Chapter 61 second quarter

Climbing up the porch steps of the address I had been given, I saw a woman in a wheelchair. If the Reverend Hanley had not told me that Lester Dante was thirty-eight when Lester Dante came nineteen years ago, I would have thought she was nearly seventy, by her sad face. "Miss Garner?" "It's the wife." "I'm sorry. Reverend Hanley didn't tell me you were married." "It's a widow." "He didn't mention it to me either." "There's no reason he should bring it up." Her blunt manner made me very uncomfortable. "Thank you for agreeing to see me."

Her hair is half white, and her flowered dress is blue.A cordless phone rests on her lap. "You want to know about Lester Dante?" "I would appreciate any information you can provide me." "Pastor Hanley called about your wife and son. Do you have a picture of them?" "Always carry it with me." I took out my wallet eagerly. She stared at the photo that Kate's father had taken when we visited Kate's parents in Durango.Not far away is the magnificent cliff dwelling ruins of Verde Terrace.We traveled there for a day.The photo was taken with Kate, Jason and I standing in front of a half-collapsed residence.We smiled at the camera in jeans and T-shirts.In the background of the photograph, next to an old stone wall, there was what looked like a bent figure, but nothing could pick up the shadow.Jason insists that it is the ghost of an Indian who lived there hundreds of years ago.

ghost.I don't want to think that what I'm looking at is a ghost. "A great family." All I can say is "thank you". "There are so many sad things in this world." "Yeah." My throat tightened with excitement. "Mrs. Garner, do you know this man?" Looking at his picture made her miserable.She nodded and turned around. "It's Lester. I haven't thought about him all these years. I've tried my best not to think about him." She's going to see me off, I thought. "Do you really believe that what I tell you can help you?" she asked.

"Anyway, I don't know." "beat him." "I'm sorry, can you say that again?" "We need to forgive those who have offended us, but I want you to punch him." "If I had the chance, Mrs. Garner, trust me, I would." She gripped tightly to the side of the wheelchair. "When I can go, for a while, I'm always the first to arrive at the Sunday service." The change of subject confuses me. "I made a point of getting to church earlier than everyone else. Now I'm trying to figure out if I was too proud and God punished me for that."

"Whatever happened, Mrs Garner, it wasn't God's fault, it was Lester Dante's fault."