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

“How long does this damned tornado thing go on?”


“Don’t curse in front of the children, dear.”


Distant thunder sounded in the background.


“You heard about Smithville?” I asked.


“A few years ago a tornado went through here, took just about all of Smithville with it. Killed about thirty people. That’s about forty-five minutes down the road, a little too close to home. Took out one hundred and forty-nine of their one hundred-fifty houses and businesses.”


By the light of the flashlight, we listened to the NOAA Weather Radio announcer explaining that a tornado had touched down in the Plantersville area, just to our east. Quarter-size hail was reported. A tornado warning was in effect for Lee County and the surrounding counties. Tornado was moving in an easterly direction.


I sat on the edge of the tub, looking at Jackson.


“God, I want to kiss you,” I whispered


Chapter 37