When Crickets Cry: a Novel of the Heart

Reese thinks back to when he and Charlie donated blood for Emma. “Apparently, the added strain on Emma’s body caused by the monthly loss of blood had been exponentially compounding Emma’s problem” (67), so she received extra blood every couple of months. 

Back in the present day, Reese visits Annie in the hospital and finds both her and Cindy asleep in the room, surrounded by a pile of papers, all describing how to get a loan. Cindy and Annie wake up, and Reese gives Annie a plush frog (not a bear like most other people have given her). Cindy thanks him and invites him over for dinner. In response, he invites Cindy and Annie to take a ride on one of the boats he’s fixing. 

Reese thinks back to when he and Charlie donated their blood for Emma. He recalls going to the library to look up everything he could about blood. 

Reese remembers when young a classmate brought a Playboy to school. “I took one look, and it struck me as completely wrong. It made me feel dirty, like I wanted to take a shower” (78). He also remembers spending a lot of time that summer in the library looking at “several major textbooks for the undergraduate premed students and even a few on Harvard’s recommended list” (79). The books, however, didn’t satisfy his curiosity about the heart: “All the descriptions were so sterile” (79).

Emma noted his disappointment in the books and told him that “Every heart has two parts, the part that pumps and the part that loves. If you’re going to spend your life fixing broken hearts, then learn about both” (80).

Back in town, Reese and Charlie are at The Well, an old bar fashioned from wood and stones “as big as beach balls” (82). The owner, Reese’s friend Davis Stipes, or “Monk,” is a mysterious man who spent “five years in a Spanish monastery” (83) before buying the rundown bar and fixing it up. Davis sees The Well as a place of personal ministry: “The people who are really thirsty aren’t going to church on Sunday. They’re driving around this lake, running from their secrets, looking for a good, quiet, fill-your-stomach place to eat” (84). Davis has subtly covered the place with Scripture-centered decorations, from Bible verse napkins to wall hangings, and serves watered-down or nonalcoholic beer to those who are underage or who seem like they’ve had too much.

That night, Reese and Charlie meet a 16-year-old boy named Termidus “Termite” Cain. He’s young and confused, clearly running from past mistakes. Reese, Charlie, and Davis make friendly conversation, and Reese encourages Termite to use his mechanical skills to find a job fixing jet skis and boats. Unnerved by how friendly they are, Termite accuses them of being gay before storming out. Reese worries for him: “He’s just a few decisions away from turning down a road that’s real steep and difficult to climb back up once he sees it’s a dead end” (96).

Reese leaves The Well and goes to the hospital, where he puts on a white coat and pretends to be one of the doctors. He goes to Annie’s room, looks at her chart, and leaves after reading it.

After exiting the hospital, Reese thinks back to a time before Christmas when he took Emma rowing:

She’d row as long as she could, which wasn’t very far, and I’d watch her back, the way her short, thin hair fell along the lines of her shoulders, and the obvious, ever-apparent struggle between her soul and the vessel that contained it (99).