Tuesday, October 6, 2020 - “Florabama” - Elizabeth Lerman.

We are somewhere in Alabama when I realize that I am never happier than in these in-between moments. In the car driving past Lillian, through the fields and farms, we swerve off the main road, lured in by the siren of an antique shop. When our fingers smell enough like dust and the sweetness of our sporadity has paid off, the Loves ring up our finds. We talk to them about Hemingway and Greenwich Village and the best way to kill a gator. I buy a book and three old letters addressed to a woman named Shirley, the musk of the yellowed paper promising a peak into another time. They tell us about a beach locals go to, they say to mention their name to the bartender and they recommend we get rum in our bushwackers. We fall into an easy like with the Loves and wonder about their life together while we cross into Florida. I am light off the local cocktail and the backseat of her car feels so safe to me, with the two of them singing country music and me not minding it for once, the bliss burns strong and my head is lost in a blooming glory of green, smiling seventy miles an hour.

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Elizabeth Lerman is a creative writer based in New York City. A graduate from the University of Vermont, where she earned her B.A in Film Studies and English Literature, Elizabeth is passionate about forging strong female voices and diverse narratives. In her writing she focuses on the significance of small moments and the space they hold in both her thoughts and those of her characters. Elizabeth currently lives in Brooklyn where she is working, slowly but surely, on her first novel.