It sure was busy that evening. But I closed my eyes to all of it, wanting to picture Mama holding me on that first day I was alive.
The blanket would’ve been a white one with dots of yellow flowers all over it. Mama’d shush me, hoping to calm my screeching. Holding me close to her chest, she’d rock one way and then the other, swaying in rhythm with her hushing.
She’d open her lips, letting out her sweet-sounding voice that got me to quiet down. She sang me a song of welcome, one that came from deep in her heart. She sang out of love and care and of wanting to keep me for her own.
I imagined that was when she’d known I would be hers for the rest of forever. In that moment she’d become Mama to me, and I was her Pearl. I pictured a tear, just one, tumbled from her eye all the way to her soft jaw. Her voice might’ve caught in her throat for the swell of feeling that grew in her chest.
But she wouldn’t have stopped, not for anything.
She just kept right on, singing me a song of home.
If You’ve Missed the other Pearl Spence Novels:
Book 1 - A Cup of Dust - Available Now
Book 2 - A Trail of Crumbs - Available Now
Susie Finkbeiner Recommends:
Kelli Stuart - Like a River from Its Course - Available Now
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
This story begins with Pearl reimagining the tale of “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.” She thinks up a better ending, one which doesn’t end so tragically. Which childhood story ending would you like to revise? How would you change it?
In the first chapter, Ray hears about how his parents fell in love. The happier-days story surprises Pearl, who only knew Ray’s folks to be abusive and emotionally absent. Why might Ray’s parents have undergone this kind of transformation? How is Pearl’s perception accurate? How is Pearl’s perception lacking?
Some folks in Bliss weren’t keen on the mixing of races at the dances. What might have led them to feel that way? How were times different then? What echoes of that mentality did you witness in your own childhood? What echoes do we still witness in our culture today?
When Mama calls on the telephone, Pearl asks her if she’s coming home. Mama responds, “It’s not that easy.” What do you think she meant by that? What do you think of Pearl’s reaction?
Daddy goes to visit Mama, only to come home with a broken heart and a busted lip. What do you think happened during the visit? What might have happened if Mama had come home with him that night? How might that have changed matters for Pearl?
The children at school are especially cruel to Delores Fitzpatrick. Why do they single her out for teasing? Why is it that Ray feels protective of her? Think of a situation from your childhood when you or a classmate was bullied. How was the situation handled? How can a child survive such torment?
Delores uses a vile word for Opal Moon. Where had she learned such a thing? How is something like racism passed down from one generation to the next? Are there any negative family cycles you’ve been able to put an end to?
Opal tells the racial history of cakewalks. Did you know this history before? Do you know of other seemingly benign traditions that had racially charged beginnings? Perhaps look up the practice of black-face as well as racial stereotypes in film and literature. How might these have proved detrimental in the way our culture views people of color? How should we respond once we know of such history?
How did you feel when Pearl described Mama coming home? How about the compromising situation Mama found herself in? Did you expect a different reaction from Pearl? Or from Daddy? What might you have done under those circumstances?
As in life, most characters in the Pearl Spence novels have suffered hardship. Why does hardship change some people for the worse while it refines others to become stronger, better people? See 1 Peter 1:6–7. Which characters came through the process “like gold”?
Throughout the story we see several examples of forgiveness and redemption. Identify which one resonated most with you and explain why. What aspect of Pearl’s story best reflects God’s forgiveness and redemption through Jesus Christ?
What would you guess happens next in Pearl’s future life? How about Ray, Mama and Daddy, or the other characters? How would you write the next chapter for them?
About Susie Finkbeiner
CBA bestselling author Susie Finkbeiner is a story junkie. Always has been and always will be. It seems it’s a congenital condition. After decades of reading everything she could get her hands on (except for See the Eel, a book assigned to her while in first grade, a book she declared unfit for her book-snob eyes), Susie realized that she wanted to write stories of her own. She began with epics about horses and kittens (but never, ever eels).
In order to learn how to write novels, she read eclectically and adventurously. After reading the work of Lisa Samson, Patti Hill, and Bonnie Grove she realized that there was room for a writer like her in Christian fiction. Susie is also greatly inspired by the work of Jocelyn Green, Rachel McMillan, and Tracy Groot.
Her first novels, Paint Chips (2013) and My Mother’s Chamomile (2014) have contemporary settings. While she loved those stories and especially the characters, Susie felt the pull toward historical fiction. When she read Into the Free by Julie Cantrell she knew she wanted to write historical stories with a side of spunk, grit, and vulnerability.
A Cup of Dust: A Novel of the Dust Bowl (2015), Finkbeiner’s bestselling historical set in 1930s Oklahoma, has been compared to the work of John Steinbeck and Harper Lee (which flatters Susie’s socks off). Pearl’s story continues with A Trail of Crumbs: A Novel of the Great Depression (2017) and A Song of Home: A Novel of the Swing Era (2018).
Susie Finkbeiner is a stay-at-home mom & speaker from West Michigan. She has served as fiction editor and regular contributor to the Burnside Writers Guild and Unbound magazine. Finkbeiner is an avid blogger (see www.susiefinkbeiner.com), is on the planning committee of the Breathe Christian Writers Conference, and has presented or led groups of other writers at several conferences.
What does she have planned after that? More stories, of course. She’s a junkie. She couldn’t quit if she wanted to.
AFTERWORD
The Swing Era came on the heels of an especially tumultuous time in American history. The 1920s saw a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and with that a slew of violence aimed at African Americans. Most schools, even in the northern states, were segregated, and Jim Crow laws ruled in the South. It’s no stretch to say that, at that time, black people were considered less human than white people.
In the mid 1930s jazz music rose in popularity, as did the various styles of swing dancing. It was not uncommon to see white and African American musicians playing together on the bandstand or lindy-hopping in pairs on the dance floor. Folks who couldn’t attend church together due to racial differences could gather at the nightclubs or community dances.
It is tempting to see this history through idealistic lenses and assume that jazz healed the racial divide, that music had the power to end strife. If only that were so. While there were great moments of unity and equity, racism didn’t end. In fact, many black musicians were not fully recognized for their accomplishments.
Although the Swing Era did not prove to be an end to racism, it did provide moments of hope that people of all colors could one day live in peace, community, and equality. And that is still our hope today, even through our own struggles to live in unity.
To learn more about the Swing Era, watch the BBC’s documentary The Swing Thing on YouTube.
re-buttons">share
A Song of Home Page 29