“Don’t worry,” said Stephens. “They’re always like this.”

Jack walked by playing a banjo, singing “Come Fly with Me” in a redneck croon.

“And is Jack always like that too?” I said.

“You know it.”

Stephens offered me a warmish High Life, and I took it even though it was only three in the afternoon.

“Don’t tell Grandma, okay?” I said.

Stephens shrugged. “You’re the boss.”

“The boss?” I said.

“No,” said Cass, her argument briefly paused. “The leader. You’re our leader, Lee. Not our boss.”

Our leader. That was still a hard thing for me to wrap my head around. It was something I never would have aspired to, not even a month ago. I only wished Mom could be here to see it, to see how I had taken Jeremiah’s place and brought the Farm back. Maybe it would have changed the way she thought about my visions. I wondered if she hated them because they reminded her of Jeremiah, who had all these magnificent visions and then died before they could come to pass. Maybe that was why she had refused to believe in my visions.

I finished the beer and said goodbye to those guys and walked over to the Hummingbird Grove. Grandma had spread the word that the Grove was forbidden, like it was a sacred spot just for me. It was a powerful place. I knew and understood that now. It had been my mom’s favorite place, and it was Jeremiah’s. He was waiting for me, standing there same as if he were real, a physical being. We talked for a while, him giving me advice, preparing me for my duties to come. After half an hour or so I just up and asked him something that had been on my mind lately.

“What are you?” I said. “I mean, are you a ghost or something?”

“I’m myself,” he said, “or at least the most lasting part of me. I survive through the power of this place.”

“The Spirit?” I said.

He nodded. “It’s an old entity, from a time long before people walked the land. Very few are left in the world, and most are dormant. But the Spirit is active here, and it has allowed me to linger.”

“I’m glad it did,” I said. “Thank you for choosing me.”

“It was fated,” he said. “I saw it long before you were born, when I was split between the two realms, between the dark and the daylight, in fragments. The Spirit showed it to your grandmother as well. This is how it must be, how it always had to be. You’re here now, and you can carry on my work. Because the light must grow brighter for the darkness to diminish. And never forget: We are the light-bringers.”

“The light-bringers,” I said. “I like that.”