Pigs in Heaven - Barbara Kingsolver [154]
Turtle takes a hop or two toward the TV, but the girl with the baby on her shoulder gently pulls her back. Taylor reaches forward and takes Turtle’s hand.
Cash appears again, carrying his rifle. “You all move back,” he says, and they waste no time.
“He’s done lost his mind,” Alice says calmly to Taylor.
“You better marry him, then,” Taylor whispers back.
Cash stands a few feet in front of them with his feet wide apart. His shoulders curl forward, hunched and tense, as he lifts the rifle and takes aim. He remains frozen in this position for a very long time. Alice can see the gun barrel over his shoulder, wavering a little, and then she sees his shoulder thrown back at the same instant the gun’s report roars over the clearing. Her ears feel the pain of a bell struck hard. The woods go unnaturally still. All the birds take note of the round black bullet wound in the TV screen, a little right of center but still fatal.
Alice’s heart performs its duties strangely inside her chest, and she understands that her life sentence of household silence has been commuted. The family of women is about to open its doors to men. Men, children, cowboys, and Indians. It’s all over now but the shouting.
Acknowledgments
This book germinated under the warm ecouragement of friends in the Cherokee Nation, especially Ron Watkins, Nancy Raincrow Pigeon, and Loretta Rapien. Regina Peace, Toby Robles, Carol Locust, and Donna Goldsmith patiently helped me understand the letter and spirit of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Joe Hoffmann, Georgia Pope, Frances Goldin, Sydelle Kramer, and Janet Goldstein helped the story find its way through the woods. Camille Kingsolver gave me five-year-old insights and reasons to keep writing.
The legal dispute decribed in Pigs in Heaven is not based on a single case history but was constructed from the materials of exisiting law and historical fact, insofar as I understand them. The specifics of legal process vary among tribes. Other people would tell this story differently, and none of them would be wrong.
About the Author
BARBARA KINGSOLVER’s ten published books include novels, collections of short stories, poetry, essays, and an oral history. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and has earned literary awards and a devoted readership at home and abroad. In 2000, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal, our country’s highest honor for service through the arts.
Ms. Kingsolver grew up in Kentucky and earned a graduate degree in biology before becoming a full-time writer. With her husband, Steven Hopp, she co-writes articles on natural history, plays jazz, gardens, and raises two daughters. Their family divides its time between Tucson, Arizona, and a farm in southern Appalachia.
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Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction
“Very few novelists are as habit-forming as Kingsolver…. [It] succeeds on the strength of Kingsolver’s clear-eyed, warmhearted writing and irresistible characters.”
—Newsweek
“Full of wit, compassion, and intelligence.”
—People
“Breathtaking…unforgettable…. This profound, funny, bighearted novel, in which people actually find love and kinship in surprising places, is also heavenly…. A rare feat and a triumph.”
—Cosmopolitan
“The delights of superior fiction can be experienced here…. Taylor Greer and her adopted Cherokee daughter, Turtle, first met in The Bean Trees, will captivate readers anew…. Assured and eloquent…it mixes wit, wisdom, and the expert skills of a born raconteur.”
—Publishers Weekly
“That rare combination of a dynamic story told in dramatic language, combined with issues that are serious, debatable, and painful…. [It’s] about the human heart in all its shapes and ramifications.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Masterful and touching…. The amount of fresh imagery and perceptive observation [Kingsolver] fits