot of snow on the ground. I want the killer to come after me.
If you try to follow me, I’ll lose you so fast you’ll feel ashamed. The man who’s killing children will see you or any another man following me. I have to look like I’m easy prey for him to stab. I’ll walk with a limp, there ain’t any other way. It’s either that, or he won’t stop killing until the orphan cemetery runs out of room for graves. Are you going to get me that derringer or watch me being put in the ground too?” Katelyn shouted, fighting back tears.
The sheriff knew his back was against the wall. He couldn’t catch him on his own. “I have a derringer back at the jail. I’ll load two shells into it and give it to you. Where will you be?” asked the sheriff. “I’ll be home. My address is 40 York Avenue. It’s a white house with a white picket fence. I’ll fix something to eat and drink a cup of coffee to warm me up inside. I’ll dirty up my clothing, face, hands and neck.
If I’m wearing a nice coat, the killer will know it’s a trick. So I’ll take a blanket down to the livery stable and wear one of the orphan’s coats. Then I’ll start walking with a limp. I want the killer to think stabbing me will be easy. I’ll stop by your office each day when I can’t stay out in the cold any longer so you know I’m safe. If I don’t see you again, please don’t bury me in the town’s cemetery. I want to be buried in the orphan’s cemetery,” Katelyn cried out.
As she wiped her eyes, again and again, she saw him nod. Then he left. Katelyn took one last look at the orphan who was and always would be her best friend. Then she said goodbye to the doctor and headed home. Little did Katelyn know the killer had been watching the doctor’s office and now was following her from a distance. The moment she walked into her house, she saw a framed photograph of Mary on a writing desk.
She shut the door, walked over, picked it up and sat down on the sofa. As her tears fell on the sheet of glass, she smiled. In a tearful voice, she said, “You were right Mary; I wasn’t meant to die in all the ways you said. It wasn’t my destiny. I know that in my heart now. I’m going after the murderer of my friends, and I know if you were here, you’d do all you could to stop me. Every child’s life is precious; you told me that so many times.
You’re right. No child deserves to die. They deserve to grow up, get married, work hard and raise families. I’m not going to let another child die. What someone does can seal their fate or change their destiny. If it’s God’s will or my destiny to give my life to save one child’s life, I’ll die without regrets. Please forgive me for thinking of others more than I did when I first met you on the street when you offered me an apple, and I grabbed it from your hand.
The sheriff’s coming in a little while to hand me a derringer. I’ll shoot the coward murdering orphans twice without sadness who’ll be eager to slice my throat. Then I’m going to write the governor and beg him to help this town to build an orphanage to protect the children who go hungry during the daytime and shiver in the night. Thank you for adopting me and helping me find who I really am, my name‘s Katelyn Audrey Grant.”
Then Katelyn set the picture frame back down on the desk. She got a fire going in the cook stove and prepared a big meal. She’d just set out some clothes for her to dirty up and wear when she heard a knock on the front door. She wiped her eyes, went to the door and opened it. But instead of it being the sheriff bringing the derringer, it was the killer who followed her home. One look into the coldest eyes she’d ever seen, and it was too late to slam the door and lock it. In seconds, he had her on the floor with a knife in his right hand.
Amazon Comment Section!
An Orphan With A Destiny is my newest 2018 emotion-filled western frontier orphan eBook. I’ve made this comment section so I can share with visitors to my website what readers feel about this particular eBook. To share your comments too, just send me an e-mail: raymond@71q.05d.mywebsitetransfer.com
5-star Amazon review by Emily C. on February 26, 2018. In this book, you will find romance, self-sacrifice, heroism, self-reliance, and humor amidst events of struggle, hardship, danger, tragedy, survival and personal fulfillment. The author has developed each character so well, I could identify with all of them. In Particular, Katelyn’s sensitive nature, genuine concern for others, healthy values and sense of vision give her the courage and moral strength she needs to discover her own destiny. Her tragic experiences strengthen, rather than weaken her. Behind her constant tearfulness is a child of indomitable spirit. When I got to the last page, Katelyn had become as dear to me as my own daughter! I highly recommend this orphan story.
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