Born for Adversity

Laurel June Thompson

Description

Born for Adversity examines the sometimes turbulent, often impassioned relationships between siblings. Well-known stories from the Bible and mythology are re-told throughout the book, interwoven with the tale of two brothers on their journey through life. Whether born into a family from ancient times or in modern culture, brothers and sisters have faced similar challenges throughout the millennia—jealousy, control, judgment, protection, forgiveness, and love—all common facets in the labyrinth of sibling relationships, the outcomes ever hinging upon choices of the mind and heart.
Born for Adversity follows the lives of Jackson and Jesse McAlister. Raised in a Christian, blue-collar family in the mid-twentieth century, Jackson and Jesse struggle to find their way into adulthood. Their disparate natures clash when their decisions lead to trouble on both sides. Then, a dark secret emerges to nearly destroy all hope, and a young woman tugs at both their hearts, forcing them to face each other and their true feelings.
Discover the possibilities borne of unconditional love and the disasters wrought from envy and hatred. Whether in ages past or present day, true forgiveness blazes a trail through the tangles of sibling rivalry, ending in ties that bind forever strong and true.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Adversity
• Laurel
• Laurel (homonymie)
• Contemporary
• Christian
• Born
• Thompson
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 16 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669862208
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

BORN FOR ADVERSITY
 
An Anthology of Brothers
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
Laurel June Thompson
 
Cover art by Chelsea L. Walker
 
Copyright © 2023 by Laurel June Thompson.
 
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6698-6221-5

eBook
978-1-6698-6220-8
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 01/16/2023
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
835355
 
I dedicate this book to my dad, Gary Joe Henry—the eldest of three brothers.
 
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adver sity.”
                            Proverbs 17:17 NIV
 
Blood runs thick from skin to skin,
Ties that bind from kin to kin;
 
From ages past to present day,
The loom of fate yet weaves away;
 
Its folds unroll in hues sublime,
That colored tapestry of time;
 
A labyrinth of good and ill,
Its pattern subject to our will;
 
Capricious be the crimson strands,
So hard to break, so hard to mend;
 
They oft shall tangle then—behold,
Become a plait of braided gold;
 
As strong as silk, as tough as wool,
Sometimes they push, sometimes they pull;
 
Yet nothing knits a line of blood,
Like scarlet threads of brotherhood.
 
                                        L.J. Thompson
Contents
Chapter 1       The Loss
Chapter 2       The Brothers
Chapter 3       The Return
Chapter 4       The Bargain
Chapter 5       The Threshold
Chapter 6       The Coat
Chapter 7       The Arrival
Chapter 8       The Slave
Chapter 9       The Regret
Chapter 10     The Famine
Chapter 11     The Fair
Chapter 12     The Abduction
Chapter 13     The Homecoming
Chapter 14     The War
Chapter 15     The Passage
Chapter 16     The Vengeance
Chapter 17     The Skeleton
Chapter 18     The Fall
Chapter 19     The Friendship
Chapter 20     The Birthday
Chapter 21     The Confrontation
Chapter 22     The Sign
Chapter 23     The Absolution
Chapter 24     The New Beginning
Chapter 25     The Teacher
Chapter 26     The Wedding
Chapter 27     The Waves
Chapter 28     The Disillusionment
Chapter 29     The Choice
Chapter 30     The Parting
 
