“I guess we’re two big old fools, then. Leastways, one old one.” May looked at him as if seeing him for the first time and saw a trim young man with sandy hair and kind brown eyes, a man perhaps too young to be counseling a woman her age. But he had helped her. She had come to see herself as a worthwhile person, worthwhile enough to have the courage to enroll at A-B Tech to learn a trade and make something of her life.

It hadn’t been easy those first days at A-B Tech with all those bright young people, and everyone talking fast and moving fast. She had wanted to drop her new books and run as if from the devil. But she hadn’t. Instead, she had tightened her grip on her books, lifted her head, pasted a smile on her face, and walked into that first classroom, where, to her amazement, everyone had been kind and welcoming.

Denny walked over to May and extended his hand. “Can we be friends, then?”

It seemed to her that there was more that should be said. A sense of loss swept through her, loss for the way she had felt, so young and gay, and then she felt sad to think that someone she could talk to, someone who listened to her, was gone. It was as if she were leaving a part of herself behind with Pastor Denny Ledbetter.

May searched his eyes—friendly, yes, but guarded—and shook his hand. “We can be friends.” She watched him walk away then, thinking how strange it all had been and that she would miss him. But the terrible ache for him and the humiliation she had felt were gone.

The following week, May, after repeatedly thanking the ladies, piled her bags and boxes into her car and departed for Aunt Lil’s home in South Asheville.

The evening May’s car rolled out of the driveway, the ladies ordered a mushroom, onion, green pepper, and pepperoni pizza from the diner on Elk Road and ate dinner on the porch.

“I feel lighter and free,” Amelia said. “I hadn’t realized quite how taxing this whole thing with May has been.”

Grace set her glass on the porch rail. “I felt all at loose ends for a while having a stranger living in the house for so long. I hated losing the use of our guest room. I like to have my breakfast there. Funny how you get used to something like that, sitting in a certain room, in a specific chair, looking out a certain window. I’m going to enjoy breakfast tomorrow.”

Amelia said, “As I watched Denny leaving the house today, it occurred to me that we should have him and Miriam for dinner one evening, maybe with Hank and Laura.”