Where the Crawdads Sing Paperback
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NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE—The #1 New York Times bestselling worldwide sensation with more than 15
million copies sold, hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “a painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder
mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature.”
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley
Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome
Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the
so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent,
she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding
friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she
yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued
by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life—until the unthinkable
happens.
Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking
coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us
that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all
subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“A
painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a
coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature....Owens here surveys the
desolate marshlands of the North Carolina coast through the eyes of an
abandoned child. And in her isolation that child makes us open our own eyes to
the secret wonders—and dangers—of her private world.”—The New York Times
Book Review
“Steeped in the rhythms and shadows of the coastal marshes of North Carolina’s
Outer Banks, this fierce and hauntingly beautiful novel centers on...Kya’s
heartbreaking story of learning to trust human connections, intertwine[d] with
a gripping murder mystery, revealing savage truths. An astonishing debut.”—People
“This lush mystery is perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver.”—Bustle
“A lush debut novel, Owens delivers her mystery wrapped in gorgeous, lyrical
prose. It’s clear she’s from this place—the land of the southern coasts, but
also the emotional terrain—you can feel it in the pages. A magnificent
achievement, ambitious, credible and very timely.”—Alexandra Fuller, New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Let’s Go to the
Dogs Tonight
“Heart-wrenching...A fresh
exploration of isolation and nature from a female perspective along with a
compelling love story.”—Entertainment Weekly
“This wonderful novel has a bit of
everything—mystery, romance, and fascinating characters, all told in a story
that takes place in North Carolina.”—Nicholas Sparks, New York Times bestselling author of Every Breath
“Delia Owen’s gorgeous novel is
both a coming-of-age tale and an engrossing whodunit.”—Real Simple
“Evocative...Kya makes for an unforgettable heroine.”—Publishers Weekly
“The New Southern novel...A lyrical
debut.”—Southern Living
“A nature-infused romance with a
killer twist.”—Refinery29
“Anyone who liked The Great Alone will want to read Where the Crawdads Sing....This astonishing debut is a beautiful and
haunting novel that packs a powerful punch. It’s the first novel in a long time
that made me cry.”—Kristin Hannah, author ofThe Great AloneandThe Nightingale
“Both a coming-of-age story and a
mysterious account of a murder investigation told from the perspective of a
young girl...Through Kya’s story, Owens explores how isolation affects human
behavior, and the deep effect that rejection can have on our lives.”—Vanity Fair
“Lyrical...Its appeal ris[es] from Kya’s deep connection to the place where
makes her home, and to all of its creatures.”—Booklist
“This beautiful, evocative novel is
likely to stay with you for many days afterward....absorbing.”—AARP
“This haunting tale captivates every bit as much for
its crime drama elements as for the humanity at its core.” —Mystery & Suspense Magazine
“Compelling, original...A mystery, a
courtroom drama, a romance and a coming-of-age story, Where the Crawdads Sing is a moving, beautiful tale. Readers will
remember Kya for a long, long time.”—ShelfAwareness
“With prose luminous as a
low-country moon, Owens weaves a compelling tale of a forgotten girl in the
unforgiving coastal marshes of North Carolina. It is a murder mystery/love
story/courtroom drama that readers will love, but the novel delves so much
deeper into the bone and sinew of our very nature, asking often unanswerable
questions, old and intractable as the marsh itself. A stunning debut!”—Christopher Scotton, author of The Secret Wisdom of
the Earth
“A compelling mystery with prose so
luminous it can cut through the murkiest of pluff mud.”—Augusta Chronicle
“Carries the rhythm of an old time
ballad. It is clear Owens knows this land intimately, from the black mud
sucking at footsteps to the taste of saltwater and the cry of seagulls.”—David Joy, author of The Line That
Held Us
About the Author
Delia Owens is the coauthor of
three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife
scientist in Africa. She holds a BS in Zoology from the University of Georgia
and a PhD in Animal Behavior from the University of California at Davis. She
has won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing and has been published in Nature, The African
Journal of Ecology, and International Wildlife, among many others. She lives in the mountains
of North Carolina. Where the Crawdads Sing is her first novel.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1.
