Colleen and the Statue
- A Soldier’s Redemption-
Founded on Irish teenager Colleen Johnston's interactions in 1955 with a Confederate soldier's statue in a Texas public park, this historical fiction novel ties directly into the continuing heated struggle to remove such pervasive monuments across the USA, and especially in the old Confederate States. Because it looks so directly at American slavery and the continuing legacy of problems stemming from it and the Civil War it fostered, the novel also ties directly into the powerful Black Lives Matter movement that is at the forefront of the news right now, and seems likely to stay there.
Do you think it’s possible to rewrite history? Colleen Johnston believes it is. As a young girl, Colleen moves from a tiny island off the coast of Ireland to Mackenzie, Texas. She hopes to pursue a better education in the United States of America and have a chance to go to college. But when she arrives in Mackenzie, she is surprised by the statue of a US Confederate Soldier. He can speak to her.
Eager to have a friend, and learn more about America, she begins to ask the statue questions about his life: what was the Civil War all about? Why did he fight? What side did he fight on? Did he believe in the cause? Does he think he made the right choice?
Along the way, Colleen meets Kevin, who finds Colleen and her communication with the statue just downright crazy. But, as he listens to the answers the statue gives, Kevin finds himself invested in the life of this confederate soldier.
Colleen forces the Confederate statue to look at the life in Mackenzie, Texas at present time. She asks him to reflect on what the Civil War did for the life of the black people in town and the statue slowly begins to open his eyes to the damage, destruction, and segregation caused by the racial hatred.
He is finally faced with a revelation: did he wake up and begin speaking with Colleen because he is not being allowed to die a proper death? And from that, he begins to realize that he must redeem himself before he will be allowed to truly rest in peace.
Will he come to terms with the things he did in the war? Will he realize that he was on the wrong side and rewrite his own destiny? Read the next volume in the Once Upon a Time in the Texas Panhandle series to find out.
