In Mist Hill, the Appalachian village of their childhood, the long-estranged Collins siblings Kate and Lynuel (the former a worldly success, the latter a local failure) reunite and confront the past when they encounter the Roma love-child of their dead father and experience the traumatic intrusion of world events on this isolated corner of the world.Waking in the Aftermaths brings to life the Collins siblings Kate and Lynuel, children from one of the 'better' families of the village of Mist Hill, WV, who in 1961 embark upon an adventure that misfires and drastically influences their life trajectories in opposite ways. Kate becomes a driven human rights activist and poet, worldly and respected, long married to a Moroccan professor; yet in spite of every appearance of success, Kate is tormented by her responsibility for what she believes happened in 1961. Her modus operandi is to push people away, hard. Lyn on the other hand is a substance abuser and petty thief (later reformed) who has to all intents never left home; the result of their childhood misadventure for him has been an overwhelming fatalism.In 2001, Kate returns to Mist Hill for a rare visit at the same time that the aftermath of September 11th engulfs her, her Moroccan, Muslim husband, and their child. These current troubles merge with the continuing aftermath of the traumatic event of her and Lyn's childhood. Meanwhile, across the road and the railroad tracks, on the edge of the river, an eccentric family of three women has restored and moved into one of the group of hovels formerly known as 'Gypsytown.' They are the remnants of the Stanleys and the Hearnes, Roma families who had once lived there. Arabella Stanley, the youngest, has a relationship to the same past that Lyn and Kate share, but they have yet to learn what that relationship is. As the Collins and Stanley/Hearne families meet and their individuals stories unwind and merge in this isolated mountain setting, the past is finally laid to rest - as much as it is possible for the past to be. Our three protagonists, Kate, Lyn and Arabella, learn how to truly shoulder the burdens each has been given.
