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

We waded into the water and had a long swim.


When he got tired, I held him in my arms and waded into the deeper parts. Then he got behind me and held onto my neck while I swam out further, dog-paddling, enjoying the exercise. Then I turned around and dog-paddled all the way back to the shore, where we sat on the sand, water dripping from our bodies.


Jackson emerged from the tent, wandered off into the trees, came back, and smiled at us sheepishly.


“Did you know you fart during your sleep?” I asked.


“I do not!” he said, outraged, offended, not sure whether to believe me.


I waved a hand in front of my nose and my eyes went wide.


“You are such a liar!” he exclaimed.


“Ask Noah. He didn’t hear but he could sure smell it. We had to air the tent out.”


Chapter 48