Stone and Shell, by Lloyd A. Meeker

[Ulysses]

Stone and Shell
By Lloyd A. Meeker, 2016
Nine Star Press
Cover by Natasha Snow
Five stars

I'm putting this in Contemporary Romance, although the protagonist is a child. It is, ultimately, about gay men finding love...

A seasonal short story focused not on Christmas, but on the Winter Solstice, the darkest night of the year. The Winter Solstice’s association with the Christian celebration of Christ’s birthday is not accidental: Roman Christians moving into northern parts of Europe co-opted the pagan solstice to make their newly-adopted religion more palatable to its involuntary adherents. The Winter Solstice is that moment of greatest despair in the colder parts of the world: the time of year when nothing grows, when darkness rules, when the presence of death looms more closely. It is a time when the human need to believe that a benevolent deity exists burns strongest.

Meeker offers us an eight-year-old boy, Howie Evinger, who sets up his own little solstice altar. He chooses a polished agate stone to represent his father, David. He selects a scallop shell to be the new husband he desperately wishes for his father. Encouraged by his father’s free-spirited sister Shanna, Howie pours all his childlike hopes into arranging his altar, caught up in the spirit of community and love he feels during the public Winter Solstice celebrations in Vancouver.

I’ll confess, I kept a tissue nearby as I read this story, because the tears were brimming constantly. Howie is a perfect mixture of childlike innocence and wisdom. He doesn’t understand what happened to his father’s first relationship, but he recognizes his father’s sadness and wants his family to be whole and happy again. There is much that Howie doesn’t – can’t – understand, but his heart is big and his love is pure. Ultimately, this is the kind of magic that transcends belief and makes all things possible.

This story is also the portrait of a child who is blessed with people who love him and believe in him. There is no hiding and no shame in his household, only compassion and caring. In a world where the validity of gay families is constantly under attack, Meeker’s story shines out like a beacon of reason. As the days grow darker and the nights colder in this very strange year, “Stone and Shell” offers some welcome warmth.