Orchard of Hope (45 page)

“Like Tabitha’s baby?”

“That’s one of the good things for sure. Did she ever decide on a name for the little feller?”

“Finally. Stephen Lee. She’s supposed to bring him home tomorrow. She had to stay an extra day or two because she had a fever or something, but she’s okay now.”

“Yeah, that’s what your daddy told me. He said me and Zell would have to hold down the fort here while he goes after her. Of course, the way old Zell’s been acting like she’s afraid to look sideways at me, she may take the day off too.”

“Oh, you know Zella. She’s always strange.” Jocie made a face as she looked out toward the front office where Zella was banging on her typewriter.

“You got that right, but then so am I.” Wes ran his fingers through his hair until it was spiking out in all directions. “You think I’ll scare little Stevie when I come see him? Miss Leigh says she’ll drive me out there. In her car. She won’t talk about getting on my motorcycle. Turns right pale at the thought of it.”

Jocie giggled again before she said, “No. He’ll like you.” She hesitated a couple of seconds. “You haven’t seen him yet, have you?”

“Not yet.”

“His father was black.”

“So your daddy told me.”

Again Jocie hesitated before she said, “Do you think the Klan will hear about that and try to burn a cross in our yard?”

Wes leaned closer and put his hand on Jocie’s cheek. “It’s going to be all right, Jo. You and your daddy have a higher power watching over you.”

“I want him to watch over you too.”

“Well, maybe he already is, Jo.” He patted her cheek and sat back again. “Just think about that tree falling on me back when the tornado tried to blow us to kingdom come. He helped us live through that. Not just you but me too, when by rights I shouldn’t have.”

“But why didn’t he watch over Mr. Harvey?” She kept her eyes intently on Wes as she waited for him to answer. She needed an answer.

But he shook his head. “More questions too hard for an old Jupiterian. But then again, how do you know he wasn’t? Didn’t you say Harvey saw angels?”

“That’s what he said, but do you think there were really angels there? That the Lord could have opened my eyes and let me see them the way he did for Elisha’s servant in that Old Testament story where the Lord’s army of horses and chariots were on the mountain around them protecting Elisha?”

“I don’t know, Jo, but the one thing I think we can be sure of is that Harvey saw them. They were real for him.”

Friday, Tabitha and the baby came home, and the minute Jocie got home from school, Tabitha made her sit down on the couch to hold the baby. He was so tiny, so soft, so new. Jocie touched his hand. He opened his eyes and smiled.

“Oh look,” Aunt Love said. “He must be dreaming of angels.”

Angels. Jocie wondered if they were the same angels Mr. Harvey had seen. Then she was remembering walking out to the field with Mr. Harvey to find the new calf. A time to be born. A time to die. Tears filled Jocie’s eyes and overflowed onto her cheeks. Stephen Lee didn’t seem to mind even when the tears began dripping off her chin onto his blanket. He just kept smiling his seeing-angels smile.

“‘I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears,’” Aunt Love whispered the verse.

45

On Sunday, a former pastor, Brother Perry, delivered the Homecoming sermon. David was glad he didn’t have to preach. It was hard enough just standing in front of the church making the announcements and leading the prayers and watching the deacons come forward to take up the collection without Mr. Harvey.

Miss Sally was there, smiling the same as always, with a kind word for everybody who came over to talk to her before the services started. Now, as the deacons moved back up the aisle with the offering plates, she had Elise on her lap and Cassidy sandwiched between her and Myra Hearndon, who held Eli. Noah sat straight and tall beside his mother, but he kept looking over his shoulder as if afraid something or somebody might be trying to sneak up on him.

Alex Hearndon wasn’t there. He’d told David that he had been giving some thought to coming to church with Myra, but after what had happened to Mr. Harvey, he didn’t see how he’d ever be able to go inside a church house again. He didn’t see how anybody could.

“The Lord’s not to blame for what happened to Mr. Harvey,” David had told him. “Or to your apple trees.”

