Seven Sisters - Earlene Fowler [90]
Finally I called Dove and told her.
“Those poor kids,” she said. “Should I come out? Or is there a wagonload of people already seeing to them?”
“I came on home. Sam and Bliss seem to have plenty of emotional support. I’ll send flowers and a note tomorrow. I don’t know what else to do.”
“Not much else we can do. Life’s tragedies come and go. I don’t have to tell you that. We stand up through them or we fall like saplings in a windstorm. All depends on how deep of roots you’ve grown before they happen. I surely do hurt for them, though. Losing a baby’s got to be the hardest thing a woman ever goes through.”
“Have you ever? Lost a baby, I mean?”
“Once. Lord, it was so long ago, but there’s times it still seems like last week. A little girl in between your daddy and your aunt Kate. I was six months along, and she just came. Back then we didn’t have the fancy incubators and such they have now. They let me see her before they took her away. Prettiest shaped head I’d ever seen on a baby. She looked perfect. But God knows best. It wasn’t her place to be born to this earth.”
“Do you ever think about her?”
Dove was silent for a moment, then said softly, “Every May 3rd.”
“Oh, Gramma, I’m so sorry.” So many dead babies in the last few days. It was more than my heart could manage.
“It was a long time ago, honeybun. Hurts don’t go away, but they gentle.”
“Is that a guarantee for all hurts?” I asked, trying not to sound desperate.
“Some take longer than others. And it all depends on the person. A hurt can soften you like a good, wool blanket, or, if you let it, turn you into a pile of dried leaves, ready to crumble at the first footstep. Your choice. Our hurts are what make us human. It’s why God had to become a man, to see what it was we were all whining about, see if maybe He’d made things too hard for us.”
Thinking of all the little graves in the Adelaida Cemetery, I said, “Sometimes I think He did.”
“Well, He also came to rescue us and did a fine job of it, though some might not think so at first. And it’s okay to have a doubt now and then. What riles Him is folks not carin’ enough to even wonder. Now, come on out to the ranch tomorrow, because me and Isaac got something to show you. I think it’ll cheer you up. And besides, I’m going to bake Sam some of his favorite peanut butter cookies, and I need you to fetch them to him.”
“Okay. By the way, I have a message I forgot to give you from Miguel. We saw him on Sunday. He said, and I quote, ‘No. Absolutely not. No way.’ ”
She laughed softly under her breath. “No problem. I’ll just pull some strings, go over his head to his boss.”
“What’s Gabe got to do with this?”
She snorted. “I mean his real boss. Now, are you coming out?”
“What time do you want me?”
“Before noon. You can help serve lunch to the crew.”
“The crew? The crew for what?”
“Never you mind. Just be here.” She was quiet for a moment. “And don’t worry. Things’ll work out for the best with all this. That’s a promise from me to you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said, wanting with all my life to believe her.
I was in bed reading when he came home around eleven.
“You heard?” he asked, his face shadowed with tired lines.
“Yes, I played Miguel’s message when I got home at around seven o’clock. Then I went down to the hospital and ran into him outside the emergency room. He told me what happened. I...” I stopped and took a deep breath. “I was