Angel Sister (17 page)

“He drowned.”

“Here?” Kate almost shivered as she looked back at the pond.

“No. At the river. A long time ago. 1908. He was nineteen. It was a bad thing, Kate. I don’t like to talk about it.”

“Was Fern there?”

“She was, but she doesn’t remember it right. I don’t know that any of us remember it right. Fact is, I don’t want to remember it at all.” Graham’s voice sounded firm. “Enough bad things happen every day to worry over. No need pulling up bad ones from the past that a person can’t do one thing about now except feel sorrowful.”

“No, I guess not.” Kate clamped down on the questions that were circling in her head. Graham didn’t want to talk about it. That was plain to see even before he stepped away from her without another word and went over to watch Lorena push a new worm onto her hook.

He was right. She did have enough to worry about already, what with being the middle sister, the responsible one. The one who had to make sure everybody was taken care of and happy. Still, it seemed like her father’s brother’s—her uncle’s—drowning would be something she would know about. Even if it had happened years before she was born.

______

The week passed. On Thursday Grandfather Reece stood up on his own and walked out to the porch with two canes. A slow, shuffling walk, but he made it. He got command of a few more words, and although his right eye drooped and saliva dribbled out of his twisted mouth, the side that did work often as not smiled when somebody sat down beside him on the porch.

Kate’s mother said it must be all the prayers his people kept offering up for him. Her father said it was nothing short of a veritable miracle. Either that or his smiling and frowning muscles had gotten messed up the same way his talking had.

But Kate didn’t think so. Whenever she sat down beside him, Grandfather Reece would open up his Bible with his good hand and point out verses for her to read aloud. He liked Psalm 91. He could find the middle of his Bible with his thumb and more times than not it fell open to that chapter.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
That first verse was the one Grandfather Reece liked best, but Kate always read him the whole chapter because she liked the verses in it about the angels.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone
.

When Kate read that to her grandfather, a breath of relief went through her every time. She wasn’t an angel the way Lorena kept saying. Not even close, but she liked to imagine she felt the flutter of a guardian angel’s wings around her and Lorena. She asked her grandfather if that was what the verse meant—that angels were watching over them—or if the Lord sent angels just for Bible people like King David. He tried to answer her, but she couldn’t quite get his meaning. Too many words still in wrong places. But he smiled and lightly caressed the Bible page, so unless his smiling and frowning were mixed up the way Daddy said, Kate thought he was telling her that yes, she could believe in guardian angels.

As she and her mother walked home that afternoon, Kate told her about the verses that promised angels would lift a believer up and not let him so much as stump his toe. She asked her mother the same question she’d asked Grandfather Reece.

“Angels.” Mama stared at the gravel on the road a moment before she looked up at Kate. “The Bible does speak of them, and I believe what the Bible says.”

“Right, but are the angels out there, or rather right here?” Kate held her hand up toward the blue sky over them. “Guarding over us all the time, or was that just for David? Or remember that story Grandfather used to preach about where Elisha opened his servant’s eyes so he could see the horses and chariots of fire guarding the city where he lived? That would be something to see.” She looked around. All she saw were houses and trees.

“It would of a truth.” Mama smiled at her. “Perhaps even a bit unnerving.”

“Might explain why it’s so hot.” Kate grinned over at her mother.

“Oh, Kate.” Mama laughed. “The things you come up with. But I think the heat has more to do with the way the sun’s beating down on us.”

“Yeah, I know. The chariots of fire were probably just for Elisha. But having a guardian angel is different, don’t you think? Something we might all have.”

Her mother stopped as they came to the edge of their yard and looked off at the trees behind the house for a long moment before she answered. “Unseen angels. Perhaps they are always around us. The Bible says we can entertain angels unaware.”

“But we’re doing the helping then. How about them helping us? Do you think that happens?” Kate pushed her for an answer.

“It might, Kate. The Lord can use any means he wants to help us, whether that is his angels, other people, the Bible. It’s all in his power.” She looked back at Kate with eyes that were kind of sad. “At the same time, bad things do happen. We do dash our feet on the stones along the pathways of life. All the time.”

