And on the big day, Summer searched Miracle Ranch high and low before finally she found Jack standing alone at the edge of darkness, where the furthest sliver of light stopped at the black shadow of the barn. He faced yonder, into the night. He spoke to someone who was not there.

“Jack,” she called to him. “Jack, it’s time.”

He twitched his head, as if snatching himself from deep thought. “You ought not to sneak up on someone.”

“I think I made plenty bustle tromping through that tall grass just now. You could hardly call it sneaking up.”

“All the same.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Were you talking to someone just now?”

Jack said nothing.

“Part of me expected to find you here with one of those Miracle girls working on your privates with her little mouth.”

Still, Jack kept quiet.

“I know a guy like you has needs,” Summer said, clearing her throat. “You can’t be expected to go too long without some kind of release. All I’m saying is maybe you’d better find it in town, instead of with these here girls. They ain’t ready for that. Beth Ann’s got big-time sex issues and she’s about ready to pop. Brenna…well, Brenna’s got a lot to learn about herself and I aim to help her get life figured. All in due time. For now, I reckon, Jack, it’s best if you don’t fiddle with those girls.”

Finally, he turned to face her. He stepped closer into the light, giving her a good look. He’d quit all product from his hair, preferring to wear it long and parted down the middle. He’d ceased to shave, and grew a shaggy beard. Gone were the garish colors of his wardrobe, as he opted instead for white worn head to toe. Where once he might shiver and shake, instead he kept steady at the hand, and calm at the stomach.

“I would not spoil my seed on lesser light,” he said. “If I so desire, I could repopulate the human race from right here on this very land.”

He stepped closer still.

“If that is the destiny which lies before me,” he said in a low voice. “If that is the role chosen for me by a power greater than us both, would you suggest I deny it?”

Summer tried two or three times to wrestle out the words. All she managed was, “No, Jack.”

Again, he turned his back to her.

“Another thing,” he said, “I’ve told you once, I’ve told you twice. Don’t make me tell you again: my name is no longer Jack Jordan. Jack Jordan is dead. My name is Hux Pariah, and I am the new leader of Miracle Ranch.”

When Jack first told Summer of the name he had chosen for himself, she had crinkled her nose and shrugged her shoulders.

“I like the sound of the two words,” Jack had told her. “Huckster and Pariah.”

“I don’t think those words mean what you think they do,” she had replied.

All the same, he wished thenceforth to be known as Hux Pariah, and so it became thus.

Summer waited until their breathing shared a rhythm. She counted the galaxies overhead. She gave Hux all the time in the world to stare into the darkness.

“Remember your promise,” she whispered. “We’re going to use this Ranch for good.”

Jack looked elsewhere a moment, as if listening to someone. He nodded to a question no one asked, then said, “I am only an instrument, Summer. I am only a vessel.”

“Knock it off,” she hissed. “You hear me? I won’t have nothing bad done to these kids.”

Again, Jack fell silent. He stayed as such a good while before drawing a heavy sigh.

“They’re out there,” he said.

“Who?” When he didn’t answer, she put a hand to his shoulder. “Who, Jack…I mean, Hux?”

He nibbled absently at the flesh in the meat of his fist.

“Things got pretty bad in Houston,” he said.

“What happened?”

Instead of answering, Jack turned and headed for the barn. He brushed his shoulder against hers as they passed, saying only the words, “They are out there.”

 

SUMMER STOOD before the fifty or so Miracles gathered beneath the torchlight at the front of the barn. She waited to introduce Hux Pariah until they had fallen to their lowest depths. Only moments earlier, Summer announced that Barney Malone had finally left them to walk with Luther.

“Be not sad for Barney,” she told them from beneath the open doors of the barn. “Rather, be happy. For no longer is he burdened with mortal constructs, nor is he bound by earthly desires.”

The fact that only a handful of Miracles had actually known Barney did not keep them from falling to their knees and pounding fists against the earth with great consternation. For the better part of the last month, Barney’s stock had certainly risen, as stories and legends reached a fever pitch—

“When Barney returns, we’ll feast for days.”

