by Ember Pierce
* * *
“If your opponent is ten feet tall, he will simply be crushed by the power of God if you are doing the right thing.”
* * *
“Amen,” Kristian said.
9
Perhaps surprisingly, two weeks went by smoothly and the couple seemed to get along well. There were no quarrels or disagreements.
* * *
Both were a bit tentative in talking and listening to each other. But Bonny was pleased that she and Kristian seemed to “fit” with one another.
* * *
She had seen that occasionally back in Philadelphia. Some couples seemed to fit with one another, like the notes of a song. All the notes sounded perfect with the others, making a beautiful melody.
* * *
The two of them were not that harmonic yet, Bonny realized, but she thought they were on the right musical path. With her background, Bonny did not expect the best, or even perhaps hope for it.
* * *
It was enough if life did not get worse. But… she allowed herself to think, if even for just a moment or two, that life might bring a semblance of happiness.
* * *
Perhaps this day was a sign of that—a semblance of happiness that would increase in the future.
* * *
She walked down the short aisle in the little church wearing a pretty dress that Mrs. Downing had loaned her for the ceremony. The pale blue material brought out her eyes, or so Mrs. Downing had told her.
* * *
Since Bonny didn’t know anyone in town yet, only Kristian’s parents were in attendance.
* * *
Kristian looked handsome in his Sunday best. She had imagined her wedding exactly this way, simple and beautiful.
* * *
The minister was friendly, but Bonny got the impression that he didn’t know the Downing family all that well. He was kind as he asked them to recite their vows and then had Kristian slide her grandmother’s ring onto her finger.
* * *
It was the only nice jewelry she owned. As soon as he put the ring on, she could feel the officiality of the moment.
* * *
She wondered if her grandmother had felt the same way about the ring.
* * *
After a brief kiss where Kristian’s lips softly brushed against hers, they were married. Mr. and Mrs. Downing headed back to the ranch, leaving the two newlyweds in town alone.
* * *
As they stood in the mid-morning sunshine, Bonny felt an odd sense of belonging, even though she barely knew where she was at the moment.
* * *
It hadn’t been long since she had been in Philadelphia and, at that time, the dirty city and the cluttered house were basically all she knew.
* * *
In the down times—and there were many at that house—she thought that was all there ever would be for her. This would be her life and her death, spent alone yet in a huge crowd of folks.
* * *
Suddenly, a jolt of insight hit her. There were a dozen or so people in the small house. A dozen? Maybe more. It wasn’t easy to keep count.
* * *
But, while she loved her siblings, she suddenly realized they were not really a family. They were boys and girls who lived in the same house.
* * *
They were not really a family. That intangible emotion that emotionally connected siblings wasn’t there—or, at least, it wasn’t strong. Not strong at all.
* * *
She shook her head. The thought shocked her and, at the same time, she sensed she had known it for some time.
* * *
“Hey, do you mind if we stop in at the general store? I just remembered that I need to get something and if I don’t get it now, I’ll have to stop in tomorrow.
* * *
“And I’d rather not,” Kristian said. “I know it doesn’t feel very special.”
* * *
“I don’t mind,” Bonny said. “Everything about this day feels special. I’d like to go and see what they have at the general store, anyway.
* * *
“I don’t think I’ve ever been to one before. The markets in Philadelphia are different.”
* * *
She was happy that the day was sunny and warm as they walked through the town where she was going to live for the rest of her life.
* * *
She also liked that the two of them were still dressed up in all their finery. There were some glances that made her feel extra special.
* * *
When they entered the general store, Bonny was thrilled to see all the different items the store carried. She had never been in a place like this before.
* * *
Though there were several large department stores in Philadelphia, she had never had the money to go to one, nor the time.
* * *
Going into the general store felt decadent to Bonny, and she hoped Kristian didn’t notice how gauche she was.
* * *
“Hello, Kristian,” the store owner greeted him. “And who is this lovely lady with you?”
* * *
“Mr. Lowen, this is my wife, Bonny. Bonny, this is Mr. Lowen,” Kristian said by way of introduction.