Ma
1952
The morning burned so August-hot, the marsh's moist breath hung the oaks and
pines with fog. The palmetto patches stood unusually quiet except for the low,
slow flap of the heron's wings lifting from the lagoon. And then, Kya, only six
at the time, heard the screen door slap. Standing on the stool, she stopped
scrubbing grits from the pot and lowered it into the basin of worn-out suds. No
sounds now but her own breathing. Who had left the shack? Not Ma. She never let
the door slam.
But when Kya ran to the porch, she saw her mother in a long brown skirt, kick
pleats nipping at her ankles, as she walked down the sandy lane in high heels.
The stubby-nosed shoes were fake alligator skin. Her only going-out pair. Kya
wanted to holler out but knew not to rouse Pa, so opened the door and stood on
the brick-'n'-board steps. From there she saw the blue train case Ma carried.
Usually, with the confidence of a pup, Kya knew her mother would return with
meat wrapped in greasy brown paper or with a chicken, head dangling down. But
she never wore the gator heels, never took a case.
Ma always looked back where the foot lane met the road, one arm held high,
white palm waving, as she turned onto the track, which wove through bog forests,
cattail lagoons, and maybe-if the tide obliged-eventually into town. But today
she walked on, unsteady in the ruts. Her tall figure emerged now and then
through the holes of the forest until only swatches of white scarf flashed
between the leaves. Kya sprinted to the spot she knew would bare the road;
surely Ma would wave from there, but she arrived only in time to glimpse the
blue case-the color so wrong for the woods-as it disappeared. A heaviness,
thick as black-cotton mud, pushed her chest as she returned to the steps to
wait.
Kya was the youngest of five, the others much older, though later she couldn't
recall their ages. They lived with Ma and Pa, squeezed together like penned
rabbits, in the rough-cut shack, its screened porch staring big-eyed from under
the oaks.
Jodie, the brother closest to Kya, but still seven years older, stepped from
the house and stood behind her. He had her same dark eyes and black hair; had
taught her birdsongs, star names, how to steer the boat through saw grass.
"Ma'll be back," he said.
"I dunno. She's wearin' her gator shoes."
"A ma don't leave her kids. It ain't in 'em."
"You told me that fox left her babies."
"Yeah, but that vixen got 'er leg all tore up. She'd've starved to death
if she'd tried to feed herself 'n' her kits. She was better off to leave 'em,
heal herself up, then whelp more when she could raise 'em good. Ma ain't
starvin', she'll be back." Jodie wasn't nearly as sure as he sounded, but
said it for Kya.
Her throat tight, she whispered, "But Ma's carryin' that blue case like
she's goin' somewheres big."
The shack sat back from the palmettos, which sprawled across sand flats to a
necklace of green lagoons and, in the distance, all the marsh beyond. Miles of
blade-grass so tough it grew in salt water, interrupted only by trees so bent
they wore the shape of the wind. Oak forests bunched around the other sides of
the shack and sheltered the closest lagoon, its surface so rich in life it
churned. Salt air and gull-song drifted through the trees from the sea.
Claiming territory hadn't changed much since the 1500s. The scattered marsh
holdings weren't legally described, just staked out natural-a creek boundary
here, a dead oak there-by renegades. A man doesn't set up a palmetto lean-to in
a bog unless he's on the run from somebody or at the end of his own road.
The marsh was guarded by a torn shoreline, labeled by early explorers as the
"Graveyard of the Atlantic" because riptides, furious winds, and
shallow shoals wrecked ships like paper hats along what would become the North
Carolina coast. One seaman's journal read, "rang'd along the Shoar . . .
but could discern no Entrance . . . A violent Storm overtook us . . . we were
forced to get off to Sea, to secure Ourselves and Ship, and were driven by the
Rapidity of a strong Current . . .
"The Land . . . being marshy and Swamps, we return'd towards our Ship . .
. Discouragement of all such as should hereafter come into those Parts to
settle."
Those looking for serious land moved on, and this infamous marsh became a net,
scooping up a mishmash of mutinous sailors, castaways, debtors, and fugitives
dodging wars, taxes, or laws that they didn't take to. The ones malaria didn't
kill or the swamp didn't swallow bred into a woodsmen tribe of several races and
multiple cultures, each of whom could fell a small forest with a hatchet and
pack a buck for miles. Like river rats, each had his own territory, yet had to
fit into the fringe or simply disappear some day in the swamp. Two hundred
years later, they were joined by runaway slaves, who escaped into the marsh and
were called maroons, and freed slaves, penniless and beleaguered, who dispersed
into the water-land because of scant options.
