Arthur H. Heath

The Ocoosa County Burden Arthur H. Heath

Loretta Carmichael, divorced 35-year-old pediatric nurse from Atlanta, has a deep passion for infants and an uncanny ability to perceive the most subtle of nuances in the patterns, habits and idiosyncrasies of the world around her. These two attributes lead her to discover the 'burden' the residents of Ocoosa County have lived with for 130 years. Obtaining a used government map to help her navigate a county unfamiliar to her, she notices two unobtrusive notations indicating locations where murdered infants have been found. A few inquiries later, she possesses a disbelieving knowledge of an ongoing history of brutal, seemingly random, infanticide. And she soon uncovers a pattern that no one else has noticed. The story takes the reader back to 1864 and Sherman's 'March to the Sea' where the horrors committed by the Union troops upon the county's civilians, and an officer's personal vendetta, lead to this legacy of intermittent murder. Another flashback to 1926 and the last day in the life of a legendary sheriff of the county explains another mystery to Loretta and why her move from Atlanta was more than accidental. This story ultimately becomes a testimony of the power of the maternal instincts of two vastly different women.