Ashley Mace Havird

When the phone rings at four-thirty in the morning, Riley thinks someone has died. Her heart keeps hammering even when she hears her brother's voice and knows why he is calling. "You and Joseph have a nephew!" More than exhausted, Nat sounds drunk [...]

My family were the only white people there. We had driven two miles down a dusty road flanked by dense pine woods to reach the clearing that held a small unpainted church. Negroes dressed in black or white stood outside in the sand; and when we lef [...]