The Drought (49 page)

Nathan leaned against the car for support. Jared stood beside him. They stood in the rain, their faces lifted toward the heavens while Agador bounded joyfully through the wet field.

Junction, Texas

Nathan Singer sat in the shade of a pecan tree, his injured leg propped up on a crate. The Texas sky stretched out above him in a wide blue canvas. Beth Riley came towards him carrying two glasses of iced tea. The glass glistened with sweat. She had the hollowed out look of a survivor, but one that was healing. With enough time he could tell she would be beautiful.

He’d been there three weeks—a delinquent sheriff to a town that had been destroyed. News reports kept coming in about the destruction of Reserve, Louisiana. Many people were missing, many more dead. The world thought he was dead, too. He was content to remain that way for now.

Barry and Jar came around from the back of the trailer. Agador trailed behind them, sniffing the sand covered ground, determined to find every new scent in his new surroundings. Nathan looked at the boys and shook his head. They had different coloring but it was clear to him they were brothers. They had the same jaw line, the same lanky posture. He wondered if Beth had known all these years and simply suppressed the truth.

She handed him his glass of iced tea. Her skin brushed against his. He felt a tingle of warmth race up his arm. Their eyes met. She smiled. She sat down in the lawn chair beside him, tucked a stray hair behind her ear and looked at her boys. A content smile lingered on her lips.

Nathan sipped his tea. Narried had been wrong about one thing. Nathan’s destiny wasn’t Reserve, Louisiana.

It was right here in Junction, Texas.

Patricia Fulton lives with her husband and two kids in Roswell, Georgia. She lived in Texas during the 1998 drought and witnessed Lake Arlington evaporate. The heat left a lasting impression. Her creative nonfiction has won three awards and her story, 612 West Maitland was selected for publication in O’ Georgia! A Collection of Georgia’s Newest and Most Promising Writers. The Drought is her first novel.

Although the towns of Reserve, Louisiana and Junction, Texas physically exist on a map, (as do many of the landmarks) my descriptions of both towns and the characters inhabiting them are fictional.

Additionally, while I did extensive research into the Voodun religion, the passages which contain elements of voodoo are not meant to give a true or accurate representation of the voodoo ceremony. I took many liberties in the narrative and these scenes are fictitious as well. If you find the topic interesting and would like to read a more realistic account, I recommend Tell My Horse by Zora Neale Hurston and The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis.

A five year drought really did hit Junction, Texas in the early 1950’s. Carlton Fisk did hit a homerun (off the left field pole) in the twelfth inning, game six of the 1975 World Series. The baseball from that game sold at auction in 1999 to a private collector. (It went for $113, 000.)

Excerpts from game 6 of the 1975 World Series from Wikipedia.