Chapter 1

CHARACTERS:

Jason (Jase) Owens ... One of the two brothers on a quest to go find his sibling

Jesse Owens ... The other brother, five ears senior to Jase at

Bit players onlong the way

Jase awakened with a start in the pale, predawn light of April 10, 1865. Damn, It's quiet. Then Jase remembered, the war was over at last. He mumbled to himself, After more than three years of bloody hell, I will never forget the sadness in the faces yesterday at Appomattox as the long files of men in tattered butternut or gray marched by, stacking muskets. But at last, I'm free to go home to Milledgeville (Georgia)Captain Jason (Jase) Owens hadn't had word from home in over a year.

Jase was, however, well aware of Sherman's march to the sea late the previous year and home was right in the middle of Sherman's path. He was quite anxious to find out about Milledgeville and his family, including his older brother, Jesse, invalided home from Johnston's forces about six weeks earlier. Since Milledgeville was the capital of Georgia, it was not likely to escape Sherman's attention.

Jase had begun his army career as a drummer boy at the age of fifteen. But six months later, after picking up a musket from a dead comrade and making excellent use of it, he was made a private in the infantry. A year later, after 'liberating' a Yankee calvary horse, he managed a transfer into a cavalry regiment of the Army of Northern Virginia. By the time the war ended, Jase's innate abilities and leadership had won him field promotions to captain. As an officer at the surrender, Jase was allowed to keep his sword, his sidearm, and his horse. His tattered and begrimed uniform, along with his small bed roll were his only other possessions.

After a meager breakfast of beef jerky and salt pork, hard tack, and real, honest to God coffee, Federal food provided to Lee's starving troops, Jase set off on that April morning for the long trek back to Georgia. As he did so, Jase thought to himself, Well, I've marched and fought over the eastern Confederacy more times than I can count, I suppose I can make one more long march over the same ground. Ground that was thoroughly devastated by war. The only crops Jase could see that spring the war ended in the Shenandoah were sheaves of hardship and vines of misery, producing the unpalatable fruit of famine, famine that was pervasive all across the land Jase rode.

Riding his chestnut colored cavalry mount, Brax, on this first morning of the long journey home, Jase thought about home and his brother, Jesse. Memories flooded back in rush. Before the recently ended War Between the States, Jase had grown up in Milledgeville, Georgia, with his father Jonathan, his sister Josie, and his brother Jesse. His mother, Sarah, had died of a fever when Jase was ten years old. His father had remarried a year later. Jesse was six years older than Jase and was, by 1860, already a partner with their father in a very profitable hardware store and freighting business. Jase worked in the store for wages, but was some four or more years away from becoming the third partner in the Owens family businesses.

Then came the war. Jesse enlisted in the Confederate Army the day Georgia withdrew from the Union, leaving behind a seventeen year old girl to whom he had proposed just the month before. a proposal that she'd accepted. Jase finally managed to run away from home in December of 1861, to join a newly forming Georgia infantry regiment, one month before his sixteenth birthday. Jase also left behind a girl, sixteen year old Jill Ames. Oh, I remember Jill all right, thought Jase, better believe I do!

Jill was the girl who took his virginity and he took hers! The night before he was to sneak away to war, the two of them had been in the swing on the porch of her parents' house after sundown. Jill's parents had gone to bed, so Jase didn't expect interruptions. The swing was pretty much in shadows behind the climbing wisteria vines that formed a curtain between the porch and the street out front, effectively hiding the swing and occupants from view. Jase had his arm around Jill's shoulder and his hand was dipping into the loose, low cut top of the party dress Jill wore at the Saturday night square dance they'd left a half hour earlier.

Jase caressed Jill's right breast, still covered by her chemise. Meeting no resistance, Jase went under the chemise and caressed the bare skin of her breast. He felt a bulge rapidly developing in this pants. When Jill still offered no resistance, Jase toyed with her nipple, rolling it around between his thumb and first finger. That produced soft moans from Jill. She turned her head toward him and raised her face in rapture. Jase wasn't stupid, he leaned down and their lips locked. Jase poked his tongue against Jill's lips and was rewarded as she opened them and their tongues entwined.

