Lights at Chickasaw Point and The Two Garcons

The American Chapters series presents short stories in vivid and easy-to-read 500-word chapters, perfect for English language learners internationally, and adult literacy learners in countries where English is commonly used.

Lights at Chickasaw Point/The Two Garcons
Even native-born Americans don't know the Deep South well. It's a beautiful, deeply forested region, with diverse people and a long history. These stories set in Mississippi and Louisiana deal with two mysteries. How well do we know a place? And how well do we know our families?

Lights at Chickasaw Point
Brian Longfield is a campground host at Trace State Park in Mississippi. The campground is full of elderly Americans. Many of them have no money, and so they live in old trailers that are falling apart. Brian does his best to repair their old, broken homes, but Brian has his own problems. His beautiful wife is in a nursing home in a town nearby, and each day she slips further away. Then some strange things begin to happen. It begins with mysterious lights at Chickasaw Point, a dark and wooded and mysterious place across the lake. What will Brian find when he goes there one night?

The Two Garcons
Jeff Garcon's parents have done something really crazy, and Jeff doesn't know what to make of it. Leaving their home in Minnesota, in Jeff's junior year of high school, they move to Jeff's father's hometown of Monroe, Louisiana. For the first time in his life, Jeff, who is white, is in the minority. But things get even more interesting. On the first day of school, there are two Garcon boys in the same homeroom. Jeff is surprised to find Corey Garcon, who shares his name, and who is African American.