The Denied Stone

By: Herman Baxter

Narrated by: Jamal Henderson

Six generations of Mason Family men have maintained the black stone bridge that once led to the sugarcane fields of Dieffenbach Plantation, but now leads to a barbed-wire fence separating the town of Diffenbourg, Louisiana from Caesar Oil Company’s petroleum tank farm.

Warren Mason was to be the bridge’s next guardian, but his departure has left its upkeep in the hands of his ailing father who has spent his life preserving it, and his myopic older brother who would sacrifice it to settle a class action with Caesar.

When the company threatens to expand the farm and destroy the bridge, Warren’s teenage nephew, Ronnie, defies his father and tries to save it. But, as Ronnie recounts in his letter to Warren written a decade later, his efforts impact both the family and the town in ways no one could have foreseen.

©2024 Herman Baxter (P)2025 Herman Baxter

strong young man

what I like about the story no matters what his father did he was determine to do thing his way