Rachel's Prayer (3 page)

I made a face. “If he’s planning that at all, maybe he’s thinking like Robert, that he’d rather do it when he comes home.”

“No. We’ve been friends so long, I think he’ll want to make sure a’ things tonight. Then we can have the weddin’ soon as he gets home. And till then, I’ll write him every day.”

I shook my head. “I wish you’d quit talking like this.”

“Why?” Rorey asked me all innocent. “You know we’ve been likin’ each other a real long time.”

“Off and on, sure. But that doesn’t mean it’s particularly good for you. Or that he’s thinking like you are about this.”

Rorey strained the last bit she could of the flax gel and rubbed some at the hair framing her forehead. “You’re just jealous, that’s all. ’Cause you don’t have a beau. You wanna start settin’ the waves in back for me?”

“I don’t know why you bother,” I huffed at her. “Your hair’s wavy enough already.”

“No, it’s not. And anyway, I want the best finger waves in town tonight.”

Katie came in just then, and I saw Rorey’s eyes turn toward Katie’s beautiful curls. But Rorey didn’t say anything about Katie’s hair. She never did. She never really talked to her much at all.

“You know, Sarah, Lester’s brother Eugene’s kinda taken with you,” Rorey told me. “You oughta dance with him tonight.”

“I wouldn’t dance with Eugene Turrey if you paid me,” I snapped without thinking.

“Why not? Just ’cause he’s Lester’s brother? Honestly, I woulda thought you’d forgive and forget the past a lot easier than that. Even if somebody done somethin’ that don’t suit you, that’s no reason to hate their whole family.”

My problem with Lester was more than some little thing that didn’t “suit” me, and she well knew it. His foolishness once, along with hers, had caused a fire that almost got my father killed, and Lester’d been even slower than Rorey to own up for it and say he was sorry. But besides that, he was mean, hateful to Rorey’s brother Frank, and rough as an old cob. I didn’t mind
all
the Turreys. Not the girls, anyway. But the problem with Eugene and with Lester’s other brothers was that they were too much like Lester.

“I don’t hate anybody,” I told Rorey. “I just don’t like their trouble.”

“Yeah. You sound like Franky—too good to say you hate ’em, but that sure don’t mean you’ll treat ’em very nice. All Eugene wants is one dance.”

“I don’t have to dance to be nice. And Frank doesn’t have to let himself be walked on, neither. He’s not been mean to them one time, Rorey, and you know it.”

“Whatever you say.” She kept at spreading the flax gel in her hair and setting the waves as best she could. I wondered if she knew how mad she made me. I wondered if she did it on purpose. “You want some curl?” she asked me suddenly. “I boiled enough flax for you if you want.”

I looked in Mrs. Jones’s dresser-top mirror at my long straight hair, just like my mother’s, fine and brown. I supposed it needed cutting. I supposed I ought to accept Rorey’s offer to help me curl it some for the party. But I didn’t feel like obliging her in anything right then. “I like my hair the way it is,” I told her, glancing for a moment at Katie across the room. “Katie said she’d help me put it up in back.”

“Oh, Sarah, that’s so old on you. Don’t you wanna look nice for the boys?”

“I don’t care if I do or not. I just want Robert and William to have a good time.”

“Well, it’s okay if you have a good time too.”

“I think everybody will,” Katie broke in. “Except it’ll be kind of strange thinking about saying good-bye tomorrow.” She had laid out her dress on the bed and kicked off her shoes to run the polish rag over them again. I knew Rorey wouldn’t ask if
she
wanted to use the flaxseed gel. Katie had Shirley Temple curls. All natural.

I polished at my shoes a little bit too, even though they didn’t really need it because Dad had shined everybody’s earlier. I made sure my wool stockings were pulled up in place. Then I changed my dress lickety-split and straightened the pin on the collar. For warmth, I added the pink pearl-buttoned sweater that Mom let me wear since Rorey had borrowed mine. I guessed that would be about all I’d do, except for putting my hair up like I’d said. Katie was already combing hers, though it didn’t look like it needed it.

“You mind lightin’ the matches for me, Sarah?” Rorey asked. “I need to fetch a little more water.”

She went out of the room with a towel in her hands, and Katie walked over to the dressing table. “I’ll strike the matches. I was thinking I might use a little of Mrs. Jones’s perfume, since she said it’s okay. But I don’t think I want to do much of anything else. What do you think, Sarah? Do I need to fix up some more?”

