Most days he and Cherry worked in happy silence. They were both quiet people and he figured that she was as content as he was to pass the day with little conversation. Only occasionally she said something profound to him that made him think she needed someone to talk to. In the past he would’ve invited this—people always said he never met a stranger, could talk to anybody, which made for a good preacher—but these days he was floating through the world the best way he could. Surviving. Sometimes they both found themselves singing along to the country songs that played through the ceiling speakers.

One day as they were fixing to go home he wrung out his mop, dumped the gray mop water, and clicked off all the exterior lights. Cherry was already at the door, ready to lock up, and she kept her eyes on him as he came up the aisle to the door.

“Pastor Sharp,” she said, despite the fact he had asked her many times to call him Asher and to remember that he wasn’t a pastor anymore, “I’ve been wanting to tell you how good it was, what you said on that video.”

“Thank you, Cherry. Most people ’round here don’t feel that way.”

“I think more than you realize do, though,” she said, and her brows fretted together, her hand rushing to lay itself flat on her stomach.

“You alright?” Asher said, putting his hands out toward her arm in case she needed to steady herself.

But then a smile overtook her entire face. “Yeah, it’s just little Emmaline kicking,” she said. “Lord, about took my breath there for a minute! This gal’s liable to be a football player.”

They laughed at that and stepped out into the cool, black night.

“You want me to walk with you?” Asher asked as she told him goodbye and waddled toward the highway. “Make sure you don’t fall?”

“Naw sir, I’m just fine, I believe,” she said. “Night.”

There was not much traffic tonight so she was able to cross without waiting but he watched until she had disappeared into the trailer park. He stood there with his hand on the door handle of his car and looked up at the night sky. Impossible to see many stars under the cluster of streetlamps guarding the lot.