“I guess I’ll be seeing you around then,” she said, and she went back to her room.

I sat there in the quiet of the room, wondering. Was I Murphy’s responsibility? I kind of always had been. That’s what Grandma said in the church, that she was my protector. Maybe Murphy was coming around to everything. Maybe she’d be a part of this family yet.

I knew the Spirit could win her over. It just had to.

I wouldn’t bet on it, came a whisper in my ears.

Was Jeremiah telling me that? Or was it my own mind? It was becoming so hard to tell the difference.

Chapter 42

The next morning at breakfast, my first Gathering only two days away, Murphy ran up to the table all frantic and angry.

“I need to talk to you,” she said to me. “Right now.”

“I’m sure it can wait until after breakfast,” said Grandma.

“It certainly fucking cannot,” said Murphy.

“It’s okay, Grandma,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”

I followed Murphy into the hallway. She held out a piece of white sketchbook paper.

“Look at this shit,” said Murphy.

The drawing showed the earth ripping open, like in an earthquake, and a cloud of night pouring out, the moon and stars erupting like a volcano, the night seeping out of the earth in a black plume.

“That’s . . . that’s my vision,” I said. “The one I had in the church.”

“I fucking well know it is, you jerk,” she said. “How did this get in my head?”

“Murphy, this is wonderful,” I said. “It’s a miracle. I mean, when did you learn to draw like that?”

“I didn’t learn,” she said. “I just did it, almost in my sleep. It was like I was in a trance. What the fuck is going on here?”

The Spirit is working, I thought, but I didn’t say it.

“I’m serious, Lee. This is freaking me out.”

I had to be careful here. I had to say it just right.

“You know, Mom used to paint Jeremiah’s visions,” I said. “You saw them on the church walls. Maybe that’s part of your role here as well—to paint my visions, just like Mom did.”

“But I don’t want to paint your visions,” she said. “I don’t want to paint anything at all.”

“Don’t you see, Murphy?” I said. “You’re a part of the Spirit’s plan whether you like it or not. You belong here. You’re a part of all the beautiful things that are to come.”

“Fuck off,” she said and ran off to her room.

I got to be honest, that hurt. But I was encouraged a little bit too. The Spirit was working. The Spirit was moving, even in Murphy.