Read Online Return to Harmony by Janette Oke - Free Book Online Page B

that so?”
    Bethan gave a hesitant nod. Those were not the exact words she remembered, but maybe something like that had been stated. And at least Jodie was talking again.
    “Well, it’s not true,” Jodie went on. “Momma was good all her life.”
    “I know she was,” Bethan quietly agreed, understanding where the dark thoughts were headed.
    “So why did—” Jodie’s emotions made her voice tremble, but she began again. “Why did she have to leave me?”
    Bethan set aside her glass of lemonade and reached a hand out to Jodie. “You miss her very much, don’t you?” she said, her own voice full of emotion.
    Jodie did not even bother nodding her agreement.
    “Momma was talking about it the other day,” Bethan continued. “She said your mother was one of the finest women she had ever known. She said it’s hard to understand why someone like her had to go so early.”
    Bethan stopped and sought more of her mother’s words. She couldn’t remember them exactly. Nor was she quite sure they were the words Jodie needed to hear. But she didn’t know what else to say to her friend. “Momma said that maybe God saw she was ready for heaven and her reward. That her mission on earth was done. That—”
    “Her mission!” Jodie’s eyes were flashing again. “What was her mission?”
    Bethan was taken aback. “I… I don’t know. Maybe being… being kind to people—”
    “She was my momma ,” Jodie cut in with vehemence. “Don’t you think that was a mission? Being my momma?”
    “Of course it was.” The words seemed so weak, so flimsy. But she could think of nothing else to say.
    “She wasn’t done with that .” The words were flung angrily at Bethan.
    Instinctively Bethan set aside her mother’s words. They had sounded good and comforting when spoken to her, but she knew in her heart they were not what Jodie needed to hear. They would not bring comfort and healing to her friend, lonely and in deep inner pain from the loss. Bethan’s eyes filled, and her chin quivered as she sought the words of her own heart.
    “Jodie, I don’t know, I don’t understand why your momma died. But I know if it had been my own momma—” And the impact of that thought, the reality of it as she sat there beside her friend and fully shared the loss for the first time, caused the tears to run freely down her cheeks. Her words were barely a whisper as she forced them through trembling lips, “If it were Momma, I’d feel so awfully sad. I’d be so lonesome. I think I’d just cry all the time.”
    Before Bethan could speak another word, Jodie leaned her head against the smaller girl and began to weep. Bethan placed her arms about her friend’s shoulders, and they cried together. The squeaking hinge, the sultry day, even the dueling hummingbirds were completely forgotten in their moment of shared grief.

    “Momma, are we poor?”
    “The questions you ask.” Moira was too busy with her dinner preparations to look around. “We are doing quite well, thank you kindly. Who put such a thought in your head?”
    Bethan pulled silverware from the pocket in her apron and polished it before setting it down. Late afternoon sunlight streamed through the big window behind her, warm and welcoming. It was the last week in October, seven months since Louise Harland’s funeral, and though the first frost had not arrived, the days were becoming both shorter and cooler. “Oh, just something I heard the teachers talk about at school today.”
    “Well, they most certainly were not talking about us,” Moira harrumphed as she dusted the counter-top with flour, lifted the wet towel off the big mixing bowl, and brought out the biscuit dough. “We do not have much but, thank the good Lord, we have enough, and a bit left over.”
    Bethan nodded her agreement and continued setting the big hardwood table. Their kitchen opened directly into the dining area, forming Bethan’s favorite rooms in the house. They held all the fragrances of