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he was one of our own.”
    He appeared in the door. “Rhoda, if you’re settled in I’ll be leaving now,” he said. “I’ve got to drive to Knoxville to do some business but I’ll be back here Tuesday morning to take you to the mines.” He handed her three twenty-dollar bills. “Here,” he said. “In case you need anything.”
    He left then and hurried out to the car, trying to figure out how long it would take him to get to Knoxville, to where Valerie sat alone in a hotel room waiting for this night they had planned for so long. He felt the sweet hot guilt rise up in his face and the sweet hot longing in his legs and hands.
    I’m sorry, Jesus, he thought, pulling out onto the highway. I know it’s wrong and I know we’re doing wrong. So go on and punish me if you have to but just let me make it there and back before you start in on me.
    He set the cruising speed at exactly fifty-five miles an hour and began to sing to himself as he drove.
    â€œOh, sure as the vine grows around the stump
    You’re my darling sugar lump,” he sang, and;
    â€œFroggy went a-courting and he did ride ,
    Huhhrummp, Huhhrummp ,
    Froggy went a-courting and he did ride, Huhhrummp ,
    What you gonna have for the wedding supper?
    Black-eyed peas and bread and butter, Huhhrummp,
    huhhrummp …”
    Rhoda was up and dressed when her father came to get her on Tuesday morning. It was still dark outside but a rooster had begun to crow in the distance. Maud bustled all about the little kitchen making much of them, filling their plates with biscuits and fried eggs and ham and gravy.
    Then they got into the Cadillac and began to drive toward the mine. Dudley was driving slowly, pointing out everything to her as they rode along.
    â€œUp on that knoll,” he said, “that’s where the Traylors live. Rooster Traylor’s a man about my age. Last year his mother shot one of the Galtney women for breaking up Rooster’s marriage and now the Galtneys have got to shoot someone in the Traylor family.”
    â€œThat’s terrible,” Rhoda said.
    â€œNo it isn’t, Sister,” he said, warming into the argument. “These people take care of their own problems.”
    â€œThey actually shoot each other?” she said. “And you think that’s okay? You think that’s funny?”
    â€œI think it’s just as good as waiting around for some judge and jury to do it for you.”
    â€œThen you’re just crazy,” Rhoda said. “You’re as crazy as you can be.”
    â€œWell, let’s don’t argue about it this morning. Come on. I’ve got something to show you.” He pulled the car off the road and they walked into the woods, following a set of bulldozer tracks that made a crude path into the trees. It was quiet in the woods and smelled of pine and sassafras. Rhoda watched her father’s strong body moving in front of her, striding along, inspecting everything, noticing everything, commenting on everything.
    â€œLook at this,” he said. “Look at all this beauty, honey. Look at how beautiful all this is. This is the real world. Not those goddamn movies and beauty parlors and magazines. This is the world that God made. This is where people are really happy.”
    â€œThere isn’t any God,” she said. “Nobody that knows anything believes in God, Daddy. That’s just a lot of old stuff…”
    â€œI’m telling you, Rhoda,” he said. “It breaks my heart to see the way you’re growing up.” He stopped underneath a tree, took a seat on a log and turned his face to hers. Tears were forming in his eyes. He was famous in the family for being able to cry on cue. “You’ve just got to learn to listen to someone. You’ve got to get some common sense in your head. I swear to God, I worry about you all the time.” The tears were falling now. “I just