Island Fever
by
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Janie pulled her wallet from her overstuffed purse; she screamed another ‘shut up back there!’ to the screeching kids in the back of the van and paid two dollars toll for the trip over the causeway to the island. "How much for the U-Haul behind?" she asked the lady in the tollbooth. It suddenly occurred to her how often they’d need to leave the island and come back onto it in the normal course of living. "Do island residents have to pay this toll?" she asked and sighed when she heard the ‘yes’ as a response. "Damn!" she said and smiled back at the tanned face of the attendant. She handed Janie a receipt. "Maybe you can take this off your taxes," she soothed. Janie put the car into gear and began the drive over the long causeway toward the beautiful island beyond. The bay stretched along both sides of the narrow causeway. The bridge humped upward toward the incredibly blue sky. The shadow of ‘their’ island smudged the distance. The children screeched louder. This was a far cry from the corn and wheat fields of Iowa. None of the four children had been on an island. None of them had seen the ocean- or as in this case- the gulf. Janie and Jake Meleski had attended a farm convention in Miami six months before. While they were in Miami they decided to rent a car and return to Iowa the long way. They had flown to Miami and missed the scenery along the way. They had loved the beautiful coastline around Miami and they felt they were long overdue an actual vacation. They’d had a few short trips and some camping outlets with the children to state parks in Iowa and a few neighboring states. Even the outings had grown less frequent as farmers more and more felt economic pressure. It had been these economic pressures that had promoted Jake to research and write for farm aid programs and had given them the opportunity to attend the convention in Miami, Florida. Jake’s literature, among sheaves of others, was being presented and distributed. His ‘common sense’ approach had earned much acclaim. They’d used it themselves almost as an instinct for survival. They had prospered or hung on when all around them many friends, members of the community, and other family members of neighboring farms had gone broke. They’d watched neighboring farm equipment sold at auction and houses sold or abandoned as the farmers had loaded their remaining possessions and moved on. Middle aged and old farmers alike had been forced to seek new careers in new places. Families and friends were torn apart and uprooted. Jake had been determined to keep the farm he’d inherited from his parents and the adjoining one Janie and her twin sister Janna had inherited from their parents. She only had one sister and Jake was an only child, which she was sure had promoted the large family they had and were adding to. There were four screeching children in the back of the van and she was six months pregnant with twins. She looked down at her bulging midriff and smiled. They were returning to the island where she was sure she’d become pregnant. She had even dreamed of the twins the day after she’d seen the house. The dream had been strange. The twins were girls and she had been one of them. The dream often rose to haunt her. When she found herself pregnant with twins she, somehow, wasn’t surprised. She even knew their names for she had dreamed that, also. They were Janna and Janis. She and her twin sister were Janie and Janna. As Janie drove across the causeway she felt a sense of homecoming. Jake followed in the U-Haul. It had been a long trip from Iowa but they had stopped often and allowed the children to sightsee and play at a number of tourist attractions. She and Jake had decided the twins would be the last children they’d have. Jake was getting a vasectomy after they were safely born. She smiled back at her children through the rear view mirror. First they’d had Alicia, then they’d wanted a little boy and Jake, Jr. came along, then they’d wanted a sister for Alicia and she nagged for one repeatedly. Felicia was born. Next they decided Jake Jr. needed a brother so as though to order little Jeremy joined the family. Janie smiled as she thought, "And then we ran out of excuses and here I am again!" She was already regretting the time had come when they’d have to quit and she’d not have a small baby or toddler to cuddle.
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About the Book
St. George Island Myth or -?? Do you believe in the magical mystery of love beyond death? Look for the tall trees ensnared with thick rope-like vines that tangle around a knoll, the same knoll that is visited by thousands of tiny blue butterflies every so many years. If you look closely you'll see glints of the moss covered granite stones and if you're there on a moonlit night during the migration of the blue butterflies you may see the lovers, outlined in the silvery mists there among the palmettos, and vegetation beside the stones. It took a hurricane for the truth to be unveiled.
About the Author
Janis was born and raised in Arkansas. She attended several colleges in the U.S.A., Spain and Germany. She doesn't remember a time when she didn't love to write. She's published several newspaper articles, some poetry and done a piece on TV for an organization for battered women. She has worked with the elderly for the last twenty years and wrote in the precious moments she could seize to move toward her dream of being a novelist. She is currently working on another book.