Melody (Logan 1)

moved up the rungs. "Laura's death? I don't

understand. How could that have been his fault? Was

it because he gave her permission to go sailing that

day?"

"No," Cary said, not turning, still climbing. "Then I don't understand. Explain it!" I

demanded. My tone of voice turned him around. He

gazed down at me with a mixture of anger and pain in

his face.

"My father doesn't believe in accidents. He

believes we are punished on earth for the evil we do

on earth, and we are rewarded here for the good we do

as well. It's what he was brought up to believe and it's

what he has taught us."

"Do you believe that, too?"

"Yes," he said, but not convincingly.

"My daddy was a good man, a kind man. Why

was he killed in an accident?"

"You don't know what his sins were," he said

and turned away to continue up the stairs.

"He had no sins, nothing so great that he should

have died for it! Did you hear me, Cary Logan?" I

rushed to the ladder and seized it, shaking it. "Cary!" He paused at the top and gazed down at me

before pulling up

his ladder.

"None of us knows the darkness that lingers in

another's heart." He sounded just like his father. "That's stupid. That's another stupid, religious

idea," I retorted, but he ignored me and continued to

lift the ladder. I seized the bottom rung and held it

down. He looked down, surprised at my surge of

strength.