Epilogue
Chapter 1
The Loss
“B OYS, LISTEN TO me. I love you.” She gently squeezed both their hands in hers as they sat on either side of her hospital bed. Jesse, the younger by three years, let tears stream down his face freely and without shame. Jackson, stoic—not due to his newly attained status as an adolescent, but because it had been his nature from the day he had drawn breath—sat straight and rigid, his face a mask of serious acceptance of the personal tragedy taking place before him.
Their father was an enigma. Strong, yet meek; unyielding, yet tender. He stood motionless in the corner of the pristine and antiseptic room, his head bowed in silent prayer. Ephraim McAlister was a handsome man by most standards. With sandy-brown hair that fell intractably over one eye and a tall, naturally lean frame, he exuded self-assurance and quiet authority. Soft-spoken and spare of speech, he rarely raised his voice and, to the boys’ recollections, had never laid a hand upon either of them in anger; yet, they revered him.
Their mother, Aubrey McAlister, prone in the white-blanketed hospital bed, had become a mere shade of the vibrant, healthy woman they had known. The model of energetic efficiency, she’d seen to her family’s needs with enthusiastic zeal, for her beloved husband and two young sons meant the world to her. They were the reason she rose each morning and cheerfully embarked upon the mundane and often tiresome routine of keeping house without even a hint of lethargy. Unlike their father, she was given to bouts of temper when her sons disobeyed or showed less than proper respect. She expected them to toe the line when it came to applying themselves to their lessons and completing their chores in a timely and excellent manner. And she brooked no complaints when it was time to get ready for church.
“Give the Lord His due, and blessings come to you,” she recited so frequently, the simple adage had been ingrained into the minds of her sons along with mealtime grace, the Lord’s Prayer, the Golden Rule, and the Pledge of Allegiance. Behind her back, they sometimes mocked the familiar proverb by chanting it to one another, employing an unflattering imitation of their mother’s voice. Aubrey had caught Jackson at this once, and her disappointed expression had immediately curbed his fit of laughter. For Jackson was devoted to his mother, and to have hurt her even in this small way had cut him to the quick. He didn’t repeat this particular offense again, and saw to it that neither did Jesse.
The McAlisters resided in a suburb of Pittsburgh along the Ohio River called Ben Avon. After their marriage in 1947, Ephraim and Aubrey had moved into a quaint, older home in the historic district. Though charming, the colonial-style house with its Italian brick walls and white wooden shutters flanking arched, mullioned windows had proved to be exceedingly drafty and in need of multiple repairs. They discovered during that first storm-besieged winter that the roof leaked, and were further chagrined to find that the copper pipes delivered only ice-cold water into the ancient, cast iron tub. However, it was something they could afford at the time, and in the optimism and vigor of youth, they’d looked upon it as an enjoyable challenge rather than the albatross it was. Ephraim doggedly commuted the hour and a half each way in their 1942 Buick Roadmaster—a luxury at the time—to the steel mill in Pittsburgh. Clever and hardworking, he’d moved up quickly through the ranks, consistently providing enough money for the bills, necessary renovations to the house, and to support his wife and two young sons. Though never rich, the McAlisters lived thriftily, yet comfortably for many years, never knowing a season of want.
It was spring of 1962 when Ephraim had learned of Aubrey’s illness. He strode into the factory foreman’s office the very same day to tender his resignation. He quit his supervisory position attained after eighteen years as a faithful employee of Winchester Steel without a backward glance. From that day on, he cared for Aubrey. Tirelessly, he fed her, bathed her, cleaned up her vomit, washed her linens, portioned out her medicines, and in-between saw to the needs of their sons.
Mercifully, Aubrey’s cancer had run a rapid course. Six months had passed since her initial diagnosis, and this trip to the hospital would be her last. Only thirty-six years old, the once pretty brunette with expressive, whiskey-colored eyes, long limbs, and a shapely figure had wasted away into an almost unrecognizable shell of her old self. No longer the dark beauty Ephraim had courted and married, Aubrey had withered like a frostbitten rose in winter, struck with the brutal force of a rapid demise. Her terrible transformation was an obscenity to Ephraim, who would have gladly delivered his body to be burned at the stake if such an act would salvage the life of his beloved Aubrey. Yet, alas, he knew the die had been cast, and there was nothing left but to let her depart upon the wings of angels, to that immortal place where she would be truly healed and forever young.
Night had fallen; a strong wind kicked up outside the hospital, causing the trees to slap their naked branches against the institutional glass of her window like flails.
“Now, don’t you fret about me,” she continued in a tone as resolute as she could muster. “Why, I’m just going to Heaven, and we will all be together again one day in Paradise. This is not goodbye,” Aubrey tenderly reminded ten-year-old Jesse whose weeping had become more pronounced. She paused, her breathing shallow and her pulse fluttering like hummingbird wings beneath the gossamer skin of her slender wrist, summoning the strength to finish her farewells.
Looking intently at each of her precious sons in turn, she took a wavering breath and spoke her last words. “I expect you to take care of each other, boys. Help your father. Never forsake one another, for family love runs deep and true over distance and time.”
Jesse didn’t see through his tears, but Jackson, ever vigilant, watched his father’s head jerk up from an attitude of prayer and his eyes lock with his wife’s at that precise moment. They held each other’s gaze for several seconds, a private message passing between them, before she closed her eyes and sank into the pillow. Jackson and Jesse felt their mother’s grasp go limp, and they knew she was dead.
Chapter