The next morning, I woke up with the remnants of a dream still lingering in my head. I was souring through the sky as if I had wings, climbing higher and higher until I was piercing through white bellowing clouds. Then I remember being in the mist of those clouds, standing in front of a set of pure white stairs that disappeared higher into the clouds. Luke was standing at the bottom of the stairs smiling at me. I was filled with overwhelming happiness and serenity and peacefulness. He pointed up towards the stairs. As I look up, Pa stepped through the clouds and down the stairs. He was dressed in a white robe and sandals and was smiling at me. As I began to run towards him, I awoke.
I smiled and wiped away a single tear that was rolling down my cheek. I missed Pa. I turned over and saw that Ma was already out of bed, so I jumped up, slipped on my robe and headed for the kitchen.
“Hey, sleepy-head, you’re just in time to help me cook these eggs,” Ma said.
I walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her and squeezed.
“I love you, Ma!”
She turned around, with a slightly confused look and embraced me. I, admittedly, didn’t give hugs away very often.
“I love you too, Lizzy.”
I let go of her and started cracking eggs into a bowl while she threw a little more wood into the fire chamber of our cast iron stove and began preparing some biscuits.
“Where’s Luke?” I asked, noticing he was not still asleep on his makeshift bed in front of the fireplace.
“He offered to chop more wood. He said he noticed yesterday we were getting low. He took Billy with him to help. Luke’s a fine boy.”
I smiled from ear to ear. I was happy Ma approved of Luke. I dumped the yokes of the eggs into the hot pan and began rapidly stirring.
“I’ll finish this while you go wake up Grandma Viola and Katie,” Ma said. “We don’t want to be late for church.”
“I don’t know if Luke has anything fittin’ to wear to church,” I worriedly said.
“I have a few nice clothes of your pa’s I think will fit him nicely.”
“You don’t mind if he wears them?”
“I wouldn’t have offered if I minded. Now, go wake your grandma and sister up.”
After everyone ate breakfast, I found Ma kneeling in front of Pa’s old oak wardrobe trunk. She seemed hesitant to open it. I wondered if she had opened the trunk since Pa passed. She smiled at me, closed her eyes tightly, held her breath, and slowly flipped open the lid. We were immediately hit with the scent of Pa and, for a brief instant, he was there in the room with us. I closed my eyes as long as I dared, allowing myself to enjoy this fantasy, if only for a little while. Eventually, I opened my eyes and Pa was gone. All that remained was a trunk full of his clothes. I didn’t allow myself to cry for all the crying I had done in the past, hadn’t brought him back to me.
We began rummaging through the clothes until we found some slacks and a dress shirt we were sure would fit Luke. We gathered the clothes up and took them to him.
“Here you go. These should fit you just fine,” Ma said, her eyes a little misty.
“Are you sure you don’t mind me wearing your husband’s clothes?”
“They’re yours now. You can go to my bedroom and try them on.”
The clothes fit Luke perfectly and I thought how handsome he looked all dressed up. The rest of us got dressed for Sunday church. Everyone was waiting on the front porch for me to finish getting dressed when I stepped out in my white cotton shirt, blue over-alls, and boots.
“Elizabeth Viola Cooper! I know you don’t think you’re wearing that to church! Where’s the dress Grandma Viola made you?”
“It’s all itchy and uncomfortable. There’re plenty of people who dress like this in church. I don’t think God really cares what I’m wearing.”
“Nice try, but you go straight back in there and put that dress on. And hurry, we’re going to be late!”
My ploy to wait till the last minute to get ready for church so I didn’t have to wear a dress failed miserable. I never felt like myself in a dress… like I was trying to be someone I wasn’t.
“You’re lucky, Lizzy. I use to make your ma wear a corset,” Grandma Viola yelled from the porch. I then heard her say to Ma, “She’s going to be mad enough to swallow a horn-toad backwards.”
After a few minutes, I walked out on the porch wearing a huge frown and a yellow-colored dress which hung just inches from the floor and sleeves that stopped at my elbows. I frustratingly tugged at the itchy fabric. I never did feel comfortable in a dress. Wearing dresses made some girls feel pretty. It just made me feel vulnerable.
“Much better,” Ma said. “Doesn’t she look lovely, Luke?”
