Rick Cox

Orphan Moon Rick Cox

In the spring of 1841, Jeremiah and Nellie Jeffers journey by wagon train from Soddy Daisey Tennessee to Fort Smith, Arkansas. The party of six wagons and thirty one souls are bound together in the way that only common goals, shared hardships, and triumphs will forge. By 1963, the Jeffers name and ancestry has marked a community in Everett County, Arkansas, known as Jefferson Valley. The valley named in honor of the courageous pioneers flourishes as their descendants face the joys and challenges of rural life in mid-century America. It is at this place and time that eleven year old Willie Earl Jeffers starts to question his heritage and its legends of yesteryear. He is bound up in family. Are his roots for good or ill; or are they irrelevant? And then Joseph Beaumont abruptly appears at a family picnic. He self-describes as a Texan, a keeper of treasures, and a reader of books. The strange little middle aged man fits no comfortable mold to most of Willie Earl's kith and kin. However, Willie Earl soon befriends him and confides in him bothersome questions. In turn Joseph, with the rare listening ear, and quiet wisdom becomes Willie Earl's improbable and sometimes hesitant mentor. Joseph never seems to quiet settle in among the close knit community but is aware of the goings and comings, adventures and misadventures, lives and happenings of Jefferson Valley. In the midst of his work and play, Willie Earl discovers that while there is worth and glory descended through his blood line, there is also misplaced pride and ugly prejudice among some of his folk. Time, maturity, and his friend Joseph, finally bring him to terms with a real and revelatory humility. Pride proves itself to be a nursery of ignorance. Willie Earl is to learn that life, legacy, and spirituality, blend together nicely in accord even as his unlikely Texas tutor, the eccentric Joseph, realizes a healing of his own. Join the adventure of discovering the legacy of Orphan Moon.