Chinaberry tree flowers before they become hard green berries.
Carroll S. Taylor
Here’s a short exerpt from my first book, Chinaberry Summer, Chapter 10, “A Mostly Silent Night.” On Christmas Day, the visiting family bully Raleigh taunts Spud and insinuates that Spud is illegitimate. He mistakenly calls him “illiterate” because his Mama and Daddy weren’t married when he was born. This is one of my favorite passages in Chinaberry Summer.
“It was a cold night that almost hurt my lungs to breathe it in, but I had to go somewhere quiet so that I could think. I knew just the place. I headed straight for the mimosa tree. My hands were cold and numb as I climbed up into the bare tree, and I prayed that I wouldn’t lose my hold on the limbs or slip and fall to the ground. I managed to climb carefully until I reached my favorite perch. There were no feathery branches and flowers to shelter me, but somehow that tree felt connected to my soul, almost as if an invisible cord held us together, heart to heart.
What was Raleigh saying to Spud today? Did he really know something bad about Spud? And if he did, why couldn’t he have just kept it to himself? He didn’t even really know us. We saw him only a time or two every year. I made up my mind then and there that Raleigh Brown was wicked, and I did not care what he supposedly knew about Spud. A friend is a friend, no matter what. Spud was my friend, and Raleigh was not.
I looked up through the bare branches of the tree. Even in the bitter cold air, the tree stood tall and didn’t give in to the weather. The black sky was so clear that every star stood out, and I could almost reach out and touch one. Which one was the star that had shone over Bethlehem? Which one was given that great honor?
From up on my perch I looked at the cedar tree sparkling beautifully in the living room window. I appreciated all the Christmas presents I had received, but that night I decided that, for me, Christmas was about the cold, crisp December air and the twinkling stars shining up in heaven, like gold paper stars tacked onto a gigantic bulletin board covered in black paper. Were the stars actually singing? Were they telling me not to worry, that Jesus loved Spud, no matter whether his mother and father were married when he was born? I knew Jesus would certainly understand.”