Everyone looked at Luke who was staring at me with his mouth hanging opened and an awe-stricken look plastered on his face. He eventually realized Ma had asked him a question.
“She is beautiful!”
My frown instantly turned into a mile-wide grin and I believe I actually blushed a little. All of a sudden, I didn’t so much mind wearing the dress, seeing the reaction Luke had towards it. I had never actually cared whether people thought I was pretty or not… that was before Luke arrived.
“Okay, everyone, let’s get a wiggle on. We don’t want to be late,” Ma said as she shoed everyone to the wagon. “We still have to stop by and pick up Anamosa.”
Then, with a little over-acting, Ma pretended to trip over something on the porch and exaggerated a stumble.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Luke. I tripped over your jaw.”
Luke closed his mouth and looked away from me quickly as his whole face turned beet red from embarrassment.
Everyone chuckled. I just smiled, savoring the fact I had that much effect on Luke simply by wearing a yellow home-made dress.
The wood-framed church, with its white siding boards and stain-glassed windows, was about half-way between home and town. It was big enough to hold nearly a hundred patrons but in recent years had only been filled to about half capacity since a new church had been built closer into town. The pastor of our church was Reverend Bill Johnson… brother of Sheriff Johnson. He was in his mid-fifties, cleaned shaven with a mop full of black hair. He was married to June, ten years his junior, who always had an infectious smile on her face. They had two children, Sandra, twenty three, and Mary, whom they had late in life, was eight.
When we arrived, we met Reverend Johnson standing outside the church door greeting people as they entered like he did every Sunday.
“Good morning, Miss Cooper…Lizzy, that’s a beautiful dress…Billy…and little Katie, you’re as pretty as a rainbow…and Miss Wilson, you’re looking lovely this morning…and welcome, Anamosa…and who is this fine gentleman with you’ll?”
“This is Luke,” Ma informed him.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Luke.”
“Like wise, Reverend. Are you any kin to the Sheriff Johnson in town?”
“He’s my younger brother. I enforce the law of God and he enforces the law of man.”
“You two kind of have the same job,” Billy pointed out.
“Kind of, except when you break man’s law, you must pay a fine or imprisonment or face the widow’s tree to be forgiven; when you break God’s law, you have only to ask for forgiveness. Now, you folks go on inside before I start preaching out here.”
There were plenty of places to sit inside the church. Mrs. Johnson was up front playing the organ as the congregation was socializing on their way to finding a place to sit.
Reverend Johnson closed the door as the last family entered and he made his way to the pulpit.
“Good morning, church. What a beautiful day the Lord has provided for us. Let us start this morning with a prayer.”
The congregation bowed their heads as Reverend Johnson continued.
“Lord, I give thanks for this wonderful morning and for the folks here who have gathered today in worship to You. I pray for all who are not here due to illness, that You will heal them of all their infliction??
?including Sarah.”
Reverend Johnson had to pause a moment, swallow a huge lump in his throat, and fight back the tears. Mrs. Johnson wept silently at her organ.
“Who’s Sarah?” Luke whispered to me.
“She’s his niece… Sheriff Johnson’s daughter. She’s been sick for several months now and the doctors don’t know why. She just keeps getting worse.”
Reverend Johnson composed himself and continued.
“…and we pray for rain. You know our situation, how our crops are withering, how our wells are drying up, and how the lumber yard is laying folks off because the river is getting too low to receive logs from upriver. Keep our faith strong and we will believe that You will provide us with all our needs. Amen.”
“Amen,” the congregation repeated in unison.
“Now, turn in your bibles to Hebrews 11:6. I’ll call upon our guest, Luke, to read this passage, if he doesn’t mind.”
Ma found the verse in her bible and was about to hand the book to Luke so he could read it aloud, but he was already standing up with no bible in hand.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” Luke recited.
“Very good,” Reverend Johnson exclaimed. “And now, if the congregation will turn to Matthew 7:7-8.”
Before the congregation could find this passage, Luke had already started quoting it.
“Ask, and it shall be given you: seek and ye shall find: knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
“Very impressive, young man,” Reverend Johnson admitted.
Luke sat down with a slightly bewildered look on his own face.
“How’d you do that?” I whispered.
“I don’t know. I don’t remember ever reading the Bible.”
