The truth was sealed after Larry McDuff’s death in 2005. The truth was cloistered 26 months ago to mercifully allow another “troubled teen” to be healed by our juvenile justice system. It was our faith, both legally and spiritually, that the mangled bike and the 65-year-old body of Larry could at least become the catalyst that would save the self-destructive child driver from himself. It was our faith that justice and mercy are always eventually served, and that the then-unnamed child of God who struck Larry could be redeemed. It was our faith then, it is our faith now; but God, is it hard to believe sometimes.

Now we have two more mangled bodies and bikes. Last Monday, Bill Imle and Art Clemons were flung into the same horrid pile with Larry and Ann McDuff. The State Troopers say that Bill and Art were hurled there by the same driver who hit Larry in 2005. The State Troopers did not speculate about what the nauseating odds would be of the same driver accidentally hitting and killing three different bicyclists. The State Troopers will be looking for the facts. They believe that from the facts the whole truth will emerge, this time.

Those who doubt all mercy and grace will sneer at the past efforts to redeem the “juvenile suspect” in Larry’s case in 2005. Those who are afraid of cheek-turners like Larry will say, “I told you so.” Maybe these doubters didn’t feel the sickness that many of us felt last week, but felt the pride of seeming right, pride in the certainty of knowing what happened, and what will happen. But these doubters don’t know that God is not through with any of us, yet.

The truth may be un-sealed this time. The juvenile now has a name, and the full weight of our system may now rain down on Patrick Blake Young Ballard’s braced neck. Ballard will be lawyered up again, making the truth even more tedious to discern. The truth this time will probably be a fight. The same system that shielded Patrick when he was 17 may now, at 19, try to filet him alive slowly at the bench, his whole sad story displayed in the town square. This time, only the whole truth, hung out in the bright, cleansing sunshine, may be all that will work.

The whole truth, including the specific circumstances of deaths of Larry, Art and Bill, may be the only way to cauterize the wounds that Ballard has ripped into the lives of five families. Maybe words like “complicity” can be used this time to describe what happened in 2005 and in 2007. This word “complicity” may be the missing puzzle piece that allows us to learn what happened during the several hours after Larry was killed. Did these “lost hours” allow Ballard to sober-up, and thus obscure the truth of the incident? Did these lost hours make it much more difficult for the DA to prosecute the case? Do any of those involved in manufacturing and protecting these lost hours in 2005 feel engulfed by what Ballard did this past Labor Day morning? If the pieces begin to seem like they fit together, let’s finish the puzzle this time; let’s tell the whole truth.

The pile that Art Clemmons and Bill Imle were cast into grows by about 3,500 souls a month in our country, over a hundred a day. Many of these “automobile-related deaths” are caused by drivers driving while alcohol and/or drugs impair them. This “impairment” factor will probably be a huge issue this time, with the lawyers wrangling about the alcohol content and the admissibility of any tests of Ballard’s blood. Meanwhile, 300 friends of Art and Bill rode silently in Bay Minette on Saturday, praying for the families of the two men, and telling the world that they are not afraid of life, of cycling, or the likes of Mr. Ballard. This time, the whole truth may need to include a discussion about the real responsibilities that motorists and bicyclists have to each other in sharing the roads that we all own.

There is yet another “unnamed juvenile” this time, Ballard’s 17-year-old female companion, who was thrown from his truck. Maybe she can come forward, a final catalyst and tell the whole truth. Perhaps she will be able to talk about the events that led two teens to speed-drive drunk on Bromley Road on a beautiful Monday morning. Maybe she can describe the improbable physics of their truck crossing the road to hit two brightly dressed bicyclists. Let’s hope her truth will not be sealed.

As our search continues this time, the most important pieces left to be picked up in the grass off Bromley Road are Faith, Memory and Love. And these are pieces of a puzzle that we will spend our whole earthly lives discerning. Say a prayer for the five families that were changed forever on Labor Day 2007 (Imle, Clemons, McDuff, Ballard and the female juvenile). Say a prayer for DA Judy Newcomb.

All most of us have is faith, a faith made known by our supplications and our elections. It is a faith recently nurtured by the lives of Larry and Ann McDuff, and now by the lives of Bill Imle and Art Clemmons. It is a faith that Ballard may covet and should receive. All we have is faith, and God knows that it will have to be enough.