Outlaw Mountain

“Grandma Lathrop told her,” Joa

“What does that mean?”

“Whether or not he pla

“Why?” Je

Joa

“It’s my fault then,” Je

“Well, yes. Grandma’s a little old-fashioned that way.”

“But do you want to marry him?” Je

Another direct question that deserved an equally direct answer-one that came from the heart. “Yes,” Joa

Je

Joa

“You’re not mad at me then?” Je

“No. I’m not.”

“You won’t mind if. I tell you a secret, then?”

“What’s that?”

“I asked Butch if he’d go with me to the Father and Daughter Banquet next week. You know the one. For Scouts. You don’t mind, do you?”

In Bisbee the Girl Scouts’ a

“No,” Joa

“You know,” Je

Joa

“Okay,” Je

“Well, since you’re out of school an hour and a half earlier than anyone else will be and earlier than Butch is expecting you, I thought we’d go uptown and see what Maria

“Don’t you have to go back to work now?”

“No,” Joa

With temperatures in the fifties, the weather was cool and crisp. The sky overhead was a clear cobalt-blue. As Joa

When they pulled up to the parsonage, Joa

“Run up and knock on the door,” Joa

“She probably already knows about it, Mom. Doesn’t Maria

Damn Marliss Shackleford anyway!

Je

“Sorry I missed your speech at Kiwanis this morning,” Maria

“How are you doing now?”

“A little better,” Maria

“But not much, from the looks of you,” Joa

“Come on in,” Maria

Tommy was actually Dr. Thomas Lee, a Taiwanese immigrant doctor who had come to Bisbee’s Copper Queen Hospital as a way of paying off his medical-school loans. Once the loan obligation was repaid, he could easily have gone elsewhere. Instead, he had decided to make Bisbee his permanent home.

After Jeff and Maria

“Well,” Joa

“I didn’t tell him,” Maria

The parsonage’s once pristine living room was a shambles. Toys, books, and papers were scattered everywhere. The couch was almost invisible beneath a mound of unfolded laundry. On the floor, smack in the middle of the debris field, lay Ruth and Je

“If you’re working on a Thanksgiving sermon,” Joa

“‘Stop Digging’.”

“ ‘Stop Digging’,” Joa

“You should know,” Maria

“You really are taking my advice.”

Maria

“She’s been suspended,” Joa

“The Bee?” Maria

“Do you happen to have a copy?”