“I don’t mean the Baptist God, now, in particular. Just God.”

“Sure,” Joey said, after some consideration. “I do.”

“Then you believe in conscience, in right and wrong?”

“I guess so.”

“If you want to steal something at a store and stop because your conscience says no, you don’t feel happy, do you?”

“No.”

“To get right down to it, if it wasn’t for the fact that you know there’s a right and wrong, you’d probably have a lot more fun, now wouldn’t you? Things would be easier. Well—there are people like that; all over. People who don’t see the rules. If they want to steal something, they steal it, go right ahead—so what? They don’t know any of God’s restrictions . . . but they don’t know any of His blessings, either. Do you envy them?”

Joey got up, wiped his hands along his trousers, tried to pull the warm night air into him.

“It’s the same thing, isn’t it?” the preacher went on. “Don’t ever envy someone who doesn’t see the truth, Joey, no matter how happy he seems to be. Because it’s not real happiness. It’s not a human being’s happiness. And that’s what you are: a human being. That’s why I say you’re lucky.”

“If I thought it would work, Reverend—if I thought it really had a chance—”

“Joey, now, listen to me. I said I knew how you felt because I felt that way, too; and I didn’t lie. But none of that makes any difference now. Because the tiger’s loose, boy, and it’s running. Everybody’s going to get a good look at it. Everybody. We don’t have any little dark secret to keep to ourselves, not any more. You understand? That’s all past. That’s why it’s got to work!”

Joey picked up a fistful of soft dirt and squeezed it.

The preacher’s voice got lower. “That’s why I’m talking to you,” he said. “Because whether it does work or not is going to depend an awful lot on you, Joey.”

“On me?”

“That’s right. Someone’s got to hang onto that tiger—someone who’s been around it for a long time. Otherwise, Albert will get mad; and that’ll be the end. Because we can’t go back. After tomorrow, nobody on Simon’s Hill will ever be able to go back.”

Joey wanted to look away, but he couldn’t.