“Billy, no one can make it rain, except for God,” Ma explained to Billy as she drove the wagon towards home.
“But Sheriff Johnson said Luke was going to show us how to make it rain, and he did…he made it rain!”
“Billy, it’s like your grandma always said, timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.”
“So, you don’t believe Luke had anything to do with the rain coming?” I asked.
“No, it was just pure coincidence.”
“But it hasn’t rain here for---“
Luke placed his hand on my knee and shook his head.
“Let it go,” he whispered in my ear. “Trust me, its best if folks don’t believe.”
“How’d you do it, Luke?” Billy asked.
“I didn’t, Billy. It was just a coincidence like your ma said.”
“Some coincidence,” Billy said not really wanting to believe Luke but knowing, deep down, that such things weren’t possible. He had stopped believing in fairy tales years ago when he caught Ma putting a penny under his pillow… a job he had always thought was performed by the tooth fairy.
Small droplets of rain began to fall. It was becoming apparent we were going to get wet before we arrived home. Ma dared not try to go any faster for it was dark and she could barely see the trail in front of her. She was navigating by the little light given off by the lantern Billy was holding and the horse’s natural instinct of knowing where home was.
With the cabin in sight, the clouds burst open and rain poured from the sky. I imagined I could hear the plants and trees gulping the much desired water while at the same time giving off a simultaneous sigh of relief. The dusty trail quickly turned into a muddy ditch as the horse shivered from the frigid rain.
Ma turned the wagon directly for the barn, and drove wagon and all inside. Luke unhitched the wagon and put the horse in its stall. We then made a mad dash to the front of the porch where we found Grandma Viola already sitting in her swing.
“It’s about time you’ll got home. I feared you might have made a wrong turn in the dark and was in Iowa somewhere. Next time, maybe you’ll leave earlier.”
“Well, Ma, I had no idea it would decided to rain.”
“Luke knew,” Grandma Viola said giving him a sly grin.
“Don’t you start, now. No one can make it rain.”
“Your pa believed in rainmakers. He said he saw one make it rain when he was a young boy.”
“Young boys can be very impressionable.” Ma said. “Besides, it’s like you always said, it’s about timing. It was going to rain tonight no matter what Luke did.”
“So, you think this was all a big coincidence?” Grandma Viola asked.
“Of course it was,” Ma said confidently.
“Doesn’t the Bible say if our faith is as a grain of mustard seed, we can move mountains?” I asked Ma.
“Well, yes, but---“
“Then, why can’t someone have faith enough to will it to rain.”
“I suppose they could, if they were spiritual enough. No offence to you, Luke, but I don’t see you as being very spiritual.”
“What does a spiritual person look like?” Grandma Viola asked her daughter.
“I don’t know. I just don’t think they go bathing with a girl they just meet.”
Luke stared down at the wooded planks of the porch floor not daring to look Ma in the eyes. He realized she was still perturbed about the whole swimming naked incident with her daughter and it filled him with shame. He wished he could convince her of how innocent the whole thing was, but he supposed, from a mother’s point of view, it was sinful.
“Katie and Billy, come with me and let’s get out of these wet clothes,” Ma said. She then looked at Luke and I. “You two should do the same.”
“We will. I just want to sit on the porch awhile longer,” I said.
Ma took Katie and Billy inside leaving Luke and I with Grandma Viola while the rain continued to fall and the candles flickering in the light breeze.
Grandma Viola looked through the porch window into the cabin to make sure Ma was nowhere near. Satisfied she wasn’t, Grandma Viola looked at Luke with a grin on her face.
“You did make it rain, didn’t you?”
Luke remained silent and glanced over at me.
“It’s okay, son. I believe there are people walking this earth whom God has given special abilities to. There are too many accounts in the past of folks who could do remarkable things, not for some of them to be true. The Bible is packed full of these folks who could perform miracles, everything from making it rain to the power of healing, just like you can do.”
Both Luke’s and my eyes grew huge.
“Don’t look so surprised. I know Luke has the power of healing. I felt that critter being crushed under my chair. There’s no way it could have survived without a little help.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked.
“What, to your ma? She would have thought my cheese done fell off my cracker.”
“Thanks, Grandma, for not blabbing.”
“Your great-grandpa, my pa, was witness to an Indian rainmaking ceremony when he was young.”
“He was?” I asked with great interest.
“Yes, his pa was a missionary, trying to teach the Osage tribe English. He often brought my pa… his son…who was about fourteen, along with him when he made those trips into the wilderness to where the Indians lived.
“On one particular occasion, Pa watched a real live Indian rain dance. The members of the Osage tribe, both men and women, lined up across from one another and started performing a strange dance where they would zigzag in between each other while chanting unfamiliar words. They wore blue paint on their faces and turquoise feathers in their headdresses which, my pa was told, signified rain. A huge fire was burning and several drums were being beaten.
“One lone Indian stood on a high ridge with his arms outstretch towards the heavens throughout the whole ceremony lightly swaying back and forth. After a few hours, storm clouds started rapidly rolling across a blue sky as if pulled in by some magical force. Soon thunder sounded across the sky followed by lightening and then the heaviest downpour my father had ever witnessed.”
“So that lone Indian was a rainmaker and the crazy dance, the fire, the drums were probably just to allow the tribe to think they were helping cause it to rain, to help them believe the rain would come, like Luke does with the building of the fire and the beating of the drums,” I surmised.
“I suppose,” Grandma Viola said.” Who showed you how the make it rain?”
“I don’t know. I just knew I could do it as certain as I knew I could talk. I don’t know who taught me to do either one. I just know I know how to do it.”
“Same with your healing power?” Grandma Viola asked.
“Yes, I don’t know how I’m able to do it. I can’t remember anything past about two years… where I’m from or what my name is.”
“Have you ever healed a person?”
“Not that I can remember. I healed a wolf once, accidentally. It felt like my strength was being sucked out of me and I was very weak afterwards.”
I felt Luke shiver.
“Are you cold?” I asked him.
“Yeah.”
“You need to get out of those wet clothes before you catch your death.” I warned him.
“You can use my room to change,” Grandma Viola offered.
“Okay, thanks. You need to get out of your wet clothes too.” Luke said to me.
“I’m fine. I’ll change in a little while.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back.”
Luke left.
“You really like that boy, don’t you?”
“Yes, grandma, I do…a lot!”
“You’re not concerned he might leave?”
“Leave, why would he leave?”
“He’s been searching for answers for nearly two years trying to find out who he is. Has he stopped his search?”
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“I don’t know.”
“Before you get too much in love with the boy, you might want to ask. You already had to go through the pain of losing your pa; you don’t need to go through anymore unnecessary pain. You need to ask him.”
“I just assumed he was staying.”
“Never assume anything. Remember, in life, you can never tell which way the pickle’s going to squirt.”
Grandma Viola got up from the swing.
“Well, I’m plum tuckered out. I’ll see you in the morning. It looks like it’s going to rain all night. Good night, Lizzy”
“Good night, Grandma Viola.”
Luke was coming out as Grandma Viola was going in.
“You going to bed already,” Luke asked.
“Yes, my old bones are tired.”
“I hope you have a restful sleep.”
“Thanks, same to you.”
Luke sat down next to me and held my hand. I tried to muster up the courage to ask if he was staying, but couldn’t. I was afraid of knowing the answer. I was afraid he might be leaving. But I told myself if he did leave, I would go with him. That decision comforted me. I sat next to Luke on the porch without saying a word about what I had decided and just enjoyed being with him.
Chapter 9