BooksBarbecue
Back Southernmost Save as PDF
Chapters (77)
  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Also by Silas House
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Contents
  7. Part One
  8. 1
  9. 2
  10. 3
  11. 4
  12. 5
  13. 6
  14. 7
  15. 8
  16. 9
  17. 10
  18. 11
  19. 12
  20. 13
  21. 14
  22. 15
  23. 16
  24. 17
  25. 18
  26. Part Two
  27. 1
  28. 2
  29. 3
  30. 4
  31. 5
  32. 6
  33. 7
  34. 8
  35. 9
  36. 10
  37. Part Three
  38. 1
  39. 2
  40. 3
  41. 4
  42. 5
  43. 6
  44. 7
  45. 8
  46. 9
  47. 10
  48. 11
  49. 12
  50. 13
  51. 14
  52. 15
  53. 16
  54. 17
  55. 18
  56. 19
  57. 20
  58. 21
  59. 22
  60. 23
  61. 24
  62. 25
  63. 26
  64. 27
  65. 28
  66. 29
  67. 30
  68. 31
  69. Part Four
  70. 1
  71. 2
  72. 3
  73. Epilogue: The Everything
  74. Acknowledgments
  75. About the Author
  76. About Algonquin
  77. Copyright

For a long while Asher hasn’t known how to believe. Because how does a person keep their faith intact when they lose their child? How can we believe in a God that would allow a father and a son who love each other to be separated unfairly? Where is the goodness when a man turns his back on his brother for being who he was made to be? How can God sit by and let evil twitch itself out over the world?

That’s God, he thinks, looking out at Justin standing in the water, the sun behind him so that Asher can make out only his shape, a shape he has memorized, has burned into his mind’s eye. Because God is in my son.

Justin has walked a long way out but the water is so shallow the ocean still does not strike him higher than his chest. He turns to Asher and raises his arm, motioning for him to join.

Asher slips off his red flip-flops and runs down the beach and into the warm, silky water and joins his boy. Justin rakes his hand across the waves and splashes him when he comes near. Asher dives under and the ocean swallows him whole.

20

20

They pedal home slow and easy in the gathering shadows of the twilight. The sun and water have exhausted them, so they are taking their time. The island is very quiet tonight, a weeknight after one of the hottest days of the year. Asher reckons that everybody is worn out from the heat. He can hear the click of their bicycle chains over everything else and they don’t speak a word the entire way.

There is some kind of sadness on Justin’s shoulders but Asher knows he won’t tell what is wrong. He doesn’t bring it up for fear of what the boy might say: that he wants to go home, that he misses his mother too much, that he hates Asher.

The guilt is worse now that school has started back. Every morning Asher thinks of how he used to always drive Justin to school, the little pang of pride and hurt when Justin would shuffle into the building, his backpack seeming bigger than him. He has thought about going to the library to get some books to at least continue Justin’s education but the prospect of homeschooling seems ridiculous. He knows that these are the last days. Yet when Asher thinks about this fact he is filled with a terrible feeling of purgatory.

Darkness has settled over Key West by the time they return to Song to a Seagull. As soon as they enter the gate they can hear Bell playing the piano, a familiar tune but one Asher cannot place. The courtyard is dark except for the yellow-lit windows of Bell’s cottage.