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

Bill looked at me, a strangeness in his eyes. Mr. Warren was a fine, upstanding member of First Baptist. Why on earth would he apologize to the town faggot? Bill frowned as he looked away, as though embarrassed on Mr. Warren’s behalf.


“We still have cake,” I said, trying to smooth over the moment.


“Shelly, watch those kids,” Mama said. “You know how those boys are.”


We went back to the tables. Introductions were made all around, more food was eaten, more beers taken out of the cooler. KUDZU pumped out a steady stream of country classics.


Eli taught Noah how to drive by himself; then all the kids wanted a turn, and the mini four-wheeler went round and round.


“You’re Kayla’s parents,” Jackson said to Mr. and Mrs. Warren after we had settled into chairs.


“I was very sorry to hear about your daughter.”


“Thank you,” Mrs. Warren said. “You’re Wiley’s…”


Chapter 84