Wise-cracking Wiley Cantrell is loud and roaringly outrageous -- and he needs to be to keep his deeply religious neighbors and family in the Deep South at bay. A failed writer on food stamps, Wiley works a minimum wage job and barely manages to keep himself and his deaf son, Noah, more than a stone’s throw away from Dumpster-diving. Noah was a meth baby and has the birth defects to prove it. He sees how lonely his father is and tries to help him find a boyfriend while Wiley struggles to help Noah have a relationship with his incarcerated mother, who believes the best way to feed a child is with a slingshot. No wonder Noah becomes Wiley’s biggest supporter when Boston nurse Jackson Ledbetter walks past Wiley’s cash register and sets his sugar tree on fire. Jackson falls like a wet mule wearing concrete boots for Wiley’s sense of humor. And while Wiley represents much of the best of the South, Jackson is hiding a secret that could threaten this new family in the making. When North meets South, the cultural misunderstandings are many, but so are the laughs, and the tears, but, as they say down in Dixie, it’s all good.

Shaking the Sugar Tree

He went to the door, opened it. I heard nothing, but saw him signing. I got up, went to the door, and found Juan standing there, looking rather sheepish.


He came in, regarding us both somewhat fearfully.


I just wanted to see you,he said. I hope I’m not bothering you.


We met, he said, smiling as he looked at Noah.


Juan tucked into my baked chicken and veggies like he hadn’t eaten for several days.


Noah looked at me, smiling mischievously.


When Juan had taken the edge off his appetite, I asked him where he lived.


My mom brought me here when I was five. I was born in M-e-x-i-c-o C-i-t-y.


His signing wasn’t that good. Adequate, but nothing more, as though he did not have many people to practice with.


Chapter 28