Night Light (17 page)

“They’re not our brothers,” someone said. “That place is full of drugs and crime. It was that way before the outage, and it’s got to be worse now.”

“Not all of them are dopeheads,” Aaron muttered. “They’re not all losers. Some of them are good.”

Doug heard the defensive edge to his tone. His voice was gentler as he answered. “They’ve had the same wake-up call we’ve had. Maybe God has gotten their attention just like he got ours.”

“He hasn’t even gotten the attention of everybody in Oak Hollow,” someone shouted. “There are only twenty families here, Doug. If he’d got their attention, this whole lot would be full.”

Sweat dripped down his temple, despite the breeze sweeping across the water. Looking across the lake, he saw people working out in their gardens. Someone nearby was hammering. A horse-drawn wagon full of produce for sale was circling the neighborhood, the clop of the horses’ hooves gentle in the quiet morning.

Doug opened his Bible. “In 1 John 3:17, we’re told: ‘If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?’ We’re commanded to show mercy, as God has shown us mercy. And that means we have to put our faith into action. If Jesus were still walking the earth and saw those people struggling, do you think he would turn his back on them? They’re not going to find God when they’re struggling so hard they have to look up to see the bottom. I’m just telling you, if Christian people go and show them how to live and teach them what to do, and help them find food and water, then maybe they’ll see something different in us, and want what we have. What difference does Christ make in our lives if we’re not willing to do that?”

There was silence as his congregation stared back at him. He met Aaron’s pensive eyes, and hoped the kid knew how hard he was trying. But Aaron looked like he was waiting for the punch line.

“Maybe after the disbursement,” Hank said, “ when we’ve each got a little cash in our hands and we can buy some of the things we need, maybe when they have some cash in their hands, that would be the best time for us to start helping them. Maybe we can just work toward that.”

Doug didn’t like it. He was ready to help them now. But the disbursement was just a few days away.

“All right,” he said. “Meanwhile, I’m going to be doing what I can to lay the groundwork, but I’m going to need commitments from you people. I want you to go home and seriously examine your hearts and ask God what his will for you is in this. He’s provided for us, and now we need to help him provide for someone else.”

“God is the creator of the universe,” Max Keegan said. “He doesn’t need our help.”

“No, but he wants to bless us,” Doug said, “and this may be the way he’s going to do it.”

thirty

T
HE WOMAN STANDING AT THE DOOR LOOKED FAMILIAR, BUT
Kay couldn’t place her. “Can I help you?”

“Yeah. I was looking for the Gatlin kids. Somebody said they were at this address.”

“And who are you?”

“I’m Edith, their next-door neighbor over at the apartments. I heard about what happened to their mom and stuff, and I wanted to make sure they’re all right.”

Now she remembered. Edith was the woman who’d told them in the apartments’ parking lot about the kids being alone — the neighbor who had done nothing to help them all those weeks after their mother vanished. “Oh … how are you?”

“Okay, considering I had to hitchhike and got a ride with some sweaty old man with a horse and wagon. I woulda been better off walking.”

“Maybe so,” Kay said. “It’s not that far if you cut through the woods.”

“Whatever. It was worth it, because I was just so worried about those sweet kids.” Something about her description of them didn’t ring true. The woman Jeff had met at the apartments that first day had shown no love for them.

“Well, they’re fine.” Edith tried to come inside, but Kay blocked her.

“Can I see them?”

Kay searched for an out, but realized she didn’t have one. The children were in the backyard helping Doug build a coop for the chickens they hoped to buy on Disbursement Day. The Gatlin boys had tried to get out of it, but Doug had managed to get them to anyway. It had turned into quite a task, requiring them to tear down their own wooden fence for the lumber.

The belligerence of the Gatlin children had been something Kay and Doug had struggled to tolerate for the last few days. It was difficult getting them to do anything, and because of their reluctance, Logan had been dragging his feet on every task he’d been assigned to. Their youngest child had been complaining more than ever that there was nothing to do that was fun, how he needed his video games and television. He and Aaron had formed a bond when they discovered each other’s love for movie heroes, from Rambo to the Terminator to the X-Men. Kay and Doug tried to allow them time to play each night — the Gatlin boys had probably not had the chance to do that in a very long time. But tonight Doug needed more help.