“I heard Barney is in Hollywood, helping actors and actresses kick drugs.”

“I heard he got a death metal band sober.”

“I heard he could ripen a tomato upon command.”

—and the Miracles could little help but despair at the news of his passing. Summer thought it best for them to wallow a moment in misery before sharing with them “the good news.”

“While no human on earth could ever replace Barney Malone in our hearts,” she said to them all, “we are not truly left without rudder. Luther would never allow his message to pass on with any single mortal individual, choosing instead another vessel by which to receive his ministry.”

“Who is the vessel?” called one of the Miracles.

“When can we meet them?” cried another.

When Hux Pariah emerged from the shadows of the barn, he raised high his hands and turned his face to the heavens.

“My fellow Miracles,” he called aloud, “my name is Hux Pariah and I shall now lead you on your journey with the Principles.”

Summer stifled a laugh. She covered her mouth with her hand and watched with detached bemusement as the Miracles seemed not to know what to make of Hux Pariah. They scratched their heads and exchanged whispers. Some shook their heads, as if shooing a fly. Others stomped their feet and chortled through their noses.

“I told them this would be a hard gamble,” Summer said to the air around her. “What do you bet these Miracles will take one look at his silly getup and tell him where to stick it?”

When no answer came, she took a look to her left, then one to her right, before finally turning again to face the spectacle before her.

Not all of the Miracles took the news with a degree of serenity. Lindsay Swanson, the new girl, screamed at such a pitch, she frightened a hoot owl from the branches of the crooked willow. She hobbled away from the throng on a pair of crutches, dragging alongside her a leg which she kept in a plaster cast.

“What troubles you, child?” Hux called after her.

“It’s him!” Lindsay could not be consoled. “I can’t believe it. It’s him!”

The other Miracles took her into their arms. They stroked her hair. They whispered platitudes into her ear, but she would have none of it. She kicked her gimpy leg this way and that until finally unhanded, then did her level best to scoot free of them. However, her injury allowed her only so far, and she crumpled next to a rusty plow.

Hux held up his hands to silence the other Miracles. This had little effect, so he shouldered through the crowd of them until he arrived at the feet of the cowering girl. He reached a hand to her, from which she flinched, and said to her in a calm voice, “Lindsay, be not afraid.”

Her lower lip quivered, but she made no sound.

“I wish you no harm.”

She violently choked out the words, “It’s you. I thought you were dead. All this time, I thought I’d killed you.”

“Your entire life, I have been by your side,” Hux said. “Forever shall I remain there.”

Lindsay wept. Hux pulled her into him.

“Tell me what happened to your leg,” he said. “How did you find yourself injured?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “The night I arrived…I’ve no recollection what horrible thing has happened to me, nor what horrible thing I may have done.”

Again, Summer suppressed the urge to laugh. While she would never admit it, Summer was one of three people on the planet who knew what happened to Lindsay’s leg. That night, after she’d slipped her enough MDMA to knock her silly, the girl acted a fool in front of each and every Miracle on the property. She’d danced and swayed. She’d sung and shouted. Lindsay Swanson had run from one edge of the property clear to the other, all the while professing love for the moon, the stars, the singing bullfrogs along the banks of Chambers Creek…all of it. She’d gone to such great lengths to rejoin the cosmos and the universe and the collective conscience, that when finally she slipped to slumber, she did so at a level which could not be disturbed.

While she slept, Summer and Hux went fast to work, fitting her leg for a plaster cast, while Donnie leaned against yonder wall with his head in his hands.

“What we are doing is immoral,” he blubbered. “We should all hang our heads in shame.”

“Quit your ballyhoo and help get this plaster set,” Hux had grumbled. “When she wakes, you both will tell stories about how she’d carried on like a heathen, then broke her leg sometime in the night. Later, I’ll lay hands on her and order her healed. At that point, we’ll have everyone’s full attention.”

