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Jenny Wingfield
The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
For Taylor, Amy, and Lori—who never once said they wished I was normal.
For Jim, Ruth, Clif, and Hal—who probably said it, but not where I could hear.
And for Charlie and Leon—because.
Contents
Chapter 1
John Moses couldn’t have chosen a worse day, or a…
Chapter 2
This is the way it happened.
Chapter 3
Kinfolk started pouring in early the next morning. Pulling up…
Chapter 4
The first hour was the worst. Willadee’s brothers kept the…
Chapter 5
Sometimes, when Geraldine Ballenger wasn’t trying to think, but was…
Chapter 6
Uncle Toy had not spoken to Swan once since the…
Chapter 7
The little lane wound and twisted and tapered down to…
Chapter 8
The bed Swan slept in was so high she always…
Chapter 9
Bernice could hardly stand the way she felt the next…
Chapter 10
The way you trained a horse was, you taught it…
Chapter 11
Swan and her brothers had given up playing War Spies…
Chapter 12
Ras Ballenger had better things to do with his day…
Chapter 13
Bernice was wise enough not go on too much about…
Chapter 14
Samuel was out on the Macedonia highway, heading for the…
Chapter 15
On the first Friday in July, Odell Pritchett called from…
Chapter 16
Blade had no idea how long it would take for…
Chapter 17
Sheriff Early Meeks was born prematurely, back at the turn…
Chapter 18
In Blade’s dreams, he was running along the edge of…
Chapter 19
Ras knew that pretty soon, unless he could figure some…
Chapter 20
At breakfast, Samuel asked the rest of the family whether…
Chapter 21
As soon as Blade realized what was up, he lit…
Chapter 22
Willadee knew that Samuel was going to get a cool…
Chapter 23
What Swan intended to do was rescue Blade Ballenger. It…
Chapter 24
Willadee saw them coming when they topped a rise far…
Chapter 25
Swan was dead asleep. The little scuffling sounds of someone…
Chapter 26
Toy woke up around four o’clock that afternoon, not because…
Chapter 27
Time rocked on.
Chapter 28
The first thing Toy did after he got to his…
Chapter 29
Ras Ballenger didn’t think much of people in general, and…
Chapter 30
Millard Hempstead and his buddy, Scotty Dumas (who lived in…
Chapter 31
The surgery was tricky and took hours. According to Doc…
Chapter 32
It wasn’t so much decided that Willadee would take over…
Chapter 33
They’d never had a fight before. They’d never even had…
Chapter 34
“How long are you intending for this revival to run?”…
Chapter 35
At dawn, when Willadee dragged herself up the stairs and…
Chapter 36
February rolled around, and God still hadn’t shown Samuel what…
Chapter 37
Willadee had started supper before she left to get Blade,…
Chapter 38
Swan was in a dark place. A deeply dark place,…
Chapter 39
Out in the yard, Samuel was still waving his arms…
Chapter 40
Calla grieved.
Chapter 41
Nobody believed Swan about the mice. They didn’t believe that…
Behind the Scenes
‘They’re My Family After All’
‘Love or Loathe’
What to Read Next
Acknowledgments
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