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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

“No,” Asher said instantly, forcibly. He knew that preachers just like him were the very ones who had put thoughts like this into his son’s mind, into the minds of all those children on the playground. He sat for a time, trying to gather more to say, but he was at a loss.

Asher opened his door. He put his hand on Justin’s back as they walked up to the house. “We ought to go walking up on the ridge after supper,” Asher said. “The foxgloves should be blooming by now.” These days the woods felt more and more like the only kind of church he wanted to be a part of.

8

8

When Stephen and Jimmy started coming to their church on Sunday mornings, three different members of the church’s board asked Asher what he was going to do about it.

“I’m going to welcome them in,” Asher said. He didn’t say how badly he wished he could go back to the day he turned his brother away and make that right. He wanted to, though.

Then more of the congregation called him, and some showed up at his house saying, We can’t have that kind of thing going on in our church or I can’t let my children be around such as that and You know what they are or You have to do something, Pastor Sharp.

Caleb Carey was the loudest voice against them. He demanded they be told to not come back.

“I can’t do that, Caleb,” Asher said. “I won’t tell anyone they’re not welcome here.”

“There’s churches in Nashville that accept their kind,” Caleb said. “Let ’em go there.”

“I told you, I won’t turn anybody away from worshipping.”

“I’ll call a special meeting of the other deacons if I have to,” Caleb said. He had once been a man of such humility and now there was anger tight in his shoulders, an aggression in the cords of his neck. He had lost nearly everything in the waters twice now and it had taken more than his wife and house. “If you don’t run them queers off, then I will.”

“Nobody’s running anyone off from this church, now, Caleb.” He rose then. He couldn’t sit still when he was so angry. “One of those men saved you, Caleb. Saved Rosalee.”

“That doesn’t make it right, what they are. We can’t condone that, Asher.” Caleb wiped sweat from his brow and looked away. Then his anger gathered again. “Next they’ll be wanting you to preach their wedding. What will you do then?”

“Caleb, I know you’re mad. And I don’t blame you. You lost so much.” Asher stopped, struggling for the right words. “But treating them bad won’t make you feel any better.”

“I’m not going to be like everybody else in this country and give up my beliefs to be polite.”