Leola's Mountain

The dying Leola watched the Air Force pilot whom Anna loved, and could never have, take her hand and lead her into the living room. She had never seen a more beautiful scene. Anna's dress, sheen of white, molded to the curves of her body in a whispering shuffle as they danced to the soft music. Who could have known that the ten-year-old motherless, freckle-faced, skinny child she had taken as her own would grow to have such beauty and poise? What a bonus for her to have character, leading her to love and nurse those old war veterans under her care. Whether she was the tomboy in overalls repairing a roof or visiting an old man at his whiskey still, there was always the woman-a woman unlike any other. Here was the prize of Leola's Mountain, always caring, educated with funds furnished by a moonshiner and a carpet mill worker. Whether in a white gown or a nurse's uniform, it quietly proclaimed all the purity that was underneath. She was a mountain gal. She was Anna Beam. Brutal and evil men came to harm her and Anna. Could the old moonshiner and his misfit friends save them?