ANGELA COMES HOME

The Power of Prayer
She threw open the front door and ran into the house. Her heart was racing. She could hardly wait to tell Momma all about her morning. The only thing was Momma was nowhere in sight. “Momma, Momma! Where are you?” She crossed through the kitchen and tried the living room, no Momma. After looking upstairs, she peeked out the back window to see if maybe Momma was outside, no sight of her. Maybe she went over to Nic’s or maybe she was in the barn. No, no, wait a minute. She knew exactly where Momma was, of course. Rachael sighed and headed for Sara’s bedroom. Slowly, she inched the door open, biting her lower lip and hoping the door wouldn’t creek. Sara was sprawled across the bed, her legs dangling over the edge with her work boots still fastened on her feet. Gently, Rachael eased off Sara’s boots and set them aside, ever so carefully. She eased Sara’s legs up on the bed and spread the extra blanket that was neatly folded on Sara’s vanity chair over her. “Sweet dreams.” She whispered before tiptoeing out. Poor Momma, she looked so tired. Rachael wished there was something she could do. Hey, there was something she could do to help Momma. She’d go get a fish for dinner. Yeah, what a great idea! Not to mention, it would give her the perfect opportunity to figure out how she could convince Momma to go to the Christmas program. She wanted Momma to go more than anything.
Before she did anything else, she’d have to change into her overalls. Rachael turned and tiptoed upstairs. After tediously undoing all the tiny buttons on her dress, she stepped out of it and placed it neatly on the clothes nook. She grabbed a pair of overalls off of the top shelf. Looking down at her freshly shined boots she felt horrible, in a matter of minutes they’d be filthy dirty again, but there wasn’t anything she could do about that. It was too cold out to go barefoot and if she did Momma would be upset. Sneaking her away through the kitchen, Rachael stopped in front of the fireplace. A tiny spark snapped between two of the fire logs. Boy, was she glad to see the wonderful little spark, how she hated to start a fire from a scratch? Actually, she didn’t really hate it; she just wasn’t very good at it yet. Rachael grabbed a couple of potatoes from a lower cabinet and threw them into the black kettle suspended over the fireplace. A quick glance underneath the butter dish told her that she’d need to churn some butter, but that could wait until later, the churn made too much noise. She reached for the poker standing near the fireplace and jabbed at the logs to get a higher flame.
Once outside, she searched through a wooden storage chest perched against the side of the barn door. Smiling at the sight of her favorite pole, she tossed it over her shoulder and headed to a familiar fishing spot about a quarter of a mile downstream. Scattered rays from the setting sun shimmered and winked across the water in hundreds of places like a bed of diamonds. Rachael narrowed her eyes against the brightness.
A sudden cool breeze made her wish she’d grabbed a sweater, along the way. Rachael thought about all the times Pa had taken her fishing. All the wonderful adventure stories he’d tell her, how he’d let her take the credit for the biggest fish, the red licorice he’d hide in the left pocket of his overalls. Rachael closed her eyes tight, fighting back tears she knew would be too hard to stop. “I Miss you so much Pa, why did you have to leave us?” She whispered looking up towards heaven. Stop it! She couldn’t think about it right now, it was making her too sad. She needed to concentrate and figure out a plan. Not long after Rachael cast her line in the water, a wonderful idea popped onto her head. Momma had made a big sacrifice for her, so why couldn’t she do the same thing for Momma?
The details of her plan began to fall into place and fit perfectly like one of the picture Jigsaw puzzles she and Momma worked on sometimes after supper. Tonight, after Momma went to bed and fell asleep, she’d go into the barn, brush Elroy and get him all fixed up real nice then take him over to Nic’s. Somehow, she’d convince Nic to buy Elroy then she’d take the money to Sadie’s after school and buy some material to make Momma a dress. Sadie would have to help her make it. She wasn’t very good at sewing yet. Surely, Nic and Sadie would agree to help her, especially when they hear all the details of her plan. Yeah, everything was going to work out perfectly, Rachael thought happily. How could Momma refuse to go if she has a beautiful dress to wear? Oh no, ooh, no, no her body froze, she couldn’t blink or breathe.
An uncomfortable chill crept quickly up Rachael’s spine, burning fear rushed through her blood, pulsating in every inch of her body, waking up every nerve. The hair on her arms stood straight up and she began to tremble uncontrollably. Louder and louder her heartbeat
until it was all that she could hear. She closed her eyes, hoping that he’d disappear, that she’d fallen asleep and this was a bad nightmare, but he was still there. Desperately, she tried hard to remember what Pa taught her if this should happen. What was it? Oooh, what was it? Think Rachael, think! Her mind was fuzzy, a jumbled blur, making it hard to concentrate but she had to come on, think, oh yeah, don’t move, yes, yes, that’s it! Don’t move suddenly, but what else, what else? Hungry eyes glared at her; his tongue tasted her every time he licked the sticky dripping saliva off of his snout. Still frozen, Rachael watched his every move, too scared to even take a breath more than anything she wanted to be someplace else, anyplace else.
Sara forced her eyes open, even though they burned as if she held them open underwater too long. It felt like tiny pieces of sand coated the rim of her eyelids and that a horse had trampled down her body. Sitting up took all her strength, her head pounded and every muscle in her body screamed painfully in protest. Sara gathered up the blanket she didn’t remember covering herself with, folded it neatly and placed it back on her vanity chair. “Rachael?” She cried, hearing no answer. “Hey baby, where are you?” Yawning, she scuffled through the kitchen in stocking feet. Everything was too quiet. “Rachael, Rachael, answer Momma, where are you?” She cried louder, feeling more and more uneasy by the second. When Sara reached the top of the ladder, she noticed Rachael’s boots were gone. Frantically, she searched through Rachael’s clothes and found Rachael’s dress, so she’d been home but there was no sign of her anywhere. Where was she? Sara’s heart raced faster and faster, beads of sweat formed on her forehead and her stomach felt like someone punched her in the gut.

All at once, she was wide awake, more awake than she’d been in a couple of days. Okay, I have to stop doing this! She raced downstairs and started pacing in the hallway, after a couple of deep breaths to steady her racing heart. Sara realized she could smell potatoes cooking. She glanced over at the fireplace and relief washed over her in welcome waves. Oh, for goodness sakes, all this worrying over nothing, she knew exactly where Rachael was. Apparently, Rachael had come home from church, found her and decided to help out by starting dinner. Oh of course! She was out by the stream trying to catch a fish for dinner. Sara eased herself down on a kitchen chair shaking out her trembling hands. Would she ever stop doing this, driving herself crazy every time Rachael was out of the house? It had to stop.
Unable to take her eyes off the wolf, Rachael felt nasty bile burn in her throat. Every time she took a breath it felt as if she’d swallowed a lit match. Complete helplessness and dread overtook her as she realized she’d been invited to dinner as the main course and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.