THE HOMEPLACE

by Gilbert, Morris

  Elspeth Patton stayed all morning. Some of the supplicants left, but their places were quickly taken by others. She knew most of the people who came through the door and saw curiosity on their faces. The news had evidently spread even to the farming community, for men came in worn overalls, and a few country women wore their homespun dresses and thin coats.

  Elspeth was composing the story in her mind when she saw Lanie crossing the room. Rising, she caught Lanie in the hall. “Lanie, I’m a little bit stunned by all this.”

  “Oh, Miss Patton, so am I! Isn’t it wonderful? I was just going down to check on Corliss.”

  “I’ll go with you.” The two walked to the nursery and found that Corliss was sound asleep. “If you’re getting tired, Miss Pickens, I’ll take the baby,” Lanie said.

  Bertha Pickens, Doc Givens’ nurse, was a staunch member of Sister Myrtle’s Fire Baptized Pentecostal Church. She held Corliss in her lap, rocking back and forth. “Not a bit tired. How could a body get tired to see God working like this? Never thought to see the day! Makes me think a heap better of you Baptist folks.”

  Elspeth smiled and nodded. “I would have to say the same thing. A thing like this can’t be planned, I don’t think.”

  “Yes, it just seemed to happen,” Lanie said. “Of course, Sister Myrtle and Reverend Jones had a lot to do with it.” The two returned to the auditorium, and the voices of prayer comforted Lanie. “Look, there’s Mamie Dorr.”

  “Well, that’s probably the first time Mamie’s been to a church in many a year,” Elspeth remarked. “And there’s the sheriff with her.”

  “I’m going to say hello to them,” Lanie said. She moved down the aisle and smiled. “Hello, Miss Dorr. Hello, Sheriff.”

  Mamie looked like an exotic bird among a bunch of doves. As always she wore flashy, colorful clothes, and her makeup was excessive. She swallowed hard and with somewhat less than her usual brashness said, “Well, I ain’t a prayin’ woman, Lanie, but I heard about this and I came over to see what was happenin’.”

  “I’m glad you came, Miss Dorr.”

  Elspeth, who had joined them, reached out toward Mamie, and Mamie took her hand. “I’m glad to see you too, Mamie. I think this is real.”

  “You going to make a story about this, Elspeth?” Pardue asked. He wore his mechanics jumper, stained with oil and grease.

  “I think so. I believe it deserves a headline.”

  Mamie shook her head. “I never saw anything like this.”

  “I don’t think most of us have,” Lanie said. “Not in our church anyway.”

  “It’s a good thing,” Pardue said. “If things like this keep happening, I reckon I’ll have to hit the glory road myself.”

  “I wish you would, Sheriff,” Lanie said.

  “You’ve got a good heart, honey,” Pardue said. He reached out and squeezed her arm. “With this many people praying for you, something great is going to happen.”

  At noon, Lanie’s eyes were gritty from lack of sleep, and the voice of Reverend Madison Jones rose above the crowd. The praying had more or less died down to a murmur, and the vibrancy of Jones seemed to fill the auditorium from floor to roof. “The Lord has spoken to me, and He has said, ‘I am pleased with my people. I have heard your cries, and I will answer your prayers. Thus sayeth the Lord!’”

  Sister Myrtle bellowed, “Amen and hallelujah!” She walked over to Lanie, put her arms around the young woman, and began to dance around the floor. Confused, Lanie hung on with all her might.

  “It’s gonna be all right, honey,” Sister Myrtle cried. “The Lord has given a word to Reverend Jones, and it’s settled in heaven. You won’t be going to no foster home.”

  The meeting began to break up, but one small group lingered. The Episcopal priest, Father Roy Jefferson, had lain for a time weeping flat on his face up on the rostrum next to the chairman of the Baptist board of deacons. He joined William Prince, Sister Myrtle, and Father Douglas, the burly Catholic priest from Springdale with an Irish face. When Sister Myrtle took Father Douglas’s hand and pumped it, he smiled. “I wish you’d bring some of this to my parish, Sister.”

  “Be glad to come anytime.”

