The Mandie Collection by Lois Gladys Leppard

them.”
    â€œA wedding gift? Mother, I may never marry,” Mandie said in a rush. “Why have you got something like that for me before I even grow up anyway?”
    Elizabeth reached for Mandie’s hand as she stood by the table. Looking up into her face, Elizabeth said, “They were my wedding gift from your father.”
    Mandie suddenly began trembling as she tried to answer, “My father bought those dishes?”
    â€œYes, dear,” Elizabeth told her. “But we never had the chance to use them because of what happened between us.”
    Mandie was silent as she thought about the dishes her father had bought. And she thought about the unhappy outcome of her parents’ marriage. If things had been different, she would have probably grown up eating out of that set of dishes. Now they sat in a box, out of sight.
    Joe cleared his throat as silence filled the room. Elizabeth quickly rose from her chair and said, “Now don’t y’all stay too long at the Burnses’ house or I’ll be worried about you.”
    â€œWe won’t, Mother,” Mandie said, tiptoeing to kiss her mother on the cheek. Elizabeth kissed her back.
    Mandie picked up one basket, and Joe took the other one, and they hurried out of the room and out of the house. Neither one spoke as they walked down the pathway and through the woods.
    Jake and Ludie Burns lived in an old farmhouse on John Shaw’s property and worked for him on various jobs at various times. Jake’s father had worked for John’s father in the ruby mine near their house.
    As Mandie and Joe got to the edge of the woods near the road, they were suddenly aware of loud, angry talking ahead. They looked at each other and slowed their steps.
    â€œDo you hear that? Someone is arguing,” Mandie said in a whisper, shifting the basket to her other hand.
    â€œIt’s a man and a woman on the road,” Joe said in a low voice. They cautiously ducked behind bushes to observe the people as they moved closer.
    Mandie could see a woman sitting in a buggy and a man standing on the road talking to her.
    â€œYou left me in there so long I could have been caught,” the man was saying. “Ain’t you got no sense atall?”
    â€œDon’t you talk to me like that. You’ll be getting as much good out of this as I will,” the woman replied. “Now git in. Let’s go.”
    Mandie gasped as she recognized the people. She grabbed Joe’s hand to draw his attention. “It’s Zack Hughes,” she whispered. “And that’s Etta in the buggy!”
    â€œI wonder what they are doing in this part of the country,” Joe replied. “Shall we stop them before they drive off?”
    Mandie shook her head as she said quickly, “No, no! We won’t be able to spy on them if they know we saw them.”
    Zack had gotten in the buggy as Mandie looked back at the road and Etta was driving it down the road.
    â€œThey’re leaving!” Joe said quickly.
    â€œWe’ll catch up with them later somehow or somewhere while they’re in town,” Mandie said. “We can’t follow them right now because we have to deliver this food. I wonder where it was that Etta left Zack that he was complaining about.”
    â€œHe said something about he could have been caught, so it must have been someplace he shouldn’t have been,” Joe said as they left the bushes and walked on.
    Mandie suddenly stopped and put her hand on Joe’s arm. “You see, Etta has not divorced Zack, just like I said,” she told him. “I knew she was lying.”
    â€œWell, there is a possibility they could have been divorced and just happened to be together for some reason,” Joe told her.
    â€œBut they didn’t act like they were divorced. Etta was bossing him around,” Mandie said as they continued walking.
    â€œI’d like to know what she was talking about,” Joe