That night, Summer had watched as Hux lowered his hand to Lindsay’s face. He stroked soft swaths against her cheek with his fingertips. He brushed askew a lock of hair behind her ear.

“This is truly fate,” Hux whispered. “Who among us can doubt the fortune which has befallen me by seeing her returned?”

Much as he handled her in the moment, in the shadow of that rusty plow, where Hux held her close and murmured into her ear that it did not matter how she’d come to find her leg in that cast, nor did it matter what she’d done the year previous in the Light House trailer. In fact, nothing in the whole of her life mattered half a whip, because all that mattered was the here and now, and what she planned to do with it.

“By the power and love of Luther,” said Hux, with both hands upon her crippled knee, “I command you healed.”

The only sound in all the land was the collective gasp of the Miracles.

“Hereby, you shall no longer carry fear in your heart, nor tote it upon janky leg.” Hux motioned to Summer and Donnie, standing ready with pump pliers, a steak knife, and a pair of scissors. They went to work removing the cast from Lindsay’s leg. It took nearly a half hour, but when finally they freed her from it, Hux stretched out his hand. “Please, walk with me, child.”

“But, I can’t…”

“Oh, but you can.” He smiled and turned his head to one side, as if listening to a whispered secret. “Luther just told me you could do it.”

And, just as he’d promised, Lindsay rose to wobbling feet. She teetered to the left and swayed mighty to the right, but eventually found her footing.

“Now,” said Hux, “you walk.”

Not a single person doubted she could walk. Not the Miracles who watched with open mouths, and not Summer and Donnie, who were in on it. Certainly not Lindsay, who, at this point, would believe anything told to her, so long as it came from the lips of Hux Pariah. Summer clapped her hands hard against each other—first once, then twice—until the other Miracles joined her with a steady cadence of applause.

Lindsay felt the love. She put one shaky foot in front of the other. She hobbled from one side of the congregation to the other. Slowly at first, then gaining confidence, then soon maneuvering with nary a hint of a limp. All the while, the Miracles chanted.

“You are perfect.”

“You are loved.”

“You are a Miracle.”

Hux rose both his arms in jubilee. He cried thanks to the skies above.

However, his work that night was far from finished.

 

ONCE HE had recaptured their attention, Hux gathered the Miracles around him in a circle before the open doors of the great barn. Above them, the stars twinkled bright and cast a deathly pallor upon the proceedings.

“I want you all to close your eyes and think about your fathers. Some of you love him dearly and, still others of you may hate him. Over time, in Spirit Studies and one-on-one sessions with Donnie or Summer, many of you Miracles have confessed you’ve never known your fathers. You say instead of a daddy, all you’ve known was a giant daddy-sized hole in your life. Whether it’s a hole or a real person, each and every one of you have a daddy and I want you to think of him right now. Go on, close your eyes.”

Even Summer, sitting closest to him on the grass, did as she was told.

“You all see your daddy standing there in front of you?”

Most murmured assent.

“Marva, I know your daddy was a truck driver.”

Marva nodded, her eyes still closed tight.

“That man raised his family in a pair of blue jeans, didn’t he?”

Marva smiled, but did not open her eyes.

“You see that man standing before you in blue jeans? Were they faded, or maybe a little too tight in the thigh? How about you, Cassandra? What do you see? I don’t want you to look at the grave he left behind, I want you to look at his face. What color were his eyes? How did he smile at you when you obeyed him, and how did he frown when you didn’t? What color was his hair? Was it curly, was it short? Did he have a stubble when he kissed you good night? And you, Peter? You never knew your father but you’ve seen photographs. What does he look like in your head? Can you throw his phantom arms around you, and how does his breath smell when he whispers he loves you in his ear?”

Some of the Miracles wept. All among them smiled in rapture.

