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“Here goes nothing,” Theta said, grinding her cigarette beneath her heel and joining the circle.
“Theta, we’ve got to at least try,” Evie said.
“What if I burn you again?” she said, embarrassed.
“You’ve got Miss Addie to think about. And I’ve got Mabel,” Evie reminded her, and Theta came and took her place beside Evie.
“Just imagine the King of Crows’s face when he sees us standing up to him,” Sarah Beth said and grabbed Evie’s other hand. Evie made contact with a signet ring Sarah Beth wore and was flooded with a rush of memories, and just as suddenly, the memory was snatched away. Evie broke away, gasping.
“Baby Vamp! You all right?” Sam asked, approaching Evie and Sarah Beth.
“I-I’m jake. Just… got spooked, I suppose.”
Once Evie got her bearings, she noticed that Sarah Beth had wandered away and was chattering to Isaiah about the kittens. She seemed perfectly fine. But Evie knew: Something truly terrifying had happened to Sarah Beth Olson.
Evie waited until she and Mrs. Olson were washing dishes before she found the courage to ask about what she’d felt. “I don’t mean to pry, Mrs. Olson, but did something happen to Sarah Beth, perhaps during one of her fits?”
Mrs. Olson busied herself scrubbing a sink that was already sparkling clean. “Yes. Sarah Beth had a very bad episode. Last year. Summer.”
“What happened?”
“She died.”
“She… died?” Evie said.
“Just for a little while. She had no pulse. Her eyes were… fixed.” Mrs. Olson blinked away tears. “But then she came back! God returned her to us. And after that, I knew the Lord had to have a plan for my Sarah Beth. And now here you are. Well, I can’t help but think this was what the Almighty intended. For Sarah Beth to join with you on your mission.”
A short time later, as Evie rested on the porch, she watched Sarah Beth heading to the barn with a rag doll in each hand.
“You feeling all right, Sarah Beth?” Evie asked, worried about the girl’s constitution. She hoped they weren’t harming her in any way.
“Mercy me, you sound like my mother!” Sarah Beth said with enough umbrage to amuse Evie.
“What’s that all about?” Henry asked. He was just coming up with Ling.
Evie shared Mrs. Olson’s story.
Henry whistled.
“Mmm,” Ling said, her brow furrowing.
“The definitive Ling Chan mmm,” Henry said. “All right. I’ll bite. What does that mmm mean?”
“What if it wasn’t God who returned her?” Ling asked.
Isaiah had been in the barn visiting the new calf. He heard Sarah Beth and decided to sneak up on her and give her a proper scare. She was over by the thresher, playing with two of her rag dolls. It was strange for
Isaiah to know that Sarah Beth was nearly the same age that Memphis, Theta, and the others were. She seemed so much younger, as if she were only a year or two older than Isaiah himself. He sometimes thought of her as being like a doll, too. One of those fancy porcelain kind that were kept on a high shelf so they wouldn’t get soiled. Hidden by three tall hay bales, Isaiah watched Sarah Beth. He couldn’t make out what she was saying very well. That garbled voice of hers was soft and babyish and hard to hear. He could only catch little bits here and there as she pressed the two dolls against each other, making them kiss.
“…forever and ever… you’re the most beautiful girl in the world.…”
Isaiah wondered if she was thinking about Sam or Jericho or Memphis, or even Isaiah himself. That made him blush something fierce. Sarah Beth stopped mashing the dolls together. Absently, she ran a hand across her small breasts and closed her eyes, lost to some other private thought. Isaiah’s shock turned quickly to embarrassment. He coughed so Sarah Beth would know he was there and bent over his shoe, pretending to tie it.
Her shadow loomed across the pale straw as she towered over him. “You shouldn’t go sneaking up on a person like that.”
Isaiah finished tying his shoe. “Didn’t know you was here,” he said, hoping she couldn’t read his embarrassment. But Sarah Beth never seemed to be embarrassed about anything. “Whatcha doin’?”
Sarah Beth’s expression softened. She held up a doll made from a flour sack. “This one is the lady. And this one is the gentleman.” The gentleman was made of burlap, with red stitches for eyes. “They’ve been courting. They’re in love, but they can’t get married yet. They will, though.”
