The Book of Job
- Anna figures out one day what her dad means when he says even the dead tell stories—he's saying that nothing is ever truly finished. Or, to put it another way, our past is always with us.
- Her mom quotes the Bible all the time, and Anna thinks it's funny that her mom treasures her Bible in the same way Einar values his revolver.
- One day, Sig asks Maria why they're hungry sometimes if God loves them so much and—always faithful to her beliefs, Maria tells her son the story of Job. Not familiar? It goes a little something like this: Job is a nice guy who's been doing pretty well for himself out on the ranch—he's got a wife, some kids, and enough sheep to last him a lifetime—but then suddenly he loses it all. Does he whine and complain? No. He takes it one step further—dude calls out God for letting all this misery happen to a righteous man.
- Yes, that's right: Job calls God's bluff.
- Maria basically tells Sig that the next time he questions God he'd do well to remember that Job was there first.
- Except this isn't enough for Sig. He doesn't care if someone in his mom's Bible stories had a tough life; he doesn't want to be hungry and he is sometimes.
- Einar walks in and promises Sig he will never be hungry again—once they move.
- This is news to Maria, but she's on board with it. They plan to leave in the autumn, and we're creepily told none of them ever spend a winter there again "in their different ways."
- Hmmm… what does that mean?