Raymond L. Atkins

Sweetwater Blues: A Novel Raymond L. Atkins

Rodney Earwood and Palmer Cray had been best friends for as long as either could remember. They were brothers in all but the genetic sense, each born late in the lives of good women who had given up on the dream of motherhood by the time their respective miracles occurred.

They wandered the hills of North Georgia, hunted the pine woods, fished the cool, green streams, and camped under the stars. They shared each other's clothing, each other's families, and each other's homes. They grew into tall young men, and on a hot May afternoon right after they turned eighteen, they both graduated from Sweetwater High School, numbers seven and eight in the crooked, sweaty line that held a class of thirty of Sweetwater's finest.

Shortly thereafter, Rodney and Palmer flew a Camaro into a tree, Palmer flew into a haystack, Rodney flew into the great beyond, and nothing in Sweetwater was ever the same again.

Follow Palmer in the aftermath of his one great mistake as he confronts regret at his own fallibility, endures punishment for his actions, finds unexpected redemption in unusual places, and is given a second chance to try to make it all right.

He is joined in this journey by an unlikely cast of associate--including a methamphetamine dealer named Cheddar, a junkyard owner named Ottis Lee, a coffee-can addict named Bay-Annette, and an Alzheimer's patient who was once Rodney's mother--as they face each day and try to overcome their Sweetwater Blues.