Chapter 16 Summary

Byron finds Hightower asleep in his back yard. Byron wakes him and asks if he's heard that Christmas has been caught in Mottstown. Byron tells Hightower that Christmas is in the Jefferson jail, and that he is all right. Hightower accuses Byron of selling out Christmas to help his pregnant girlfriend's lover get the thousand-dollar reward. Hightower begins to cry. He chastises Byron for causing him to get involved with the events of the town after all these years of isolation. Byron is sorry to have done it, but he insists that Hightower has a duty as a man of God. Hightower reminds him that he has been stripped of that title. Byron reminds Hightower that he made his choice to be a man of God long before Byron was even born. Then, he tells his friend about Christmas' grandmother.

At the moment...