Gilley

I WENT DOWN there. My mother said, “Gilley, don’t.” But I went. Why did I do it? Because I’d taken to heart what my father said. This was about family, and I had something to prove—that I was man enough to stand beside him and do whatever we had to do to bring Katie back. Love finds you, Margot Cherry had told me. Be ready.

“Gilley,” my father said when he saw me. He had that Colt up under Raymond R.’s chin. “Gilley,” he said again, as if he were trying to make sure that what he saw was true. I’d had the nerve to come there, to be with him, to be whoever he needed me to be on this night when we didn’t know what would happen next.