Doctor Crowder pulled a weary, resigned face.

“Is it very serious?” asked Neil. “I mean, it’s not going to spoil Susan’s chances of having any more children, is it?”

Doctor Crowder shook his head. “The vaginal tissues are lacerated, that’s all. It’s an injury we usually associate with cases of violent rape.”

“Did Susan tell you what happened?”

Doctor Crowder looked away. “She didn’t seem too clear about it. She seemed to think you must have had some kind of argument.”

Neil went cold. “Argument? What are you talking about? We didn’t have any argument! What does she mean, argument?”

“Well, it’s not for me to put words in her mouth,” said Doctor Crowder, “but you must admit that the room was kind of busted up.”

Neil stared at him. “Do you want to know what did that? Lightning. That’s what did it.”

The old doctor wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I see,” he said heavily.

Neil seized his shoulder. “Doctor—you don’t believe me, do you?”

Doctor Crowder wouldn’t answer.

Neil said, “You think I’m crazy. You think I set fire to my house last night, and tonight you think I raped my own wife. That’s it, isn’t it? You think I’m a head case!”

Doctor Crowder tried to pull away, but Neil took hold of both his arms and turned him around to face him.

“You think I’m going out of my mind, don’t you? You see my bedroom all busted up and immediately assume I had a fight with Susan. You see blood on the sheets and you think I’ve assaulted her. You don’t stop to think that I might actually be telling the truth, do you?”

“The truth?” asked Doctor Crowder, shakily. “What truth?”

“The truth that Toby is possessed by the greatest Red Indian medicine man who ever lived. The truth that he called down lightning to smash up the room, and a wind that you couldn’t even stand up in. The truth that he had Susan’s own sheets and bedclothes rape her in revenge for the way the white men used to rape Indian women.”

Doctor Crowder could only stare at him. There was a long, awkward silence. The pine railroad clock on the kitchen wall ticked away the hour of three and chimed.

Eventually, the old doctor opened the kitchen door, and said, “Look out there, Neil. What do you see?”

Neil wouldn’t look at first, but then he glanced sideways and saw the dark, quiet night.

“I see my own backyard,” he said huskily.

“That’s right,” nodded Doctor Crowder. “And is it raining out there?”

Neil shook his head.

“Is it snowing out there? Is there thunder? Is there lightning? Is there any wind at all?”

Neil said, “It’s a warm night.”