* * *
Then, he turned to Bonny and said, “I’m going to go look at the farm catalog while we’re here. If you see anything that you want, just let Mr. Lowen know.”
* * *
“Where are you from?” Mr. Lowen asked as he leaned against the counter.
* * *
“Philadelphia,” Bonny said. “But I’m so happy to be here now. I don’t think Philadelphia has anything on Wyoming.”
* * *
Mr. Lowen let out a low chuckle, followed by a low whistle. “That ring is a beauty,” he said.
* * *
“Oh, thank you,” Bonny said, holding out her left hand to admire the ring on her finger, an indulgence that she had never allowed herself before.
* * *
The emerald in the middle of the ring sparkled in the sunlight coming through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the front of the store. It truly was a special ring.
* * *
“You know, I’d love to buy it from you,” Mr. Lowen said, quoting a price that made Bonny’s eyes widen in shock.
* * *
“Surely you wouldn’t pay so much for it,” she said, slightly breathless from the mere suggestion of so much money.
* * *
Mr. Lowen let out another chuckle. He smiled at her. “I certainly would,” he said. “I know that I could get double that for it. Really, it’s a very special ring.”
* * *
Bonny frowned as several different thoughts warred in her head. That amount of money could change her life, change her life with Kristian, but the thought of parting with her grandmother’s ring caused her so much grief that she could barely breathe.
* * *
“Honestly, it’s my grandmother’s ring. It’s not for sale. I could just never sell it,” Bonny said, then paused. “I want to give it to my daughter someday.”
* * *
“I totally understand,” Mr. Lowen said. “If you ever change your mind, let me know. My offer stands.”
* * *
Mr. Lowen drifted away to talk to another customer, and Bonny looked at the things on the counter. There was nothing that she needed, but she liked looking at all of the items on display.
* * *
By the time Kristian was done making his purchase, Bonny felt like she had seen all the different things there were to see.
* * *
As they walked back to the ranch, Bonny thought that she had never met such nice people. Not only were there nice people in town, but the Downing family had welcomed her with open arms.
* * *
Mr. Downing was a bit standoffish, but Mrs. Downing wanted to include Bonny in everything she was doing.
* * *
After Bonny had changed in
to her regular clothes, Mrs. Downing handed her an apron. “Do you mind helping with the baking?”
* * *
“Oh, of course not,” Bonny said. “Back home, I did all the baking.
* * *
“I was particularly good at getting bread made for several days in case the little kids needed to be home without me. That didn’t happen too often, but sometimes my older sister needed me to help her with her kids.”
* * *
Mrs. Downing paused in the taking down of some of the ingredients. She wiped her hands on her apron. “You spent a lot of time doing work for others, didn’t you, dear?”
* * *
Bonny looked at Mrs. Downing in mild amusement. “Well, sure. That’s how things were in my family,” she said with a shrug.
* * *
“My parents had to work or they wouldn’t have been able to feed all of us. Though, I mean, they did have a lot of trouble with that.”
* * *
Mrs. Downing continued to gather things to make the bread, but she was quiet. Bonny wondered if she had said too much.
* * *
Not everyone wanted to know about other people’s hardships. And her family had had a lot of hardship.
* * *
The Downing family didn’t seem to have the same kind of challenges, although losing a son and brother was a completely different awful circumstance. Somehow, her parents had seen all their twelve children grow out of infancy.
* * *
The two of them started to make the bread. Bonny felt at home as she did the things that felt so familiar to her.
* * *
With her hands deep in dough, kneading the ingredients from sticky to soft to slightly firm, she felt like she could contribute to this household.
* * *
“You know,” Mrs. Downing said, “I think I can take over from here. Why don’t you go on outside and take a walk? Enjoy this beautiful day?”
* * *
Bonny felt herself tremble slightly. Did she do something wrong? How could she ask without seeming rude?
* * *
She should have known that just as she was feeling comfortable with herself in this family situation, something would go wrong. That was how things always went in her life.
* * *
“But… I like to help. Baking bread is something I am good at,” Bonny said, her eyes downcast as she looked at the perfectly mounded ball of dough sitting on the table in front of her, waiting for the first rise.
