Emerging Writers: New Historical Fiction by Mary Ann DiLorenzo, Part 2
Journeying Back to What Used to Be, Part 2.
“Well, well, Johnny, welcome back!” He turned to see his best friend since childhood standing there. He gave him a handshake, so glad to see him, to see anyone really, and asked him, “What in tarnation are you doing here?!”
“Thought you’d be back in these parts around about now. Figured I ought to check on you, see if you were back yet, knew you’d insist on starting over here. I was right, huh?”
“Yep, that’s what I aim to do! How’d you fare?”
“Was lucky, somehow Sherman missed us. Except for a stray Yank every now and then stopping by and upsetting the apple cart, our place was spared. For better or worse, it’s good to be home!”
Four years ago Johnny and all the rest of them left the places they called home, all excited for the adventure of war. Johnny was going to get himself some Yankees! They weren’t gonna get the best of him, or any of the Southern boys. Four years later, Johnny’s way of life was gone.
After Georgia’s secession in early 1861, war and fighting those Yanks was all the talk and speculation around and about rural Georgia. When the time came to actually go to war, Johnny like all the others, was "a whooping and a hollering." It was going to be the time of their lives. “We’ll have those Yankees whipped in a week!” was their mantra. And off to war they went. It would surely be the time of their lives, but not quite how they were thinking.
First stop for Johnny was Atlanta, a big city that seemed even bigger to those with rural roots like Johnny. As he stood, along with the others who had enlisted with him, in the middle of the city’s welcoming embrace, there was such excitement; such anticipation for what was to come! They were heroes already, each and every one of the soon-to-be soldiers. As he boarded the train that would take him and the others off to war, Johnny thought, “I will surely see the world now!”
Journeying Back to What Used to Be. Original historical fiction that follows a Confederate soldier back from War. Delivered in brief vignettes, the series depicts this defining time in the history of our nation.