“But is that because we’re not trusting enough? If we can trust enough, will that keep the bad things away? Keep the angels guarding over us?”

“I don’t know, Kate. I wish I could say yes, but I just don’t know.” Mama laid a hand on Kate’s cheek. “What you have to remember is that bad things happened to people in the Bible too. Even David, who was a man after God’s own heart. Sometimes it was because they had fallen out of the will of the Lord, and sometimes the sins of others brought hard times into their lives. Think about Joseph and how his brothers sold him into slavery. We can’t control what everybody around us does.”

“God made that turn out to be good.”

“He did, but I doubt it felt good to Joseph when he was carried off to Egypt and later ended up in prison. He surely had to wonder if he was trusting enough.”

“Do you think something bad is going to happen to us?” Kate was sorry she’d asked the question as soon as it was out of her mouth because it was too easy to see the worry in her mother’s eyes.

“Some would say bad things have happened already with Father’s stroke.”

“He’s getting better.”

“He is, but he will probably never be truly well again. Perhaps never be able to preach, and preaching has always been Father’s life. Plus other things could happen.” Mama put her hands on Kate’s shoulders and stared straight into her eyes. “I pray not, but if it does, I know the Lord will help us make it through whatever might happen the same as the good Lord is helping us and the church walk through this hard time with Father. As he’s walked us through other hard times in the past.”

“Like when Daddy’s brother drowned?”

Mama looked surprised as she dropped her hands off Kate’s shoulders. “Who told you about that?” She was frowning.

“Graham.” Kate felt like she needed to backpedal and not bring up how this uncle of hers died. She should have stuck with the angel questions, even though she was definitely curious about what Graham told her.

“Graham? Are you sure? I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak of it. Ever.” Mama’s frown got deeper.

“Well, he only did because of Fern. She saw us fishing there the other day and came out and talked to us.”

“Fern talked to you?”

Kate wasn’t sure whether her mother looked more surprised or alarmed. “Yeah, but it was okay. She wanted to see Lorena. She said Lorena looked like her when she was little. Well, her hair did anyway.” Kate hesitated a moment as she thought about how much to tell her. Definitely nothing about Fern waving her hatchet around and threatening to cut off Kate’s nose. She’d already warned Tori and Lorena to keep mum about that if they wanted to go fishing over at Graham’s pond ever again. But she could tell the rest. “And she said I looked like him. I didn’t know who she was talking about, but Graham said Fern was talking about Daddy’s brother. Press Jr. He said Fern was in love with him. Do I really look like him?”

“That’s certainly a possibility since you take back after the Merritt side of the family, but I only have a vague recollection of a tall boy with brown hair. I wasn’t but eight or nine when he died. I do remember how sad everybody was.”

“Daddy remembers him, doesn’t he?”

“Of course he does, but now is not a good time to be bothering your father about this. You know he’s already having nightmares about the war. No need bringing back more sorrows for him to remember.” Mama bent her head a bit and gave Kate a stern look. “Understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Kate ducked her head. “I won’t bother him about it. I promise. It’s just that when Fern said I looked like him, it made me curious.”

“My curious Kate.” Mama reached out and gave her a quick hug. “But there are times to be curious and times to let things be.”

Kate wanted to ask her about the other thing Fern had said. About Graham letting him die, but her mother wouldn’t know about that. And Graham had already explained it. Fern had it all mixed up in her head. She had to. Graham wouldn’t even kill the raccoons he and Poe treed out in the woods. He would never purposely let anyone die the way Fern made it sound.

To keep that question at bay, she said, “Do you think he was in love with Fern? She used to be pretty.”

“She was. Very pretty. But I never knew her to have a suitor. Even before the influenza damaged her. She was well into her twenties by then. Poor Fern.” Mama seemed to remember then her worries about Fern talking to them. “I’m sorry for her, but at the same time, you need to be careful around her. Maybe you shouldn’t take Lorena back over to the pond for a while. At least not until I talk to Graham about it.”

“Sure. It’s too hot to fish anyway,” Kate said. “I’ll help her and Tori make paper dolls, or even better, we can find a shady place and I’ll read them
Little Women
.”

