I said, ‘It wasn’t about Alta. It wasn’t about you.’ Pa took a few steps into the middle of the room. ‘Don’t say that,’ he said. ‘You’re not the kind of son who would forget his family like that. Whatever you did with – that boy … It wasn’t because you wanted it. You’re not like that.’ I stared at him. He wanted me to be malicious, and jealous, and vindictive; he wanted me to have done it out of hatred. Because otherwise I would be – like that …
