 "Mama, can you baptize the leaves?" the little girl asked.
"Honey, why in the world would you ask a question like that?" "Well," she said, "Grandpa is always saying we get baptized so we can go to Heaven, and well, I know it's gonna be real pretty there, and I know Jesus has it fixed up just right, but I can't think of nothing more pretty here on earth than the leaves when they change colors, and I have a real hard time thinking God made anything more pretty than that, even in Heaven, so I thought maybe if we baptize the leaves, maybe those leaves'll go to Heaven just like we do and maybe when they get to Heaven, they'll just stay the pretty colors all the time and never fall off and die like they do now. All the trees would be real fine and their limbs would be real strong and never break there, cause there wouldn't be no wind or no storms to tear 'em down like they do here. Well, maybe there'd be just a little wind, just a cool breeze on a not too hot, just the perfect temperature for a little cool breeze kind of day. Those trees, they'd be just like us, whole again, whole forever, all fixed in their most perfect way, just like the angels. Just like we have wings them trees would have the most outstanding leaves and have them for all eternity." Her mom thought for a minute, then answered, "Well, honey, I guess if God hears the wishes of our hearts, same as our prayers, you've found a real good thing to hope for. I sure do hope you're right. I ain't never dreamed of a mansion of gold no prettier than a maple in autumn. Well, it looks like we have some work to do. Let's get to it."
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 If the corn don't grow and the tobacco don't grow, then there ain't no food on the table. Them babies will starve. The old folks too. Don't talk to me about no progress. Don't talk to me about buildin no dam. Ain't no water gonna save us now. The Bible tells of a place called Gehenna. It was nothin but no barren valley of filth and fire. Wouldn't no decent person go near there. Jesus, he used that place to tell what Hell was like. Told that it's a place worse than any. That's about as close as you can get to tellin about where we live here. And you think you gonna come in here and just wash all that destitution and that dirt that won't grow nothin worth havin away? I tell you what, it's been dry here so long they's cracks in that dirt so deep you can't ever fill em full with water. You just go ahead and try if you want to, but I tell you, that water's just gonna run down them crevices on down so deep it might just drown that ol' devil himself. Just maybe. But then again I guess you can't very well drown the devil when he's the one pourin the water.
 Benny was always the coolest kid in school. Benny didn't care. Benny did his own thing. He wore a leather jacket and Chuck Taylors. Always had that Walkman on his hip, swinging to the sound, back and forth. Swagger; moving him forward, forward towards greatness, the next big thing, always coming his way, always coming up roses. Roses; their cheeks blushed red like new flowers, hoping he'd glance their way. Turn his head. Notice. Maybe wink. Maybe nod. Swinging those hips, like that was even ok for a boy. Didn't nobody say nothing when Benny swung his hips. If Benny swings, you swing. If Benny says swinging is ok, you say swinging is ok. Benny says it's all in the hips. The Walkman's just there for decoration. The music? You make that in your head, kid.  The passage seemed dark. Every window that wasn’t broken was crooked or stuck, half opened or half closed, the panes ready to pop at the slightest movement in the soft earth that was the foundation of the place where her dreams began. Like the house, she felt like she was sinking. It wasn’t much of a stretch to believe the ground might just open one afternoon and swallow the whole place up. And with it it would take every memory, good and bad, new and old, down with it, to be forgotten forever. She checked carefully for shards of glass, threw her sweater down over the sill, then lifted herself up on over into the cavernous room. Years came back to her in an instant and she was a child again. The room wasn’t empty, but full of life. There was laughter. There was light. For the first time in a long time a he wasn't alone. The wood floors creaked beneath her feet and she felt them bow as she shifted her weight ever so slightly from one foot to the other, finding her balance. She was back to the present and the earth whispered up to her through the cracks in the floor, “Do you want me to take you away?,” she straightened up and said “I’m not ready for you yet.”  Jess wasn't sure he believed there was gold at the end of a rainbow, but to be fair, Jess wasn't sure he believed in God either. His life was riddled with half-truths and stories passed down as fact that were only figments and tall-tales built on the futile need of the lonely for excitement. His family history stood littered with dead confederates and Cameronians who fought for lost causes and their progeny who perpetuated these desires from one decade to the next, leaving each new generation to defend the last, never asking why. His sin, he found, was not in the doubt, but in the question. At the end of the day there was only one way to really know, he'd have to get out of the truck and just go find out for himself.
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