After the hour long sermon from Reverend Johnson was over, the congregation lingered around the church socializing and getting caught up on the latest gossip. I wanted nothing more than to get home and change into my cotton shirt and over-alls and burn my uncomfortable dress. The last thing I wanted was to run into Missy and Veronica Williams, but I did anyways.
Missy and Veronica were blond-headed sisters, fifteen and sixteen, respectively. Their father owned The Train Expo store in town, making them one of the richest families around. Mr. Williams was friendly and humble, traits which didn’t get passed down to his daughters. I called them “rich snobs” who took after their ostentatious and often arrogant mother. Mrs. Williams would have rather attended the new church in town, but Mr. Williams was good friends with Reverend Johnson and so they attended his church, much to the dismay of Mrs. Williams and her two daughters.
“Well, if it isn’t Lizzy Cooper, all dressed up like she was a lady,” Missy said in her condescending voice.
“Yes, but a polished piece of cow dung is still just a piece of dung,” Veronica remarked with a smirk. “Besides, it looks like her mother sewed that dress from a potato sack. Poor girl, I suppose she can’t afford a catalog-bought dress from New York like ours.”
I felt my blood boil and I had to bite down on my tongue to keep from saying anything… especially in front of Luke. I needed to just walk away before I did something I might regret but the Williams sisters wouldn’t stop.
“And who is this handsome specimen of a man?” Veronica asked, eyeing Luke up and down like he was a dress in a store she was contemplating on buying.
“I’m Luke,” he said, extending his hand to shake hers.
“A lady doesn’t shake a gentleman’s hand. She presents her hand…” Veronica extended her hand towards Luke, palm down. “…and the gentleman gently takes hold of it, lifts it to his lips, and places a kiss on top.”
“Okay,” Luke said and executed the “proper way" of greeting a lady.
This made my blood boil even hotter. I feared I would bite my tongue off if I bit down any harder. I told myself to stay calm and walk away.
“There’s going to be a town shindig Tuesday out by the river. There’s going to be lots of food, music, and dancing,” Veronica said, batting her eyelashes at Luke. “Why don’t you go with me and I’ll show you how a real lady should act.”
“If I do go to the shindig, I hope to go with Lizzy,” Luke told them.
“Why would you want to go with her?” Missy asked with arrogance. “She doesn’t even like boys.”
Missy and Veronica looked at each other and gave a smugly giggled under their breath. I could no longer control my anger. My blood was erupting out of control like a raging volcano. My anger caused me to have tunnel-vision making everything around me fade away except my two victims standing in front of me. Without saying a word, I rushed the two sisters, clothes-lined them with my outstretched arms, and knocked both of them to the ground. I then proceeded to straddle both girls as best I could and began relentlessly tearing at their hair and dresses like a savage wolf ripping at its prey.
The panicked cries of the two sisters caught everyone’s attention at the church and they all looked to see what all the commotion was about. Billy later described the scene as seeing a crazy girl on top of the two Williams girls, throwing punches and tossing shreds of blond hair and pieces of fabric into the air, and Luke doing his best to get the crazed girl off them. He said he was filled with pride for his older sister and had to bite his lip to keep from verbally cheering for me. Everyone else ran to help the two battered girls just as Luke was finally able to pull me off them.
“Lizzy, what’s wrong with you?” Ma angrily demanded to know.
“Now, who looks like a piece of dung?” I shouted out to the two sisters. Their dresses were torn, their hair was in disarray, and they were covered from head to toe in dust. They also had a few abrasions on their faces that I didn’t intentionally mean to give them. My anger caused me to go a little overboard.
“Lizzy, get in the wagon, now!” Ma commanded.
I did as I was ordered, but I couldn’t help myself from malevolently smiling at the two humiliated sisters before I left.
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Williams, I don’t know what possessed her to do that.”
“I bet I could guess,” Grandma Viola said under her breath. “It’s about time someone knocked them off their high and mighty horse.”
“This is exactly why I wanted to go to a civilized church,” Mrs. Williams started ranting. “Being out here with these uncultured animals, something like this was bound to happen! Just look at my precious daughters; look at their dresses!”
“I’m so sorry! I’ll pay for the dresses; somehow, I’ll pay you back,” Ma insisted.
“You bet you’ll pay for them, and then maybe you’ll learn to keep your daughter on a leash!”
I could see from our wagon Ma’s face starting to boil.
