Lights sparkled here and there on the horizon, stingy Still a place too small and inimical to bear. Village set amid hilly fields and orchards and sheep meadows. It wasīigger than he recalled, but not by much, still a picturesque Just that side of river, sat the town of Sun Forge. Nestled in the foothills, where the last of the mountain greeneryīroke like surf against the shore of the barrens. Horizon, unbroken but for the verdant thread of the Walker RiverĪnd the busy little score that was Highway 208.
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While ahead the desiccated skin of the desert stretched to the The Sierra Nevada loomed behind him like an honor guard, Heat of a blast furnace against his back, stifling and violent. Were Carl’s absence and not a failed heart that had put hisįather into that casket.
Clustered around them under theĬanopy and behind were all the people Carl had known growing up.įinish this charade and be gone, they seemed to say, as if it The concern in her eyes was real,īut the pale hair behind her veil was too like lifeless flesh inĬolor, and he looked away. When you’re ready,” he murmured, and stepped back.Ĭarl turned to Eileen. Benjamin, solemn and damp, handed Carl a matte-īlack remote control with a single black button. Old classmate of Carl’s, and his son Andrew-stepped into the The two men from the funeral home-Benjamin Destry, an The pastor nodded to Carl and moved to the far end of the Sorely missed.” Almost too quietly for Carl to hear, he “Ian McFarland,” said Kittridge, head bowed, “you will be Slipped the syringe back into his pocket. Why would he ever want to see me? With a sick sense of failing a test, he I’ve barely spoken to my father since high school. Hillary had snuggled back down into sleep.
There was only one way it would ever live and walk again.Įileen’s veil brushed his ear. Locked inside that casket in an organ slowing decaying to jelly. Has not died but lives on, and will one day rise up to be greetedīy his Savior, and will live and walk again amongst us all.”Ĭarl shook his head. Loved in Ian McFarland, and what loved us so purely in return, Kittridge was saying, “comforted by the knowledge that what we Our dear friend and counselor to the dust from whence they came,” and thus we prepare to return the earthly remains of His father could meet Eileen and Hillary. House on the ridge, and the two of them could sit down for aĬompanionable beer. Five steps across the cemetery lawn, a snap of theĬatch on the casket lid, a swift injection of nanosolution, and It would be so easy to bring the old manīack to life. The syringe in Carl’s pocket burned with cold promise. Tightly to him, but Hillary stirred in her arms and Eileen pulledĪway to rock the little girl. Of course, none of them had lived under the man’s roof, in Hundreds of people spilling down the cemetery lawn, rustling andīroiling in their black clothes, bore testimony to that. He was a friend to everyone, not just his own congregation. Pastor McFarland had been quick with a kind word, andĪlways had time to hear the smallest complaint or glad tiding. There was no man more well-loved in Sun Forge than hisįather.
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So good we can only give thanks he wasn’t taken home sooner.”Ī high cloud veiled the sun, but Carl did not relax his Speaks to us all-even to our dear friend Pastor McFarland, a man Sounded less certain when he wasn’t quoting scripture. Young pastor, his high, smooth brow clenched against the sun. “Thus spake the Lord unto Adam, our first father,” said the
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Watched Pastor Kittridge, in the full glare of the sun, mop hisįorehead with a flannel handkerchief. Carl felt as if he were breathing hot dust, even in the
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