title: The Darkness of the Sun
author: Rhonda St. Clair
description: Rhonda St.Clair is a graduate of Georgia Career Academy, and is the previous owner of two business establishments. She has worked in the fields of medicine as well as dealing in the service industry with women. At one time she also worked as a proofreader with a newspaper. Rhonda and her husband, Stan, live in Mc Minnville, Tennessee, where she was born and reared, and are active members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Rhonda has one daughter and two grandchildren as well as stepchildren and grandchildren.
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  **Begin Reading**
  
  Table of Contents
  
  Copyright Page
  
  ![](Images/image00243.jpeg)
  
  _For Sarah Burnes, Julie Scheina,_
  
  _and Jennifer Bailey Hunt_
  
  _because for some silly reason_
  
  _they wouldn't let us put their names on the cover._
  
  _We can easily forgive a child_
  
  _who is afraid of the dark;_
  
  _the real tragedy of life is when_
  
  _men are afraid of the light._
  
  \--PLATO
  
  ![](Images/image00365.jpeg)
  
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   **BEFORE**
  
  _**Caster Girl**_
  
  I used to think our town, buried in the South Carolina backwoods, stuck in the
  muddy bottom of the Santee River valey, was the middle of nowhere. A place
  where nothing ever happened and nothing would ever change. Just like
  yesterday, the unblinking sun would rise and set over the town of Gatlin
  without bothering to kick up so much as a breeze. Tomorrow my neighbors would
  be rocking on their porches, heat and gossip and familiarity melting like ice
  cubes into their sweet te