The Star Garden by Nancy E. Turner Page B

there was little worry about highway robbers and bandidos.
    At last we came to the fork that leads to Granny’s old house where we homesteaded years ago, and from there we could see the sprawling rock home that Albert and Savannah have built over the years. Albert and his boys dropped off our train then, and I was left to drive on with Chess.
    “You’ve been quiet,” he said, as we pulled into the yard.
    I thought I’d been purely friendly, waving to folks on the road. “How so?”
    “Nothing to come home to but old folk. This house is plum empty.”
    “This house is this house,” I said.
    “Less washing now.”
    He wouldn’t look in my direction. So I said, “Go on in and I’ll unload this.”
    Granny came out the door just then. She must have been watching by the window. She raised her hand and called out, “That feisty girl is about to make supper. I’ll tell her to lay a couple more plates.”
    I knew who she meant. Mary Pearl did tend to flit through the house like a bird, too full of energy to sit still. “Afternoon, Mama,” I said. “Go tell her we’re here, then.”
    I heard her voice from the open door, calling, “Put some water in the beans, Mary Pearl. The folks are home!”
    Chess loaded up his arms and we piled things near the pantry. It was all I could do to keep up Chess’s pace. Soon as we were done, without saying a word, he drove the rig to the barn and disappeared while I stocked our shelves. Maybe Chess was the one who hated the empty house. While I was trying to keep all those little ones clean and fed and teaching them schoolwork every day they were here, he was the one holding Blessing on his knee as he spun a yarn about a magical bear that outsmarted a hunter. He was the one teaching Story, Honor, and Truth how to make a slingshot and aim it true. I’d been thinking they must surely have tried his patience, but maybe it had been the opposite. I had been too busy to see it.
December 16, 1906
    Sunday, Savannah held her usual Sunday School. I sat in my best dress in her parlor, listening to her read aloud from the Bible. Albert was next to her and Mary Pearl next to him on the settee. Granny sat near Albert and Savannah’s son Clover. Her
eyes
were closed as if she were in prayer, but I believe she was snoozing. Chess was between Ezra and Zachary, both of them full of Mexican jumping beans. Three hours of not squirming was easier for them to withstand if they were kept apart from one another, and far easier than the chores that would be heaped upon them if they showed signs of disrespect, too. I laid my hands in my lap and stared at them, trying hard to study upon the words she read.
    In the corner of the room, Udell Hanna’s hands were also folded in his lap. He was clean shaven and had a piece of cotton tied around the smallest finger of his left hand, as if he’d needed a bandage fresh this morning. I wondered if he was thinking of the Scriptures, or daydreaming about his son Aubrey, who should be driving up from Tucson in time for dinner to pay a call on Mary Pearl. I wondered, too, if his people kept Christmas. Had I been too forward, buying him a gift? I could give it to him now, simply because I bought it, and it wouldn’t be a Christmas present, so he wouldn’t feel obliged to return me one if he hadn’t already thought to. How could I keep it another two weeks, anyway? I couldn’t wait to see the pleased look on his face. Lands, I had plenty of sewing to do. I planned to start on it first thing tomorrow, cutting out shirts for the fellows. I hoped I’d bought enough buttons. Udell’s face looked deep in thought. I wondered what he was thinking.
    Savannah had stopped reading. I turned toward her. She was staring straight at me as if I’d interrupted the Scriptures or sneezed or something equally awful. “Now?” she asked.
    “You go on ahead,” I said. I had no earthly idea what she’d asked me to do. Albert began to pray and we all bowed our heads. Prayers. Of