Benton Sage
- When Benton Sage returns from his mission to Ethiopia, he doesn't exactly get a welcome party. In fact, his family is pretty cold about his homecoming, and Reverend Hughes says that they won't be sending him on any more missions soon.
- This is pretty bad news for Benton since he is terrified of disappointing his father, who's got some serious religious fervor.
- Benton's let his dad down twice before: He tripped up during a scriptural reading at church when he was ten, and he invited a girl named Susie—who was a harlot for having previous boyfriends—to the homecoming dance when he was sixteen.
- Benton ended up not going to homecoming and his dad told him that he was proud of him, which was all that Benton had ever wanted in life.
- But now he's disappointed his father again, and no one in his family will talk to him since it's clear that he's failed in his calling as a missionary. Way harsh.