“There is something you want to tell that man. Something you’ve always wanted to say to him but, for one reason or another, you haven’t. Maybe you never thought much about it, but you’re thinking about it now. You’re thinking, man, Hux, what I wouldn’t give to stand before that man once in my life and tell him about this thing I have kept locked in my heart in my stomach in my soul in my very being, but I never told him, and now what can I do with all of this? Luther has told us if we keep all this inside us, it will burn angry like a conflagration or rot like a cancer. I don’t want to be sick, and neither do you. You want to be well. You want us all to be well. But it never will be, so long as you’ve got all that trapped inside of you.

“I want you to do something for me. You picture your daddy standing in front of you? You see him? Now, imagine your daddy’s face has disappeared. There’s nothing there. There ain’t no eyes, no nose. No warm smile, nor frown from frustration. All of it has gone. Nothing remains but a blank slate.

“Now I want you to put my face there.”

Hux stood before Tanya. He placed both hands on her shoulders.

“Tanya, what do you have to tell me?”

The young girl bit her lower lip until it nearly burst.

“I…uh, I—”

“Picture my face on your daddy. It is me standing there. You have something to tell me. You’ve held on to it for years. What is it?”

Tanya, bless her heart, could not keep it together. Her knees gave out. She crumpled to the dirt in a sea of sobs and both Marva and Jenny reached to help her.

“Don’t touch her,” ordered Hux. “She’s a strong woman. She can handle this on her own.” He genuflected to Tanya’s ear. “Tell me what you need to tell me.”

Tanya choked it out. “Why didn’t you ever notice me?”

“That’s my girl.”

She was far from finished. “Why did you stay late at work every night and never duck your head into my bedroom to kiss me good night?”

“Yes. Yes.”

“Maybe you think I’d never notice, but I did. I stayed up every night until I heard you come home because I thought maybe tonight was the night you’d come in.”

“Of course you did.”

“When I turned sixteen, you came home at ten minutes to midnight and I said it was because you promised you weren’t going to miss my birthday. You weren’t there when I woke up and you weren’t there to take me to dinner, and you weren’t there when I went to bed, but none of that mattered because, with ten minutes to go, you were going to come into my room and kiss me on the head or the nose or…but you didn’t come in. Even though that would have made up for everything, with ten minutes to go on my sixteenth birthday. But you didn’t, and I swear to Luther, the next day I quit staying up for you.”

No one on the grassy lot dared so much as breathe. Most had opened their eyes to fix them upon Hux and Tanya at the front of the congregation. Some kept them closed, but from all of them streamed rivers of tears.

Hux took both hands and cupped her cheeks. He held her face an inch from his.

“Tanya…” She opened her eyes. “Tanya…”

“Yes?”

“I see you.”

She could hardly catch her breath.

“I notice you, sweetheart.”

Her lip trembled, like the death throes.

“I was a fool.” Hux stroked her cheeks with his thumbs in wide swaths. “I was an idiot not to spend more time with you because you are perfect. You are beautiful. And you are a Miracle.”

To seal the deal, he kissed her long and hard upon her forehead, which sent her to his arms where she could have stayed, she could have lived, and she could have died.

Behind them, every Miracle stood and exploded into applause. Their first instincts were to pile atop Tanya and whisper forevers into her ear. To take every drop of love and happiness from their bodies and souls and stick them right back into her every hole, but each and every one of them stood at bay, should Hux tell them not to move.

“Y’all come show sister Tanya some love.”

And they did.

“All of you are perfect,” Hux shouted into the throng. “All of you are loved. All of you are miracles.”

Never before had Summer seen such a spectacle of jubilation. Never in all of Luther’s creations had love been stronger. Marva held tight to Cassie and, for the first time, noticed Rhiannons’s cheek touching hers. The warmth between them kickstarted a chain reaction and Rylah turned to them both and whispered truths. Jesse’s hand was held tight by Jason’s, who in turn stroked fingers through Darla’s hair. They spoke in murmurs, and they spoke in shouts.

“This week, I expect to see each and every one of you at the Big House.” Hux retook his spot at the front of the congregation. “You are each going to tell me the thing you forever wish you’d told me. You will have my undivided attention. There will be no distractions between you and I.” He put his hand on Tanya’s head and tousled her hair. “You and I have a lot of catching up to do.”