Maybe it was mean country, but not an inch was lean. Layers of life-squiggly
sand crabs, mud-waddling crayfish, waterfowl, fish, shrimp, oysters, fatted
deer, and plump geese-were piled on the land or in the water. A man who didn't
mind scrabbling for supper would never starve.
It was now 1952, so some of the claims had been held by a string of
disconnected, unrecorded persons for four centuries. Most before the Civil War.
Others squatted on the land more recently, especially after the World Wars,
when men came back broke and broke-up. The marsh did not confine them but defined
them and, like any sacred ground, kept their secrets deep. No one cared that
they held the land because nobody else wanted it. After all, it was wasteland
bog.
Just like their whiskey, the marsh dwellers bootlegged their own laws-not like
those burned onto stone tablets or inscribed on documents, but deeper ones,
stamped in their genes. Ancient and natural, like those hatched from hawks and
doves. When cornered, desperate, or isolated, man reverts to those instincts
that aim straight at survival. Quick and just. They will always be the trump
cards because they are passed on more frequently from one generation to the
next than the gentler genes. It is not a morality, but simple math. Among
themselves, doves fight as often as hawks.
Ma didnÕt come back that day. No one spoke of it. Least of all Pa. Stinking of
fish and drum likker, he clanked pot lids. ÒWharÕs supper?Ó
Eyes downcast, the brothers and sisters shrugged. Pa dog-cussed, then
limp-stepped out, back into the woods. There had been fights before; Ma had
even left a time or two, but she always came back, scooping up whoever would be
cuddled.
The two older sisters cooked a supper of red beans and cornbread, but no one
sat to eat at the table, as they would have with Ma. Each dipped beans from the
pot, flopped cornbread on top, and wandered off to eat on their floor
mattresses or the faded sofa.
Kya couldn't eat. She sat on the porch steps, looking down the lane. Tall for
her age, bone skinny, she had deep-tanned skin and straight hair, black and thick
as crow wings.
Darkness put a stop to her lookout. Croaking frogs would drown the sounds of
footsteps; even so, she lay on her porch bed, listening. Just that morning
she'd awakened to fatback crackling in the iron skillet and whiffs of biscuits
browning in the wood oven. Pulling up her bib overalls, she'd rushed into the
kitchen to put the plates and forks out. Pick the weevils from the grits. Most
dawns, smiling wide, Ma hugged her-"Good morning, my special
girl"-and the two of them moved about the chores, dancelike. Sometimes Ma
sang folk songs or quoted nursery rhymes: "This little piggy went to
market." Or she'd swing Kya into a jitterbug, their feet banging the
plywood floor until the music of the battery-operated radio died, sounding as
if it were singing to itself at the bottom of a barrel. Other mornings Ma spoke
about adult things Kya didn't understand, but she figured Ma's words needed
somewhere to go, so she absorbed them through her skin, as she poked more wood
in the cookstove. Nodding like she knew.
Then, the hustle of getting everybody up and fed. Pa not there. He had two
settings: silence and shouting. So it was just fine when he slept through, or
didn't come home at all.
But this morning, Ma had been quiet; her smile lost, her eyes red. She'd tied a
white scarf pirate style, low across her forehead, but the purple and yellow
edges of a bruise spilled out. Right after breakfast, even before the dishes
were washed, Ma had put a few personals in the train case and walked down the
road.
The next morning,Kya took up her post again on the steps, her dark eyes boring
down the lane like a tunnel waiting for a train. The marsh beyond was veiled in
fog so low its cushy bottom sat right on the mud. Barefoot, Kya drummed her
toes, twirled grass stems at doodlebugs, but a six-year-old canÕt sit long and
soon she moseyed onto the tidal flats, sucking sounds pulling at her toes.
Squatting at the edge of the clear water, she watched minnows dart between
sunspots and shadows.
Jodie hollered to her from the palmettos. She stared; maybe he was coming with
news. But as he wove through the spiky fronds, she knew by the way he moved,
casual, that Ma wasn't home.
"Ya wanta play explorers?" he asked.
"Ya said ya're too old to play 'splorers."
"Nah, I just said that. Never too old. Race ya!"
They tore across the flats, then through the woods toward the beach. She
squealed as he overtook her and laughed until they reached the large oak that
jutted enormous arms over the sand. Jodie and their older brother, Murph, had
hammered a few boards across the branches as a lookout tower and tree fort.
