Before she reached the banks of the skinny creek that ran behind the corn field gone fallow, Summer Halifax received no less than four bona fide messages from God. The first was a black crow which flailed in a pile of golden straw as if in the final throes of death. Once settled, Summer thought no more of it, until she saw it hop to its two feet, then fly away on a late winter breeze. At the time, she had no idea what she had just seen, but it would not be long for her to add two and two.

Next, when a swarm of Texas hornets settled over Summer and the other girls, yet none of them were stung. Then, a three-minute period in which Rylah’s shadow did not move. How Summer watched Cassie launch stones into waters which did not ripple. The temperature of the air dropped a good forty degrees.

Summer collapsed upon the muddy banks. Soon, she was awash with broken sobs.

“God is all around us,” she cried. “He is everywhere.”

The other girls fell upon her and Summer again became warm. She lay there, spackled in mud, and covered by the fingertips and breathless whispers of the other girls and said it over and over:

“God is everywhere.”

“God is everywhere.”

“God is everywhere.”

Until all the girls repeated the words in unison, themselves thrashing about the muck until it oozed beneath every fingernail, smashed into their every crevice. They became one with the mud, and by extension, the earth. They melted into one another. They became part of the universe and its whole at the same time. There was nothing but them.

When finished, they did not linger long before slipping into the cool waters to cleanse themselves. They removed their soggy overalls and soaked-through powder blue shirts and lay them in the sun to dry. They scrubbed each other’s backs with the fine silt of East Texas sand. They massaged away any unwelcome stress that might further infect their afternoon.

Then they got right to work.

Each of the girls brought with them a sewing kit and a small sack of rags and burlap. From them, they would stitch Donnie’s Miracle Dolls, to be sold in town. Each doll was handmade and different from any other, just like the Miracles at the Ranch. Just like all of God’s creatures.

“We shouldn’t call him God anymore, you know,” Summer suggested to the others as they stitched.

“What do you mean?” asked Rylah.

Summer shrugged. “I mean, in Spirit Study yesterday, Barney went out of his way to preach that it isn’t God from the Bible that we worship. Not the Christian or Muslim or Jewish God, or none of the other gods who start wars all over this beautiful planet. He said it’s our own relationship with a Higher Power that we should worship and protect.”

“It’s the Fourth Principle,” said Suzie. Then, added with aplomb, “I’m on Principle Eight.”

“The point I’m making is,” Summer said, “we should change the name of our Higher Power in order to keep us from confusing him with the God of our parents and politicians.”

The other girls exchanged glances. Beth Ann shrugged.

“What do you propose we name him?” she asked.

“I’m open for suggestions.”

They spoke among themselves in whispers at first, but grew more and more excited with each passing proposal.

“What about Zeus?”

“What about Apollo?”

“Should it be a woman’s name? Since we’re women?”

“Like Athena?”

“Ooh, I like Athena!”

“What about Venus? Since she’s beautiful and we are all beautiful!”

“We are all Miracles!”

“We are all Perfect!”

“We are all Loved!”

“How do we decide?”

“Should we put it to a vote?”

Summer kept her eyes closed, as if in deep thought. Then her eyeballs began to roll wildly behind the lids. Suddenly, she threw her arms into the air, tossing her half-stitched Miracle Doll into the tall grass. She fell onto her back.

“Summer, are you okay?”

“Is she having another vision?”

“Are you talking to…Him?”

Summer’s breathing took a spell to regulate, but when finally it did, she opened her eyes and stared into the delirious ball of sun.

“Luther,” she said.

None of the other girls had the slightest idea how to respond. They opened their mouths, then shut them. They blinked.

“We should name our Higher Power…Luther.”

Rylah looked to Cassie. Suzie looked to Marva. Beth Ann turned her head to the sky.

The smile spread wide across Summer’s face and the second time she said it, she exalted it for all the countryside.

“Luther is our Higher Power. He has been all along!”

The other girls, not knowing what to make of it, nor having any worthwhile substitute, fell to their backs as well. They also threw their arms to the clouds and exalted just as loud:

“Our Higher Power is Luther!”

“Praise Luther!”

“Luther is the name of our God!”

