"I knew Jack would come through, honey," Mr. Dickerson says. "You got yourself a man there."
"You haven't called me honey since I was twelve," she says.
Dickerson extends a hand to her and she stands a safe distance away with Jack. "I need to make amends with you," he says.
"Forget about the endearment," she says. "You can keep it."
Jack is positive the amends Dickerson is talking about has nothing to do with endearments. Jewel knows it just as well, even though she shuts herself off from the real issue with her father—whatever that may be.
Across the cemetery, the dead laugh, as if a door to a party has suddenly been opened. Jewel c***s her head, listening. Although she looks at Jack, her focus is inward.
"I can hear them," she says.
For the first time that Jack knows of, she
