The Child

Alien in the Delta has been separated into a three books series."The Child" is the first book in the series. It highlights the life of a boy from the age of six until he graduates from high school at age seventeen. During that time he discovers music, girls, sex, learns to dance, and becomes self-aware. "The Soldier" is the second book. Thankful Strother spent four years in the United States Air Force. He was stationed in Germany where he learned to speak German, met his future wife...
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Alien in the Delta has been separated into a three books series."The Child" is the first book in the series. It highlights the life of a boy from the age of six until he graduates from high school at age seventeen. During that time he discovers music, girls, sex, learns to dance, and becomes self-aware. "The Soldier" is the second book. Thankful Strother spent four years in the United States Air Force. He was stationed in Germany where he learned to speak German, met his future wife and traveled throughout Europe. "The Adult" is the last book in the series of three. Thankful returns home from Germany. He settles in Detroit, gets married, starts a family and buys their first house. He goes to work in the automotive industry, learns to program computers, enters the corporate world and becomes a successful real estate investor. The Series end after his promotion to District Sales Manager of NCR Corporation and the family moves to a Detroit suburb. I consider myself very fortunate to have had my grandparents living near by while I was growing up. My grandfather (Papa) was a great storyteller. We all had favorite stories that we liked to hear him tell. It did not take much persuasion to get him started on a story. He used to tell us that he was one of the first people in the town to own a Model T Ford. Sometimes, when he was drinking liquor, he would try to drive his Model T home and would forget that he was driving a car. In his drunken state, he would think he was in a horse-driven wagon, and would yell out, "Whoa" to get the car to stop. Most of the time, the car ran off the road or into something. Luckily, Papa was never hurt.Papa had what he described as horrible nightmares. My very favorite story was about what caused his nightmares. When Papa was a young man, he killed a man and before being captured went on the run for seven years. The dead man would come for Papa nightly. He must have relived that shooting hundreds of times in his dreams. Grandma would have to awaken him to stop his screaming. Papa would not only tell this story, he would stand up and show everyone exactly how it happened.This is what I remember about the story. Papa was inside his house when this man came to the front gate and called him to come outside. Papa must have expected trouble because he went to his front porch with a Colt .45 in his hand, and he asked the man to leave and not to come on his property. But the man would not leave. In fact, he told Papa that he was going to come inside the yard and beat-up my grandfather. Papa warned him that if he opened that gate, he would shoot him. The man ignored Papa and opened the gate, and Papa proceeded to empty his gun into him.Papa would then stand up and pretend he had a gun in his hand to show how he shot the man. That's when my grandma would say."John, why are you telling that child about that man you killed?"My grandmother had lost her hearing, so she did not know what papa was talking about until he stood up and pretended he had a gun in his hand. Papa never told us who the man was or why he was threatening our family.Papa was not convicted of murder, but he went to prison for leaving the scene. That's why his prison stay was so short. After served his time, a permanent job offer as a prison guard was given to him, but he returned home to his family.Papa stopped believing in banks after losing twenty-five hundred dollars during the Great Depression of the 1930s. When Papa went the bank to withdraw his money it was closed and out of business. After that, he started to keep his money in Prince Albert tobacco cans, which he would bury around his house. Sometimes, he would forget where he buried the cans and would spend the day digging up the yard, looking for his money. There are probably some cans filled with gold coins and bills still buried around his house. What do you think?