Sycamore Row - John Grisham

“God, I’ve never told this story. Seth and I talked about it afterward for days and months,
and then we agreed to try and forget about it. I’ve never told anyone else. It was so awful. We
were just kids, we couldn’t have stopped it.”
After a pause, Lucien asked, “So what happened, Ancil?”
“Well, the obvious. Mista Burt yelled ‘Go’ and the guy driving the truck lurched forward.
Sylvester swung kinda wild at first. The two men on the other end of the rope pulled some
more and he shot up another five or six feet, I guess. His feet were about ten feet off the
ground. It wasn’t long before he became still. They watched him for a while, no one wanted to
leave, then they tied the rope off and left him there. They drifted back toward the settlement,
which was probably a tenth of a mile away from the tree, some of the men were walking, some
in trucks.”
“How many total?”
“I was just a kid, I don’t know. Probably ten.”
“Continue.”
“Seth and I were creeping along in the trees, in the shadows, listening as they laughed and
patted themselves on the back. We heard one of them say, ‘Let’s burn his house.’ And the mob
gathered close to Sylvester’s place. Esther was on the front steps, holding a child.”
“A child? A boy or a girl?”
“A girl, not a toddler, but a little girl.”
“Did you know this child?”
“No, not then. Seth and I found out about her later. Sylvester had only one child, the girl,
and her name was Lois.”
Lettie gasped so loud that she startled most of the jurors. Quince Lundy handed her a
tissue. Jake glanced over his shoulder at Portia. She was shaking her head, as stunned as
everyone else.
Lucien said, “Did they burn the house?”
“No, a strange thing happened. Cleon stepped forward with his shotgun and stood between
the men and Esther and Lois. He said no one was burning the house, and the men got in their
trucks and left. Seth and I took off. The last thing I saw was Cleon talking to Esther on the
front steps of their little shack. We hopped on our pony and sprinted home. When we sneaked
through the window to our room, our mother was waiting. She was angry and wanted to know
where we had been. Seth was the better liar and he said we’d been out chasing fireflies. She
seemed to believe us. We begged her not to tell Cleon, and I don’t think she ever did. We
were in bed when we heard his truck approach and park. He came into the house and went to
bed. We couldn’t sleep. We whispered all night. I couldn’t help but cry and Seth said it was
okay to cry, as long as no one else saw me. He swore he wouldn’t tell anyone that I was
crying. Then I caught him crying too. It was so hot and these were the days before airconditioning.
Long before daybreak, we sneaked out the window again and sat on the back
porch where it was cooler. We talked about going back to Sycamore Row and checking on
Sylvester, but we really weren’t serious. We speculated about what would happen to his body.