One by one, each Miracle nodded their teary heads. They raised their arms to the heavens. They breathed as one.

“In the meantime, why don’t you come show Hux how much you love him?”

He raised high his hands to the night to better receive the lot of them.

 

ONCE FINISHED, Summer escorted Hux to the Big House, much like a bodyguard delivering a dignitary. He’d grown weary after his proselytizing, and insisted he’d need a moment’s rest. Summer kept pace with him from the distance of his heels. She had over a dozen things on her mind, but had yet to put words to them. She focused hard on her Principles and tried her damnedest to focus on the positive parts of Hux—

Like how he could march with his head high and chest puffed, no matter what levels of treason he’d committed.

Or how taut was his jawline.

Or how he operated with a deliberate focus.

—rather than succumb to her natural inclination, which was to reckon him a scoundrel. She closed tight her eyes and blocked away the bad stuff, much as she’d been taught. She let one fanciful thought multiply with another, then yet another, until finally she threw both arms around Hux’s waist and held him dear.

Never one for sentiment, Hux did not allow the moment to fester. He unwrapped himself from her grasp.

“I plan to implement a few changes around here,” he said.

“Just tell me what you want me to do,” said Summer.

“From this point forward, let’s reassign duties around here. I find it unwise that men and women share the same chores.”

“But Equality is one of the Twelve Principles. It’s important to—”

“What we have are a group of lovely young women digging gardens from their own feces,” said Hux. “We shouldn’t allow that.”

Summer sucked on her lower lip.

“And I’m calling an end to all the feminism chatter.” Hux looked at a distant point in the night sky. “All this empowerment only serves to fatten the girls.”

“Jack…”

“Tell me you haven’t noticed Rylah’s put on a little weight. For the moment, it’s in all the right places, but I’ve seen how quick that can get out of hand. It would be a crime to ruin a canvas such as that.”

Summer’s hands balled to fists. She shoved them into the pockets of her overalls.

“And those are the next to go.” He pointed at her britches. “Those outfits are hideous. They’re fine for the men, but the girls need to wear something a bit more free. It’s nearly June and they’ll require a bit more sun.”

“You promised we’d use the ranch for good.”

Hux nodded, his attention elsewhere. “And we will, Summer. But not a lot of good can be done with a cult full of frumpy fat chicks. It’s our responsibility to keep them in shape. Now it’s time for me to retire to the Big House. If you wouldn’t mind, would you please send Lindsay to see me?”

“Lindsay…” Summer couldn’t get enough air into her lungs. “I don’t think…after everything that’s happened to…you shouldn’t—”

“The iron is hot,” said Hux. “She’s good and primed, and besides, she and I have a lot of lost time to make up for.” Hux leveled his gaze at her, as if to place blame.

Summer could no longer see straight. She tumbled backwards into a pair of rusty, tumbledown gas pumps. She held onto the blades of grass around her, as if they might keep her from hurtling headlong into the night above them.

“I told you I was…” Summer’s eyelids grew heavy. “I never meant to—”

“At any rate,” said Hux, “when I ask you to do something, I expect you to hop right to it. Remember, it ain’t me making all the decisions around here. That would be Luther, and it’s probably best if you mind him.”

Upon taking moral inventory of her current situation, Summer reckoned herself good and fucked. For the first time, she could find no one to blame but herself. Her cheeks flushed with blood and her heart filled with mighty shame. She took ample time to think back on her every decision since arriving at the ranch and tried her level best to decipher which one it was that led her so far astray.

Hux had no time for crisis. He turned his back to her and started again for the Big House. Over his shoulder, he called to her.

“I’m adding another Principle. It’s called Loyalty. It’s one you’d be smart to work on.”

“Ain’t nobody more loyal than me, Jackie.”

Hux paused his parade. Whatever he meant to say, he thought better of. Instead, he said, “Show me how loyal you are by fetching Lindsay. Tell her I’ll be waiting.”

Hux disappeared into the Big House. This time, Summer did not follow him.