All the way home, sitting in Ray’s truck and listening to Toby read the six o’clock news, Claire kicked herself. No matter what she did, she only managed to give an unfavorable view of the Elect’s way of life, thus pushing Ray farther and farther away. Which, of course, was what she was supposed to do from a personal standpoint. Despite all the changes, the fact remained that he was an Outsider who was going to leave town one of these mornings, while she was stuck here until she was as shriveled as an unwanted apple. She’d never see him again except maybe twenty years from now at the weddings of Ross and Julia’s kids. They’d look at each other and remember a kiss in a dark parking lot and think, Look what I was saved from. “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” Saul’s prayer on the road to Damascus came into her mind as she gazed out the window. The promise of the clouds and wind had turned into the reality of rain, and the wipers slapped back and forth.