“Now, hold on just one second!” Ma angrily began. “Your two daughters---“
Grandma Viola grab Ma’s arm to hold her back. I wasn’t the only one who had a temper in my family.
“Don’t allow yourself to descend down to her level,” Grandma Viola said leering at Mrs. Williams.
Mrs. Williams was about to say something nasty to Grandma Viola when Reverend Johnson intervened. “Now, Mrs. Williams, I thought a lady always kept her composure."
“Well…yes we do. You’re right, Reverend, I shouldn’t lower myself! Come children, we’re leaving.” She looked at Ma before she walked away and said, “I’ll expect payment for the dresses by the end of the month.”
As she headed for her stage-coach style wagon, Mr. Williams lagged behind long enough to whisper to Ma.
“Don’t you worry about the money for the dresses; I’ll take care of it. I’m sure my daughters deserved what they got.”
Then he trotted away to catch up with Mrs. Williams who could be heard asking, “What did you say to that women?”
“I feel for that poor man,” Reverend Johnson said out loud.
“I’m sorry Reve
rend Johnson for Lizzy’s behavior. She has always had trouble controlling her temper.”
“Don’t you worry none about it. Perhaps God wanted to bring those two girls down a notch and used Lizzy to do it. We all get spitting mad sometimes, but lack the conviction to do anything about it. Lizzy's a free spirit. She reminds me a lot of Sarah.”
“How’s Sarah doing?”
“Not too good. She’s in a lot of pain. Her mother and father stayed home with her today because she was running a higher than usual fever. The doctors still don’t know what’s causing it. She has her good days and her bad. We just keep praying to God that she’ll be healed.”
“We pray for her every night, too.”
“Thank you, that means a lot.”
“I best get going. I’ve got to deal with Lizzy.”
“Don’t be too hard on her. Oh, by the way, my wife and I were planning to take a trip to your place tomorrow to look at your husband’s plow if you’re still interested in selling it.”
“Yes, I am. Come by any time. We’ll be there.”
“Good, we’ll see you tomorrow.”
Ma climbed in the wagon without looking at me and headed for home. No one said a word for several minutes until Ma finally broke the silence.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so embarrassed!”
“Yes, you have, Ma,” Billy interjected. “You remember when Katie peed on the preacher.”
Everyone chuckled but Katie.
“No I didn’t!”
“You were too small to remember,” Billy told her.
“Why did you have to pick a fight with them…especially them?” Ma asked.
“Miss Cooper, if I may, it was them that were picking on Lizzy. They called her a piece of dung and said her dress was ugly,” Luke explained.
“They called my dress ugly?” Grandma Viola exclaimed. “Lizzy, you should have knocked their teeth out!”
“I tried!”
“Ma, don’t encourage her!”
“Maybe I wouldn’t have gotten so mad if you hadn’t kissed her hand!” I said, crossing my arms and looking away from Luke.
Luke chuckled. “I was just trying to be ‘gentlemen like’.”
“Well, you can put a suit on a pig and call him a gentleman, but he’s still a pig!”
“Lizzy, that’s uncalled for,” Ma said.
“I’m sorry, Lizzy; I didn’t mean anything by it,” Luke pleaded.
“I can’t believe you didn’t stand up for me, instead of being all nice to them.”
“Lizzy, I was trying to calm the situation, because I knew those stupid girls didn’t realize they were looking down the throat of an alligator… one that was ready to bite their heads clean off. I knew you didn’t need anyone standing up for you…not you! You’re tough as nails, Lizzy Cooper.”
I turned and looked at Luke with a huge grin. He got me.
“You really mean that?”
“I sure do.”
I wrapped my arms around Luke’s arm and held him close to me.
“I’m glad you two made up but, I’m still mad about you getting in a fight at church,” Ma said.
“I’m sorry, Ma. It won’t happen again.”
“Don’t be so hard on her, Annie,” Grandma Viola said. “You should be proud of your daughter, taking on two girls at the same time…and winning! Besides, I remember a certain little girl who use to come home from school quite a few times with black eyes and scraps from fighting.”
“Ma use to get in fights!” Billy exclaimed with zealous.
“Ma, they don’t need to know that!” Ma said to Grandma Viola. “I was a foolish kid in school.”
“Did you win any of the fights?” I asked.
A proud smile formed on Ma’s face." Every one of them!”
Chapter 6