  Brother Prince said, “You know, we Baptists like to keep things under control. It seems to me we draw a circle around things, but I think last night God jumped out of it and the rest of us had to follow.”

  Father Jefferson, an insignificant-looking man with intense blue eyes, nodded vigorously. “I love to see the work of God get out of control—out of our control, that is.”

  Later that day, after the crowds had left, William Prince and his wife, Ellen, stood together in the sanctuary. They were both exhausted.

  “Bill, I never saw anything like that.”

  “I think that was the way things happened when Jesus was on earth. Crowds followed Him and pushed and shoved to get to Him. There was excitement, and things were happening. I think we got a little taste of that.”

  “I really feel that God’s going to do something for the Freemans.”

  “He’ll have to. We’ve got His word that it’s all right.”

  “You believe what Madison Jones said was some kind of prophecy?”

  “It sounded real to me. I’m going to believe it until somebody convinces me different—and that’ll be hard to do, honey!”

  “You really believe all that stuff that happened at the church, Lanie?” Maeva was gathering her books for school. Though typically skeptical, the unusual prayer meeting had made an impact on her.

  Lanie stared straight at her and saw that Cody and Davis were also waiting for her reply. “Yes, Maeva. I believe it was God, and I don’t think we have a thing to worry about.”

  Cody winked at Lanie. “If they’d have more prayer meetings like that, it’d be fun, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yes, it would. Now you go on to school.”

  Lanie shut the door and watched through the window as they were joined by the Jinks children. As soon as they were out of sight, she checked on Corliss, who was chattering at her powder can. “I declare I don’t know what it is you see in that powder can! If all other children were so fascinated, that company would make a lot of money just selling empty cans.”

  Leaving Corliss in her play crib, Lanie went to her parents’ bedroom and pulled down a shoe box from the shelf in the closet. She went back to the kitchen, fixed a cup of coffee, and added a stick of oak to the fire.

  Sipping at her coffee, she stared at the box, remembering the strange thing that had happened to her sometime in the middle of the night. Usually she slept straight through, but this time she did not. She had awakened, and for some reason an old memory came to her, a memory of a letter her father once showed her and a picture that accompanied it. She opened the box and fished around for the photo.

  “This letter,” her father had said, “is the last one I got from an old aunt of mine who lives in Sallisaw, Oklahoma. She must be gettin’ on now. Here’s her picture.”

  The picture, an old tintype, was faded and brown, but still clear. A small woman stood beside a tall man who wore a big sombrero and a gun on his hip. He had a star on his vest. “This is my Aunt Kezia Pearl,” her father said. “She was my father’s only sister. That’s her second husband there. He was a lawman in Texas. I only met her once, but she was a pistol! She sure enough believed in sayin’ what she thought!”

  Lanie stared at the picture, trying to read the small woman’s face. She stood erect and wore old-fashioned clothes—a black dress pinned up high at the neck and a small hat. Both she and the man stared without smiles into the camera.

  The photo had captured an air of determination about the woman that had not faded with the image.

  Lanie picked up the letter and read the thin handwriting:

  Dear Nephew,

  This is to inform you that my husband has died. The fool spent all his money on a hussy from Muskogee. I’d a shot him if I had caught him, and her, too. He didn’t leave a cent, and I am living in a r
oom in a run-down boarding house full of idiots. I got a little money but when that plays out they’ll put me in some kind of an old-folks home. Bah! I’ll shoot myself before I put up with that!

  I hope all is well with you and your family. I remember your pa with affection.

  Kezia Pearl Pettigrew

  Lanie remembered being rather shocked and questioning her father about his aunt.

  “Well, she’s always been kind of a renegade, from what I understand,” he had said. “Went over the Oregon Trail, and when her first husband died, she married this lawman. She married a dentist named Pettigrew after that. Like I say, she was quite a caution.”

  Suddenly a thought came to Lanie, complete and total and as clear as if it were carved in stone.

  “Why, she’s my relative! She’s a Freeman! Her maiden name was Kezia Pearl Freeman, and she’s probably in a nursing home by now.”

