Wiley Cash - This Dark Road to Mercy

Sincerely,

A Friend

But I only heard half of what she’d read. I’d already pulled back the tissue paper and seen what was inside the box. It was the teddy bear that Wade had won for us that night in Myrtle Beach. I pulled it out of the box and held it up and stared at it, and I tried to keep Grandma from knowing that I recognized it and that I knew exactly who’d sent it.

“Well,” she said, “this is a nice surprise. It was awfully kind of somebody to do that.”

“Can I see the letter?” I asked.

She handed it over, and I saw that it had been typed instead of handwritten.

“Your sister’s out in the backyard,” she said, “helping Grandpa set up the bird feeder. I’ll go grab her.”

“Okay,” I said, folding the letter and sliding it back into the envelope. I listened to her footsteps going down the hallway toward the kitchen, and I heard her open the sliding-glass door and call for Ruby. She slid it closed behind her.

As soon as I heard that I stuck my hand down the front of the bear’s overalls and felt around for what I’d left there that night back in South Carolina. My fingers closed around the stack of money, and until I pulled it out and saw it I almost couldn’t believe it was still there. But, when I turned it over in my hand, I saw something that hadn’t been there before. One of the tickets to the game in St. Louis was tucked behind the band. I slid the ticket out and looked at it; on it was a picture of Mark McGwire tipping his hat to the crowd. I turned the ticket over, and there on the back, scribbled in Wade’s messy handwriting, were three words: Stay on base.

I wish to thank the following people and institutions for their kindness and support:

David Highfill, my editor at William Morrow, for his honesty, patience, and vision.

Nat Sobel and Judith Weber, my agents at Sobel Weber Associates, Inc. Nat, I wish you could ensure the New York Jets’ future as well as you’ve ensured mine. A heartfelt thank-you to the rest of the Sobel/Weber team: Julie Stevenson, Adia Wright, and Kirsten Carleton.

The Corporation of Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and Highland Springs Farm in Wellsburg, West Virginia, where so much of this novel was written and revised.

All of the amazing people at William Morrow/HarperCollins, past and present: Liate Stehlik, Michael Morrison, Jessica Williams, Sharyn Rosenblum, Stephanie Kim, Abigail Tyson, Shawn Nicholls, Kimberly Chocolaad, Tavia Kowalchuk, Carla Parker, Mike Brennan, Jeanette Zwart, Doug Jones, Caitlin McCaskey, Gabriel Barrilas, Anne DeCourcey, Ian Doherty, Karen Gudmondson, Jim Hankey, Kate McCune, Cathy Schornstein, Robin Smith, and, holy moly, Eric Svenson.

My colleagues and students in the MFA Program in Fiction and Nonfiction at Southern New Hampshire University.

The friends and family who either read drafts, gave advice, listened, or did all three: Cliff Cash, Amy Earnheart, Walker Barnes, Patrick Crerand, Christian Helms, Michael Jauchen, Thomas Murphy, Chatman Neely, Harry Sanford, Brian Sullivan, and Reggie Scott Young.

Last of all, but most of all, Mallory Brady Cash, my wife, best friend, and first reader: if not for her, then nothing.

WILEY CASHis the award-winning and New York times bestselling author of A Land More Kind Than Home. He is from North Carolina and has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. He has held residency positions at Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony and teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Southern New Hampshire University. He and his wife live in Wilmington, North Carolina.