Embrace the Thorns

Chapter One
Elizabeth sat on the balcony at Rosewood, as she often did, listening to the thunder in the distance. Her mind raced back to the day she told her little sister, Anna, that the devil was beating his wife. The years seem to have melted away. Papa was gone and Mama’s health was not good even though she still maintained the same grace and beauty that was Mama. Anna and A.G. now had three girls and two boys, which was two more than Elizabeth and Raymond had.
“Oh well,” she thought, “Anna always was a bit ostentatious.” She smiled as she remembered Anna’s artificial southern drawl and fluttering eye lids. How very different she had become as a married adult with five children. Elizabeth was eight, Flora six, Mary five, and the boys Hugh, named for her little brother who died in infancy, and John were three and one. Anna would like to have named one of her boys George, after her Papa, but Elizabeth had already chosen that name for her first child.
Elizabeth’s children, Annabelle, her step daughter, George and Neill were fourteen, seven and five. Annabelle had grown into a beautiful young lady, and Elizabeth felt that she must have looked very much like her biological mother. “Well, for someone who thought she would end up an old maid, you’ve done quite well, old girl,” she thought. At that moment there was the sound of two little boys, up from a nap, refreshed and ready for play. Elizabeth smiled, her solitude pleasantly interrupted, she went back inside to check on her boys.
George was tall like his father, Raymond, with dark hair and hazel eyes. Neill was more like a male version of Anna with dark, curly hair and a bounce in his step. “How strange,” she thought, “he looks more like my sister than me.” Elizabeth finally knew what unconditional love her parents had for their girls. She felt it.
The boys ran down the long stair case, through the parlor and into the kitchen where they grabbed the tea cakes Elizabeth had made for them. “Some things never change,” she thought as she recalled the greasy hoecakes she and Anna had snatched from Izzy’s table at Tehvah so long ago.
She followed the boys out the back door in the hope of discovering their plan of action. They headed for Annabel’s old white play house, which she had outgrown many years earlier. They had transformed the elegant little mansion into a fort, which was much more suitable for the games of young boys. Mama still lived at Tehvah where Elizabeth and Anna had spent most of their lives. When Papa died, Anna and her husband, A.G. moved, with their children, from Arkansas back to Mississippi to care for Flora Torrey. Anna and A.G. had long, hard days, but coming from their tiny Arkansas home, they were used to struggles and hard work was no stranger to either of them.
Simmy and her husband, Zeb, were living on the land that George had given them
in appreciation for their remaining to help him after the war. They both had been slaves at one time, but were now free to work their own land like everyone else. During the war, Anna and Simmy had become fast friends. Simmy’s first child was named Anna Elizabeth for Anna and her sister. Back at Tehvah, Anna’s five children roamed the grounds much like she and Elizabeth had as youngsters. Their partner, Simmy, had been replaced by Simmy’s daughter, Anna Elizabeth. The old stories were retold about the hanging tree and the turtles still had to be careful of well-aimed rocks. Although the boys did throw harder, they hit fewer turtles. As Anna watched, she lamented the by-gone years, but cherished the memories. She called to her brood, “You Kelly children come inside for supper and bring Anna Elizabeth with you. I’ll tell her Mama I invited her.” Through the years, Anna and Simmy had remained fast friends. Anna still cherished the veil Simmy made for her wedding. Simmy had woven the crown from grape vines. She never knew that the tulle Anna gave her for the veil had been cut from a new, expensive veil purchased in New Orleans. All Anna cared about was that making the veil was something that her friend wanted to do for her, and it was beautiful. The tulle delicately stitched about the sides and back, had stood the test of time. After the wedding, Mama wrapped it carefully in tissue paper and it was still one of Anna’s most prized possessions.
Everyone gathered around the table, with A.G. occupying Papa’s old seat of prominence, and Grandma Flora at the other end of the table. Instead of Izzy and Simmy serving the food, Anna brought it in and set it on the table.
A.G. prayed, “Bless us, oh Lord, and these gifts which we are about to receive from your bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen.”
Anna looked up at her husband, “A.G., isn’t that a Catholic blessing?”
“All prayers ultimately go the same way, Miss Anna. You seem to forget that we are Kelly’s.” Anna lowered her head slightly and a whisper of a smile crossed her lips. As she looked up at A.G., Anna reverted to her old southern drawl, “My goodness, A.G., whatever did I do to merit such a rude response?”
“That happens to be my standard response to bad behavior.” The children looked at each other wondering if their own Mama and Papa were at the point of an argument right there at the supper table.
Anna and A.G. stared at each other, teeth clinched and brows wrinkled, and burst into laughter. The children had not heard about their mother’s trip to New Orleans when she and sister, Elizabeth, had discussed the pros and cons of Catholicism. Mama, having been present during this discussion between Anna, the misinformed, and Elizabeth, the defender, could only smile. How she missed those happy times, but most of all, she missed Papa.