Thanks & Acknowledgments

This one has something of a complicated history. I first wrote the story in early/mid 2015, a year that ended up proving a turning point in my life. A traumatic experience later that year left me nearly shattered, forced to pick up the pieces and deal with certain things in probably not the healthiest of ways. As a consequence of that, I no longer liked the shape of this story, which originally had been an exercise in empathy and curiosity that perhaps said more about myself than I was fully aware of at the time, and which I later became ashamed of.

As a result, I rewrote the story four years later (and retitled it—the original was called Southern Skies) because I hadn’t been satisfied with the original form for a while. I wanted to retell it in a way that reflected the things I cared about then, and I think I can say I managed to come pretty close to doing that.

However, that first version still carries something genuine and precious, an (unintentionally) honest reflection of something I’ve since been able to fully accept and integrate as an important part of who I am. Part of me really regrets overwriting that first version, which is probably lost now to time.

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Thanks to Andrew Wunderley of the Charleston Waterkeeper, for help with questions on the rivers, wildlife, and pollution in the Charleston area. Their #WaterWednesday posts on Twitter also answered some of my questions during one week in April without me even having to ask them! The Waterkeeper is an important organization that monitors and advocates for the health and cleanliness of Charleston’s rivers. Support them if you can!

Thanks also to Jared Bramblett, an amazing Charleston area photographer, one of whose photo essays inspired another aspect of the story. Jared was kind enough to respond to my questions about his involvement with the Waterkeeper in their efforts to save Gadsden Creek. I’m also heavily indebted to the Friends of Gadsden Creek website and Instagram.

Thanks to Gil Jenkins, for providing details on the logistics and process of photographing a wedding, and all the background work that goes into it.

Devin’s quest to photograph dolphins strand-feeding, and her initial experience that provoked it, were based on something that actually happened to me; although I managed to capture more than just a tail disappearing into the water. My own photography, though, is nowhere near the professional level that Devin would have achieved.

I can’t deny that I owe at least a little to the television series LOST—although, honestly, not nearly as much as to the science fiction novels of C.S. Lewis.

Thanks for reading!