Russell came in to his home and sat down on the chair just inside the side door. He was thinking of his conversation with Gladys. She had told him that his daughter, Elmyra, aged 18, had been seen with Philip Harrow, aged 19, beside the church. They both were standing under a tulip poplar, green with summer life. Gladys spoke in a whisper to Russell, and Russell asked what was the problem with standing next to the church under a tulip poplar. Gladys responded to that question with: “It didn’t look good.” Moreover, her other friend, and the other single old lady, Liza, had been over drinking tea with Gladys at just that time, and she too had seen Elmyra with Philip. Liza had added the detail–which Gladys shared with Russell– that the couple had been seen there several times before. Because she whispered “several times before” Russell again asked what they were doing that was a problem and that’s when Gladys said, John Richmond, the preacher, had come out at that point and Philip had run, leaving Elmyra crying. John Richmond was seen speaking to Elmyra and then patted her on the shoulder before going back into the church. Russell asked what Elmyra did next and Gladys said, “She walked to the lumber yard.”

Philip worked for the lumber yard and John’s older brother Bill ran the business. Elmyra also worked in the lumber yard and both Elmyra and Philip, like Russell, did not go to John’s church because there was a falling out between John’s wife, Sandra, and Russell’s wife, Sandra. The problem took place one day at the Exxon gas station when both ‘Sandys’ happened to be filling up their respective vehicles. The cashier, Raymond Thatcher complemented Sandy’s pies in front of the other and the other Sandy got jealous and said to the one making the compliment “she has a lot more time on her hands since she didn’t have any children.” And now you know which Sandy was bent out of shape and which one baked fantastic pies. At any rate, let’s not dwell on the fact that the cashier’s compliment was poorly timed, and let’s just pause briefly to note that Russell did not care for John’s preaching which was just fine with John. John didn’t care for Russell’s tithe.

Small town drama, to be sure. But the drama takes a new twist at this point.

Russell walked into the kitchen and saw his wife, the excellent baker, on the floor. He gasped; calling out her name, he fell to the floor to listen for her breath. She had none. As he picked up his head in disbelief, looking for answers, it was then that he noticed his boys, both in the adjacent room, both also slumped on the floor against the wall like sacks of mulch thrown against a fence. All three had a single bullet in their forehead.

New Junction, Alabama, population 50.