And Summer didn’t need to close her eyes tight to see stars. She didn’t need to hold her breath until her vision narrowed to pins. She no longer had to pop enough pills to sick up her stomach lining or drink to the bottom of a bevy of bottles.

She could see Luther, plain as day, standing before her.

He smiled and stretched out his hands.

 

THE FIRST few times they did it, Summer suggested it was to test themselves. They’d leave a tractor on the far side of the corn field, then drive it to the filling station off the highway. From there, they’d have no problem finding a ride into town.

“We have to prove to ourselves that we’re strong enough to resist temptation,” Summer would tell them. “Where else will we learn to defeat a lion, but for the lion’s den?”

“But Barney said to place ourselves on the periphery of sin is just as dangerous as sin itself…”

“He also told us that strength comes from within us.” Summer was not known to take no for an answer. “That which does not kill us only serves to make us stronger.”

Rylah was on board from the get-go. “We hold the keys to the kingdom in our own pockets. No man is ever going to give them to us.”

The attentions they received from the men at these bars came as no surprise. The older fellas would shake their heads and return craggy faces to beer bottles. The younger ones didn’t need much spurring. One thing Summer learned long ago was that any woman—even ones in dusty overalls and old shirts—could be a goddess this close to last call.

They would tease them and they would flirt, but never would they go home with them. Even Beth Ann, an unusually spriteful type, kept her end of the bargain that was struck: no kissing, no sucking, no fucking. It’s perfectly okay to whip these boys to a frenzy, but to give in would break the Principles.

Same with drink, or the offer of a toke off a marijuana joint. They would wave them away with a giggle. The same giggle they shared the entire tractor ride home, where they’d stealthily slip back into their trailers or RVs before Barney or Donnie could wake.

Lately, however, their trips to town had been for reasons altogether different.

“The Twelfth Principle states that it is our duty to share our spiritual awakening with those around us,” Summer told the new girl, Brenna Caughey. Brenna was a girl who liked to cut herself, and had been sent to Miracle Ranch to cure her of it. It was her first night to join the girls on their midnight excursions.

“I know you’re only on your Second Principle,” Cassie told her, “but it don’t hurt none to see the road that lies ahead of you.”

“If you do not share the love with others,” said Marva, “then you are self-centered, and self-centered behavior is what brought us down to begin with.”

“Only by giving love can we truly receive it,” said Beth Ann.

“How do we share it?” asked the new girl.

Said Summer, “These boys will listen to anything we tell them. It’s time for us to spread Luther’s Word beyond the confines of Miracle Ranch.”

This did not go as they planned. Only after they stepped into the cinder block building off Highway 55, simply marked BILLIARDS, did Summer realize how far and wide her ministry had expanded. Two of the farm boys from Blooming Grove took a shine to Rylah the week previous, and had come to listen to her speak again about God or whatnot. This did not sit well with Rex Larson, who’d driven clear up from Corsicana to have the girl lift his spirit.

Or the fellas from the grocery store in Bardwell, or the ones who’d given them a lift last week, and so on and so forth…

“We’ve talked about your jealousy issues,” Rylah told Rex Larson. “It’s selfish behavior, which only leads you further down a wicked path. Who knows where that path may take you?”

“But I’ve been thinking about you all week,” Rex moaned. “I’ve never been the jealous type with a woman…”

“Envious,” said Rylah.

“Beg pardon?”

Rylah smiled on one side of her mouth, something she’d practiced her entire life. “Jealousy is when you have something and are afraid of losing it. Envious is when you want something you don’t have. You’re not jealous…you’re envious.”

Rex had served in two wars, but had never been so broken until he fell under Rylah’s spell. The other girls fared no better. Some of the boys with worthwhile math skills put their efforts into the newer girl, suspecting a likelihood of flagging her resolve. It was all Marva and Cassie could do to keep the shots of tequila from flying down her gullet. Beth Ann, who had a hard time turning down a good, hard roll in the hay, had taken to the sweats by all the energy in the room, and Summer prayed for Luther to give her the strength necessary to fight her demons. However, soon they all found themselves swarmed by factions of men who’d taken to them this week or last or the one before that. The heat cranked high and the noise nearly rattled the walls to the ground, but for the crusty old barman stomping around the bar to fire three shots from a snub-nosed into the air.

