Barney had no idea what he was doing. The man was lost, floundering in a sea of his own sin and iniquity. His resentments and insecurities had gotten the better of him. What may have been a beautiful man and instrument of Luther, had been crumpled up and discarded. The negativity took root inside of him and festered and spread like a cancer throughout his bones until the good in him floated away on a breeze like the seeds of a dandelion.

What remained was the frightened husk of a man who had taken to the sweats. He now walked with a hunch. His voice pitched at wild octaves and all the swagger had quit his step.

As evidenced when he addressed the girls in Spirit Study.

“We’re not going to do this again, ladies.”

He’d long stood in the center of the barn with his hands in his pockets, keeping shut his trap while the other girls stared at their palms, kept steadfast in their laps. They looked to each other. They looked to the ground. They looked anywhere but at their leader. His plan must have been to wait out their silence, but his plan fell to the wayside. He didn’t last ten minutes before he leapt in front of them in a tizzy.

“This makes four Spirit Studies in a row that you have all refused to share. Do any of you care to tell me what is going on?”

None of the girls spoke. Their resolve could have bent steel.

“Rylah, have you nothing to share?”

She did not.

“Cassie?” His voice remained even, but Summer wasn’t fooled. “How about you, Brenna?”

Even the new girl could not be swayed.

“Listen up. You have behaved very strange of late. I’ve let it slide because of what happened to Marva. Trust me, I understand how traumatic that can be to a person’s spirit. After all I’ve seen in my days…you don’t see the inside of a jailhouse and keep high spirits. There were challenges that I faced every day, but—”

Great. Here we go again.

Summer nearly split a gut laughing. She collected herself, quick as she could, then covered her mouth with her hand.

“Something funny, Summer?”

She kept herself still.

“By keeping secrets, you are damaging your own souls.” Barney paced the dry dirt in front of them. Outside the barn, the sky was pitch blue with white, fluffy clouds. Somewhere far off, machines tore into the earth. “Secrets get you high. One leads to two, and two leads to three. It’s a slippery slope. A downward spiral. You’re only as sick as your secrets, and, sisters, I need you to want to get well.”

Attitude of Gratitude. Shit or Get Off the Pot. If You’re Standing Still, Stand Aside, Because Others May Be Going Somewhere.

Sigh.

Again, Summer stifled a giggle.

“I’m tempted to bump you each down a couple Principles.”

Suzie nearly bucked. She was oh-so proud of reaching the Eleventh Principle, quick as she did. She gripped both her knees with white-knuckled fists and bit hard into her lower lip. Summer thought maybe she’d burst, and moved to stick up for her, but a warm hand held her at the wrist.

Suzie is a strong woman. She can resist him.

Summer stayed. She waited. She watched the blood in Suzie’s face redistribute throughout her body. For her breathing to return to normal.

See?

“You’re always right, Luther,” said Summer. “Every time.”

Barney cocked his head. “What did you say?”

Summer clamped close her mouth. She returned both hands to her lap.

“This brings up an excellent point,” Barney said. “I want you all to stop referring to the Higher Power as Luther.”

All the girls drew quick a breath. Rylah looked to Cassie and Beth Ann turned to Brenna. Summer nearly ground her teeth to nubs.

He’s bluffing. He wouldn’t dare.

“Our relationship with our Higher Power is an individual one,” Barney continued. “I’m afraid that by you sharing a common name, you’re experiencing an unhealthy—”

Cassie’s hand shot up. “But you always say that we all share the same Higher Power, which is why our instinct is to still call it God.”

“What I meant was—”

Rylah piled on. “You said that the battle for our sobriety will be uphill, but it won’t be alone. We’ve found our Higher Power and we did it together.”

“You’re misinterpreting my—”

“He no longer speaks to Luther,” Summer said. She stood and puffed out her chest. There was not so much of a whisper of the rage that used to consume her. She’d found peace, but understood the need to defend it. “In fact, I’d challenge that he’s not spoken to Luther in quite some time.”

Summer, sit down…

“I’ll do no such thing,” she said. She faced the other girls, turning her back to Barney. A smile took to her lips. “If you really speak to Luther, then tell me what he is saying right this very minute.”

“Summer,” said Barney, “sit down.”

Summer drew a quick breath and held it. Her eyes darted like fish below the ice. Her arms trembled from the shoulders down to her wrists.

In a weak voice, she whispered, “Tell me what he’s saying now.”

“There is no Luther, dammit!”

This did not sit well with the other girls. Brenna rose, as if to counter, but collapsed immediately to the ground. She flopped about in the straw like a catfish on a riverbank. She frothed at the mouth. She garbled words that were not of this earth.

“What the…?”

None of the girls moved. They kept where they stood and stared hate-fire into Barney.

“You can’t keep doing this,” Barney said. He put both hands on his hips. “Are none of you going to help your fellow Miracle?”

Cassie fell as well. Like Brenna, she convulsed and twitched in the dirt. Her screams chased bats from the rafters. Spiders from their webs. Sin from the wood bones of the barn and from the still air within it.

Rylah. Suzie. All of them, upon the floor and frothing until there stood only Barney and Summer. They faced each other, as if in a gun duel. They locked eyes until he scanned each and every one of the fevered children, then resumed their staredown.

Said Barney, “I’m beginning to think you are going to have a very bad effect on my Miracles.”

“I bet you do,” said Summer. “You ain’t his instrument no longer. Naw, if it was up to you, Marva would have died there in that creek bed. But Donnie healed her with his touch. If Luther speaks through any of you, I reckon it’s your boy.”

“Summer…” He couldn’t make the words happen. “Summer…I don’t think… I hate to say it, but…” He took a deep breath. He collected himself. “I promised myself long, long ago that I would never allow someone to slip through the cracks, but—”

Summer raised high both her arms. At once, all the girls ceased to writhe. They comported themselves, rose to their feet, and stood alongside Summer. Barney looked like he’d gotten hold of something turned. He opened his mouth a couple times, but never managed anything worthwhile. Instead, he clapped his hands against the thighs of his jeans, then stalked out of the barn, toward the Big House.

You stood your ground. You are getting stronger.

The girls watched him until he’d disappeared inside, slamming the door behind him.

“What do you think he’ll do?” Rylah asked.

“He’ll run straight to Donnie,” Cassie said. “He’ll order his boy to call Summer’s parents and have them fetch her.”

“We should stop him,” said Beth Ann.

“There’s no need for that.” Summer took Rylah with her left hand, then Suzie with her right. “Donnie won’t follow his father’s orders.”

“How can you be so sure?” asked Brenna.

Donnie understands how much money you are worth to Miracle Ranch. He hates his father. Donnie will use his newfound power to sate his need for revenge. Donnie will seize opportunity where it presents itself, because he is not a fool. He is smart, like you.

And if all else fails, we’ll make him see the light.

“I know,” said Summer to the others, “because Luther told me so.”