David Matheny

One Southern Summer David Matheny

A boy and his dog spend the summer in the country with his grandparents. He meets a poor girl and they fall hopelessly in love. They swim together in rivers and ponds. They hop trains and outsmart bullies at the ice cream stand. They attend a fancy wedding and fool his drunk relatives. They plan their entire future together. Standing in the way of their plans is her father, the town bully. He's abusive and threatens something horrible before her sixteenth birthday. The boy is sick. Sick in the same way the girl's mother was. She makes him get help, but there isn't much help to be had. As he fades, he faces the evil that haunts her and gives her the life he can't have.