Next Time Away novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Mantel
On Sunday morning I sat in the back pew of the church with Greta in my arms and Jonas on my left.
He wore the clean shirt from the courthouse.
He had said twice that he didn't have to come.
"You do," I had said. "You've sat at the back for two years. Today you can see it from the front."
After the sermon the minister said there were no more announcements.
Soren's mother stood up in the third row.
The whole church went still.
She turned around slowly, in her black coat, until she faced the back.
"I have something to say," she said. "I said a wicked thing about a man in this room. I said it on Christmas Eve, in the street, and I said it on the internet."
Nobody coughed.
"His name is Jonas Reiten. He was never a killer." Her voice shook and carried. "He took the blame for my son, and he carried it for two years while I spat on him. I was wrong. I am ashamed. I ask his pardon in front of God and all of you."
She sat down.
For a moment nothing happened.
Then the harbormaster, three rows ahead of us, began to clap.
It was slow and heavy, one old man in a church.
The seven beside him joined in.
Then the whole congregation was on its feet, some of them wiping their eyes, and Jonas sat in the pew with his hand over his mouth.
"You can stand," I whispered.
"I can't."
"Jonas."
"Give me a minute," he said, and I put Greta in his lap, and he held her against his chest until he could.
That afternoon the lake house was full of people for the first time since Christmas.
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