Debra at the Lighthouse Eleven Weeks Earlier

"Someone's at the lighthouse already, Jimmy," Debra Sterling said as she led her five teenage friends up the path from their church. This Sunday morning the forest was raucous with birdsong even though the trees were just starting to bud. Violets and other early spring wildflowers still covered the damp ground.

Jimmy Owens didn't ask how Debra knew someone was already there because she could see things nobody else could. He hugged the portable sound system and hurried past her. He rounded the last bend in the trail, past the Great Pecan Tree, and stopped in the clearing behind the old brick lighthouse on the edge of a steep cliff facing the Mississippi River.

"Tyler!" Jimmy's face broke out in a huge smile. "How'd you get up here so quick?"

Tyler Pandav stood there in jogging sweats not Sunday clothes. His walnut brown face and hands glistened with sweat from his run up the steep hill to get here. He greeted Jimmy and then everyone else as they strolled out into the clearing behind the small lighthouse.

"Why didn't you go to church this morning?" Debra asked with a stern look. Tyler's Indian Christian Church was three miles away in the little town of Riverton.

"Got some big news," Tyler said. "Heard it on the radio this morning."

"We better sit down for this," Davy-Jake Diamond said. He and Lydia Machado were holding hands and the couple sat down together at the big log.

Jimmy, still cradling the portable sound system, sat down next to Davy-Jake. This news, Jimmy figured, was going to be important. He was all ears.

"Has Secretary-General Sebastiao come back?" Rick Machado sat down on the tree stump. Auburn-haired Kim Lemon stood behind him. Jimmy could tell Kim wasn't happy.

"Nope, it isn't that." Tyler sat down on the remnant of a brick wall that once ringed the lighthouse.

Jimmy watched Kim walk away from Rick. She went over to the log and sat down next to Lydia. Debra just stood there in her favorite floral print Sunday dress, holding her guitar and facing Tyler. Jimmy felt static in the air. It seemed any moment someone was going to yell at someone. Jimmy hated it when people yelled at each other.

"We need to pray and sing first," Debra said. Her features softened a little. "We'll raise our voices to heaven and then we'll hear the news, okay?" They always started this way, but Tyler usually arrived after they were already listening to gospel music from the underground Christian radio station.

Debra recited the Lord's Prayer. Jimmy said, "Amen" the loudest. Debra began softly playing her guitar. She sang two current gospel songs alone then asked them to all to sing "Amazing Grace" with her. After the last refrain Debra ceased strumming her perfectly tuned guitar. She nodded to Tyler and he stood up clearing his throat.