“I like him,” said the young man. “They say signs and wonders follow wherever he goes. I heard a man in Iowa sprouted a new leg at one of J. Wilbur’s revivals.”

“A new leg?” said Ben. “Where’d he end up putting it?”

Another man interjected, “Does that mean you’re going to see him, Eddy? Tell us the truth, have you already bought your ticket to see J. Wilbur?”

“Don’t need no ticket. Says on the radio that it’s free.”

An elderly man wiped his face and threw his napkin on the counter. “I swear. You idiots will believe anything these days. You’re the reason the world’s in such a mess.”

“Yeah,” said another older man. “What’s happening to this world? I can’t even read the papers no more, hogwash on every page. They claimed somebody raised somebody from the dead over in Washington County. Buncha horse flop.”

Ben scoffed. “Newspapers will do anything to get a nickel.”

“It’s all bull. It’s all bull.”

“You can say that again.”

“I just did.”

“Hear, hear.”

“I don’t know if it’s bull or not,” said the young man. “My brother heard it was true, about the man being raised from the dead.”

There was a long pause.

“Hand to God,” said the young man. “My brother said the fella was dead as a roofing tack, then a bright light come outta the sky and . . . and . . .”

Another pause.

“And what?” said one old man. “And made him sprout a new leg?”

“No,” said the young man. “My brother says the man sat right up and started doing all sortsa backflips and speaking in foreign tongues, and people was getting saved all over the place, and there was a brass band.”

“Backflips? Brass band?”

“You’re full of it!” said one man.

“That ain’t what the paper said. They said it was a woman who did it, not a light from the sky. And I didn’t read nothing about no backflips.”

“A whore did it is what I heard.”

“Get outta here.”

“Yep, a whore raised the dead is what they’s saying. Was right there in the paper.”

“You’re full of doo.”

“I’m serious as can be. Read the paper.”

“Well,” said one man, tossing his money on the counter. “I don’t read papers nohow. They’ll print anything, even if it’s horse flop.”

Ruth watched them walk out of the restaurant. She saw them crawl into old vehicles and leave the parking lot. They reminded her of Paul and Vern and the people she missed.

When she paid for her meal at the cash register, the cashier was reading a newspaper. The photograph on the front page was of a man standing behind a pulpit. The man’s face was lean, and his jaw was square. The picture showed him leaning over the pulpit toward an audience, shaking a fist at them.