Home to Big Stone Gap
A Novel
chapter 1
Cracker’s Neck Holler
1998
As the wind blows through our bedroom window, it sounds like a whistling teakettle. As I wake, for a split second, I forget where I am. As soon as I see our suitcases piled next to the closet door, in the exact place where we dropped them, I remember. Etta’s wedding, though it was just one week ago, already seems like a faraway dream.
When we drove up the road last night, our home in Cracker’s Neck Holler looked like a castle in the mist. The first days of autumn always bring the cold fog, which makes every twist and turn on these mountain roads treacherous. Etta used to call the September fog the Murky Murk. She told me, “I don’t like it when I can’t see the mountains, Mama.”
This morning they’re in plain view again. Since we’ve been gone, the mossy field out back has turned to brown velvet, and the woods beyond have a silver patina from the first frost. I take a deep breath.
In a way, it’s good to be home, where everything is in its place. The same beam of sunlight that comes over th ...
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