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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

Zelda let out a heaving sob. No one else flinched.

Caleb took a step forward. “That’s enough, now, Asher—”

“I’ve been with you when your people died, when they were sick. I’ve visited you in the hospital. I barely slept for three days after the flood so I could tend to each one of you who lost a home. And I’m afraid that you are going to let this hatred take you over.”

Asher stood before them, scanning the congregation, touching eyes with each one of them who had the decency to look at him. The teenaged girl—he had baptized her himself, in the Cumberland, on a day heavy with bruised, stormy skies, but in this moment he couldn’t think of her name—was still filming him.

Some were struggling to not break down now. Asher knew of at least one couple that had turned their backs on their son. There were undoubtedly others.

“All I ask of you is to search your hearts.” He was pleading with them. “Don’t make the mistakes I’ve made.”

That was all he had to say. He wiped his face with the back of his hand and walked down the aisle, pausing at the pew where Lydia sat with Zelda and Justin, waiting for them to join him. Zelda struggled to get up, and Justin scrambled past, sliding over the legs of others until he reached his father. He took Asher’s hand. Lydia set her eyes on his, but didn’t budge.

They walked out, Asher and his boy and his wife’s mother who was like his mother. When he reached the door and looked back on the congregation he could see that several women had surrounded Lydia, praying with their hands on her head, speaking in tongues now, the strange words curling through the air.

13

13

They sat there in the car, the engine and air conditioner running, while everyone else left. Asher kept his eyes on the dashboard. “Kathi’s waving at you,” Zelda said, quietly, but he didn’t look up. “The Turners looked this way,” she said after a minute. Justin sat in the back seat listening to music on his earbuds, looking out on the green pastures.

Then there was a startling rap on Asher’s window and he jumped, looking up to see Lydia leaned in close to the glass. “Bring Justin back to the house,” she said, and turned to her own car, her shoes crunching on the gravel.

“I should have rode with her,” Zelda said. “She’ll say I was choosing sides for staying in here with you.”

“I don’t know why I’m so upset,” he said. “I was going to quit them anyway, so I shouldn’t be mad they fired me.”

“Well, nobody wants to be turned away,” Zelda said, patting him on the shoulder.

“It’s the why that burns me up.”