December 28, 1900, 8 pmChipley, Florida I have to get out of here. This is not my home. I don’t think it really ever was…. I walked through the vestibule, to the hallway, and opened the kitchen door. In the kitchen, Esther glanced up at me and smiled, as she replaced […]
December 28, 1900, 7:30 pm Chipley, Florida “About done in there, Emmett?” Blake stuck his head around the door of the depot’s back office, where I sat at the telegraph, finishing the report for today’s telegraph messages. The key had been silent for the past 15 minutes or so, a […]
October 21, 2014 McKeldin Library Research Carrel University of Maryland Campus, College Park Sometimes when I hit a dead end in the Emmett Wilson research trek, I try a side-road, namely, I stop looking directly for Emmett and instead dig around for information about his siblings. I figure with nine […]
December 25, 1900, 6:35 pm,P&A Train Depot, Chipley, Florida The Chipley train depot is a long, gray-and-brown, rectangular wooden building that looks very much like the other Pensacola & Atlantic stations along the line. There’s nothing remarkable about it other than the fact it has been rebuilt a few times; it […]
February 7, 2015The American University LibraryWashington, D.C. For the record, I have documented everything you can imagine about Emmett, including family members and close friends of Emmett, receipts or documents mentioning Emmett, schools in which he was enrolled, clubs he attended, and so forth. I like my data organized, chronological, […]
Christmas Day, 1900 The Wilson Home,Chipley, Florida Have you ever seen pictures of seated royalty on their thrones? The ones featuring a king, with princes and other members of the royal family seated around a central authority figure in descending order of power? If you stood Father’s front yard that […]
May 18, 2014, 8:45 a.m.St. John’s Cemetery Pensacola The female GPS voice crisply announces “Destination,” as I pull up slowly along North G Street, in the St. John’s Coalition neighborhood in Pensacola. I feel my stomach know up with anxiety. It’s not logical; there’s no reason for anxiety, but it […]
December 22, 1900Dr. Francis C. Wilson’s Office, Downtown Chipley Continued from here. === I climbed the stairs and paused at the top; my heart was pounding. I closed my eyes, and counted to ten; rubbed the center of my chest. Touched the liquor flask hidden in my coat pocket. After […]
May 18, 2014, about 6 a.m., Leaving Montgomery, Alabama I have a lot to think about on my way to Pensacola. It’s good to be out and about, especially since I don’t have a specific date or time with the person I’m meeting, but I wasn’t been able to sleep […]
May 17, 2014, Montgomery, Alabama, about 3 p.m. Her eyes. They are so blue, piercingly blue. I catch my breath audibly. But it isn’t just her eyes that get me — it is the moment. I can’t believe it. And in response, she laughs, kindly, cheerfully at me. I am […]
Tell my story. 