Lullabies and Lightning Storms

An old man crawled down the Ozarks from Elsinore to Gideon. He was dying and wanted to find his son. Six-year-old Sybil sat braiding the hair of a doll while the old man yelled his sad story through her window. Spit shot through the gaps of his missing teeth and splattered against the glass. But in rural Missouri, that was no excuse for a lack of hospitality. Around noon, Sybil’s mom, Cassie, brought the old man some iced tea in a tumbler—the last of her grandmother’s Georgian Lovebirds Depression glasses.

©2015 American Blackguard, Inc. (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Folktales, Old Ways, and a Mama's Love

This short story about a sixteen-year-old unwed mother and her baby girl, Sybil, who was a "bubble baby" with a special gifts is more of a folktale than anything else. You have to listen with an open mind and an open heart to catch the intonations of what Cassie, the young mother is experiencing . . . the most important part of the tale to me. Her native American boyfriend has run off and left her and the baby. Yet Sybil has his black shiny hair. And Sybil's reputation of having the ability to see things has spread far and wide . . . and her visitors leave after they visit . . . in awe or in fear or just speechless. And Cassie just observes. She hears her little girl speak the first words ever in her life at age six . . . and can hardly believe her ears. Cassie and all those around her have been given a gift in little Sybil . . . until the storm comes . . .

Last short story in the series

Jennifer Riker narrates this seven short story series which was written by seven different authors. This one is somewhat disappointing.