Read The Search for Free Online Page B

ago, when Jonah had tried to find a new mother for Bess, but his heart wasn’t in it. He wanted to love again the way he had loved Rebecca.
    Sallie had different ideas about marriage. She had been a widow for less than a year and was already moving on with her life, eager to marry again. That was one thing he admired about her. She didn’t hold on to the past. Just last night, she had told him that she never expected a second marriage to be like the first. “There’s no feeling like that first love, when you’re young and carefree and life seems filled with possibilities,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean that a real good friendship isn’t a fine start for a marriage.”
    Sallie thought his ideas of marriage were unrealistic. And she should know—she’d been married twice before.
    Her boys needed a father, she had told him frankly, and his Bess needed a mother. It made perfect sense, she said.
    He picked up the rag and dipped it in the can of stain, ready to finish up that table for Mrs. Petersheim. Maybe Sallie was right.

    The Sunday after Bess arrived in Stoney Ridge was an off-Sunday, so no church would be held. Earlier this morning, a chicken—whose pet name was Delilah—lost its head when Mammi had picked it out specially and wrung its neck off. It happened so fast that Bess felt woozy. Mammi was feeding her ladies by tossing cracked corn on the ground, making little clucking sounds at them. Suddenly, she reached down and picked up a chicken by the neck and spun it over her head, snapping its neck. Within seconds she had it on a tree stump. After plucking off the feathers and saving them in her pillow bag, Mammi dipped those chicken parts in buttermilk and bread crumbs, fried it, whipped up biscuits to mop up the gravy, added snap beans and sliced tomatoes from the garden. Bess was sure she’d never seen a chicken go from the yard to the table so quickly. It was record time.
    Mammi asked her to set the table and get it all ready for Sunday dinner, so Bess took out three servings of utensils.
    Without looking up from the fry pan, Mammi said, “Make it for four.”
    “Why four?” Bess asked.
    “You never know,” Mammi answered with an air of mystery. She tucked in a wisp of gray hair that escaped her cap. In English she added, “Mebbe I got extra-century perception like the sheriff.”
    So Bess set the table for four. What was the point of asking?

    Jonah loved this time of year. On the way to pick up Sallie and her boys for church on Sunday morning, he passed by a neighbor’s house and saw the straight rows of crops in the fields, tended lovingly. He loved summer best of all. The first fruits of summer gardens would be making an appearance for lunch after meeting: deep red beefsteak tomatoes, sliced thick; cucumber salad; a pyramid of pickled peaches; bowls of luscious, plump strawberries. Yes, this was a good time of year.
    He was especially looking forward to meeting today. It had been nearly a week since Bess had left, and he was starting to talk to himself just like Sallie did, he was that hungry for company. He felt a familiar warm feeling spread over him as he pulled into Noah Miller’s yard: dozens of buggies were lined up, shoulder to shoulder, like pigs at a feeding trough.
    After meeting, the men and boys ate first at the set-up tables, then cleared out of the way so the women could eat. A softball game had been started by the big boys and Jonah watched for a while. He noticed Sallie’s twins were sent off to the outfield to catch fly balls. They had been pestering the big boys until they were finally given a job to do and could be out of harm’s way.
    Jonah walked over to join Mose, standing with a few other men under the shade of a large oak tree. Jonah half listened to the men’s grave analysis about the weather they’d been having. Too little rain, they worried, a drought in the making. But then, farmers always worried about the weather. He could hear the murmur of women’s