“I won’t have no more of this bullshit tonight,” he shouted to the room, newly silent. “You girls ain’t been nothing but trouble since you started coming around. You get these boys worked up and tell them alcohol ain’t no good for them. We end up with a bunch of pussy-whipped fellas swearing off booze. Now, I’m all for folks following whatever religion they like, but you girls are cutting into my bottom line. I have to ask you to leave.”

Gun or no gun, Summer had half a mind to tell off the old barman, but it was not what Luther would have wanted. Here, standing before these poor, lost men, she needed to set an example. What else did she see behind their eyes but hurt little boys who had fallen prey to the anger and insecurity of their parents? Perhaps their daddies had been a bit too severe with the belt, or their mommas had been less than liberal with their love. It was not their fault. Just as it had not been Summer’s fault—all those terrible, terrible things she’d done—these men sought salvation, whether they knew it or not. Summer could not lash out. She’d graduated beyond such behavior.

“We respect your boundaries,” Summer told the barman. “Although tonight we leave, mark my words: we shall return. Perhaps you men have had your hearts tossed aside and forgotten before, but we won’t let that happen. All of you hold value for us, and we shall not cheapen that value with tawdry parking lot affairs.”

“You are Perfect,” said the girls in unison.

“You are Loved.”

“You are Miracles.”

The barman cocked the hammer of his firearm and held it further aloft, pointed shaky at the ceiling.

“I’m not going to tell you weirdos again…”

The girls fetched a ride from a farmer headed home and, once delivered back to their tractor, released the ecstatic frenzy they’d hardly managed to contain.

“I never knew I could feel so good!”

“This is the happiest I’ve ever been.”

“This is far better than the best sex.”

Summer agreed with them all. She took the lot of them into her arms. They cackled with wicked glee beneath the moonlight as they climbed aboard the tractor. Marva cranked it to life and they were off. They rambled across the rock-strewn paths until they came upon the tree line bordering the alfalfa lot. They hung off the machine and let the midnight breeze blow through their hair.

“Is it always like this?” asked the new girl.

“For so long as you wish it to be so,” Summer cried into the night. “There is no such thing as fate or destiny. Only you control that which is before you.”

The girl turned her head to the passing ground. “I’ve had it worse than anyone else.”

“No, you haven’t,” Summer assured her. “We’ve all been in bad places. But the Twelve Principles show us the light. If you follow them—”

“But aren’t we lying by sneaking out of the ranch under the cover of darkness?”

Summer scratched fast at her ear. “Pain is the cornerstone of spiritual growth.”

“But, if God…er, I mean…Luther really wants us to share his message—”

“Our awakening through his message,” said Marva. “It’s different.”

“—and if Barney is the one who receives his message—”

“Barney speaks directly to Luther,” Beth Ann offered.

“—then why are we keeping it secret from him that we are going to town to share it?”

The old Summer would have kicked the feet from under the girl, then let her fall below the rumbling tractor tire. The old Summer would have wandered to yonder cow pasture to pick mushrooms from the dung and drop them into the new girl’s afternoon tea, then accused her to Barney of a relapse. The old Summer would have done a number of things to Brenna Caughey, but that Summer died on an emergency room crash cart. This Summer put a hand to the child’s shoulder and spoke in a calm, even voice.

“You’re only on Principle Two, so it might be difficult for you to understand everything. By the time you get where I am—which is the Eighth Principle—then you will get it. Until then, I suggest you trust and have faith that Luther won’t put anything in front of you that you can’t handle.”

“I will,” said the girl. “I promise.”

“Good.” Summer took her hand and squeezed it. “Let go and Let Luther.”

“Let go and Let Luther.”

“Like Luther says: we share the experiences of our newfound awakening—”

“Wait a second…” Marva’s face contorted to a tiny ball. “Luther didn’t say that. That’s from Barney’s teachings. It’s his Eleventh Principle.”

“I’ll have you know,” said Summer, “Barney isn’t the only one who talks to Luther.”

None of the other girls could speak. The only sound in all the night was the steady rumble of the tractor engine.