Now, much of it was falling in, dangling from rusty nails.
Usually if she was allowed to crew at all it was as slave girl, bringing her
brothers warm biscuits swiped from Ma's pan.
But today Jodie said, "You can be captain."
Kya raised her right arm in a charge. "Run off the Spaniards!" They
broke off stick-swords and crashed through brambles, shouting and stabbing at
the enemy.
Then-make-believe coming and going easily-she walked to a mossy log and sat.
Silently, he joined her. He wanted to say something to get her mind off Ma, but
no words came, so they watched the swimming shadows of water striders.
Kya returned to the porch steps later and waited for a long time, but, as she
looked to the end of the lane, she never cried. Her face was still, her lips a
simple thin line under searching eyes. But Ma didn't come back that day either.
2.
Jodie
1952
After Ma left, over the next few weeks, Kya's oldest brother and two sisters
drifted away too, as if by example. They had endured Pa's red-faced rages,
which started as shouts, then escalated into fist-slugs, or backhanded punches,
until one by one, they disappeared. They were nearly grown anyway. And later,
just as she forgot their ages, she couldn't remember their real names, only
that they were called Missy, Murph, and Mandy. On her porch mattress, Kya found
a small pile of socks left by her sisters.
On the morning when Jodie was the only sibling left, Kya awakened to the
clatter-clank and hot grease of breakfast. She dashed into the kitchen,
thinking Ma was home frying corn fritters or hoecakes. But it was Jodie,
standing at the woodstove, stirring grits. She smiled to hide the letdown, and
he patted the top of her head, gently shushing her to be quiet: if they didn't
wake Pa, they could eat alone. Jodie didn't know how to make biscuits, and
there wasn't any bacon, so he cooked grits and scrambled eggs in lard, and they
sat down together, silently exchanging glances and smiles.
They washed their dishes fast, then ran out the door toward the marsh, he in
the lead. But just then Pa shouted and hobbled toward them. Impossibly lean,
his frame seemed to flop about from poor gravity. His molars yellow as an old
dog's teeth.
Kya looked up at Jodie. "We can run. Hide in the mossy place."
"It's okay. It'll be okay," he said.
Later, near sunset, Jodie found Kya on the beach staring at the sea. As he
stepped up beside her, she didnÕt look at him but kept her eyes on the roiling
waves. Still, she knew by the way he spoke that Pa had slugged his face.
"I hafta go, Kya. Can't live here no longer."
She almost turned to him, but didn't. Wanted to beg him not to leave her alone
with Pa, but the words jammed up.
"When you're old enough you'll understand," he said. Kya wanted to
holler out that she may be young, but she wasn't stupid. She knew Pa was the
reason they all left; what she wondered was why no one took her with them.
She'd thought of leaving too, but had nowhere to go and no bus money.
"Kya, ya be careful, hear. If anybody comes, don't go in the house. They
can get ya there. Run deep in the marsh, hide in the bushes. Always cover yo'
tracks; I learned ya how. And ya can hide from Pa, too." When she still
didn't speak, he said good-bye and strode across the beach to the woods. Just
before he stepped into the trees, she finally turned and watched him walk away.
"This little piggy stayed home," she said to the waves.
Breaking her freeze, she ran to the shack. Shouted his name down the hall, but
Jodie's things were already gone, his floor bed stripped bare.
She sank onto his mattress, watching the last of that day slide down the wall.
Light lingered after the sun, as it does, some of it pooling in the room, so
that for a brief moment the lumpy beds and piles of old clothes took on more
shape and color than the trees outside.
A gnawing hunger-such a mundane thing-surprised her. She walked to the kitchen
and stood at the door. All her life the room had been warmed from baking bread,
boiling butter beans, or bubbling fish stew. Now, it was stale, quiet, and
dark. "Who's gonna cook?" she asked out loud. Could have asked, Who's
gonna dance?
Product
details
·
Publisher
: Penguin Publishing Group (March 30, 2021)
·
Language
: English
·
Paperback
: 400 pages
·
ISBN-10
: 0735219109
·
ISBN-13
: 978-0735219106
·
Item Weight
: 11.2 ounces
·
Dimensions
: 5.48 x 0.81 x 8.2 inches
Where
the Crawdads Sing Paperback
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE—The #1 New York Times bestselling worldwide sensation with more than 15
million copies sold, hailed by The New York Times Book Review as “a painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder
mystery, a coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature.”
