When they lived in Key West Justin thought the Everything lived in the ocean. Sometimes he thought the ocean was God. But if the Everything lives anywhere, it’s in a river. Because the river moves along and touches every little thing on its way. And he thinks the Everything would be quiet like a river. Even still sometimes. The ocean is always moving and noisy. The sky’s always changing. But rivers are always there, even when the water has moved on. You’ve got to find the Everything wherever you are. That’s what Justin believes. And that’s why God is the Everything, because there is God in oceans and rivers and dogs and little boys. In Evonas and Lydias and Bells and Ashers and Lukes. In iguanas and frangipani and bougainvillea.

Justin writes things like this in his letters and postcards and emails to Evona and she doesn’t seem to think he’s crazy. He still hasn’t said this sort of thing out loud, but if he ever sees her in person again, he’ll be able to. Because she’s read the words written down, and she keeps talking to him. She even says that she thinks he’s right most of the time. When he calls her from his grandmother’s house they don’t talk about that kind of stuff. But maybe someday they will.

He might even try to say some of those things to his mother sometime. Maybe not the God stuff. She’d never get that. But the weird stuff he thinks sometimes, maybe that. She’s getting better.

When his mother first saw him she wept like he had never seen her cry before and said she thought she had lost him forever. She’s different now. Not all the way there, but changing, rolling along. Partly because she thought she lost him but also because his grandmother doesn’t take her shit anymore. She stands up to his mother now. That’s what Lydia needs, someone to look her in the eye and say, That’s enough now. That’s what his father did, he sees now, with the church, and with her. And that’s what his grandmother has done now, too. All of this could have been different if both of his parents had taken a breath. That’s what he does when he gets upset.

They’re not going to keep his father in there forever. He knows this. His grandmother won’t let that happen. And Evona says she will do everything in her power to get him out of there. Even his mother has said she will go testify for him, if that’s what Justin wants. Yes yes yes, he says. You have to.