Nobody spoke as they went about their chores. Every once in a while Laurel caught a glimmer of tears in her mother’s eyes, and her heart pricked for the pain she had to be feeling. How could Charlie hurt their parents so? And what about her and Willie? Did he care so little for them that he could leave without telling them goodbye? Now with supper over she and her parents sat in the parlor, and the thick silence that covered the room threatened to crawl into her body and squeeze the life from her. She glanced at her parents and blinked back tears. Her father sat in his favorite chair, his Bible open in front of him. Laurel was sure he hadn’t turned a page since he’d first opened the book. Her mother sat across from him in another chair. She’d been mending the same sock for the last twenty minutes. Willie had slunk off to his room soon after supper, and she had no idea what he was up to. He seemed to be taking Charlie’s departure harder than anyone else in the family. Just when she thought she could bear the silence no longer, the roar of a car engine broke the silence.
