Sisters Emmy and Callie have no secrets between them until a mysterious accident robs one of a crucial memory and sparks troubling visions. Only through letters they exchange while painfully separated do the sisters reveal hidden truths leading back to a fateful springtime day—and a chilling September night—that changed them both forever.

Welcome to Novel PASTimes! Let’s start with the basics. Tell us your name.

I ’preciate you havin’ me. My name’s Hepzibah Jordan. Ever’body calls me Hepsy. I was named for a queen in the Bible, but Mama spelled it her own way—same as the Baptist church where we go. Might seem strange or a colored woman in Alabama to have a queen’s name, but Mama says that’s the name I was meant for. 

And who is your mother?

Tirzah Randolph. Mama came to Alabama as a slave. Got pulled away from her people in South Carolina when she wasn’t but fifteen. Didn’t get freed till after the war. When she got down here, all by herself, she asked God to send her a balm to sooth her soul and heal the hurt in her heart. He gave her a home and a family, and she promised to go where he led from then on. He gave her the gifts o’ sight and healing and led her to the birthin’ bed, where she saved many a woman and her babies, most ’specially, Miss ’Relia Bullock. Miss ’Relia don’t trust nobody but Mama when it comes to her chil’ren. And she made it her business to look after Mama and her family. The Bullocks are good people. They saved my family from a lot o’ hardship. But then again, my Mama saved them. It’s a circle that don’t never end. Sometimes it’s hard to say who’s dependin’ on who.

Can you tell us a little bit about where you live and work?

I live in Shelby County, Alabama. My husband—he’s done passed from the cancer—he built us  a cabin on some land Mama bought from Mr. Ira Bullock, right on the Coosa River. I work at the Bullock house on one of the biggest cotton farms in the whole state. Mama ran the house till she got too old and needed a rest. That’s when her and Miss ’Relia made a promise to each other. Mama promised she’d train me to take over the house if Miss ’Relia would teach me to read and write and cipher. They both kept their word. Miss ’Relia hires me help when I need it, and I keep the house runnin’ smooth and meals on the table. Her chil’ren treat me like fam’ly—much as I let ’em. Sometimes they got to be reminded o’ the lines white folks drew a long time ago.

What are the Bullock children like?

Good gracious, they’re all so different. Mr. James is the oldest—probably in his early thirties by now—done married and out o’ the house but works the farm with his daddy and his brothers. Mr. James is a fine farmer. He’s real quiet and polite. Next is M’George—I can’t say his name without smiling. That one just warmed my heart from the time he was a little bitty boy. Made me so sad to see Miss Lucinda break his heart. I just have to believe something’s gonna bring ’em back together one day. Mr. Sam is a wild one—fifteen years old and can’t wait to get off the farm and go sail a ship or something. Mr. Theo is the baby—just five years old. And amongst all them boys are Miss Emmy, who’s twenty, and Miss Callie, who’s eighteen. Mama says Miss Emmy’s got the tender heart, but Miss Callie’s got the questionin’ heart. She wants to understand the world and find her place in it. And she don’t take anything for granted. Just because white people say “this is how it is,” that don’t mean Miss Callie’s gonna go along. That’s prob’ly why she’s so close to my heart. 

We hear Callie just met somebody new?

That’s right. Mr. Solomon Beckett moved down here from Missouri and bought the old Cruz place. None of the boys around here’s up to Miss Callie. She’s too smart for ever’ last one of ’em. They ain’t man enough for her. But Mr. Solomon? I expect I’ll do what has to be done to move that along.

What do you hope readers can learn from your story?

That all people—not just the white ones—are God’s chil’ren. I’m not just a housekeeper. I’m not just a cook. I’m a person. Got my own joys and sorrows that don’t have a thing in the world to do with the people I work for. Got fam’ly I love. I might work for you, might even care an awful lot about you, but I’m not yours. I belong to Almighty—flesh and blood, heart and soul.

Valerie Fraser Luesse is the author of five novels set in the South: Christy Award winner Missing Isaac (2018), Almost Home (2019), The Key to Everything (2020), Under the Bayou Moon (August 2021), and Letters from My Sister (coming in 2023), all published by Revell Books. An award-winning magazine writer, Luesse is perhaps best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she wrote major pieces on the Mississippi Delta, Acadian Louisiana, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Her editorial section on the recovering Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, photographed by Mark Sandlin, won the 2009 Travel Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society.  Luesse earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Auburn University and Baylor University, respectively. She is a native of Harpersville, Alabama, and lives in Birmingham, where she creates Southern fiction from a tiny writing studio she calls the Story Shack.