“You credit the Lord for the good things that happen. Why not the bad?”

“Because the Lord has given man the freedom to choose good or evil. ‘A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.’”

“Scripture, I’m thinking,” Alex said.

“The words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. It’s up to us to choose the treasure we’re going to store up in our hearts.”

“A bunch of people around here have been choosing the evil treasure.”

“But that shouldn’t turn us away from the love of the Lord. I believe the Lord can make good come out of anything,” David said.

“That’s what Miss Sally says too, but I can’t think of the first thing good that could come out of their house burning down or Mr. Harvey dying or my trees being beat down and ruined. Not one good thing.” The man stared at David, daring him to say any of that was good.

“Nor can I,” David agreed with him. “But the workings of the Lord are wondrous and mysterious.”

“I’ll let you and Myra talk about that. Me, I’m wondering if your Lord is working at all.”

David wished Alex was there beside him now, watching his congregation and seeing the workings of the Lord that morning. Tabitha had insisted on bringing her baby even though Aunt Love thought it too soon for her to get out. But Tabitha said she felt fine and she wanted to be there for Miss Sally and for David. And the church people, Tabitha’s Christian brothers and sisters, had looked at her baby and smiled with joy for her. If there were whispers of disapproval, David hadn’t heard them. Perhaps the Lord was blocking David’s ears, and if that was so, he was thankful.

Leigh was sitting beside Tabitha, ready to help with the baby if Tabitha needed her to. She didn’t know anything about babies, but she had a loving heart. David’s eyes touched on Leigh, and his own heart lightened—almost sang—even with all the problems pressing down on him. Surely without a doubt Leigh coming into his life was the working of the Lord. And again he was thankful.

The church was full. They’d had to bring out extra chairs from the Sunday school rooms. Bob Jessup and his family were there for the first time since he’d thought David had doubted his spiritual commitment. Another working of the Lord. Bob had come to see David after Mr. Harvey’s funeral. What they had said would forever remain just between the two men and God. But Bob was changed. He’d driven to Atlanta, Georgia, and bought apple trees. They were out in his truck, pulled over in the shade in the church parking area. He’d asked David to go with him to take them to the Hearndons after the services were over that afternoon. David was praying that Alex Hearndon would see the working of the Lord in that and accept the trees.

But maybe the most joyous sign of the working of the Lord was Wes sitting in a chair at the end of the pew beside Jocie. She kept reaching over to touch his arm as if to make sure he was really there. David himself had blinked a couple of times when Wes had come in that morning with Leigh. When he went back to greet them, Wes narrowed his eyes and said, “Now don’t go expecting me to do no aisle walking. I just thought I’d come along with Miss Leigh to cheer up Jo a little this morning.”

“She’ll be excited to see you,” David said. And a bit of Scripture had echoed in his heart.
O Lord, how great are thy
works!

Cassidy hadn’t wanted to come to church. Not even for the morning services, much less all day long. Not because she didn’t love the Lord. She told her mama she loved the Lord, but she didn’t like all those eyes looking at her. White eyes. Eyes maybe hating her enough to tear up her daddy’s beautiful trees. Now they’d never have that orchard of hope he’d talked about.

Cassidy had heard them talking last night. Her mama and daddy. Her daddy said he didn’t have the heart to plant any more trees that would just get tore up too. He said they might have to go back to Chicago so he could get a job, which was okay with Cassidy. Except for Miss Sally.

That’s what her mama told her daddy. That they couldn’t leave yet. That they’d have to wait a little while because of Miss Sally. Cassidy didn’t think her mama wanted to leave Miss Sally at all. But her daddy said they couldn’t expect Miss Sally to take care of them after all the trouble she’d just had. He said if the white people were mad before, when they’d just been living there minding their own business planting trees, then they’d be crazy mad if they thought they were taking advantage of Miss Sally’s kind heart. He said it was no telling what they might do.

