[NOTE: Here is part one of what I think will be the last scene of the book–the last scene for this draft, at least. I may write an epilogue at the final write-in on Thursday night. And even with that, I know I’m leaving a zillion questions unanswered.]

When Page finished his story, Jeremy looked over to where Aaron sat with his arms folded across his chest. Everyone sat in silence.

Finally, Nils stood up and looked at Aaron. “Aaron, that thing he said about the Vietnamese guy, about how he seemed to be straining or concentrating or something. I’ve seen you do that.”

“It’s called praying,” Aaron said.

“I know, you told me you were praying. That’s what you said before, but–”

Jeremy jumped up, “Nils, what are you saying? You think Aaron did this?”

“No, no, that’s…” Nils shook his head. “I don’t know…”

Aaron stood up. He held his hands out to the side and said, “Nils, for Christ’s sake, you can’t seriously–”

“I’ve never seen anybody pray like that, veins popping out, face turning red… It looks like your head is going to burst.”

Nils turned to Page.

“That sounds about right,” Page said.

Jeremy shouted, “Jesus, you two, how could you even think that? You think that Aaron would do this to you, Nils? To me? To his own brother? To all of us?”

Aaron stepped beside Jeremy and laid a hand on his shoulder.

Nils looked at Aaron with the confusion of someone who is trying his best to deny what his gut is screaming at him. “Aaron, I–”

Aaron said, “For goodness sake, Nils, what possible reason could I–”

Jeremy wheeled and grabbed Aaron by the front of his shirt. “Don’t you say it. Don’t you finish that fucking sentence. Nobody ever says that if they’re innocent.”

Aaron looked at Jeremy serenely. “There’s a first time for everything.” He looked back at Nils. “Nils, why on earth would I do such a thing?”

“Jesus,” Jeremy said. “What’s next? ‘You’ll never be able to prove it.’?”

Aaron ignored him. “Nils?”

Watermelon spoke. “The horse whisperer.”

All four of the others turned toward Watermelon as if they weren’t sure they had heard him say what they had heard him say.

Jeremy said, “What?”

“It’s like that guy who tames horses. The horse whisperer. I saw him on TV once showing how he tames the horses. He gets it in a round corral and flicks a rope at it. The flicking rope scares the horse. It thinks the rope is some predator and it runs around and around the corral. He keeps flicking the rope and the horse runs and runs until it can’t run any more.

“Did you know that a horse can run about two and a half miles? And do you know why? Because a lion can run about two and a quarter miles. Horses evolved so that they can run just a little bit longer than lions.

“But the horse whisperer guy doesn’t let the horse stop. When it gets tired he keeps flicking. The horse starts to panic. It should be able to outrun the predator, but it’s getting tired and the predator keeps coming.”

Jeremy said, “Johnny, what are you talking about? What does that have to do with us?”

“I’m getting to that. At some point the horse can’t keep running and it stops. It figures that the predator has outrun it and it’s done for.

“So then the horse does this weird thing. It goes completely docile. It looks around and sees this guy who seems to be in charge. And offers itself up to the guy, basically asking the guy to spare it and maybe even protect it.”

Watermelon stopped and looked at each of the four others in turn. He settled on Jeremy. “Do you see now?”