  In that moment, Lanie realized that God had awakened her in the night and called her attention to this letter. She said, “Lord, I believe You’re in this. We’ve got to have an adult relative to stay with us, or we’ll get sent to foster homes.” She stared at the letter. “Sounds like my Aunt Kezia is adult enough, and she’s about to get quite a shock if she’s still alive!”

  C H A P T E R 24

  Orrin Pierce sat at his desk gazing at Lanie, who had burst into his office, her eyes flashing with excitement. He was struck by how she had matured in the past year. It seemed she had moved from the awkward coltish stage of adolescence into young womanhood almost overnight.

  “The prayer meeting worked, Mr. Pierce,” Lanie was saying. She fidgeted in the chair and nervously ran her hand over her auburn hair. “I think God told me something in a dream.”

  Apprehension touched Pierce instantly, for he did not want this young girl who had endured such hardship to expose herself to more of the same. “What kind of a dream?”

  “I dreamed about a letter and a picture that my daddy showed me about two years ago. I’d forgotten all about it, but it came to me real clear, so I went and read it. Here it is, Mr. Pierce.”

  Orrin took the letter Lanie handed him and read the return address. “Mrs. Kezia Pearl Pettigrew. Now who is she?”

  “She’s my daddy’s aunt on his daddy’s side. Her maiden name is Freeman, but she married a man named Pettigrew and she lives in Sal-lisaw, Oklahoma.”

  Orrin’s apprehension fell away. “So she’s really your great-aunt.”

  “I guess so, Mr. Pierce, but if I could talk her into living with us, wouldn’t that satisfy the people who want to separate us?”

  Orrin’s mind worked rapidly. He hated to nurture false hope, but this hope was real. “I think it would, Lanie, but she’s a pretty old lady by now, isn’t she?”

  “Yes, sir, she is, but daddy always said she was real peppery. Of course that was a couple of years ago. By now she may be in that nursing home she talked about.”

  “It’s worth a try, Lanie. Why don’t you write her a letter.”

  “All right, Mr. Pierce, I will.” Bright-eyed, Lanie rose. “I really think this is the way the Lord’s going to help us.”

  When Lanie stepped outside, the piercing blast of the eleven-forty westbound train came to her. She glanced toward the Missouri Pacific Station and without an instant’s pause broke into a run. At the station, the sharp, acrid smell of the black smoke boiling out of the engine made her sneeze, and she watched as Emmett Oz said a few words to the brakeman, then she followed him into the station house. Emmett Oz, a stooped and thin man, made a good station agent and could work the Morse telegraph key, but those were his only practical achievements. He was otherwise known as the most accomplished male gossip in Fairhope. Few females could compete with his tongue.

  “Lanie. What are you doing here?”

  “I need to find out if there’s a train that goes to Sallisaw, Oklahoma.”

  “Sallisaw? No, I don’t believe there is. Not a Mo Pac run anyway.

  Why? You need to go to Sallisaw?”

  “I sure do. What’s the closest town to Sallisaw?”

  “I reckon that’d be Broken Bow. You’d still have a ways to go. Why you want to go to Sallisaw?”

  “I found out I’ve got a relative there, Mr. Oz. I need to go see her.”

  “A relative? Who is she?”

  “It’s an old lady, my daddy’s aunt.”

  Emmett perked up at once. “Oh, sure, I reckon you’d like for her to come and live with you!”

  “That’s right. Well, I’ve got to go, Mr. Oz, but I don’t guess I can take the train. Thank you.”

  As soon as Lanie left, Emmett went to the phone. He turned the crank, and when Henrietta Green said, “Number please,” he said, “Hen-rietta, guess what? That oldest Freeman girl has dug up a relative!”

  “Well, I must say you’re the best-looking patient I’ve had all day.” Dr. Owen Merritt greeted Louise Langley, struck again by what a beauty she was. Her complexion was smooth and creamy, and her eyes were large and expressive. He assumed a serious look, but his eyes were glinting. “And now, Miss Langley, I’d better examine you.”

  “You keep your hands off me, Owen Merritt!” Louise laughed, pushing him away as he put his hands on her shoulders. “There’s nothing wrong with me.”

