October song Read Free Page B

reason. She recalled any number of early-morning break
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    fasts shared with her parents as a girl. Hearin’ both the comical and not-so-funny tales Mamma liked to tell and retell of near mishaps in the barn, unending mountains of dirty clothes, and all the peculiar and wonderful-gut things that happened over a lifetime of farm living. Young Katie always listened intently, ears wide open, enjoying the natural rhythm of her mother’s storytelling voice, Dat nodding his head sometimes or putting in a word here or there, never spicing up the story, not one iota, just adding his particular view of the way things were.
    Katie especially liked the story of Mamma’s older brother’s sixteenth birthday, when his father presented to him a racy black courting buggy, along with a spirited horse of his own. At his first Sunday night singing, Katie’s Uncle Seth had spent much of the evening trying to catch the eye of “one ‘specially perty girl,” Mamma would say, an angelic grin on her face. The way the story went, Seth had bragged up and down to his wife-to-be — ‘cept she didn’t know it at the time
    ‘bout how his new buggy was better ‘n all the others parked out in the barnyard and just how fast his horse could run. “And wait’ll you see how sharp I take ‘em
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    corners,” he boasted.
    Truth be told, the perty young girl wasn’t impressed at all ‘bout such nonsense. She was hoping for a serious young man to court her, someone who had sense enough to drive carefullyifshe agreed to be seen home by him. And she told him so! Stood right up to Uncle Seth the way no woman ever had, and that was the beginning of a three-year courtship that ended in marriage.
    Katie thought back to her ownRumschpringaher “running-around” years and had to smile. Clan had used every excuse in the book to get her attention, long before she ever turned sixteen and started attending singings. Other fellas were interested, too, once she started showing up Sunday nights, and for a time she let several different boys take her home in their courting buggies. Clan spent one whole evening trying his best to line her up to ride home with him. After that, it didn’t take long for them to settle into a somewhat secret courtship, the age-old custom amongst the People.
    One frustrating yet funny night stood out in Katie’s mind. Clan had been seem’ her home for some months now, when on an exceptionally moonlit night several boys
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    from the singing followed behind the courting buggy, unbeknownst to them. She and Clan had even stood next to the buggy for a while, talking softly to each other, holding hands, too.
    When Clan tied up the buggy in the lane to walk Katie to her house, the boys made off with his horse. A gut trick, to be sure!
    Just now, lookin’ at her husband, Katie was sure something was bothering him. Clan had been sitting too quietly, drinking his morning cup of coffee and staring out the window. Wasn’t like him to think so awful hard at breakfast.
    “Honey?” She reached across the table, touching his arm.
    He looked at her thoughtfully. “Remember yesterday’s sermon?” he asked.
    She remembered, even recited the verse again, the one that rang in her memory. Looking back, after finding your peace and beginning a work for the Lord, is fruitless. The Bible said so.
    “We must stop lookin’ back,” Clan said. “Hard as it may be.”
    She nodded, passing a platter of hot scrambled eggs and toast to him without saying a word, keeping her eyes on him.
    He took the plate and dished up some breakfast. “I just don’t see how I could
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    ever turn my back onmyson or daughter,” he said.
    “Tradition’s got its hooks in our families.
    They need salvation, full and free.” She knew he agreed wholeheartedly on the subject.
    They held hands as Clan prayed a blessing over the breakfast and the day, his voice strong and confident. No doubt there’d be similar moments shared like this in the future. Katie knew they