In only minutes, the justice of the peace was standing on the porch, surrounded by sweaty older men with hats in their hands, bowing their heads. The justice of the peace held a small book and recited a passage from Psalms. And one of the men in attendance sang a stirring rendition of “Shall We Gather at the River?” One man cried.

No sooner had the justice of the peace pronounced Pete and Ruth husband and wife than one of the witnesses fired a handgun into the air and screamed, “Yippeeeeee!”

The man who’d fallen off the truck roof marched onto the porch and said, “Can I be the first to kiss the bride? After all, I think you dadgum broke my leg.”

Ruth let him kiss her cheek. The men began to holler and argue among themselves. They formed a single-file line to kiss her cheek. And with each kiss, each man handed her wads of sweaty cash from his pocket.

“What’s this?” Ruth asked.

“A blessing for the happy couple,” the men said.

*  *  *

Ruth and Pete spent the night in the bed of their truck, covered with a quilt. Stringbean slept between them. They slept with clothes on, holding each other close until they fell asleep. She kept Stringbean against her so tight that she couldn’t feel her arms anymore. And when she fell asleep, she had strange dreams. She heard music, and she saw the woman from her dreams, the red-haired woman who seemed to haunt her sometimes.

When they awoke, it seemed that Ruth had never seen a sky as clear and bright and blue as the one above them. Pete lay still, sleeping with his head on her shoulder. She removed a slip of paper from her pocket and unfolded it.

The words “Lost baby . . .” The photo of an old man holding an infant.

She didn’t care what the clipping said. She wasn’t lost anymore.

Seventy-Nine
Songbird

Coot felt strange. To see the big man in the cell beside his was like reliving his childhood all over again. Only this time it was being lived through the eyes of an adult. When he looked at E. P., boyhood feelings came back to him, but this time the feelings were different. He remembered the man’s good moments from long ago. When he used to give Coot candy, then wink at him. He remembered the great pains the man had gone to to teach Coot to wink when he was four years old. It took Coot a week to learn how to do it right.

It’s funny what a mind remembers.

Now he had a man’s mind. And things weren’t as clear-cut as they once had been. During childhood, he’d known who the heroes and villains were. As an adult, he wasn’t sure who they were and who they weren’t. And he wasn’t sure which side he was on himself.