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley
Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome
Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the
so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent,
she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding
friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she
yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued
by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life—until the unthinkable
happens.
Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking
coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us
that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all
subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“A
painfully beautiful first novel that is at once a murder mystery, a
coming-of-age narrative and a celebration of nature....Owens here surveys the
desolate marshlands of the North Carolina coast through the eyes of an
abandoned child. And in her isolation that child makes us open our own eyes to
the secret wonders—and dangers—of her private world.”—The New York Times
Book Review
“Steeped in the rhythms and shadows of the coastal marshes of North Carolina’s
Outer Banks, this fierce and hauntingly beautiful novel centers on...Kya’s
heartbreaking story of learning to trust human connections, intertwine[d] with
a gripping murder mystery, revealing savage truths. An astonishing debut.”—People
“This lush mystery is perfect for fans of Barbara Kingsolver.”—Bustle
“A lush debut novel, Owens delivers her mystery wrapped in gorgeous, lyrical
prose. It’s clear she’s from this place—the land of the southern coasts, but
also the emotional terrain—you can feel it in the pages. A magnificent
achievement, ambitious, credible and very timely.”—Alexandra Fuller, New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Let’s Go to the
Dogs Tonight
“Heart-wrenching...A fresh
exploration of isolation and nature from a female perspective along with a
compelling love story.”—Entertainment Weekly
“This wonderful novel has a bit of
everything—mystery, romance, and fascinating characters, all told in a story
that takes place in North Carolina.”—Nicholas Sparks, New York Times bestselling author of Every Breath
“Delia Owen’s gorgeous novel is
both a coming-of-age tale and an engrossing whodunit.”—Real Simple
“Evocative...Kya makes for an unforgettable heroine.”—Publishers Weekly
“The New Southern novel...A lyrical
debut.”—Southern Living
“A nature-infused romance with a
killer twist.”—Refinery29
“Anyone who liked The Great Alone will want to read Where the Crawdads Sing....This astonishing debut is a beautiful and
haunting novel that packs a powerful punch. It’s the first novel in a long time
that made me cry.”—Kristin Hannah, author ofThe Great AloneandThe Nightingale
“Both a coming-of-age story and a
mysterious account of a murder investigation told from the perspective of a
young girl...Through Kya’s story, Owens explores how isolation affects human
behavior, and the deep effect that rejection can have on our lives.”—Vanity Fair
“Lyrical...Its appeal ris[es] from Kya’s deep connection to the place where
makes her home, and to all of its creatures.”—Booklist
“This beautiful, evocative novel is
likely to stay with you for many days afterward....absorbing.”—AARP
“This haunting tale captivates every bit as much for
its crime drama elements as for the humanity at its core.” —Mystery & Suspense Magazine
“Compelling, original...A mystery, a
courtroom drama, a romance and a coming-of-age story, Where the Crawdads Sing is a moving, beautiful tale. Readers will
remember Kya for a long, long time.”—ShelfAwareness
“With prose luminous as a
low-country moon, Owens weaves a compelling tale of a forgotten girl in the
unforgiving coastal marshes of North Carolina. It is a murder mystery/love
story/courtroom drama that readers will love, but the novel delves so much
deeper into the bone and sinew of our very nature, asking often unanswerable
questions, old and intractable as the marsh itself. A stunning debut!”—Christopher Scotton, author of The Secret Wisdom of
the Earth
“A compelling mystery with prose so
luminous it can cut through the murkiest of pluff mud.”—Augusta Chronicle
“Carries the rhythm of an old time
ballad. It is clear Owens knows this land intimately, from the black mud
sucking at footsteps to the taste of saltwater and the cry of seagulls.”—David Joy, author of The Line That
Held Us
About the Author
Delia Owens is the coauthor of
three internationally bestselling nonfiction books about her life as a wildlife
scientist in Africa. She holds a BS in Zoology from the University of Georgia
and a PhD in Animal Behavior from the University of California at Davis. She
has won the John Burroughs Award for Nature Writing and has been published in Nature, The African
Journal of Ecology, and International Wildlife, among many others. She lives in the mountains
of North Carolina. Where the Crawdads Sing is her first novel.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1.
