The Nomad and the Lion / Ronnie H Hall (ePub)

In 1950 Henry Ball is severely wounded and afflicted with PTSD during the Chosin Reservoir Campaign in Korea. On his return home, he finds a divorce decree waiting and is devastated by the loss of his wife Ginny and daughter Sara. He turns to the bottle for relief, but his boozing only leads to a series of conflicts and downfalls that force him to leave his North Georgia hometown. He then begins to ramble across the country searching for happiness and a new life, but instead winds up jailed in Helena, Montana - a beaten, broke and broken wretch. Before he's bailed out, Henry must agree to work his debt off for the bar brawl damages and fines for James Mason on his ranch. He spends the remaining summer haying and sweating out the booze and his anguish and finds needed solace in fly fishing. Later that fall, he finds further peace and solitude in the White River bottoms of Arkansas hunting mallards after Howard Stokes takes Henry in as part of his family. Then begins his forty-year routine of passion, migrating to and from Yellowstone and Arkansas with the seasons guiding.

But as Henry ages, the passion for his nomadic ventures wane and in 1991 he decides he's squandered enough of his life and swears he's finished with Montana and Arkansas forever. He's inherited a house in an estate for life in the Florida Keys and has settled there with a woman he cherishes. Henry's finally happy and content with his sedentary and normal life until a pleading call from his daughter turns his life into turmoil. To please Sara, and to appease his guilt for failing as a father to her, he agrees to return to Yellowstone to find her missing son - his grandson he's never seen. Henry finds Matt a despicable drug addict that has the same passion for fly fishing and for Yellowstone as young Henry had. Henry must now decide whether to go back to Hope and his happy life or lose her and everything - including his life- to stay in Montana to save his grandson from ruin.

Ever wonder if we're losing the instinct to nurture our children like we're losing our bloodlust compulsion to hunt? The Nomad and the Lion is a journey through time looking to find the answer.