Pariah

About the Book

John Freeman is in Southton with empty pockets and an empty stomach from being starved off the farm by The Great Depression.  Will Dillard, a pharmacist, becomes John's benefactor and offers him a janitors job and an upstairs storage room for lodging in return for work.  He accepts.

John makes known his desire to own a business in Southton.  Dillard, who views him as a commoner, is astonishes and considers him unworthy of being a fellow merchant.   He's an outsider and Southton's social order isn't accepting outsiders.  He soon discovers others, like himself, who do not fit into the Southton social order.  

Pearl Miller, a seductive lady of the evening and Jake Austin, a rough and tumble bootlegger, are social outcasts who willingly accept John when others reject him.  An extended family relationship ensues.  His only claim to membership in this unlikely group is being an outsider.  

Circumstance soon sets the direction for the rest of John's life when he heroically rescues a young woman, named Millie, from three drunks seeking to misuse her.  After hiding her for two weeks, they fall hopelessly in love.

John and his friends plot to hide Millie from the prying eyes of Southton.  In order to support her, he sells apples, but the business fails.  His supplier raises the wholesale price and force him out of business.

Then, one of John's apple customers asks him to purchase condoms from the pharmacy because he is too timid to do so.  John reluctantly agrees, and discovers a lucrative way to make money.  Will Dillard, the pharmacist, doesn't like selling them, but relishes  income from John's sales.

John's product comes too late to save he and Millie from the inevitable.  Millie discovers she's pregnant.  John pleads with her to marry him, but she's had enough of clannish Southton.  Millie tells John, "I've heard my Ma talk about girls who have babies without being married and they might as well be dead.  You know I love you and I'd love to marry you, but if we get married now, it'll just mess up your life, my life and a little baby's life."

With his friends help, Millie is transported to a home for unwed mother, away from Southton.  She dies in childbirth, but their son lives.  Ironically, the child comes back to Southton through the adoption process as the adopted son of Will and Matilda Dillard.

John realizes young Mikey Dillard is his biological son, but he can't reveal his secret tryst with Millie.  Matilda Dillard made sure her newly adopted son is kept far away from John.  She despised him because he sells condoms.  Never mind, her husband sells them, too.

Dillard comforts John when he's turned down for the World War II draft and now  supports his becoming a Southton merchant.  He warns John about asking for a business loan from the local bank, however.  As expected, the banker berates John for wanting to become a businessman in Southton and belittles him for selling condoms.

John is stubborn.  He insists on being a Southton businessman.  His insistence, carries a high price and the local power merchants plan his come-uppance.  Their opportunity appears with the bludgeon murder of the dry cleaning shop owner.  John is seen behind the establishment and makes a perfect scapegoat.  The sheriff refuses to hear John's pleas of innocence.  Dillard comes to his defense, but even he is refused.

John declines to take the pauper's oath and insists on paying for his own legal defense.  This diminishes the nest-egg for starting a business and breaks his spirit.  His attorney is confident and idealistic and Will Dillard plays a pivotal role as a character witness.  Dillard accepts John as a person and puts his business reputation on the line in John's behalf.  

Matilda Dillard begs her husband to a

About the Author

Wendell Horne is a native Texan with a life-long interest in interactions among people. Since retiring from a career in higher education, he writes fiction as well as non-fiction. Pariah is his first novel. He writes a syndicated newspaper column entitled "Your Plants' Health" and consults in plant disease control.