Read Solomon's Decision for Free Online

you
Monday."
    Before he could find his tongue, the door closed in his face. He heard the dead bolt
slide into place with finality.

Chapter Three
    "And there's this great, big gold statue of a lady with wings but no arms, right
there in the middle of the round floor under the dome!"
    Madeline listened with half an ear while she scrambled eggs. The twins were still
excited over their school field trip last week, bubbling over with the sights they'd seen in
Boise. "Um-hmmm," she responded to Ginger's next question, before she realized she
hadn't even heard it.
    "Oh, wow! Can we really? And can Jace and Denny and Abby go too?" Kyle
bounced in his chair.
    Oh, lord, what had she promised? Hurriedly she scraped the eggs into a bowl and
took the toast from the oven where it had been keeping warm. "Well, perhaps. Let's talk
about it, okay?" With luck they'd tell her what she'd agreed to do.
    Both children reached for food. They always woke up ravenous, excited,
anticipating the wonders in store for them in another bright new day. She'd often wondered
about their father, who must have been a day person. Perhaps she should have specified
slow starting among the other characteristics she wanted in a sperm donor. She swallowed
more coffee. Two or three cups usually were required before she and the twins were
moving at the same speed. Especially on Mondays, after a weekend at the ranch.
    "Steven said his dad has lots of extra inner tubes we can borrow," Ginger said,
between bites. "He said there's one really big rapid where lotsa people got drownded."
    "And we can take a cooler inside an innertube, too, so we can have a picnic on an
island."
    "Steven says sometimes there's so many people on the river that it's like a great
big swimming pool."
    "But it's always fun, 'cause of the little waterfalls and the chan...channels around
the islands."
    "All you have to do is call Steven's mom and she'll let us sleep in her family room
again."
    "Hold it! Wait just a minute! We can't just go to Boise and stay at a perfect
stranger's house." She had agreed--actually, mindlessly agreed--to taking the twins to
Boise some summer weekend to go tubing on the river. Although she'd done it herself
once, with Jesse, she didn't think it was an activity she wanted to undertake with two
adventurous children. Not to mention descending on this Steven's mother like a horde of
locusts.
    "Steven's mom said she likes having company. And besides, he's my friend,"
Ginger said, with the heartrending expression that never failed to melt Madeline's
resolve.
    "We'll see," she told them, taking refuge in every parent's evasion. "It'll be quite a
while before the river's low enough to tube in, and we'll talk about it then."
    Kyle's lower lip went out. "You'll forget," he accused.
    "No she won't, 'cause we won't let her," Ginger promised. Her grin was pure
devilment.
    Madeline knew she was in for constant reminders, until her good intentions were
worn away like rock under a waterfall. She glanced at the clock. "Finish your milk, Ginger.
Kyle, did you remember to feed King Alfred?"
    Eventually they were on their way to school and she was alone, left with the usual
puddles of milk on the table, fragments of breakfast on the floor, and a house still echoing
with their childish laughter. Was ever a woman so blessed, she wondered, as she quickly
tidied the kitchen.
    The decision to have Kyle and Ginger had not been arrived at easily. Madeline
had known she would cause more than raised eyebrows in Garnet Falls when she produced
a baby out of wedlock, particularly so soon after Jesse's death. But she had been so
desperately lost. The Zengers had contributed to her decision, too, with their
outspoken regrets that she and Jesse had been too good, too careful.
    "I never thought I'd be wishin' one of my boys was careless with his seed," Jethro
had said, one of those Sunday afternoons when she had gone to the Z-Bar-Z, because she
had been going there with Jesse since they were in high