The Promise of Home Read Free Page B

it pretty hard.”
    Father O’Brien nodded and went to the kitchen.
    Karen looked up at him with bloodshot eyes. “Thank you for coming, Father.”
    “Of course,” he replied. Carefully, he pulled out the chair next to her and sat down. He waited for Karen to speak.
    “I know Jean told you they can’t find Nick,” she said. “Four days ago, he and a colleague left work in the morning and never came back. They were supposed to pick up some things for the shop, and they made it to the warehouse and signed for the supplies, but after that…” Her voice trailed off. She took a deep breath. “Someone from his company called, a man. I wrote down his name and number. He said they have people searching for them, retracing their route and all that, but no other information
at this time
.”
    Her voice broke as she struggled to finish her sentence. Jean came up behind Karen to put an arm around her shoulders. Ben sat silently across from his mother and stared down at the table. Father O’Brien tried to think what he could say that would bring some comfort.
    “Karen, I know Nick is a good man. He’s smart and strong. Whatever happened, wherever he is, we have to believe he’ll find a way out of the situation. We have to trust that God is looking out for him. Now, listen to me, Karen. You’ve got to stay strong for Nick, and for your son here. Both of them need you.”
    Karen nodded through her tears, and Ben glanced up at him for the first time.
    Father O’Brien took Karen’s hand and Ben’s hand. “Will you join me in asking our Heavenly Father to protect him?”
    Karen nodded, and he and Ben bowed their heads. For a moment before he closed his own eyes, he watched Karen’s son. Ben was growing up so quickly, and yet he was still so young, perhaps twelve or thirteen. It was a difficult age, at the beginning of the transition from childhood to adulthood, an impressionable time during which the boy would need his father more than ever. He knew exactly how Ben must be feeling. Even now, in the sunset of his life, it was all too easy to remember himself at Ben’s age, sitting at his family’s table and facing the great uncertainty of his own father’s absence.

Chapter 2
    Saturday, March 17, 1934
    F rom his place at the dinner table, Michael O’Brien watched his mother ladle stew into his father’s bowl. His stomach was gnawing at itself, and he tried to ease the uncomfortable feeling by fidgeting in his chair.
    “Be still, Michael,” his grandmother whispered from her seat beside him. “You’ll get yours in a minute.”
    “Thank you, Anna,” his father said as he accepted the bowl from his mother. “This smells delicious.”
    “Way better than that Hoover stew they were serving in Burlington.” Seamus, his brother, sat next to their father with his mouth scrunched up in disgust. At twenty-two years old, and over seven years his senior, his brother was a grown man. They had always been opposites. Seamus was brash, impulsive, even rough at times, whereas Michael was quiet and studious.
    Seamus and their father had worked at the textile mill in Winooski, and both had been laid off when the hard times hit. Desperate for income, they had accepted menial jobs with the Civil Works Administration in Burlington. The funding for the program had run out, though, and the two of them had taken to walking the few miles into the city each day in the hope of finding odd jobs. They ate at the soup kitchen regularly.
    “In times like these, you should be thankful for any food you’re given,” his mother said quietly to Seamus. “And tonight, there’s plenty of meat, thanks to Michael. He’s become quite the hunter.”
    Michael smiled, pleased at his mother’s praise, even though it had no effect on his empty stomach.
    “He has,” his father agreed. “And squirrel’s the best wild game there is. How many did you get, son?”
    “Six.”
    “Well.” His father smiled. “You keep it up. They breed like rats in