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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

There’s a stoplight just past the grocery where they can go straight on into Ashland City or turn left and go back out into the country where Zelda lives. Luke slows and gets in the turning lane but they’re stopped right beside a long golden Cadillac with two old women with wigged-up hair, sitting there jawing away. They are the kinds of old ladies who still go to the beauty salon once a week to get their hair done.

Then one of the ladies looks over. Asher sees the moment on her face when she recognizes the Jeep. Asher knows that old women like this watch the news all the time. She leans against the window so she can see better, peering over her eyeglasses. Asher can tell when she recognizes him and she’s hollering to her friend and searching all about for something, probably her cell phone. The old lady driving gets so excited she runs the red light.

“She’s recognized you, Asher,” Luke says, just like he’s saying It sure is a nice day today.

“Don’t matter now,” Asher says. He sounds like a version of himself, like somebody else playing him in a movie.

Then they are in woods again and the trees are close, hunching down over the Jeep as they pass underneath. Shady is cocking his head to the side the way he does when he hears something far off in the distance before anyone else does. There’s a hush, too. Even the radio seems to be going quieter.

The car sails down into the rolling hills and the Cumberland is so close he can smell the mossy logs and the old ferns on its banks. Asher is still holding his brother’s hand.

Suddenly he realizes that Justin has unlatched his seat belt and is slipping between the seats so he can latch his arms around Asher’s shoulders, his wet face pressed against his father’s neck.

3

3

Just before they reach Zelda’s, Luke pulls over on the shoulder of the road in a thick shade of tulip poplars. He turns off the engine and they sit there in a world made of birdcall. Justin’s holding on to Asher tight, his little arms squeezing around Asher’s neck, his warm breathing right in the nape of his father’s neck, not moving, not saying anything.

I can’t do this, Asher thinks. I can’t.

But he knows that he must. He has to. Justin didn’t ask to be born into any of this mess, yet they’ve put him here.

Heat gathers in the cab of the Jeep even though they’re sitting in a deep green shade. The birds are incredibly loud. Ironweed and goldenrod grow in clumps all down the side of the road, barely moving in the heat, their purple and yellow blossoms shining like lights.

Asher knows the police cruisers will be there any time now.