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When Dr. Van Vierlans receives an invitation from Mrs. Elizabeth Van der Horst to give a lecture at her island mansion off the coast of South Carolina, he doesn't think twice. There's a generous honorarium, and he relishes the chance to revisit the Sea Islands, where he once studied the Gullah language. The lavish house he arrives at is strangely out of time. No other historians appear, nor does an audience, as he passes the time chatting in Gullah with the household servants. Just when his suspicions become difficult to ignore, Mrs. Van der Horst plies him with a sumptuous feast that distracts him from her true motives-which may prove more sinister than anything he's prepared to imagine.
About the author
Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr. (enrolled Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians) is the author of award-winning mosaic novels Sacred Smokes and Sacred City and the editor of The Faster Redder Road: The Best UnAmerican Stories of Stephen Graham Jones. He is the co-editor (with Shane Hawk) of the Vintage/Penguin Random House bestseller Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology. His work has appeared in Southwest Review, The Rumpus, Chicago Review, The Journal of Working-Class Studies, Apex Magazine, Red Earth Review, Indian Country Today, Great Plains Quarterly, and elsewhere. He is an active HWA member. Find him online across platforms: @TVAyyyy
Summary
When Dr. Van Vierlans receives an invitation from Mrs. Elizabeth Morgenstern to give a lecture at her island mansion off the coast of South Carolina, he doesn't think twice. There’s a generous honorarium, and he relishes the chance to revisit the Sea Islands, where he once studied the Gullah language.
The lavish house he arrives at is strangely out of time. No other historians appear, nor does an audience, as he passes the time chatting in Gullah with the household servants. Just when his suspicions become difficult to ignore, Mrs. Morgenstern plies him with a sumptuous feast that distracts him from her true motives–which may prove more sinister than anything he’s prepared to imagine.