Ma
1952
The morning burned so August-hot, the marsh's moist breath hung the oaks and
pines with fog. The palmetto patches stood unusually quiet except for the low,
slow flap of the heron's wings lifting from the lagoon. And then, Kya, only six
at the time, heard the screen door slap. Standing on the stool, she stopped
scrubbing grits from the pot and lowered it into the basin of worn-out suds. No
sounds now but her own breathing. Who had left the shack? Not Ma. She never let
the door slam.
But when Kya ran to the porch, she saw her mother in a long brown skirt, kick
pleats nipping at her ankles, as she walked down the sandy lane in high heels.
The stubby-nosed shoes were fake alligator skin. Her only going-out pair. Kya
wanted to holler out but knew not to rouse Pa, so opened the door and stood on
the brick-'n'-board steps. From there she saw the blue train case Ma carried.
Usually, with the confidence of a pup, Kya knew her mother would return with
meat wrapped in greasy brown paper or with a chicken, head dangling down. But
she never wore the gator heels, never took a case.
Ma always looked back where the foot lane met the road, one arm held high,
white palm waving, as she turned onto the track, which wove through bog forests,
cattail lagoons, and maybe-if the tide obliged-eventually into town. But today
she walked on, unsteady in the ruts. Her tall figure emerged now and then
through the holes of the forest until only swatches of white scarf flashed
between the leaves. Kya sprinted to the spot she knew would bare the road;
surely Ma would wave from there, but she arrived only in time to glimpse the
blue case-the color so wrong for the woods-as it disappeared. A heaviness,
thick as black-cotton mud, pushed her chest as she returned to the steps to
wait.
Kya was the youngest of five, the others much older, though later she couldn't
recall their ages. They lived with Ma and Pa, squeezed together like penned
rabbits, in the rough-cut shack, its screened porch staring big-eyed from under
the oaks.
Jodie, the brother closest to Kya, but still seven years older, stepped from
the house and stood behind her. He had her same dark eyes and black hair; had
taught her birdsongs, star names, how to steer the boat through saw grass.
"Ma'll be back," he said.
"I dunno. She's wearin' her gator shoes."
"A ma don't leave her kids. It ain't in 'em."
"You told me that fox left her babies."
"Yeah, but that vixen got 'er leg all tore up. She'd've starved to death
if she'd tried to feed herself 'n' her kits. She was better off to leave 'em,
heal herself up, then whelp more when she could raise 'em good. Ma ain't
starvin', she'll be back." Jodie wasn't nearly as sure as he sounded, but
said it for Kya.
Her throat tight, she whispered, "But Ma's carryin' that blue case like
she's goin' somewheres big."
The shack sat back from the palmettos, which sprawled across sand flats to a
necklace of green lagoons and, in the distance, all the marsh beyond. Miles of
blade-grass so tough it grew in salt water, interrupted only by trees so bent
they wore the shape of the wind. Oak forests bunched around the other sides of
the shack and sheltered the closest lagoon, its surface so rich in life it
churned. Salt air and gull-song drifted through the trees from the sea.
Claiming territory hadn't changed much since the 1500s. The scattered marsh
holdings weren't legally described, just staked out natural-a creek boundary
here, a dead oak there-by renegades. A man doesn't set up a palmetto lean-to in
a bog unless he's on the run from somebody or at the end of his own road.
The marsh was guarded by a torn shoreline, labeled by early explorers as the
"Graveyard of the Atlantic" because riptides, furious winds, and
shallow shoals wrecked ships like paper hats along what would become the North
Carolina coast. One seaman's journal read, "rang'd along the Shoar . . .
but could discern no Entrance . . . A violent Storm overtook us . . . we were
forced to get off to Sea, to secure Ourselves and Ship, and were driven by the
Rapidity of a strong Current . . .
"The Land . . . being marshy and Swamps, we return'd towards our Ship . .
. Discouragement of all such as should hereafter come into those Parts to
settle."
Those looking for serious land moved on, and this infamous marsh became a net,
scooping up a mishmash of mutinous sailors, castaways, debtors, and fugitives
dodging wars, taxes, or laws that they didn't take to. The ones malaria didn't
kill or the swamp didn't swallow bred into a woodsmen tribe of several races and
multiple cultures, each of whom could fell a small forest with a hatchet and
pack a buck for miles. Like river rats, each had his own territory, yet had to
fit into the fringe or simply disappear some day in the swamp. Two hundred
years later, they were joined by runaway slaves, who escaped into the marsh and
were called maroons, and freed slaves, penniless and beleaguered, who dispersed
into the water-land because of scant options.