  She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “There, I hope none of the other lady patients take that kind of liberty.”

  “No, I must say I don’t extract that kind of payment. Of course, none of them are as pretty as you are.”

  “I came to ask you a favor.”

  “Your wish is my command. What is it?”

  “I need for you to go with me to Fort Smith tomorrow. I need to do some shopping, and I thought we could make a day of it. We could have dinner at the Majestic Hotel, and there’s a musical at the Elite Theatre. Probably won’t be very good, but we could go.”

  “I’m not sure I can take the day off.”

  “Dr. Givens can take care of the office calls.” Louise straightened his tie and smiled at him winningly. “You can make your house calls the next day.”

  “Well, I suppose I can work it out. I haven’t had a day off in some time. Hang on here and let me go talk to Nurse Pickens.” He winked. “You know she really runs this place. Treats Dr. Givens and me like dogs.”

  He stepped out and found his sassy assistant. “Bertha, you think you could handle things tomorrow with maybe half a day from Dr. Givens?”

  “What do you want the day off for?” Bertha demanded. She stood to her full height, though she was short, stocky, and had a bulldog look about her. “That’s the trouble with you young doctors. You’re afraid of work!”

  “Oh, come on, Bertha, don’t be like that.” Owen had formed an admiration for this woman. She was sharp, often gruff, but he had discovered a warm heart beneath the rough exterior. “I really need to take a break.”

  Bertha stared at him critically. “Where are you going?”

  “Well, Miss Langley needs to go shopping in Fort Smith, and afterward we thought we’d have dinner together. Just a little break, you know.”

  “If you’re going to take the day off, you could do something better than throw your money away and go to one of those sinful moving pictures.”

  “What can I possibly do that’s better than taking a charming young lady out to enjoy herself?”

  “You could take that Freeman girl to Sallisaw. That’s what you could do.”

  This sudden turn perplexed Owen. “Why would I want to do that?”

  “I just been talking to Margaret Simmons. She’s cousin to Henri-etta, the telephone operator, you know. And Henrietta told Margaret that Lanie has found a relative over in Sallisaw. She needs to get over there and see if she can get the woman to come and live with them.” Bertha sniffed and stared at him with direct gray eyes. “That would be doing a good deed and would please the Lord a lot better than what you got on your mind!”

  Owen considered this, his mind working quickly. “You know,
Bertha, I think you might be right about that. So I take it you can handle the office without me?”

  Bertha seemed surprised. “I was handling it before you got here, wasn’t I? Now you take care of that child. God’s done promised to do something, and if you do the right thing, you just might get to be a part of it.”

  Owen grinned, patted the woman on the shoulder, then returned to Louise. No one knew better than Owen Merritt how spoiled Louise was, but he had decided that she had good things in her. Any young woman with as much beauty and money as she had couldn’t help being spoiled.

  “Louise, I know it will be a disappointment to you, but I’m going to have to postpone my part of the shopping trip.”

  “Why would you do that?” Louise said, her lips forming a pout.

  “You practically promised me.”

  “Well, it’s something Bertha just told me.” He explained, and ended by saying, “Those kids need all the help they can get. You know the trouble they’re in.”

  Louise could not directly argue with this, for she knew that Owen felt strongly about the Freeman children, but she said, “Owen, you don’t need to be putting yourself in a bad light.”

  “Bad light? What are you talking about?”

  “A man in your position shouldn’t take another woman on a trip to another town. It wouldn’t look right.”

  Owen was genuinely amazed. “What wouldn’t look right?”

  Louise could not bring herself to say what she thought, so she shrugged. “It makes you very vulnerable taking young women on a trip to another town.”

  “Why, that’s foolish! She’s just a child.”

  “She’s sixteen, a woman where these hill people are concerned.”

  “Well, why don’t you come along then?” he said. He took her hand and squeezed it. “You could be our chaperone.”

  “I wouldn’t care to do that,” Louise said primly, withdrawing her hand. “But I can see you’ve got your mind made up. I’ll put my trip off until you’re able to go. Good-bye.” She left the office, leaving Owen staring after her.