Summary

In Chapter 12, Catherine leaves the Dairy Queen and makes for home, finding her mother, Lena Mae, on the porch when she arrives. Lena Mae tries to speak and fumbles. Catherine Grace is committed to trying to hear her out. She begins again, telling Catherine that her father made her choose between her family and her dream, assuring the girl that her father was never mean or unkind. They just wanted different things. He also didn't help her run away; she made that decision on her own. Catherine takes her mother's hands and asks if she loved her; she realized that her mother was brokenhearted. She recalls the parable of the lost sheep in the Bible, and Lena Mae is a lost sheep. That small admission starts the process of easing the hurt. They spend hours on the porch discussing the previous...