The Summer’s End by Mary Alice Monroe EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Author: Mary Alice Monroe
- Genre: Parenting & Relationships, Women’s Psychological Fiction, Contemporary American Fiction
- Publish Date: 19 May 2015
- Size: 6 MB
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Status: Avail for Download
- Price: Free
The dawn of another summer day. Mamaw tightened the
soft cashmere throw around her thin shoulders. Slivers of
light pierced the velvety blackness over the Cove, and
pewter-colored shadows danced on the spiky marsh grass
like ethereal ghosts.
Mamaw sat huddled on an oversize, black wicker chair
on her back porch, her legs tucked beneath her. The fog
was moist on her face and the predawn chill seemed to
penetrate straight to her bones. She couldn’t seem to get
warm with Lucille gone.
Since her dear friend’s death,
many nights she’d awakened from a fitful sleep and come
outdoors hoping the fresh air would settle her. She’d
found scant warmth or peace in the chill of predawn. In
the distance, the Atlantic Ocean, her mercurial friend,
roared like a hungry beast. The waves were devouring the
dunes in a relentless rhythm. Echoes reverberated over
Sullivan’s Island.
Over a week had passed since Lucille’s death. Yet she
still felt her old friend’s presence around her, hovering in
death as she had in life. Dear Lucille. Death came to us
all. She knew that. Mamaw was no stranger to death. At
eighty years of age, she could hardly have been spared the
loss of loved ones. She’d buried her parents, and, too
early, her son and husband. Tonight she felt the past was
more alive than the present. Memories of her loved ones
played vividly in her mind.
Mamaw drew a long, ragged breath. From far away, she
heard the mournful bellowing of a ship’s foghorn. From a
nearby tree, a bird began calling out his strident dawn
whistles . . . a cardinal, she thought.
She listened, stirred from her lethargy by the dawn
song. She watched as the morning light, in degrees,
brightened the skyline, revealing the ragged tips of green
sea grass, palm trees clustered on a hammock, and the
towering Ravenel Bridge, appearing as two great sailing
vessels, in the distance. Slowly, the rising sun illuminated
the darkness, peeling away the shroud from her heart. She
felt her despair dissipate with the mist. Mamaw said a
prayer of thanks to the rising sun and took a deep breath
of the cool, mud-scented air.
Another day was dawning. The worst was over.
Foolish old woman, she chided herself as the gray sky
shifted to blue. Look at yourself, sitting in the dark,
mourning your friend. Wouldn’t Lucille give you what for if
she spied you moping like this outdoors in the damp chill,
still in your nightclothes? Who had time to lollygag?
Their
plan for the summer was not finished! She’d invited her
three nearly estranged granddaughters to Sea Breeze in
May—and they’d come. The first time they’d been
together in over a decade. True, it had so far been a
tumultuous summer of change and growth, ups and
downs, joys and heartaches. But it was her triumph that
they’d weathered the vicissitudes together. Eudora, Carson,
and Harper had rediscovered the sisterly love they’d
shared as children when they played together during the
summers here on Sullivan’s Island. Howling at the moon?
She should be crowing like a rooster!
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