ONCE UPON A CLEARING

About the Book

Once there was a Clearing. It was several acres of green grass ringed by an umbrella of lush trees with fat bushes at their roots. At one point in time the clearing sat uninhabited. And then it wasn’t. Small cabins emerged and a few people appeared and occupied them. Louis Johnson, a mountain of a man, gently led his petite wife, Lily, and their two children into Bertha’s cabin. As a youth, he had assumed the role of protecting his mother and little sister from his violent father. Without any formal anointment he was the designated leader of the small community. Ethan and Emily were the parents of three boys, two of whom were twins that were born in the flat bed of a wagon. And with Doc, Bertha, and her son young son Peter, the community was created in the clearing. In the encircling woods, Kate had stumbled on a thick root that snaked along the ground. Peter, searching for rabbits, saw her and dragged her to his cabin where Bertha stood on their unpainted porch. She carried Kate to her big bed that stood in the corner of the cabin’s main room. Peter summoned Doc who occupied another small cabin. Doc announced that Kate had broken her hip. The community, now twelve including the children, gathered at Bertha’s to see the broken hip. They had not seen one before. Their way of life was nearly independent of the bustling controlling world from which they all had come. Their world was pristine. Louis and Lily, along with their daughter, Venus, awakened the soft slumber of their community with a decision they made. Will the Clearing still remain green with an arch of a rainbow protecting it?

About the Author

Bernice Berger Miller, author of ONCE UPON A CLEARING, has written other novels, a memoir, short stories, children’s stories, poems, and selections for private purposes. She earned her B.S. from Columbia University and her Ph.D. from the University of Florida. Dr. Miller resides in Florida and spends her summers in Vermont where she became a partner in the antique and collectible business. She is an inveterate traveler, having visited many countries. Always an ardent sports fan, she’s a loyal rooter for her favorite team, The Miami Dolphins, for which she has had season tickets for over 30 years. And when she’s not mixing it up with her five grandchildren and two children and writing her next piece, she’s watching a game.