The Caravan Road Read Free Page B

his Spiritual ingenaire powers Alec was able to tell that the boy’s disgruntlement had abated slightly as he considered his situation from his father’s perspective.
    Alec left Jasel to return to the farm house, where Kriste was tossing a handful of feed to the flock of chickens that roosted in the trees by the barn.  Alec knew the girl by sight, but had personally tended her inf r equent medical needs only a time or two as she had grown up.  “Are you comfortable out here without your folks?” he asked her as he tried to make conversation, to get to know something about the girl.  What he knew by looking at her was that she was a very pretty girl, almost elfin in appearance with a narrow face and eyes that had the hint of an exotic tilt.  Her hair was a very light blond color, but was thick and curly.  Alec thought momentarily about his own daughter, Muriel, who he and Caitlen had raised so long ago in Vincennes.  Muriel had had similar hair, and had spent hours each day, it seemed, primping and tending her locks to perfect their looks.  Kriste was unlikely to have that amount of free time to spend in such a frivolous manner; she had instead probably come by such hair naturally.  Muriel would have been insanely jealous, Alec grinned momentarily as he thought about his flighty but sweet-hearted daughter of a long-ago era.
    “Will you be able to take care of your brother?” Alec asked as she stopped tossing the feed upon his approach.
    “I wish I could cook as well as mother; she made it look so easy,” Kriste complained.
    “You’ll get the hang of it; this is good practice,” Alec assured her.
    “And there are so many other chores to do,” she added, then yawned abruptly, and loudly.
    “And I keep having bad dreams that wake me up at night,” Kriste continued in explanation.
    “I’m sure you’re missing your parents; your heart is trying to adjust to their absence.   Have you ever been apart from them?”  Alec asked.  He didn’t know if she was a girl given to anxiety.
    “I’ve never spent a night anywhere but here, with mom and dad in the house, until these past couple of nights.  It is strange,” Kriste admitted.  “But the dreams don’t seem to have anything to do with them.”
    “What are your dreams like?” Alec asked.  He stepped over to the side of the house and leaned against it.  Kriste reacted by sitting on the back step.
    “There’s a man, and he’s coming to get me.  He’s coming from far, far away.  And I’ve dreamt of the same man every night for the past three nights,” Kriste said.  “He seems so real, and he’s chasing me.  But I know it’s just a dream.”
    “Is he some boyfriend?  Some boy whose heart you’ve broken?  You’re a very pretty girl, you know.  I’m sure all the boys in the area have been interested in you,” Alec commented.
    “No.  And no.  He’s not anyone I know; he’s much older than me, way too old – probably as old as you are,” Kriste replied, not appreciating what she said, and too self-absorbed to see the grin on Alec’s face.  “And I don’t have any boyfriends; dad won’t let me go anywhere if he or Jasel aren’t with me.”
    “He’s a smart man,” Alec told her soothingly.  “You’ll have a boyfriend when the time comes.”
    He reached out gently towards the girl, and placed his hand lightly on top of her head, letting a flow of his Spiritual powers enter the girl, seeking to sooth her soul of its anxiety and take away the cause of her dreams.
    His powers entered her, and began to interact with her soul, whispering gently about the peace and goodness that God offered.  He abruptly stopped, and removed his hand from her head, jerking his palm off her crown so quickly that she looked up questioningly.
    “Sorry,” he said apologetically, as he wondered at what he had experienced.  He had expected to find the shallow soul of a teenager, and had expected to easily sooth the anxieties that roiled her