"For a long while," he said with a laugh. "My brothers and I all work there."
"How does that go?"
"Brothers working together? It's not the bad. We aren't kids who fight over stupid things, not anymore." He laughed some more.
"You and your brothers probably never fought," Beverly said.
He pointed a finger at her. "Then we have you fooled. All brother fight from time to time. It's just something brothers do. It used to drive our parents nuts. We would poke each other until we would be rolling around. You would've thought we wanted to become professional wrestling."
"Or become martial artists?" Beverly suggested.
"There is a dojo in the canyon, isn't there?" he asked. "Run by a cowboy, I think. I never really thought about it, but it could be fun. Would you ever join?"
"I don't know. I tend to work long hours, into the night. All day until it's too dark to see, and then it's picking up orders for supplies... If I could fit it into my schedule, I might be convinced to at least check it out."
"You two keep on talking," Mrs. Young said. "I'm going to head out and get the food. Be back in a jiffy!"
She breezed out the door, and Roy watched Beverly as she touched one of the leaves of the flowers.
"How was it?" he asked quietly.
"Going to visit the grave?"
He nodded.
Beverly kept her gaze on the flowers. "I talked to him," she murmured. "My father. Would that be considered praying? Talking to someone who is dead?"
"I consider praying talking to God, but you can definitely talk to your father."
"Do you think he heard me?"
"I like to think so, yes."
"Have you lost anyone close to you?" she asked.
"All of my grandparents, unfortunately." He grimaced. "I was close with them."
"Was," she repeated soulfully.
"I still feel like I am. It's just a different kind of closeness."
"Can we..." She looked away. "I tried to pray. For real. Talking to God. I used to pray when I was younger, mostly for things I wanted, which now... It feels wrong to just pray for wants."
"There's nothing wrong with asking God for anything."
"Yes, but there has to be more to it."
"There are different kinds of prayer, yes. Adoration... Supplication, asking God for something, is probably the most common form of prayer, so you don't need to feel guilty over it."
"That's good," she murmured.
"Prayers of thanksgiving... pretty self-explanatory."
"Yes." She smiled and shook her head. "Adoration would be..."
"Praising God."
"Of course," she murmured.