Carry Her Heart Read Free

I was doing. I saw the tears in her eyes. She knew I was lying in order to preserve her dignity and she allowed me that fib.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
She paid for the food, the clerk bagged the items, and the woman took her daughter and the bags and then walked toward the door. Like I said, I don’t know what I had on the checkout belt, but I quickly pulled the candy bar off the shelf, added it to my purchases, paid, and ran to catch the lady. “May I?” I asked, letting the mom catch a glimpse of the candy bar.
She nodded. I knelt down to the little girl, who was clutching her mother’s hand. “Here you go. Maybe if you eat a good supper tonight, you can have this for dessert.”
The little girl’s eyes bugged out a little and she mutely nodded.
“Why?” the mom asked as I rose.
“For Amanda,” was my reply.
I could see that she didn’t understand, but that didn’t matter. I did. And I felt more at peace than I had in a long time.
“I can’t repay you,” she said.
“Don’t worry about it. Someday when things get easier, you can pass it on.”
She nodded. “I will. And I’ll tell Jean about it someday.”
“No. You don’t have to tell her, or anyone. Really.”
And I walked away.
I had the nightmare again that night. You were cold and hungry and I couldn’t get to you. I ripped apart my pantry and couldn’t find anything for you to eat. But you came into my kitchen, sat down at the counter, and picked up a candy bar that was suddenly lying there.
You looked at me and said, “Thank you,” as you pushed a strand of your carrot-colored hair behind your ear and then tore into the candy.
Love,
Piper

Chapter Two
    I met my best friend my first day of college. None of my high school friends were going to Gannon University, so the school assigned me a roommate my freshman year. Julie Cooper.
    When I walked into my dorm room my freshman year, Coop was already there. Despite the fact she was standing on her bed, I could tell she was tiny. She had dark, wildly curly hair and a beautiful copper complexion.
    I noticed those three attributes right away because they were so opposite of mine. I was on the taller side of things, with very red hair, and I was so pale that I used to swear the glare from my legs could blind drivers.
    My new roommate was on her bed hanging a poster . . . a map of Middle Earth.
    Despite our physical differences, when I looked at that map, I knew we were going to be friends.
    We roomed together all four years of college.
    I quizzed Coop on English classics and she quizzed me on human anatomy. We tried the college party scene together and discovered that we didn’t like it. We dated twin brothers our sophomore year of college, then dumped them within a week of each other.
    We bonded over those first loves and breakups, just as we bonded over the good teachers and bad ones. We shared a love for Tolkien, ice cream, and trivia.
    And we’d stayed friends since that first day.
    Coop taught middle school English for the school district and we tried to get together at least once a month for a girls’ night.
    Now for some single women, girls’ night might mean hitting a bar or a club, or at least a restaurant, but for me and Coop, girls’ night meant a pizza at the picnic table in the backyard and a wild game of rummy. I mean, we didn’t play Five Hundred Rummy. No, we were truly wild and played One Thousand Rummy.
    And sometimes, if the mood struck and we were seriously crazed, we’d try for Two Thousand Rummy.
    Tonight, I’d started a fire in my fire pit for warmth. I realized this was probably our last outdoor girls’ night until next season. Next month, we’d have to move inside.
    My picnic table and fire pit were located between the house and the rest of my crazy garden. Tonight, the garden was louder than it had been during the summer. The apple tree leaves still clung to their branches and made the slightest crinkly sound in the breeze. The lemon balm just beyond the picnic