Chapter 37: Home Visit

Sophie Looske froze, then quickly lowered her head. "Dad died." Nixon Walker was the one left speechless this time. After school, he stood by the gate and watched the children drift off in little clusters, two or three at a time. Wild hills stretched in every direction, scrubbed bare and broken, everything shabby and weather-beaten. Only the school felt like a clean little oasis in the middle of the mountains. The children arrived with bright faces, but some of them left with their smiles gone. Nixon...