Ordinary Grace

After the graveside service, the Drums return to church, for the reception. Peter Klement is there and offers to have Frank over to work on cars together. Nathan is asked to say grace for the group of reception-goers seated at tables inside the church. Nathan is silent, thinking, and in this silence, Ruth says, “‘For God’s sake, Nathan, can’t you, just this once, offer an ordinary grace?’” (269). The crowd waits in stunned silence and in time Nathan asks if anyone else wants to give the blessing. Jake Drum says that he’ll do it, to Frank’s amazement. Jake begins by stammering, but is then able to offer a straightforward, “ordinary” grace without stuttering once. The rest of the Drums are joyously mystified and thank Jake. That night, Ruth Drum moves back into the Drum residence. 

The next day is Sunday and Nathan preaches at all three church services that he usually presides over. We learn that Warren Redstone has yet to be caught, and Frank harbors guilt about his decision to let the man go free. Gus, along with Ruth’s father and Liz, come to dinner at the Drum house that night. Emil Brandt has been the only member of the Brandt family to attend Ariel’s funeral, sitting “in the back of the church and at the grave site he stood well away from the others gathered there” (273). Ruth wants to express her condolences to Axel and Julia Brandt for Karl’s death, but is concerned they’ll rebuff her. Ruth hopes Emil might function as go-between for the two families. Nathan calls Emil and the Drums head to Emil and Lise’s farmhouse.

Emil and the Drums gather on Emil’s porch; Lise brings sugar cookies and stares angrily at the Drums. Lise sees Jake and brightens. Frank realizes that Ariel’s death is a loss for Emil, too, saying of his face, “that if you didn’t know about the scars on the other side you would think him in every way normal, maybe even handsome for an older man” (275). Then, Frank says, “an extraordinary possibility occurred to me, a possibility paralyzing in its magnitude” (275).

Frank gets up and walks through the yard, following the path that leads from the Brandt’s property to the river. He’s does this blind: “I went slowly, my eyelids clamped shut, feeling my way carefully” (275). In “only a few hundred yards,” Frank has reached Sibley Park, where Ariel was last seen alive: “I stared back at the path I’d blindly walked, at the thread that was visible if only you knew where to look, and I understood with icy clarity how Ariel had come to be in the river” (276). 

Frank tells Jake that he’s sure that Emil is Ariel’s killer. Jake asks why, and Frank says it’s because the baby is Emil and Ariel’s. Jake asks what they should do, and, as on many other occasions, the boys go to Gus, seeking guidance.

As Frank and Jake search for Gus, Frank tells Jake that he hopes Emil dies. Jake’s thinking is contrary: there’s been enough death, and Jake is “tired of feeling sad” (279). Frank and Jake meet up with Gus and Nathan and Frank tells his theory to the group while they’re in the church. Nathan says that he needs to talk to Emil, but remains unconvinced that Emil is actually Ariel’s killer. Frank demands to go with Nathan when he confronts Emil, and Nathan tells Gus to lie to Ruth about where they’ve gone.