There’s punishment, and then there’s punishment. I felt like I could endure God’s wrath for the things I done, but for one thing—I couldn’t bear the look I seen on Sam’s face. Pity. Pity like I used to feel for Mama, even as she turned her bed into her coffin. Now I felt afraid. I wanted to believe Sam still loved me like he done before, but I never had the courage to. Besides, there was things he didn’t know I done—to Timmy, to Will—things I never told him, coward that I was. I felt like there would be a lot to go through coming up, and I couldn’t see how things could ever be the same between
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