“Oh, Katie. You never need anything. You’re cute as a lamb.”

“You’re the one that’s extra pretty, Sarah. The boys watch you an awful lot. I don’t think Rorey’d think half as much about her appearance if it weren’t for that.”

I scoffed. “Rorey thinks I’m plain. Just ask her. She’s always telling me I need to do something or other.”

“She’s just jealous. And she doesn’t want you to know.”

I shook my head but didn’t say anything else. Katie struck three matches on the bottom of Mrs. Jones’s pottery jewel box, let them burn just a little, and then blew them out and set them down one by one on the plate Rorey’d left.

“How do you think my eyes would look lined like Rorey’s going to do?”

“I don’t know. Your eyes are dark already. With pretty lashes. You don’t need nothing.”

Rorey came hurrying back with her bowl of water, primping at her hair. “What do you think? Will the curls stay?”

“They can’t go anywhere stuck together like that,” I teased her. “Sure hope you got all the seeds out so they don’t start dropping off on the dance floor.”

She ignored me. Carefully she used the burnt match ends to line around her eyes so they’d stand out better in the evening light. And then she took a crumpled piece of red crepe paper from her pocket and dunked it in the water.

“What’s that for?”

“Sarah, don’t you know anything? Esther Mueller showed me. It’s for just a little color.”

I thought “a little color” was a little understatement. The wet crepe paper rubbed against Rorey’s cheek left a whole lot more color than she would’ve needed. But she was satisfied once she’d smoothed the smear around the edges some.

While she was doing that, Katie helped me put my hair up in a twist, and she put on her sweater. Pretty soon we were all ready to go.

“Don’t you look lovely?” Mrs. Jones said when we came out in the sitting room. But I knew she was just being polite. We didn’t look much different than we did on Sundays, except for Rorey’s dolling up. She’d put a ribbon in her hair on the right above her ear. It matched her dress perfectly. I guess she did look pretty nice.

Everybody else had gotten ready too, and some of the boys were already bundled up waiting for us. Mrs. Pastor had to quick pull off her apron, and then she grabbed a hat and started helping everybody get their coats.

“Your scarf’s gonna muss your hair,” Harry told Rorey.

“I’m wearin’ it around my neck, not on my head tonight,” she replied.

“Won’t your ears get awful cold?” Emmie Grace asked her.

My mother expressed the same concern, but Rorey was headstrong. She bundled up like the rest of us except that she left her head bare. Her father just looked at her sideways a little. “If you get sick a’ the cold, girl, it ain’t nobody’s fault but your own.”

Those words didn’t bother Rorey the slightest bit, and pretty soon we were all walking down the street toward the community building. Dad and Pastor Jones were carrying the cakes that Mom and Mrs. Jones had made for the party. Dad would go back later for the truck and Thomas’s bookshelves. We didn’t want to bring them now because it was supposed to be a surprise.

“You s’pose the cows’ll be all right tonight?” Mr. Hammond suddenly asked again as we were walking.

“Yes, George,” Dad told him patiently. “There won’t be any problems. Mr. Mueller’ll be by to check on them before long.”

“I hope he remembers to get ’em fresh water if it’s froze up. Surely is by now.”

“He’ll remember. They’d be all right till morning anyhow. They’ve been through plenty of cold nights before this.”

“Not without us close. I don’t like bein’ away so long.”

Dad sighed, but he didn’t bother to say anything more.

Mr. Hammond didn’t say anything else the whole way either. I thought the way he looked might bother Lizbeth when she saw him tonight. He was walking stiff like he had been the last few days, though he wouldn’t say there was anything wrong even when my mother asked him. He didn’t try to clean himself up very well lately, either. It seemed to me that he wasn’t thinking like he should or he wouldn’t keep asking about the cows. He’d known for days how we were going to do things tonight. I figured Lizbeth would worry. But Rorey didn’t even seem to notice.

“We’re not running late, are we?”

“What’s the matter?” Willy teased her. “You ’fraid Lester’ll leave ’fore you get there?”

“I just wanna be there for the first dance.”

Harry rolled his eyes really funny at her, and I tried not to laugh at him.

“Are you gonna dance with anybody, Harry?” Emma Grace asked innocently.

“Are you kiddin’?” he answered, making quite a face. “There ain’t a girl in this county to look twice at.”

“You just don’t know how to look,” Robert said solemnly, and Willy nodded.

