I wondered if anyone was watering June’s lilac bushes at the white farmhouse.

Luke gripped the top of the steering wheel with both hands.

He kept his eyes fixed straight ahead on the dark road.

“Why did you choose to say that?” Luke asked.

“Because Walt needed to hear it from me in front of everybody,” I told him.

Luke kept both hands tight on the steering wheel of the Buick.

We passed a rusted tractor sitting alone in a harvested cornfield.

“He didn’t say a single word back to you,” Luke said.