BLUE SKIES OVER SLATE SPRINGS

Hard to believe, but "Autumn's Coming On." My favorite time of year, though we have a short-lived one here in Florida. More summer than fall, so we celebrate as early and as long as we can, hoping for a bit of cool sooner or later. Here's an excerpt from my manuscript, the novel set in Sarepta and Slate Springs, Mississippi during the last days of the Civil War and a period of time called Reconstruction. A time when Mississippians were like a broken arm dangling from a mangled body. Still outside the Union. Still trying to pick up the pieces.

FROM ISAAC'S HOUSE
Fall of 1866

He loved how the sweet gums, tall and straight, caught the morning sun, painting the landscape crimson and yellow, the seed balls swinging festively on every twig,  the dew that glimmered at first light, and the rays that slashed across the porch of a morning. Soon the green would vanish except for the cedars and pines and magnolias. That was not unsettling to Isaac, for it would then be possible for him to see through the canebrake to the creek beyond. The blue skies over Slate Springs would stay the same and the dew would continue to glisten like gold and silver on the dried leaves and pine needles. And if winter allowed an inch of snow to fall, his world would sparkle like slithers of diamonds. Every season had its splendid advantage and from front porch or back or from the myriad panes on every side, he would sit and bask in the blessings of each, calling them by name—winter, spring, summer and best of all—autumn.

Jane Bennett Gaddy, Ph.D.