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

I explained they wanted to do an interview.


“Is he your nephew?” the reporter asked.


His eyes lit up like a shark smelling blood in the water.


“Do you mind if I ask you about him?”


I looked at Bill for help, support, something.


Turning to the reporter, he said, “Wiley’s my brother—and he’s a great father. His son Noah turned ten years old this past July. He’s a good kid.”


“And your name is?” the reporter said, fiddling with his tripod and setting the camera in place.


“I’m not going on the damned television,” Bill said. “But you should interview Wiley. He’s my brother and we support him all the way.”


I felt something catch in my throat when I heard Bill say that. I felt as though I had been waiting my whole life to hear him say that.


“Do it,” Jackson urged, bending to whisper in my ear.


Chapter 89