Earl thought of the flat of mason jars full of moonshine he had kept in the back seat of the car and wondered if he should’ve given a jar to Petey. He was taking some back to Clement’s customers and his wife needed a few jars fur doctorin to hold her over until moonshining season came in and he wanted to set aside two for himself, but he could’ve spared one fur Petey. He absolutely didn’t want to, though. As he got into the car, he had to admit to himself that he resented Petey…a lot.

  Petey was lazy and selfish and didn’t think of anyone but himself. Earl felt justified in his feelings. As he drove off though, he felt uncomfortable and didn’t want to think about it any more. He revved up the engine and took off, but those feelings that he was doing something wrong wouldn’t leave him alone.

  Earl thought back on what the Reverend said on Sunday. He was preachin on forgiveness and quoted the scripture that said, ‘Judge not that ye be not judged.’ That was a hard sayin fur Earl. He was a kind man, but when he got wronged, it was hard to let go of it. Earl just plain didn’t want to forgive Petey because Petey was wrong and he was right! But he also did not relish gettin judged when he could do something to prevent it.

  Earl prayed, “Lord you know I want to have my heart right with you, but why’d you have to make it so difficult to do the right thing? Petey just makes me so mad and he don’t help others the way he should. He expects everybody else to do whatever he dreams up, but there is nothin in return. Isn’t there somethin else I can do to obey You, instead of forgivin Petey?” He continued on in silence. This was one of those times when you hear from the Lord with strong feelings. Earl could hear the preacher’s voice sayin, “Do you remember what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer? ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us’”

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  Earl thought, “I have things I need to be forgiven fur. It seems like every time I turn around, I do something I shouldn’t do or are ashamed of doing or that hurts someone. I know I am partly responsible fur Petey’s accident. I could have stopped him and Carl knew it, but I guess I let him go ahead with it fur revenge.” Earl knew what he had to do. He turned the car around as soon as he found a place in the road wide enough.

  Arrivin back at Donna’s mother’s place about dark, the folks came runnin out, wonderin at Earl comin back. He said ‘howdy’ to everybody and then asked Petey to take a walk with him. “Petey, I owe you an apology.” he started.

  “What fur, Earl?” Petey asked surprised.

  “I should have stopped you from tryin to make that moonshine. It would have prevented yore arrest and also have stopped you from gettin hurt so bad,” Earl started.

  “Why Earl, you told me not to do it, not to patch up that ol still cause it was dangerous. You told me that the revenooer was itchin to arrest someone. I don’t blame you, Earl. Did you come all the way back here to apologize to me?” Petey asked.

  “Let me finish, Petey. I could have used more conviction; hell, I could’ve picked you up and said you are comin with us and put you into the car and drove off with you!