1 post tagged “lynching”

You are Marty Cann, and this is the moment you've feared since your family's secret got out two summers ago. It's not where you are -- an ordinary gas station in this town your family has called home since the 19th century -- it's the guy walking toward you. You didn't expect anything momentous to happen when you stopped to fill up on this summer day in 2008, but there he is, and he sees you. The two of you have said hello since all this started, but now you want to talk. You want to make things right, even though you have no idea how to do that. He's taller than you, of course -- once upon a time, he played fullback for the local high school -- but he seems almost forbidding up close, with his bald head and soul patch tilted down at you. You've got to say something. "Hey, Darrell," you blurt out. "Do we need to talk?"

You are Darrell Crawford, 39 years old, and you weren't expecting to run into Marty Cann here. But Abbeville doesn't have a lot of gas stations, so it's not exactly a shock. You are still struggling with the fact that your family tragedy has become a public discussion, but you're a preacher, so you're used to having people watch you. No one would blame you if you yelled at him, or turned your back on him, or just kept right on walking as if he didn't exist. A simple murder would be tame in comparison to what happened. You have some anger pent up, to be sure, so maybe you decide not to let Marty off the hook that easily. You smile and say, "I'll let you know."