The Laws Of Harmony: A Novel

The L A W S of H A R M O N Y a novel JUDITH RYAN HENDRICKS This book is for Kate. . . . see how the flesh grows back across a wound, with a great vehemence, more strong than the simple untested surface before. There’s a name for it on horses: proud flesh, As all flesh is proud of its wounds, wears them as honors given out after battle, small triumphs pinned to the chest— Jane Hirshfield, For What Binds Us Contents Epigraph iii Prologue I was born at sunrise on June 3, 1971, on… 1 Part One 3 Chapter 1 The heat is a presence. Palpable and relentless, it rolls… 5 Chapter 2 Michael loves Spanish pie—a thin, double-crusted creation with barely an… 25 Chapter 3 I spend the next three days sitting on the couch… 40 Chapter 4 I probably should have let Betsy give me some sleeping… 56 Chapter 5 Betsy Chambliss and I are so alike physically that we’ve… 75 Chapter 6 I leave early after a cup of coffee and a… 85 Chapter 7 I drive past Cid’s, the yuppie grocery store, north toward… 103 Chapter 8 Thunder wakes me in the night. I don’t open my… 119 Chapter 9 I find the check register under some file folders while… 128 Part Two 147 Chapter 10 “What’s happening with the Players this year?” 149 Chapter 11 Whenever I go to sleep in a new place, I… 162 Chapter 12 While I wait for the coffee to brew, I pour… 177 Chapter 13 Promptly at three on Friday afternoon, I push open the… 203 Chapter 14 Hallie’s got her nose in a book, but she looks… 217 Chapter 15 Curl Up and Dye has only two styling chairs. Trish… 235 Chapter 16 The box has been sitting unopened for over a week—a… 248 Chapter 17 Friday afternoon at 3:20, the Ale House is humming and… 265 Chapter 18 I wake up early and lie still, eyes closed, reaching… 275 Chapter 19 Breathing is one of those things you take for granted… 290 Chapter 20 Actually Mick was right. I am having company. 303 Part Three 317 Chapter 21 If Dr. Ralph Tomball lived in a city, he would… 319 Chapter 22 Summer, 1986. The world had changed since my parents first… 339 Chapter 23 The living room of Piggy and Laura’s cabin is strewn… 358 Chapter 24 Justin is off today, so the kitchen is quiet. Manolo’s… 379 Chapter 25 When I come in the back door of the Ale… 398 Chapter 26 No good deed goes unpunished. 414 Chapter 27 September. It’s fall. 432 Chapter 28 We’ve just finished supper. Or I’ve finished, having wolfed down… 457 Acknowledgments 479 About the Author Other Books by Judith Ryan Hendricks Credits Cover Copyright About the Publisher PROLOGUE I was born at sunrise on June 3, 1971, on a commune near Taos, New Mexico. Delivery was accomplished with the help of a midwife as my mother squatted, panting, on her mattress, surrounded by her commune sisters, panting in sympathy, cheering her on. The men had hovered in the kitchen all night, playing cards, drinking, smoking, drifting in and out of the birth room unnoticed, like ghosts. My father happened to be present at the moment that I gushed out from between my mother’s legs, and he promptly ran outside to vomit into the rabbit brush. It could have been the sight of blood and birth fluid that got to him, but more likely it was too much Tokay. In accordance with my birth time, my mother named me Soleil, which is French for sun. She neglected to consider that people in New Me