Read Online Keeping Faith: A Novel by Jodi Picoult - Free Book Online

religious miracle. According to William and Bootsie McKinney, the morning of August twentieth, following a severe thunderstorm, Jesus appeared to them in a split branch of this Macintosh tree.”
Ian turns toward it. Actually, the way the rings of the tree have grown and the delicate lines of dried sap do sort of resemble a long-chinned,
dark-eyed visage. Like conventional pictures of Jesus, if one believes in that sort of thing.
Ian deliberately smacks his open palm over the image, covering it. “Is there a face here?
Maybe. But if the McKinneys were not pious Catholics who attended mass regularly, would they have seen Jesus? Or might they have said it looks like Orville Redenbacher, or Great-uncle Samuel?” He waits for the suggestion to sink in before adding, “Is a religious miracle truly inexplicable and divine? Or is it a coincidental meeting of what’s been programmed in one’s mind with what one wants to see?”
At the quick gasp of one of the nuns, the Houlton parish priest steps forward. “Now,
Mr. Fletcher,” Father Reynolds says.
“There are documented cases of religious miracles that have even been approved by the Holy See.”
“Like that sighting of the Virgin Mary in a Mexican subway puddle a few years back?”
“I don’t believe that has reached the approval stage yet.”
Ian snorts. “C’mon, Father–if you were the Virgin Mary and you wanted to choose a place to appear, would you pick the oil sheen on a subway platform? Can’t you accept the possibility that this may not be what it seems?”
The priest taps his finger against his chin. “I can,” he says slowly. “Can you?”
At the titter that runs through the crowd, Ian realizes he’s lost his momentum. Goddamn live TV. “Ladies and gen’lemen, I’d like to introduce Dr. Irwin Nagel, of Princeton University’s Forrestal Campus.
Doctor?”
“Wood,” the professor says, “is made up of several types of xylem cells, including vessels, which conduct materials and strengthen the stem of the tree. The so-called picture inside here is only a natural process of the xylem.
As the tree gets older, the innermost layers stop conducting food and get clogged with resin,
gum, and tannin, which harden and darken. The face that the McKinneys have seen is actually just a conglomeration of deposits in the tree’s heartwood.”
Ian nods as his producer comes to stand beside him.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know if they’re buying it,”
James whispers. “I liked your subway thing,
though.”
Dr. Nagel suddenly lifts up a large,
dangerous-looking pair of hedge trimmers.
“Now, I’ve got the McKinneys’ permission for this,” he says, as he randomly selects a branch and hacks it off. The pale sapwood seems to blush, and then within moments the demarcations of the tree’s rings are clearly visible. “Well,
there. It kind of looks like Mickey Mouse.”
Ian steps forward. “The professor means that the apparition of the face of Christ is, literally,
a fluke of nature. That it happened is not extraordinary for a tree of this size and age.”
On impulse Ian takes a black marker from his pocket and draws a shape on the exposed insides of the tree. “Roddy,” he calls to a familiar reporter, “what is this?”
The man squints. “That’s the moon.”
Ian points to Father Reynolds. “A bowl.”
“A semicircle,” says Professor Nagel.
Ian sets the cap on his marker with an audible click. “Perception is a very powerful thing. I say this isn’t the face of Jesus. That’s my opinion. It may or may not be true, and I can’t prove it, and you have the right to doubt what I say. But by the same token, when Bill McKinney and Father Reynolds say, “Yes,
this is the face of Jesus,” well, that’s just an opinion, too–and one that can’t be proved. It doesn’t matter if the pope agrees with them,
or the President, or the majority of the whole damned world. It’s certainly what they see. But it may or may not be a fact. And if you