Taking Care of Moses

by Barbara O'Connor

  When the music stopped, everyone clapped and mopped their foreheads and wiped their necks with tissues.

  Preacher Ron called out, “I FEEL the love!”

  Mrs. Mackey hollered, “That’s right.”

  Someone in the back of the room called out, “I feel it, too!”

  Then Preacher Ron leaned over the pulpit and gestured toward the ceiling. “This little ole building of brick and mortar is NOT the Rock of Ages Baptist Church,” he said.

  Then he threw his arms out wide and hollered, “These PEOPLE are the Rock of Ages Baptist Church.”

  Randall looked around the room. Everyone was nodding and grinning, and Randall felt himself grinning, too.

  Then Preacher Ron pointed to the sign over the organ and said real slow, “We are the little church with the big heart.”

  Shouts of “Amen” filled the room.

  Randall looked back once more at Lavonia Shirley. She turned her gold eyes to meet his and smiled. Then she winked that tiny little wink again.

  Randall winked back.

  Then he looked around him at all those people in that little church, and he called out, “Amen!”

  Also by Barbara O’Connor

  Beethoven in Paradise

  Me and Rupert Goody

  Moonpie and Ivy

  Fame and Glory in Freedom, Georgia

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  It takes a village to make a book. I would like to thank my village:

  My agent, Barbara Markowitz, for being my partner, fan, and friend; my writers’ group, for telling it like it is; Nancy the Pool Girl Farrelly, who critiques with honesty, humor, and respect for the Sisterhood; Leslie Guccione, for sharing poignant stories of her beloved mother, Winnie, who inspired the character of Queenie in this novel; Willy and Grady, for loving me and eating leftovers; and, of course, the “village” at Farrar, Straus and Giroux: my brilliant editors, Frances Foster and Janine O’Malley; my charming (and never irritating) copy editor, Elaine Chubb; my talented designer, Barbara Grzeslo, and my productive production manager, Daniel Myers; and, lastly, thank you to the good Baptists of the South, whose kindness and unwavering faith inspired my life, as well as this story.

  Copyright © 2004 by Barbara O’Connor

  All rights reserved

  www.fsgkidsbooks.com

  Designed by Barbara Grzeslo

  eISBN 9781466811737

  First eBook Edition : January 2012

  First edition, 2004

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  O’Connor, Barbara.

  Taking care of Moses / Barbara O’Connor.– 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: When dissension erupts in the town of Foley, South Carolina, after a baby is left on the steps of the Rock of Ages Baptist Church, eleven-year-old Randall must decide whether or not to keep secret his knowledge of who the foundling’s mother is.

  ISBN 0-374-38038-4

  [1. Secrets—Fiction. 2. Conduct of life—Fiction. 3. Foundlings—Fiction. 4. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 5. Church—Fiction. 6. South Carolina—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.0217Tak 2004

  [Fic]—dc22

  2003049466