Jase could feel Jill's heart racing under his hand as her passion increased. Breaking the kiss, Jill put both arms around Jase, hugging him tight, and said, 'Jase, I don't want you to go! Stay home with me. I need you, Jase, don't go! Your brother went; you don't have to go!

Emboldened by the lack of any resistance, and somehow sensing tonight was the night to push, Jase put his left hand under the hem of Jill's dress and rested it on her left knee. Then, as he kissed her again, he moved his hand up to mid thigh. That was as far as Jase had ever reached--until now. He reached up further over her pantaloons and rested his hand on her mound. Now Jill was moaning heavily, her heart racing so fast under Jase's other hand, he was a little scared.

All at once, Jase felt a dampness develop in the crotch of Jill's pantaloons! Within moments, the pantaloons were thoroughly soaked in the crotch. Jill's pelvis moved to undulate up and down into Jase's working hand and fingers. With an unhesitating deliberateness, Jase moved his hand up and under the waist band of the pantaloons and down into the soft, moist flesh below.

Jill was trying to stifle moans that had become a bit loud. For never having had his hand so deliciously engaged before, Jase moved as if experienced, just allowing instinct to guide him. Working the lips of her pussy with his middle finger riding up and down her slit, Jase almost came in his pants. To prevent that for the moment, Jase withdrew his hand.

Jill moaned, 'Oh God, Jase, don't stop now, please, not now!'

But he did stop. He took Jill's right hand and placed in on his crotch. 'Rub it, ' he said.

She did. After a little bit of this, Jase undid his fly buttons and pulled out his cock. Without prompting, Jill grabbed hold of it and lightly stroked it. Jase's cock was no monster, but it was of a size to impress Jill, who'd never seen one before, at least one that was older than two years of age.

Jase could stand it no longer. He pulled Jill up from the swing, pulled her pantaloons off and laid her down on the porch floor with the pantaloons as a ground cloth. With her dress pushed up to her waist, Jase straddled her legs and rubbed the head of his straining cock up and down Jill's pussy slit for a moment or two and then pushed his full stiffness in. A slight resistance held him back only momentarily and then he slid home. Although it didn't consciously register at that moment, Jase still understood he'd just popped Jill's cherry.

Moments later, Jase orgasmed with several gut wrenching cum shots deep in Jill's pussy. It was over too fast, thought Jase. He was only too correct. A noise from upstairs indicated someone might be coming down, so Jase and Jill hastily disengaged, quickly rearranging their clothing. Jill didn't take time to try and struggle back into her pantaloons. Instead, she quickly wrapped them around her waist and dropped her dress down over them. Jase kissed her good night and fled, leaving Jill to face whatever consequences were descending from the second story. That was the last time he'd seen her. Ah yes, Jase thought, I certainly remember Jill!

Jesse and Jase were able to maintain sporadic contact with each other until near the end of the war. Jesse, by that time, was a Captain in the Artillery. He'd lost his left leg below the knee in late February in a rear guard artillery action against Sherman's forces coming north from Savannah into South Carolina. A courier from Johnston to Jase's commanding officer carried the last letter Jase had from his brother explaining the injury and that he was headed home. But Jase wondered about his brother. Had Jesse survived his wound? Did he get home? Was there a home left to find? There were no immediate answers.

Jase was headed west from Appomattox to Lynchburg. He was aiming for the southern end of the Shenandoah Valley and the trail that would lead south-southwest to Chattanooga and then south to Atlanta. Upon reaching Lynchburg shortly before sunset, Jase tied up at the hitch rack in front of the Red Dog Saloon and Gambling Palace and dismounted. He groaned with the fatigue of a long day in the saddle as he tied his horse and smacked some of the trail dust off his uniform trousers with his hat. Jase noticed several town loafers eying him from chairs on the boardwalk in front of the saloon. And, God, thought Jase as he walked toward the boardwalk, I haven't been with a woman since Jill, no time with no real furlough or rest since I enlisted. Just fight, fight, fight. I really need a woman. Maybe there are some soiled doves around this place, I'm gettin' that hard up.