Earthly Vows by Patricia Hickman

Author:Patricia Hickman [HICKMAN, PATRICIA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780446561495
Publisher: FaithWords
Published: 2009-05-30T04:00:00+00:00

Jeb lagged out in the hallway at Stanton School. One of the teachers glanced into the hall, waving at Jeb, and then disappeared back into the classroom. Fern’s husky voice echoed from inside her empty room. She chatted it up with Frank Harrison, one of the students’ out-of-work dads who did odd jobs around the school, such as sweeping the halls and bringing books out of the attic. Jeb tipped back in the chair against the wall. Fern’s door came open and she thanked Mr. Harrison for his help. She looked surprised to see Jeb and surprised him. He came down hard on the four chair legs. “Fern!”

“You know Mr. Harrison, Reverend Nubey,” she said.

Jeb extended his hand to the janitor. “I’ve come by to take Miss Coulter away from her duties for a breath of air and soup at the diner.”

“You should have told me. I’ve promised to join two of the teachers,” said Fern.

Jeb blinked, his hand resting atop the breast of the jacket that held Gracie’s letter. Mr. Harrison excused himself.

She held up her sack and said, “We’re eating out on the back steps. You can join us.” Her tone was flat.

Fern sat next to the other two women on the steps. The shade reached across the steps but not down to the bottom step, where Jeb took his seat. He turned a bit to engage the women in talk, but they talked mostly to one another. Fern finished up a ham biscuit.

Jeb could not wait any longer, so he got up and said, “Something’s come up, Fern. Maybe later today, sometime, we could talk?”

The two teachers glanced at Fern. One said, “I’m done.” She got up and the other teacher followed her back into the building.

“I didn’t mean to break up the party,” said Jeb. He climbed the steps and sat down next to her.

Fern rolled up her lunch sack. “I was expecting you yesterday.”

Jeb wanted to rebound from his momentary lapse in courage, to tell her that he got tied up in church matters, sick people to see. “I know” was all he could think to say.

“Are we in trouble, Jeb?”

“Not in my book,” he said.

“Tell me what’s going to happen, if the tide’s going out on us.”

He imagined how things would be if he handed her the letter, how matters would turn around. She would congratulate him as she should have done in Oklahoma City. They would kiss and start packing. He had trouble forming the words. “Fern, I got a letter from Gracie.” He pulled it out of his jacket and handed it to her.

She snapped open the letter and read it. She looked at him for a long while without saying anything at all. Then she said, “He’s coming back. Gracie’s coming back. Never did I expect it.”

They both stared into the woods. Green pecans clung tightly on the limbs, ready at any moment to burst open.

She looked at him and he felt a chill, as though it were the first time she saw him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.