“It’s a fact. I used to talk to him all the time.”

“Shut up…”

“A few times, I’ve even seen him.”

Summer thought maybe she could let go of the side of the tractor and float high, high above the alfalfa, the creek bed, the whole of Navarro County.

“I’ll go one further,” she said. “I’d say the only thing that makes Barney so special is he’s the one who received the secrets of the universe from Luther, then bothered to write them down. Man, if I’d have thought to do that, then I wo—”

She’d have finished the thought, were it not for a great calamity. Marva, driving the tractor, had long taken her eyes off the landscape before her. She, like the other girls, could not believe what they were hearing from their fellow Miracle, and ran the machine plum off the road and into the darkened creek bed. They caught air as the tires left the ground, then crashed all twenty feet into the ravine.

Summer found herself cast aside into a thorny briar, one of which sliced open her left cheek and nearly missed her eyeball. She lay there only until she could catch her breath, then scrambled further down the cliff to where the tractor lay smoking and upturned.

“Is everyone okay?” she called into the night. She could hear coughing, whimpering, and sobs. “Rylah? Beth Ann?”

The girls had been scattered across the creek bed on all sides of the busted tractor. One by one, they called out to Summer and the others.

“I’m fine.”

“Everything is okay.”

“That was intense!”

“Thank Luther, we’re all alive!”

But not everyone responded. Summer did the quick math and discovered they had yet to hear from Marva. Immediately, they flew to a frenzy.

“Marva!”

“Where are you, girl?”

“I can’t see…it’s too dark!”

Summer dropped to her hands and knees and scraped her palms against the slick mud. She grabbed hold of roots, rocks, anything, looking for some sign of her fellow Miracle. All the while, her mind racing. What had they done? Could they get out of this? Would she have to run? Saying to herself, all the while, it would be okay, everything was going to be fine, it would all turn out okay.

“I found her!”

“She’s over here!”

“Marva? She’s not answering me! Marva?”

Summer rushed toward the direction of the voices.

“She’s not moving!”

“Marva…wake up!”

Summer’s eyes had trouble adjusting. The moon slapped the creek water, which rippled silvery light in a million directions. She still wobbled from the fall. Her cheek burned from the briars. She could make out shapes, could smell the smoke from the tractor. She fell twice making her way to where the other girls stood.

“This can’t be happening.”

They stood in a circle and Summer shouldered them each aside to better position herself. At their feet was Marva, lying on her back near a swampy puddle of creek water. Even in the moonlight, Summer could see the girl’s face had gone blue.

“Get her out of that water!” Summer barked. “Have you no sense?”

“We need help!” said Beth Ann.

“We can’t let her die!” cried Suzie.

Summer pulled Marva onto her lap and turned her head skyward. She could not for the life of her remember how CPR was done, but clamped her mouth to Marva’s and blew into it.

Rylah scurried up the other side of the creek bed and dashed into the darkness.

“Where is she going?” shouted Summer.

“She’s going for help!” Cassie answered. “The ranch is just over the cornfield.”

“She’ll never make it in time!” Summer could barely catch her own breath. “Everything will be fine. We’ll make all this better.”

“What do we do?”

“Why is this happening?”

Summer could smash in her own head with her fists. It all moved too fast. What had she done? For the first time in her entire life, she’d found the happiness that had so often eluded her. Now she watched as it slipped through her fingers.

“Marva…” Summer choked on her own sobs. “Please…please…”

She could run. She could either head toward the ranch and catch up with Rylah before she woke the others, or head the other way and hope to be long gone before the sun came up and the police were called. She could hitch into Waxahachie and be halfway to Austin before she knew it. She could find a crew of Rainbow People and lay low until the heat died down. She’s always wanted to see the desert…

“Luther…”

It came first from the lips of Brenna. Summer might not have heard her, were it not for Brenna’s lips being but a whisper from her ear.

“Luther, if you are listening…”

Soon, the other girls as well. Cassie, Beth Ann…Suzie…all of them gathered at Summer’s back and pressed themselves tight. Soon one voice became two, and then became them all as they closed tight their eyes, turned their heads to the stars, and said over and over and over:

“Luther, please, please save us.”