moved up the rungs. "Laura's death? I don't
understand. How could that have been his fault? Was
it because he gave her permission to go sailing that
day?"
"No," Cary said, not turning, still climbing. "Then I don't understand. Explain it!" I
demanded. My tone of voice turned him around. He
gazed down at me with a mixture of anger and pain in
his face.
"My father doesn't believe in accidents. He
believes we are punished on earth for the evil we do
on earth, and we are rewarded here for the good we do
as well. It's what he was brought up to believe and it's
what he has taught us."
"Do you believe that, too?"
"Yes," he said, but not convincingly.
"My daddy was a good man, a kind man. Why
was he killed in an accident?"
"You don't know what his sins were," he said
and turned away to continue up the stairs.
"He had no sins, nothing so great that he should
have died for it! Did you hear me, Cary Logan?" I
rushed to the ladder and seized it, shaking it. "Cary!" He paused at the top and gazed down at me
before pulling up
his ladder.
"None of us knows the darkness that lingers in
another's heart." He sounded just like his father. "That's stupid. That's another stupid, religious
idea," I retorted, but he ignored me and continued to
lift the ladder. I seized the bottom rung and held it
down. He looked down, surprised at my surge of
strength.