Colton shook his head and put his arm around Rosie’sshoulder. “We can go see her first thing in the morning. She needed today to rest. The doctor had to put in a lot of stitches, and that hurts.”
“Can we bring her home tomorrow?”
He considered this question for a long moment. “I don’t know where Emma wants to live, since Tommy won’t be here.”
“Do you think Tommy’s in heaven?” Rose was always changing the topic with lightning speed.
The last thing Colton wanted to do was talk religious matters with his sister. He wanted to curse Aunt Clementine for her religious beliefs and how she’d convinced Rosie they were important, much less true.
Clementine Benton Nelson had come shortly after Mother’s death to take care of her brother’s youngest children. Father had been most grateful for her help but less than happy when he learned of her insistence that the children attend church with her. He relented to allow Rose to go but let the boys decide for themselves. Tommy blamed God for his mother’s death and refused. Walter and Ernest went a few times, but when Colton remained home, they were soon persuaded to remain there as well. As Rose grew older and her condition caused more questions, Father insisted Aunt Clementine keep her home. But that didn’t stop the older woman from “Training a child up in the way they should go,” as she always said.
“Did you hear me? I wondered if you thought Tommy was in heaven?”
“I don’t hold with such things, Rosie. You know that.”
“But, Colton, God is real, and if you don’t have Jesus as your Savior, you can’t go to heaven.”
He looked at her for a moment. “And you think that’s fair? You think God is loving to act in such a way? Sending people to hell?”
“God doesn’t want them to go to hell.” She shook her head and furrowed her brow. “He sent Jesus so they didn’t have to go.” There was a decidedly childlike innocence to her reasoning on the matter. “People go to hell because they choose that instead of God.”
“Oh, bother. I don’t want to discuss this now. Look, if you’re good, then we’ll go see Emma in the morning. But for now, let me get some work done.”
She smiled. “Do you want some coffee and pie? The cook made your favorite pecan pie.”
The thought did intrigue him, but it was getting too close to suppertime. “No, I’ll wait and have some with dinner.”
Rose hugged him again. “I’ll go out to the garden. Miguel is getting the dirt ready to plant new flowers. He said I could help.”
“All right. You go ahead.”
Colton watched her all but skip away. Recently Emma had been working with her to walk in a more ladylike manner. For years they’d done very little to train Rose in any particular etiquette, certain that she would be unable to learn anything difficult. Father had even forbidden his sister to impose rules upon the child. It was to their benefit Rose had such a sweet and simple nature. A more unruly child might have brought the entire house down.
Still, she surprised them all by picking up little things. She especially learned from Emma, who thought it nonsense to keep Rose hidden away without any training. Perhaps she was right. Maybe they’d been wrong to shelter Rosie and keep her from outsiders. Father had feared her being embarrassed or, perhaps even more so, feared her being an embarrassment to him. But Emma didn’t see things that way. Emma had taught her about numbers and the alphabet, certain Rosie could learn to read. She went proudly for walks with Rose, and from time to time Tommy accompanied them. Last yearthey’d even taken Rose to the fair, where after brief instruction, she had won a game of ring toss.
The memory brought a smile. “I believe we’ve underestimated you, Rosie girl.”
But that thought gave him hope for the future. Rose needed them more than ever, and that was how he would convince Emma to stay. He’d explain how she was the only one who could help Rose live up to her full potential.
Emma fought nausea along with the pain. The doctor said she was running a slight fever, which wasn’t unusual, and encouraged her to drink plenty of liquids. But no sooner did she drink than it all came back up. Lucille and Papa had visited earlier and brought some peppermint lozenges. Emma had to admit they did help. She just wished things could go back to normal. She wanted to get up. To go for a long ride. Anything but lie in bed ... thinking.
As the sun set and she faced another long night in the hospital, Emma couldn’t help but relive the shooting all over again. She longed to wipe away the image of Tommy dead on the floor, but it haunted her. Worse still, she could recall every sermon she’d ever heard about salvation. It played over and over in her mind.
She had memorized Acts four verse twelve as a child. It was that verse that echoed in her thoughts.“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
That name was Jesus. Neither she nor Tommy had given it much consideration. Tommy had gone to church as a child, and so had she. Both had been told of the need for Jesus, and both had prayed as directed, asking for salvation. But neither had any real purpose for God or religion as they grew older.They had talked more than once about their encounters with the Gospel message.
Tommy related accepting Jesus as Savior at his mother’s knee. She had been a woman of great faith and held the Gospel dear. However, when she passed away, Tommy had been quite angry at God. It was unfair, he told Emma. Unfair that a God supposedly full of love should take a mother away from her children. He wanted little else to do with God, and neither did his brothers.
From how Tommy had described her, it sounded like Aunt Clementine had worked to undo his anger. She had loved Tommy quite dearly, seeing in him the son she might have had. As a childless widow, Aunt Clementine had lavished love on all of the Benton tribe, but Tommy and Rose received the lion’s portion.
She had babied Rose, hiding her away from the world as instructed by their father. Tommy had told Emma how Aunt Clementine often explained that Rose was a special kind of being. Not quite an angel, but more than human. Rose recognized spiritual things easier because her mind wasn’t bogged down with earthly woes.
Emma wondered at times if that was true. Rose did seem closer to God. She was always speaking of things in the Bible she’d been taught by Aunt Clementine or had heard from the pulpit. Emma found the young woman’s ability to recall such things nothing short of a miracle. Rose could neither read nor write, and yet she memorized Scripture like no one Emma had ever seen.
She was also quite adamant with Emma about seeking God. Emma had once confessed to having accepted Jesus quite young, but then told Rose about the time she had decided she didn’t want to be a Christian. That Christians had no happiness in their hearts.
“Oh, Emma, you are silly. Of course we have happiness. God is love, and love makes me happy all the time.”
