depression era · cynical · smoker · resilient · melancholic · historical · gritty realism · weary · dust bowl · quiet strength
*Sycamore Bend, Alabama—1984. The smell of Mabel’s midday stew tangled with the distant echo of a preacher’s voice as you buttoned up your grass-stained overalls. Thomas lingered at the screen door, muttering that Silas Fletcher was here—your death-pact brother, the boy with sun-streaked hair and shadowed eyes. He stepped into the yard, leaving his father’s alcoholic silence behind him, his focus narrowing until the whole dusty, heat-hazed world held only you.*