Cassidy had heard them. It was in the middle of the night, but Cassidy had been awake. She was awake a lot anymore. She got up out of her bed and went out into the living room to look out the window to make sure the men in the trucks weren’t coming back. She moved real quiet to keep from waking up Miss Sally, who’d been sleeping on the couch ever since the men burned down her house and made Mr. Harvey die, but Miss Sally was already awake. She was sitting up on the couch in the moonlight coming through the front windows.

Cassidy looked close at her face to see if what her mama and daddy had been saying made her cry, but she didn’t look worried. She smiled at Cassidy and held out her arms to her. Cassidy forgot about checking out the window as Miss Sally held her close.

“It’s all right, Cassidy sweetheart,” Miss Sally whispered in her ear. “Don’t you worry a minute. The Lord is going to take care of us. He’s going to keep us safe and bring your daddy some new trees. That will make your daddy feel better.”

“How do you know?” Cassidy asked.

“The Lord told me,” Miss Sally said. “And I believe him. You can always believe the Lord. He knows.”

Now the morning service was over. They’d eaten all the food people had brought and were back in the church house with the preacher talking. Cassidy hoped it wouldn’t be much longer before they could go home. She wanted to be at home instead of here with all these eyes on her, seeing her black skin and wanting to hurt her because of it. She could just crawl back in her safe cave, but that was sort of scary too, since back in there she couldn’t touch her mama. She felt better when she could touch her mama. And now, sitting between her mama and Miss Sally while the preacher talked, Cassidy felt almost safe enough to shut her eyes and take a nap.

Then Miss Sally was standing up, going down the aisle toward the front, and that side of Cassidy’s body felt too cold. Cassidy had known Miss Sally was going to go up front to talk. Miss Sally explained it all to her that morning on the way to church, how she had to give the history of the church since Mr. Harvey wasn’t there to do it. A few minutes before she stood up, she’d whispered to Cassidy to not worry if she cried a little while she was talking. That the right kind of tears were good.

Miss Sally stood up behind the pulpit. It was extra quiet in the church as Miss Sally looked down at the sheets of paper she had in her hands. And then she looked out at the church people and said, “This is the annual reading of the history of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church founded by thirteen men and women in the year 1821.”

Miss Sally touched her eyes with her handkerchief and then said, “Now all of you know that Harvey has been doing this ever since 1940 and that, before that, our father read the history for many years. Harvey knew it all by heart. When this building was built. When the sidewalk was laid. Who the preachers were and when they were here. I never heard him say one bad word about any of the preachers we’ve had here. Not one. Even when the rest of us weren’t being quite as nice. Of course, we weren’t talking about you, Brother Perry. We all liked you.”

Miss Sally smiled over at the man who’d done the preaching that morning and then looked back at the people. “Most of you out there know the history by heart too, but you liked hearing Harvey tell it, and he liked telling it to anybody who’d stand still to listen. And on Homecoming Day he had a captive audience.”

Cassidy jumped when a few people chuckled. Then everything went quiet again as Miss Sally stopped and swallowed. She kept her mouth mashed together for a long time before she folded up her papers and moved them off to the side of the pulpit. Now there was absolutely no noise at all in the church. Even Eli and Elise were sitting still, watching Miss Sally. Cassidy scooted over closer to her mama and wished she was on the other side of her mama between her and Noah.

Miss Sally started talking again. “So since you already know the history, I’m not going to read it today. Next year you can find a new deacon to give the report. Today I’m going to stand here and use the history-reading time to tell you what Harvey would tell you if somehow he could come across the great divide between us and talk to us. Not that I think he wants to come back across that divide. He ran off to heaven with the angels, and now he’s up there with the Lord. So the first thing I think he would tell you is that he’s happy. Happy the way none of us can even imagine, but the way all of us, if our hearts are right, won’t have to imagine someday. We’ll be there. We’ll know about the kind of happy Harvey’s feeling.