Out of Heaven's Grasp Read Free

see why not. What do you think, Carla?”
    Carla stirred vegetables on the stove. “Definitely. It’ll be fun, Abby. When was the last time you went?”
    “It’s been since I was a little girl.”
    “See,” said Thomas. “There you go. You should definitely come along. It might be your last chance. I imagine the elders will be marrying you off any day now.”
    “Right,” I said. “I’ll be getting married.”
    Carla laughed. “Don’t sound so excited, Abby.”
    I peered down into the sleeping face of my nephew. “Well, I guess if I came along, I could help out with the children.”
    “We’re not taking them,” said Carla, turning away from the stove.
    “You’re not?”
    She grinned. “Nope. They’re going to stay with my mother’s family.” Carla had been her mother’s last child, so her mother had an empty nest and probably missed having little ones underfoot. “We’ll be free, and we can go wild.”
    Thomas laughed. “See? You have to come.”
    I shot a wary glance back and forth between them. What did going wild mean? Lebenet was a worldly town, with all kinds of sinful temptations. I had to admit that I was curious about all sorts of things in the outside world, but I also knew that they were all sinful.
    Thomas scooted his daughter off his lap. “I’ll talk to Father,” he told me.
    “Well…” I smiled a little. “It does sound fun.”
    “Good,” said Carla. “Then it’s settled. It’ll give us all a chance to breathe a little bit.” She went back to the stove. “Now, spill it. Why don’t you sound very excited about the idea of getting married?”
    I turned back to the baby. “I never said that.”
    Thomas wrapped his arms around her from behind. “How much longer is dinner going to take?”
    She elbowed him playfully. “It’ll be soon.”
    He kissed her neck. “I’ll be in the living room, all right?”
    She smiled after him.
    The two of them seemed happy, and they’d been arranged to be together. But Carla was lucky. She’d been married to a man nearer her own age, one without any wives. There was no guarantee of that. I could be married into an already-established family, one with two other wives already and tons of children.
    Carla looked back at me. “You’re going to make the best wife and mother ever, Abby. You’re so good with kids.”
    I shrugged. “I’m no better than anyone else.” We all came from huge families, and we helped out with our younger brothers and sisters.
    “No, you’re good,” she said. “You really are. And I see the way you look at the baby. You want your own, don’t you?”
    I hesitated. The truth was that I wasn’t sure if I did. I didn’t know much about the outside world, but I knew a little bit. And I knew that out there, women didn’t have to get married and have children young. It wasn’t that I had anything against the idea, not exactly, but I saw how exhausting it was. Even Carla, who was happy, struggled to do all of her duty. She’d only been married for three years, and she already had two kids. Within a few years, how many more would she have? And soon, if Thomas did well, he’d get another wife, and there would be even more children, more exhaustion. I remembered that Carla used to sing so sweetly at the worship meetings. But now, more often than not, she was too busy trying to keep the baby from crying. When I was married, would there be time for me to play my guitar? To sing?
    Carla raised her eyebrows at me.
    I forced myself to smile. “Of course I do.”

CHAPTER TWO

    Abby
    My father agreed to allow me to accompany Carla and Thomas to Lebenet. I’d be helping them to shop for essentials for the family and also to check in with a few merchants. Our family provided canned goods and homemade health foods to several different places. We’d be restocking with them and collecting on invoices.
    Selling things in Lebenet was one of the ways that families in the community made money. Some families also did the