“I’ve missed those little tykes,” Edith said in a saccharine-sweet voice. “I just want to see their cute little faces and let them know I’m thinking about them. That little Sarah is as cute as they come.”

Kay refrained from rolling her eyes. “They’re out back building something.” She led her through the house and to the open back door.

“Aaron, Joey, Luke, Sarah, you’ve got a visitor!”

Aaron looked out from around the coop and saw Edith in the doorway. “What are
you
doing here?”

“Aaron!” She crossed the patio and hugged him. Aaron stood stiffly in that hug, a troubled look on his face as if he didn’t trust her. Kay’s antennae went back up.

Doug dropped the fence boards he was carrying across the yard and set his hands on his hips, as if bracing himself.

Kay looked at him. “Doug, this is Edith, from the apartments. The next-door neighbor.”

He nodded.

Sarah sat a few feet away, clutching her baby doll and sucking on her thumb. Edith reached out for her, and slowly Sarah slipped out of her chair and came toward her.

The woman hugged the child. “Poor little thing. I heard about what happened to your mama and my heart just broke. All this time, her laying out there, and there we were, looking all over for her. I’ve been crying since I heard.”

She let Sarah go and didn’t bother to hug the other two. It was just as well. They hung back, just out of her reach, frowning. Kay pulled out a chair at the patio table. “Would you like to sit down?”

The woman ignored her. “I don’t want you four to worry now,” she told them. “I plan to do everything I can to help you. That’s why I came here. I woke up this morning thinking what I could do to help you, and all of a sudden it just hit me. I thought, I can let them come live with me!”

Doug crossed the yard then. “Can we talk inside?”

Edith stood her ground. “I came to talk to them, not you.”

Aaron just stared at her. “You don’t even like us. You used to cuss us out fifty times a day. You didn’t even get along with our mom.”

“Okay, so I’m not perfect. But I’ve changed, you know? I’m trying to do better with my life. And I just got to thinking that you and me, we’re so much alike, and we could help each other. And this preacher guy I’ve been going to, who’s helping me to learn to do better, he told me I need something to be responsible for.”

Kay almost laughed. She wanted to tell this woman to get a cat — that the “preacher guy” certainly hadn’t meant that she needed to take in four children.

Doug cleared his throat and glanced at Kay, as if asking her why she’d allowed this woman back here. “That’s nice. But it won’t be necessary. We’ve offered them a home here until we can locate their relatives, and so far, we’ve been able to provide for them pretty well.”

“No offense, but they don’t even know you,” Edith said. “You just kind of came in and swept them off without giving them a choice. I just want them to know that they do have a choice, and if they want to come back to the place they’re used to, they’re more than welcome to come and live with me.”

Kay set her teeth. “The judge has given us temporary custody of them, but thanks anyway.”

Edith’s face hardened, and she didn’t look like she was going to budge. Kay’s eyes met Doug’s, and she wondered if he was going to have to bodily remove this woman — who weighed all of ninety pounds. Kay could probably take her herself.

As quickly as she had that thought, Kay mentally kicked herself. What was she doing? Planning to fight the woman? Had she gone insane?

Yes, she felt like she had. The stress was so great, and her fatigue so heavy, and the emotional distance so great between her and Doug because they were so busy …

Edith hadn’t finished with her spiel. “Now you kids know you don’t have to stay where you don’t want to stay. You have options.”

Kay’s lips stiffened. “Edith, I think it’s time for you to leave.”

“Not yet, lady.” Her tone was defiant. She turned back to Aaron. “You know, you probably have a lot of rules and stuff here, kid. But if you come live with me, I’m not into rules. I just feel like people should get along with each other, you know? Besides, Aaron, you’re almost grown up. Shoot, you’re more mature than half the guys I’ve gone out with. You don’t need anybody telling you what to do.”

Now she’d gotten Aaron’s attention. Kay saw the change on Aaron’s face, the lifted chin, the heavy lids as he peered up at the woman.

