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"So did the spirit ree with your dad?" she asked Cub "About cutting our mountain down to the stumps?"

"You act like we have a choice We need the money"

"He needs the money Bear didn’t ask us before he took out that equipment loan Why is this balloon payment our problem?"

"He didn’t know he’d lose all his contracts when this economy crap hit the fan"

"Well, but it was his risk"

"And it’s his land"

"And we have nothing? Whatever gets done on that farm, we help do it Cub, look atto you?"

He stopped and turned with exaggerated annoyance, looking at her with tired, flat, loveless eyes, as sick of this story as she was She wanted what could not be She wanted him to choose his teaht," she said fiercely "We work that far our children to call it ho? We don’t even get any g-d Christ for yourto potty-train yourself?"

People were staring The checkout lady in the red turtleneck looked ready to call so-out in public was the trashiest kind of huusted her Suddenly, like the flush in the back of her throat she always felt before a virus came on, she had it back: the bizarre detachment that had pulled her in October and Nove the crest of that wave that shut out everything but the thrill of forward h to be terrified That whole almost-affair had been like a dreaetaways In this life, she had to line up a sitter just to have a fight

Cub picked up a sippy cup shaped like a frog, two dollars She grabbed it from him and tossed it into the cart So the cashiers wouldn’t think they were here to shoplift

"What did he say, on Sunday?" Cub asked

"Who?"

"Pastor Ogle About thewind, whether it was Bobby Ogle or his mother He wanted an ally So did Hester, her ferocity notwithstanding Everyone wanted to be inside the fold rather than out; maybe life was that simple "Would that settle it for you," she asked, "if Bobby ca?"