* * *
“Did… did I do it wrong? I know you probably do things differently here in Wyoming, but they can’t be that different from how we did them in Philadelphia, right?”
* * *
Bonny wished she had been able to keep her voice even, but there was a tremble in her words as she felt tears come into her eyes. She continued to look down at her hands as she waited in the lengthening silence for Mrs. Downing to answer her.
* * *
The kitchen began to feel too warm, and Bonny squirmed in the space that surrounded her. She wanted to wash her hands and start cleaning up the mess.
* * *
There were hours to do many more chores as she waited for the bread to rise. Then, it would need to be baked. There was just so much to do.
* * *
Why didn’t Mrs. Downing want her help? Bonny just didn’t understand what was going on.
* * *
When she finally looked up at Kristian’s mother, she was surprised to see tears in the woman’s eyes.
* * *
“Oh, my dear girl,” Mrs. Downing finally said.
* * *
“You have absolutely not done anything wrong. You are a marvelous helper, but I just think… well, I just think that you might need a break.”
* * *
“A break?” Bonny asked, truly confused. “I don’t understand.”
* * *
“You’ve just had such a hard life,” Mrs. Downing said. “I think you deserve to take some time to yourself.
* * *
“After you have rested up, you can help out with anything you want. Now, why don’t you go outside and enjoy the fresh air?”
* * *
Bonny washed her hands at the water trough in the kitchen, then stepped outside into the perfect summer afternoon. She wandered into the yard… and stopped.
* * *
She didn’t know what to do with herself. Back in Philadelphia, she had always been busy, if not with cooking, then with cleaning.
* * *
The few precious moments that she had stolen for herself had been hard won, and that made them all the more special. Being told to take a break felt foreign to her.
* * *
She wandered toward the barn because she heard the clinking of metal against metal, and for some reason the sound intrigued her. As she stepped into the dark cool of the barn, she paused to let her eyes adjust.
* * *
She found once again that she liked the earthy smell of the animals there, so unlike the hated smells from the city streets back in Philadelphia.
* * *
As she walked along the stalls, she recognized some of the animals that Kristian had shown her the other day. She would need to ask him again about their names, but that wasn’t important to her enjoyment of them.
* * *
At the end of the row of stalls, she found Kristian kneeling beside one of the horses, the animal’s foreleg propped up against his knee.
* * *
When he caught sight of her, he grinned and motioned for her to join him in the stall.
* * *
“What are you doing?” she asked softly as she knelt beside him on the dusty ground.
* * *
“Shoeing this horse,” Kristian said. “Would you mind holding this shoe in place while I hammer the nails in?”
* * *
Bonny gasped. “Doesn’t that hurt the horse?” she asked as she looked up at the giant beast beside her.
* * *
“Not at all,” Kristian said. “The horse has no feeling in its hoof where the nails go, but without a shoe the sensitive part of the hoof is left unprotected.”
* * *
“Oh,” Bonny said as she put her hand where Kristian indicated.
* * *
The first time he swung the hammer at the nail, she flinched. But she discovered he was quite good at what he was doing, and she found that she trusted him.
* * *
After one shoe was finished, she asked him, “How did you learn to do this? Did your father teach you?”
* * *
Kristian was quiet for a moment. “Actually,” he said, “my brother, John, taught me before he died. He always believed that I had a talent with horses.
* * *
“I guess I can break them for riding pretty well, but after his accident, I stopped. Anyway, we will both get on a horse soon, because I’m going to teach you to ride.”
* * *
“I’d like that,” Bonny said, and she meant it. Learning these little things about Kristian made her feel like she had made the right choice in becoming a mail-order bride.
* * *
Now that she was here and they were married, she couldn’t remember the concerns she’d had before she came. Tomorrow, she would write to her parents, to Katie, and let them all know that everything seemed to be working out fine.
* * *
She would temper her enthusiasm with some of the realities of the land she now lived in, though. Because if there was one thing that Bonny could count on, it was that when things were going well, something bad was coming next.
* * *
A day later, Bonny was hanging out the laundry. It was a warm day, with the sun beaming yellow rays to the land.