“That’s enough.” Doug took the woman’s arm, urged her toward the street. “It was nice of you to come by and say hi, but the kids are busy right now.”

The woman shook free of him, and turned back to Aaron. “What do you say, Aaron?”

“I’ll think about it,” he said.

Kay wanted to throttle her. “No, he won’t think about it! They’re staying here. The judge put them in our custody and we’re going to take care of them until their family is found.”

“Their family doesn’t care about them,” Edith said. “If they did, they’d be here. They wouldn’t have let them starve like they have. Besides, these kids know me better than anybody else. I’ve been their next-door neighbor for the past year.”

Kay grabbed her arm, taking over the physical removal herself. She pulled the woman back through the house and to the front door.

“You can’t make them stay in this prison,” Edith said, her voice getting louder. “Those kids have never done anything they didn’t want to do. They’ll be out of here before you know it!”

Kay opened the front door and put her out.

“At least they know now they have a place to go!”

Doug reached around Kay and slammed the door. Kay watched out the peephole as the woman descended the front steps, still shouting over her shoulder. Kay turned back to Doug. “Can you believe that?”

“You shouldn’t have let her in. What were you thinking?”

She might have known he would blame her. “What would you have done? She acted all worried about them after hearing about Jessie.” She looked down at the children who had followed them into the house. “Aaron, I want you to forget all about her invitation. She didn’t take care of you when she had the chance. She could have helped you anytime after your mother disappeared, but she didn’t.”

“We took care of
her
,” Joey said bitterly. “She was always taking our water and our food. No wonder she wants us back.”

“That’s what I figured,” Kay said. “Don’t you worry. We’ll keep her away if I have to have her arrested.”

Aaron just kept staring at the door. “She wasn’t that bad, Joey.”

Kay wanted to scream. “Aaron, you’re fine here, okay? Everybody’s fine. You have plenty to eat, all the water you need, a clean place to live. You don’t have to steal to get by. And you don’t have to go back to that place for freedom.
That
was a prison, not
this
!”

Aaron didn’t say anything. He just went back outside and resumed his work. The boys followed him, but Sarah stayed behind, her dirty little thumb still in her mouth.

Kay picked her up. “Let’s wash your hands, sweetie,” she said, taking her to the water bowl.

Sarah took her thumb out of her mouth. “Do we have to go back home?”

Kay looked into her big, round eyes and pushed her curls back from her face. “No, honey. You never have to go back there again.”

She hoped the child would take her at her word, but as she washed her hands, she saw the worry on Sarah’s little face. And Kay determined right then that Edith would take them over her dead body.

Doug came into the kitchen and stood watching the children through the bay window. He was angry at her, and that was fine with her. She was angry at him too. He had no right to accuse her when he might have done the same thing.

Then he sat down at the kitchen table, set his elbows there, and lowered his face into his hands.

Suddenly her heart melted. She dried off the child’s hands and lifted her down to the floor. “Go back and help the boys, honey.”

Sarah nodded and went back outside.

Kay went to the table, pulled out a chair, and sat down next to him. Gently, she touched the back of his head.

He looked up at her, his eyes glistening. “What’s happening to us?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

He reached out and took her hand. “We’re both so tired, so preoccupied. If you’re like me, you feel like the whole world is on your shoulders. It was heavy enough a week ago. Now it’s twice as heavy.”

She nodded. “Guess I’m like you, then. That’s exactly how I feel.”

He drew in a deep breath. “Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’ I could sure use some rest right now.”

“Me too. I haven’t slept well since they got here. I’m afraid if I sleep I won’t hear them sneaking out or robbing us blind.”

“Maybe that’s what we’re doing wrong. Maybe we’re trying to carry it ourselves and not taking Christ’s yoke. He says it’s easy and his burden is light.”

“It’s hard to do, when there are constant fires that need putting out.” She brought his hand to her lips. “I miss you, you know. I miss spending time alone with you. I miss watching a movie with you. I miss just relaxing and reading a book with your head in my lap, while you watch football.”