“He tried to kill himself? Randy attempted suicide? Dear God in heaven. When did this happen? Where is he? How is he?”

“Yes, he did try. Lucy found him in the bathtub. He had done gone and cut his wrist, Mrs. Grace. Oh my Lord, but it was too awful, Lucy finding him like that. That child’s been through enough, without seeing her brother lying there in…in…well, you know, and not knowing if he was dead and gone.”

For a time, Myrtle was unable to speak. “Lucy thought he was dead. She kept ahold of her senses, though, the Lord bless her, and right off she called nine-one-one and they came a-runnin’ and carried my poor boy to the hospital. The men who came with the ambulance said if he’d a cut both his wrists, he’d a died for sure, what with losing so much blood and all.”

“He promised to see the counselor.”

“He never did go to no counselor like he promised you, Mrs. Grace. He never went nowhere, just sat in the house with the shades down and wouldn’t eat nothin’. And he made us swear we wouldn’t call you. He said he’d go the next week and the next week. He’s right stubborn, like his pa. Lord, that man never changed his mind once he’d decided something, and I figure Randy just decided he wasn’t going to go at all. You done so much for us already, we didn’t have the heart to bother you, and Randy telling you one thing and doing another and acting like he would tear the place apart if we told you.”

“Myrtle, I am so sorry, so very sorry. I’m glad Lucy found him in time. Which hospital did they take him to?”

“The one that the veterans go to in Oteen. They wanted to carry him off to the regular hospital, but Lord, we got no insurance to pay that, and Lucy done told them how he was just back from Iraq, and how he’d been shot up there, and how he wasn’t right in his head since he got home. So they carried him off to the veterans hospital.”

“When did all of this happen, Myrtle?”

“Last night, just before I got home from work. They say we can’t come to see him until tomorrow. I can’t even sit beside my baby and pray over him.”