One Uncovered Summer is a gripping, emotional, well-written novel with a cast of realistic and sympathetic characters with so much depth, you will feel like ou know them personally. The setting is autenthic and vivid. J.W. masterfully brings the 1970s era to life. Secrets, tragedy, family, friendship and twists combine to make this an unforgettable read. I highly recommend you check it out. And…bonus…it’s available on Kindle Unlimited!
Winnie came to Texas expecting summer fun. Instead, she uncovered a family curse—and a baby running out of time.
When Winnie Beaumont and her mother move to her family’s hometown of Arcanum, Texas, Winnie expects the summer of 1978 to be filled with nothing but fun and adventures with her best friend and cousin, Mary Lynn. When the two thirteen-year-olds discover a secret family curse that causes each woman’s newborn to be stillborn, however, it becomes a race against the clock as they seek for a way to break its spell before Mary Lynn’s older sister has her first child in August.
Winnie soon finds that one secret leads to another, and before long she is grappling with questions of trust, privacy, and her own personal lineage as she slowly uncovers the truth. From her mentally unstable Aunt Helen, to her mother, to Mary Lynn herself, everyone seems to be hiding something. Winnie finds that answers aren’t always cut-and-dried, and black and white often fades to gray.
Excerpt:
Zebulon awoke to the sound of Annie calling. What she had said was unclear, but the voice was bright and sweet, and his heart leapt as he peered into the darkness.
“What is it,” he croaked, rubbing his eyes.
Come to me
“Where are you?”
I’m just here, in the next room
“I’m coming.”
He swung his legs out of bed and grabbed his cane. He opened the bedroom door with a creak and groped his way to the next room. Squinting as he flipped on the light, he entered.
Cardboard boxes were stacked haphazardly in every corner, the furniture standing like ghosts, covered in white sheets. This, he remembered, had been his wife’s bedroom after she had gotten sick. There had been a nurse then, to see to her needs throughout the day, although he had administered the morphine and other medicines himself, little good they had done. He could still smell the odor of her sweat and the bedpan, hear her labored breathing, though the room was used for nothing but storage now.
Come to me the voice said again. It was strong and smiling. I miss you.
“I miss you too,” he answered, sitting heavily upon the draped bed. “But I can’t come. Not yet.”
Why?
“Something I still need to do here. Something to set right.”
It wasn’t your fault. What’s done is done. You can’t change the past.
“It’s not the past I’m thinking of. It’s the future.”
There was silence then, and a great weariness and confusion fell upon him. Was he crazy? Sometimes he wasn’t sure. The past was so long gone, but sometimes it felt as near as a whisper, a cobweb he could step through. The house had been full of children once; their laughter had filled the halls. Sometimes he still heard the echoes.
“I’ll come soon,” he finally whispered. “I’m so tired.”
I know you are, darling
“I don’t sleep well. I have so many dreams. I need your little body next to mine. The bed is too big and cold.”
Come to me. As soon as you can
She was gone. He felt her melt away, sending a wake of longing through his chest.
“Daddy?”
He turned to see Pearl framed in the doorway, forehead creased.
“Dad, what are you doing? It’s the middle of the night.”
“I was just talking to your mother.”
She came and rested a warm hand on his shoulder.
“Let’s get you back in bed. It’s stuffy in here.”
He allowed himself to be led back to his room, where his daughter helped him climb into his bed and tucked the covers under his chin, as his mother had years before. The cobweb melted away again, and he was a child once more.
“Can I go fishing tomorrow, after my chores?” he asked.
“Of course,” Pearl said as she dropped a kiss on his cheek. “Anything you want.”
“Pancakes?”
“Those too.”
Her footsteps faded as she moved away, and he smiled in the darkness. He would use his new rod and reel, a gift from father on his last birthday. He would catch a million catfish. Mother would fry them in batter and bacon grease, and he would eat them with the corn that he had picked the day before. He would stay up til dark and catch fireflies with his little sister.
The air conditioner in the window rattled on and he drifted into sleep carried on its hum, still making plans for a future that was long entombed in the past.
