The Search for Belle Prater by White Ruth

Author:White, Ruth [White, Ruth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Published: 2005-04-12T00:00:00+00:00

12

When I got home, Mama had supper ready, but I was almost too tired to eat. I managed to swallow a few bites between sentences as I told her and Porter about Joseph and Miz Lincoln. Then I stumbled off to bed, tossed my dirty clothes into a pile on the floor, wrapped myself in a clean flannel nightgown, and crawled between crisp sheets. I was asleep in a jiffy.

Mama did not make me get up and go to church the next morning. I couldn’t remember the last time that had happened, and it felt good to sleep in. When I heard her and Porter go out the front door, I turned over and listened to the rain spattering against my window.

I couldn’t sleep anymore, but I wasn’t ready to get up. I lifted the curtain and peeped out at the gray weeping world and the dripping orchard. It was hard to imagine spring, when the apple trees would be all decked out in their white lace.

I turned on my radio, which had been a Christmas present from Porter. Most of the stations had nothing but preaching on Sunday morning, but there was this one station out of Richlands that played the latest music all the time, and told good jokes, too. So that’s where I turned the dial. Kitty Wells’s voice filled my room, and I sank again into the pillows.

My mind went to all the people I had been with yesterday. It seemed sad and strange to me that so many of them had lost one or both parents. Miz Lincoln’s parents had given her away like she was a puppy or a kitten. Then her adopted parents had died. Cassie’s mama and grandma had both died. The Luckys’ daddy was in jail. Joseph’s daddy had abandoned him. And my own daddy? He had taken his own life.

Then, of course, there was Woodrow’s mama. I had actually seen Aunt Belle only a few times in my life, but through Woodrow I felt that I knew her well. Who woulda thought she could ever abandon him? The idea must seem even more incredible to him, and that was why it was so hard for him to let go.

I felt sure she had loved him with all her heart. They had made plans to get Woodrow’s crossed eyes fixed. They had shared special moments together. Aunt Belle believed Woodrow had visited her from a far-off place in the moment before he was born. How could she possibly have left him?

Then I set aside my thoughts to listen to a joke on the radio. Oh yeah, this was a good one. I found a piece of paper and a pencil in my nightstand drawer and wrote it down before I could forget it.

After a while I managed to drag myself out of bed and fix a bowl of cornflakes. The house seemed awful cold and empty without Mama and Porter. I chucked some wood on the coals smoldering in the grate, and before long I had me a big old fire.

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.