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chocolate sheet cake. He placed the cake in the center of the table and began to cut it into sizable slices. As he did, I noticed the pale green prison tattoos on the underneath of his forearms, and wondered if everyone here was running or hiding from something.
    Eating cake seemed to lighten everyone’s mood, and soon the silence was replaced by whispers and faint laughs. But not everyone had cake, and those who didn’t—Sister Chris and Tammy—remained sullen.
    “This is very good, Keith,” Kathryn said.
    “Thanks,” he said, his face turning a light shade of crimson.
    “Since it seems to be a night for clearing the air,” Ralph Reid said, “I think I should set a few things straight.”
    We all turned toward him, most of us continuing to eat.
    “Regardless of what you may have heard, the Gulf Coast Company is not attempting to close St. Ann’s down. Obviously, things have changed since we made this generous donation to your ministry, and we have different needs now, but nothing we’re proposing would cause St. Ann’s to close.”
    “What
are
you proposing?” Kathryn asked.
    “Simply to relocate St. Ann’s to another parcel every bit as beautiful as this one,” he said. “Just one that would enable us to go forth with our plans to be a viable company for the future.”
    “
Simply
relocate us,” Sister Abigail said. “Relocation is never simple, and this has been our home for nearly thirty-five years.”
    “Anyway,” Reid said, “I just wanted to expel any rumors and explain what I was doing here. I’ll be staying in Daniel cabin tonight if any of you have any questions.”
    “You’re spending the night?” Sister Abigail asked.
    “Is that a problem?”
    She hesitated, then said, “Absolutely not. Just unexpected.”
    “Y’all still keep that cabin reserved for us, don’t you?”
    “Of course.”
    “Good,” he said. “I have a few more things to do out here in the morning and I’d like to get an early start.”
    I leaned over and whispered to Kathryn, “The paper company has its own cabin?”
    “Always has had. Not only did Floyd Taylor donate everything, but he set up a trust before he died that keeps St. Ann’s going. If he hadn’t, we’d’ve closed a long time ago.”
    Before I could ask her anything else, Father Thomas appeared at the door. Without speaking to the rest of us, he looked at Tammy and said, “It’s time. Are you ready?”
    She nodded and they left together.
    “Time for what?” Steve asked.
    “I have no idea,” Kathryn said.
    “You don’t think he’s, ah—you know, with my little cousin, do you?”
    “
No
,” she said. “Ew.”
    “Just the same, maybe I should go see what they’re doing.”
    As he stood, I said, “Did she tell you your little cousin was the last one to be seen with Tommy?”
    “Was she?” he asked Kathryn without acknowledging me.
    Kathryn nodded.
    “Well,” he said. “Then I’ll ask her about that too.”

Chapter Nine
     
    When the banging on my door began at just before two in the morning, I hadn’t been asleep long. I had returned to my room from an after-dinner walk around the lake restless and frustrated. I had hoped to run into Kathryn but she was nowhere around, and I wondered if she was with Steve.
    I shouldn’t have even been thinking about her, but I was finding it difficult not to, and that made me agitated and unable to sleep.
    The truth was Kathryn was just a distraction. The real reason I was agitated and unable to sleep was my mental state. I felt isolated and alone, cut off from the rest of the world. I was homesick for a home I didn’t have and my loneliness opened up a hole inside me that felt as bad as anything I had ever experienced. I wanted to cry but couldn’t. I wanted to scream but didn’t. I needed to connect but felt as though I were the only lonely soul adrift in the cosmos.
    I had paced around the small room, mind wandering, bumping into the furniture, before I finally laid down and courted