The Remnants

As the wind picks up and the sky grays over, Kennesaw trudges the remaining miles into town, catching his breath by the hole in the stone wall at Nedewen Field where dust returns to dust. He passes the broken stone markers that show their old age like chipped teeth in a mouth full of mourning, and lays to rest the memories of those who have gone before him. He continues on down the gravel road and crosses the tangled patch that had once been the village green, and past the strip of acre beside the barn behind True’s house where the prized row of Granny-Macs once stood. It’s taken him all of the morning and most of the afternoon and much of the last ninety-nine years to reach here. The weather is due to turn calamitous. Kennesaw runs a moist hand across his moist scalp as he continues on his way to True’s. He approaches her plain front gate where he rests a moment before starting up again and making his way up her walkway and onto her front stone slab, which is only a pebble less settled than his.One arm pumping and then the other. One leg shuffling and then the other. One ache and then another and then another and then another. And this is how the aged walk into heaven.He’s ninety-nine. It’s been a long journey. Tea sounds good to him.Robert Hill's second novel, The Remnants, is an ebullient ode to the last days of the last three residents of the town of New Eden. It follows his highly acclaimed debut, When All Is Said and Done (Graywolf Press, 2006), which was shortlisted for the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction and touted as "a bravura and resounding performance" by Donna Seaman of Booklist.