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“It’s just so funny… my mother didn’t always believe in God, you know.” I feel my body begin to stiffen.
Rhett shrugs. “Takes some people a while. Some never.”
“It’s all so… ridiculous, isn’t it? Come to Jesus and all of a sudden all your sins are just erased. Every one of them, boom, gone.”
“It’s called faith. You either have it or don’t.”
“Do you have faith, Rhett Cohen? After all you’ve been through? A man falsely accused of murder and sent to prison for twenty years?”
“I wouldn’t have made it to the other side of all I’ve been through without it.”
We walk a few beats in silence.
“Call me a cynic, but I believe some sins can’t be erased.” I kick a stone off the path.
“They’ll be accounted for, one way or another.”
“Is that so? By your hand, no? Isn’t that what you’re planning? Planning to kill the man who framed you? Vigilante justice, I think they call it. So tell me, man of faith, why not leave it to God?”
“You raise a solid question there.”
“See? Not as black and white as you’d like it, is it? What else did you guys talk about?”
“We talked about your sister.”
“Anna?”I squeak and immediately trip over myself. I am completely jarred.
Rhett notices the instant change in demeanor and frowns down at me.
“Are you joking?” I ask.
“No… why?”
“I… she… my mom never spoke of her. Not for years. When she left Dallas and moved here, it was like she turned it off. Like she made the conscious decision to never speak of her again. I don’t even think people here know about Anna. I haven’t heard that name… foryears.”
His frown deepens, indicating that my mother spoke plenty about Anna to him.
“What did she say?”
“She told me that Anna was your twin sister; that she passed at age twelve.”
Rhett is obviously uncomfortable now, considering my over-the-top reaction. But I have to know more.
“What else did she say?”
“She mentioned you two were different, despite being twins.”
I snort. “Comically so. … Anna was the star child.”
Rhett looks at me, interested, but says nothing.
“She was the beautiful one, got all the good grades, had all the friends. She had this… light about her. Do you know what I mean?”
He nods.
“People were just drawn to her. I actually joked that she should be an actress or something when she grew up.” I inhale to continue, but stop. I don’t want Rhett to know that I was the ugly one, that I always struggled in school, that I was shy and introverted and had zero friends.
My stomach is uneasy. I can’t remember the last time I heard her name out loud. I can’t remember the last time I spoke her name.