Maybe it was mean country, but not an inch was lean. Layers of life-squiggly
sand crabs, mud-waddling crayfish, waterfowl, fish, shrimp, oysters, fatted
deer, and plump geese-were piled on the land or in the water. A man who didn't
mind scrabbling for supper would never starve.
It was now 1952, so some of the claims had been held by a string of
disconnected, unrecorded persons for four centuries. Most before the Civil War.
Others squatted on the land more recently, especially after the World Wars,
when men came back broke and broke-up. The marsh did not confine them but defined
them and, like any sacred ground, kept their secrets deep. No one cared that
they held the land because nobody else wanted it. After all, it was wasteland
bog.
Just like their whiskey, the marsh dwellers bootlegged their own laws-not like
those burned onto stone tablets or inscribed on documents, but deeper ones,
stamped in their genes. Ancient and natural, like those hatched from hawks and
doves. When cornered, desperate, or isolated, man reverts to those instincts
that aim straight at survival. Quick and just. They will always be the trump
cards because they are passed on more frequently from one generation to the
next than the gentler genes. It is not a morality, but simple math. Among
themselves, doves fight as often as hawks.
Ma didnÕt come back that day. No one spoke of it. Least of all Pa. Stinking of
fish and drum likker, he clanked pot lids. ÒWharÕs supper?Ó
Eyes downcast, the brothers and sisters shrugged. Pa dog-cussed, then
limp-stepped out, back into the woods. There had been fights before; Ma had
even left a time or two, but she always came back, scooping up whoever would be
cuddled.
The two older sisters cooked a supper of red beans and cornbread, but no one
sat to eat at the table, as they would have with Ma. Each dipped beans from the
pot, flopped cornbread on top, and wandered off to eat on their floor
mattresses or the faded sofa.
Kya couldn't eat. She sat on the porch steps, looking down the lane. Tall for
her age, bone skinny, she had deep-tanned skin and straight hair, black and thick
as crow wings.
Darkness put a stop to her lookout. Croaking frogs would drown the sounds of
footsteps; even so, she lay on her porch bed, listening. Just that morning
she'd awakened to fatback crackling in the iron skillet and whiffs of biscuits
browning in the wood oven. Pulling up her bib overalls, she'd rushed into the
kitchen to put the plates and forks out. Pick the weevils from the grits. Most
dawns, smiling wide, Ma hugged her-"Good morning, my special
girl"-and the two of them moved about the chores, dancelike. Sometimes Ma
sang folk songs or quoted nursery rhymes: "This little piggy went to
market." Or she'd swing Kya into a jitterbug, their feet banging the
plywood floor until the music of the battery-operated radio died, sounding as
if it were singing to itself at the bottom of a barrel. Other mornings Ma spoke
about adult things Kya didn't understand, but she figured Ma's words needed
somewhere to go, so she absorbed them through her skin, as she poked more wood
in the cookstove. Nodding like she knew.
Then, the hustle of getting everybody up and fed. Pa not there. He had two
settings: silence and shouting. So it was just fine when he slept through, or
didn't come home at all.
But this morning, Ma had been quiet; her smile lost, her eyes red. She'd tied a
white scarf pirate style, low across her forehead, but the purple and yellow
edges of a bruise spilled out. Right after breakfast, even before the dishes
were washed, Ma had put a few personals in the train case and walked down the
road.
The next morning,Kya took up her post again on the steps, her dark eyes boring
down the lane like a tunnel waiting for a train. The marsh beyond was veiled in
fog so low its cushy bottom sat right on the mud. Barefoot, Kya drummed her
toes, twirled grass stems at doodlebugs, but a six-year-old canÕt sit long and
soon she moseyed onto the tidal flats, sucking sounds pulling at her toes.
Squatting at the edge of the clear water, she watched minnows dart between
sunspots and shadows.
Jodie hollered to her from the palmettos. She stared; maybe he was coming with
news. But as he wove through the spiky fronds, she knew by the way he moved,
casual, that Ma wasn't home.
"Ya wanta play explorers?" he asked.
"Ya said ya're too old to play 'splorers."
"Nah, I just said that. Never too old. Race ya!"