On Sunday, they went to church and listened to the young preacher from the seminary the deacons had called to fill in while they prayed for Grandfather Reece to get better. Kate kept feeling as if they were surely in the wrong church. Brother Champion was nothing like her grandfather behind the pulpit. He was young with dark wavy hair and very blue eyes. He smiled all the time except when he was preaching and sometimes even then. He actually told a funny story in the pulpit.

Kate laughed and felt disloyal for a moment, but then Brother Champion was smiling directly at her as though she were the only person in the church. Her heart did some kind of weird somersault, and her mouth went dry. It didn’t matter that he looked at her for no more than a second or two before he swept his eyes to another person in the church with the same smile. Kate was sunk.

Before the first hymn was over, all the girls in the church, marrying age and younger, were watching Brother Champion’s every move. That included Evie, who seemed to forget all about George even though he was sitting right beside her on the pew, holding her hand out of sight under her full skirt.

After the final prayer had been said and the new preacher walked to the door to give everybody on the way out the hand of fellowship, Evie shook off George’s hand and beat everybody else to the door. Kate couldn’t believe it when she heard Evie inviting Brother Champion to dinner without even thinking about what they had to put on the table. No company fare for sure. Maybe she didn’t know that, because sometimes Evie acted as if she believed things just fell out of the sky when she wanted them.

Kate grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side. “Evie, are you out of your mind?” Kate whispered in her ear. “We don’t have anything ready to eat. Nothing for a preacher anyway. Bologna and cheese and leftover bean soup. We can’t ask him to come eat that.”

“Mama might have cooked something else,” Evie said.

“Mama went to Grandfather Reece’s early this morning so Carla could come to church, remember? She won’t be back until suppertime.”

“She made a brown sugar pie yesterday. She left it in the pie safe. I saw it this morning. That’s preacher food.” Evie lifted her chin and stared at Kate. “Besides, I’ve already asked him. Maybe we can fry some chicken.”

“Are you going to catch a chicken and cut off its head?” Kate shivered at the thought. “Besides, we let the fire go out. It would take forever to get water boiling to pluck the feathers.”

“You always see problems. You should learn to look for solutions.” Evie pulled away from Kate. “I asked him and he said yes, so that’s that. He might like bologna.”

Kate looked over at the preacher, who was talking to other people on the way out the door, and her heart did another funny bounce inside her chest. Maybe Evie was right. Some people did like bologna. Tori thought it was a special treat. And it would be nice to have him sitting at the table with them, smiling at her.

One of the deacons’ wives, Mrs. Spaulding, came up behind them. “Evangeline, I’m not sure it’s proper you inviting the preacher home with you. Carla says your mother is sitting with your grandfather this morning.”

“Our father is at home,” Evie said.

“Well, of course, but . . . ,” Mrs. Spaulding sputtered and seemed to run out of words.

Ella Baxter had no such problem when she joined their huddle. “While it’s a well-known fact your father could use some personal time with a preacher, you can’t even depend on him to be there.”

“He’s there.” Kate tried to keep her voice civil, but it came out a bit harsh. She didn’t like talking to Ella Baxter. She didn’t like being in the same room with Ella Baxter. She didn’t like Ella Baxter being anywhere close to Lorena. Kate tried to peer out the door into the churchyard to be sure Lorena was safe with Tori. She’d told them they could go out and play with the other kids, but now she wished she’d grabbed her hand and hurried on across the pasture field toward home. She’d let herself get distracted by Brother Champion’s good looks.

“Yes, but in what sort of shape?” Mrs. Baxter said with a scornful lift of her eyebrows.

“Now, Ella,” Mrs. Spaulding said. “The girls have no control over that.”

“Exactly,” Mrs. Baxter said with a sniff that said more than words.

Red heat swept through Kate. She forgot she was in church. She forgot the new preacher was standing there behind them. She forgot that she was a kid and Ella Baxter an adult. She barely felt Evie’s fingers digging into her arm. “You don’t know anything about my father.” She wasn’t exactly yelling, but she was very close.