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"First Congregationalist Church"

"Right Burned down Fire That’s e’re going to have to start with We’ve got burned bodies and a burned church What follows logically?"

"The bodies were burned in the church," he proht be a Midwestern lad at heart, but if there’s one thing I know about the Klan, it’s that they liked to burn things--and the First Congregationalist Church would’ve been a teet"

"Why’s that?" I asked

"It was a racially diverse congregation--one of the first in the country Black people, white people, coether to worship But mostly the church is just a footnote in an occasional history buff’s article I couldn’t even find out for sure where it used to be, only that it burned down in 1919 and no one could agree on why"

"And it was Caroline’s church?"

"Apparently"

"Weird," I said

"Why?"

"The Reads have been a rich, prestigious fa they’d send their kids to a church where there was any htened before their tied and tiptoed his way out of the corridor, into the stairwell "Oh ye of little faith," he said

"I have plenty of faith"

"Just not in other people, huh?"

I wanted to argue with him, because I didn’t like the way it sounded when he said it--like an accusation, or an observation that he found distasteful I could’ve argued, but he’d said it himself: he was a Midwestern lad He wouldn’t understand There were boundaries here, south of the Mason-Dixon; and there still are Ti and screah to resemble its northern or western brethren So when people come to it cold from somewhere else, they take a look around and they think, "This is just like some other place I’ve seen"

But it isn’t

Back downstairs there was nowhere to sit and almost nowhere to stand in the Starbucks But coffee was still brewing, and it was being passed out for free with help from the Red Cross people

Nick and I each took a cup, and neither of us diluted it with anything sweet before we drank it

16

The Archives

My phone rang, and even though I was crouched in a corner without rooh to answer it "What’s going on? Are you still down there?" Dave asked, see to assume that I ake and alive despite the hour

I checked the back of the phone, and it toldup on 3:00 AM "I’m still down here," I confirmed "Down at the Read House, now"

"What? Why?"

"Becauseit’s a long story Nick’s here," I told hih it didn’t

"Lu’s asleep finally, but barely I couldn’t join her though, so I thought I’d call What about--I mean, have you reached or seen Harry? Or you know, Malachi?" It cost hi to keep the syllables frory

"I found them They’re over at the Choo-Choo They stayed> there, I told theo on home, whenever they can So you can tell Lu she can rest a little easier, not having to sit down at the saoing to help me, either We want you to coine how it could happen I’ll just hole up for the night, and one of these days they’ll have to open the bridges again Won’t they?"

"I thought you were going to hole up with Harry and your brother?"

"It didn’t work out But I didn’t go far and I et soled his way back toa refill from the Red Cross people