They tore across the flats, then through the woods toward the beach. She
squealed as he overtook her and laughed until they reached the large oak that
jutted enormous arms over the sand. Jodie and their older brother, Murph, had
hammered a few boards across the branches as a lookout tower and tree fort.
Now, much of it was falling in, dangling from rusty nails.
Usually if she was allowed to crew at all it was as slave girl, bringing her
brothers warm biscuits swiped from Ma's pan.
But today Jodie said, "You can be captain."
Kya raised her right arm in a charge. "Run off the Spaniards!" They
broke off stick-swords and crashed through brambles, shouting and stabbing at
the enemy.
Then-make-believe coming and going easily-she walked to a mossy log and sat.
Silently, he joined her. He wanted to say something to get her mind off Ma, but
no words came, so they watched the swimming shadows of water striders.
Kya returned to the porch steps later and waited for a long time, but, as she
looked to the end of the lane, she never cried. Her face was still, her lips a
simple thin line under searching eyes. But Ma didn't come back that day either.
2.
Jodie
1952
After Ma left, over the next few weeks, Kya's oldest brother and two sisters
drifted away too, as if by example. They had endured Pa's red-faced rages,
which started as shouts, then escalated into fist-slugs, or backhanded punches,
until one by one, they disappeared. They were nearly grown anyway. And later,
just as she forgot their ages, she couldn't remember their real names, only
that they were called Missy, Murph, and Mandy. On her porch mattress, Kya found
a small pile of socks left by her sisters.
On the morning when Jodie was the only sibling left, Kya awakened to the
clatter-clank and hot grease of breakfast. She dashed into the kitchen,
thinking Ma was home frying corn fritters or hoecakes. But it was Jodie,
standing at the woodstove, stirring grits. She smiled to hide the letdown, and
he patted the top of her head, gently shushing her to be quiet: if they didn't
wake Pa, they could eat alone. Jodie didn't know how to make biscuits, and
there wasn't any bacon, so he cooked grits and scrambled eggs in lard, and they
sat down together, silently exchanging glances and smiles.
They washed their dishes fast, then ran out the door toward the marsh, he in
the lead. But just then Pa shouted and hobbled toward them. Impossibly lean,
his frame seemed to flop about from poor gravity. His molars yellow as an old
dog's teeth.
Kya looked up at Jodie. "We can run. Hide in the mossy place."
"It's okay. It'll be okay," he said.
Later, near sunset, Jodie found Kya on the beach staring at the sea. As he
stepped up beside her, she didnÕt look at him but kept her eyes on the roiling
waves. Still, she knew by the way he spoke that Pa had slugged his face.
"I hafta go, Kya. Can't live here no longer."
She almost turned to him, but didn't. Wanted to beg him not to leave her alone
with Pa, but the words jammed up.
"When you're old enough you'll understand," he said. Kya wanted to
holler out that she may be young, but she wasn't stupid. She knew Pa was the
reason they all left; what she wondered was why no one took her with them.
She'd thought of leaving too, but had nowhere to go and no bus money.
"Kya, ya be careful, hear. If anybody comes, don't go in the house. They
can get ya there. Run deep in the marsh, hide in the bushes. Always cover yo'
tracks; I learned ya how. And ya can hide from Pa, too." When she still
didn't speak, he said good-bye and strode across the beach to the woods. Just
before he stepped into the trees, she finally turned and watched him walk away.
"This little piggy stayed home," she said to the waves.
Breaking her freeze, she ran to the shack. Shouted his name down the hall, but
Jodie's things were already gone, his floor bed stripped bare.
She sank onto his mattress, watching the last of that day slide down the wall.
Light lingered after the sun, as it does, some of it pooling in the room, so
that for a brief moment the lumpy beds and piles of old clothes took on more
shape and color than the trees outside.
A gnawing hunger-such a mundane thing-surprised her. She walked to the kitchen
and stood at the door. All her life the room had been warmed from baking bread,
boiling butter beans, or bubbling fish stew. Now, it was stale, quiet, and
dark. "Who's gonna cook?" she asked out loud. Could have asked, Who's
gonna dance?
Product
details
·
Publisher
: Penguin Publishing Group (March 30, 2021)
·
Language
: English
·
Paperback
: 400 pages
·
ISBN-10
: 0735219109
·
ISBN-13
: 978-0735219106
·
Item Weight
: 11.2 ounces
·
Dimensions
: 5.48 x 0.81 x 8.2 inches