Wings of a Dream by Anne Mateer

Author:Anne Mateer [Mateer, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2011-10-26T15:48:57+00:00

I read Frank’s letter to the children before bed, told them he’d probably already started on his journey home. The boys looked a bit confused, but Ollie’s eyes took on the brilliance of stars in the night sky. She sat up with me after the other children lay abed. I leaned my head against the back of the sofa and closed my eyes, my insides wiggling like kittens in a sack.

“Tell me about school today, Ollie.” I felt her curl her body into mine. I draped my arm around her, pulled her close.

“Garland Winston carved his initials in a tree with Nola Jean’s at recess. She acted mad, but I think she liked it.”

I lifted my head and opened my eyes. “Nola Jean’s not nearly old enough to concern herself with such things.”

Ollie shrugged. “She’s mostly grown. Almost fourteen. Mama married Daddy when she wasn’t much older than Nola Jean.”

Irene had said Clara and Frank married young, but she’d never managed to reveal much of anything else. “Tell me about your mama and your daddy.”

Ollie stared into a far corner of the room, squinting, as if to remember. “Mama was fifteen years old when she met Daddy. She said she knew right away she’d marry him. She said something in his eyes told her, something deep down. Something he didn’t even know yet. That’s what she said.”

Something in his eyes. I thought I’d read something in Arthur’s eyes, too. Maybe I couldn’t judge men as rightly as I imagined I could. And yet I read real friendship in the sheriff’s manner, and that had proven true. What would I read in Frank Gresham’s eyes?

“Anyway, Mama’s house was full of kids and empty of money. That’s what she said. So when Daddy asked her to marry him, she did. They left the day she turned sixteen and never went back.”

“What did her family say?” I couldn’t imagine surviving Mama’s wrath if I had done such a thing.

Ollie shrugged. “Her brothers and sisters all went other places, and I think her mama got sick and died. Don’t know about her daddy. She never said.”

I pondered the history of Clara and Frank, two youngsters embarking on a life all of their own making. The type of adventure I craved so much. Were they pleased with how their lives turned out?

Ollie slid off the sofa and gave me a small smile. “I think I’ll go to sleep now.”

I pulled her close, kissed her forehead, and sent her on her way. But it was a long while before I could stir myself to put out the lamp and climb the stairs to bed.

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