“You’re all young enough, you don’t need to concern yourself with that kind of thing tonight,” Mom told them. “We’ll just have a good time with friends and then get some sleep. Tomorrow’s a big day.”

I looked at her when she said it. I wondered if she was a little sad, but nobody could tell it in her voice or on her face. I knew she’d miss Robert. How could she not? But she acted like everything was just fine. I thought my mother must be one of the strongest people in the world not to be showing her feelings about this.

The wind was getting colder. It seemed to pierce right through my coat, and I knew there was a threat of more snow. But that didn’t stop folks from coming out. A lot of people were already gathered at the community hall. We saw Charlie and Millie Hunter and a couple of other friends from church on their way in. And then I saw three of the Turrey boys by the front door. I don’t know why, but I looked for Frank’s reaction instead of Rorey’s, but he didn’t even seem to notice.

Emma Grace eased closer beside me again. “Am I too young to dance tonight?” she asked in a whisper.

“Not for fun. Especially with your pa or your brothers. But you’re for sure too young to think much on other boys.”

“What about you? Is there a boy you think about?”

“Tonight I just want to think about the ones that are leaving. They might be gone a long time.”

“Robert’s a good big brother,” Emmie affirmed with a nod. She hesitated for just a moment. “I guess Willy is too.”

I thought for a minute about the way she’d said that. Willy could sure give people a hard time when he felt like it, especially his younger brothers and sisters. So Emmie was speaking generously. And I thought I’d share something to make her feel better about him. “I’ve heard that with some brothers, the more they love you, the more they tease.”

“Then he must love us a whole lot,” she replied in a quiet voice.

“Yeah,” I acknowledged, not sure what else to say.

While we were talking, Rorey started waving like crazy, hurrying toward Lester.

“People love more than they let on sometimes,” I told Emmie. “We just need to make sure we let ’em know how we feel before they go.”

“I will, Sarah,” Emmie said, looking at me kind of straight. “Are you worried?”

“I don’t know. I guess not. I guess God’s with us all the time, so there’s nothing to be worried about.”

Eugene Turrey was waving at me, but I ignored him. Lester and Rorey went inside holding hands right in front of everybody. I wondered if Robert would be bold enough to do that with Rachel Gray.

The inside of the community hall was all decorated with streamers. A big table was set up at one end where Mom and Mrs. Jones took the cakes we’d brought. The Porters were using the same giant punch bowl that Lizbeth had borrowed for her wedding. That bowl was such a pretty thing, and there were pitchers and pails of punch under the table—enough to keep it full many times over.

Everybody took their coats and hats and things off and set them in the area marked for them with a cardboard sign. Then I just went and sat in a chair, watching people hugging here and there. I thought of the friends and brothers going away, and I didn’t feel like talking to anybody.

The music started, and it was slow and pretty. Elmer McKay and his friends from Mcleansboro were playing. Rorey told me once that they knew hundreds of songs. They could play just about anything anybody could think of.

“Wanna dance, pumpkin?” I looked up and saw my father’s smile. He was looking playful and serious all at the same time.

“Okay, I guess,” I told him. I didn’t really feel like it right then, but I couldn’t tell him no.

“Everything’ll be all right, Sarah,” he said. “Robert and William are strong and smart.”

“Doesn’t it bother you?” I dared ask him. “Even a little? They’ll be so far away.”

“Sure it does. Quite a bit if I get to thinking about it. But they’re doing their duty. I’d be doing the same thing if I were younger. We can pray. Every day. And write too. That’ll help.”

We went kind of slow across the dance floor. I just held my daddy, glad he wasn’t younger and it wasn’t him going. It’d been bad enough, the times we’d almost lost him—once when he broke through the pond ice, and then in that awful fire. I couldn’t picture loving anybody more than I loved my father. Maybe right then was the first time I realized that if I ever got to thinking on a boy, that boy would have to be an awful lot like him.

Not too many other folks were dancing yet. Lester and Rorey were, of course. They seemed to want everybody to know how much they thought of each other. I guess it shouldn’t have aggravated me so, but it did.

But then I saw my brother Robert dancing with Emma Grace. That made me smile. Robert was like Dad. A real good man. He’d been a tease when we were younger. But not in a bad way. My eyes filled with tears just thinking about the things we’d heard on the radio, and Robert maybe going across the ocean to face hateful men who didn’t care how many people they hurt. It made my gut ache. And even though I usually liked dancing with Daddy, I was glad when the song ended.