Angel Sister by Ann H. Gabhart

eating breakfast was going to drive her crazy. She took a sip of water as Tori chattered on about digging worms to go fishing. Kate didn’t want to go fishing. She’d rather pick beans.
    But they’d done that yesterday. The beans wouldn’t need picking again until the next day and maybe not then if some rain didn’t come. It had been dry. They’d been carrying water from the well to water some of the tomato plants, but they couldn’t water the whole row of beans. Out west it was so dry they were having dust storms. Kate had read about it in the newspaper last week. It sounded awful. The air thick with dirt. Dirt in your eyes and ears and nose. Dirt flying around when it ought to be on the ground letting people plant stuff in it.
    At church Grandfather Reece had been praying for rain even as he warned them about the signs of the time. Kate hated sitting on the pew at Rosey Corner Baptist Church listening to Grandfather Reece shout about how the dust storms and all the wars and rumors of wars from over in Europe were signs right out of the Bible. Punishment for a society gone astray. And all they deserved after the states had repealed Prohibition.
    Every week it was the same, and every week Kate wanted to put her hands over her ears and block out his sermon. She didn’t want to think about the end of the world, even if that did mean going to heaven. She just couldn’t get as excited about that idea as Grandfather Reece. He’d raise his hands in the air and get a look of rapture on his face as he talked about the Lord coming back to take them home. He was ready to go and all the rest of them needed to be ready too.
    Kate wasn’t all that ready. Oh, she’d walked down the aisle and been baptized. She believed in the Lord, but at the same time Kate liked it here on earth even if it was dusty and dry. She had a lot of living still to do. So she was always glad when her mother let her go to church with Aunt Gertie. The preacher at Rosey Corner Christian Church was young. He and his wife had two little kids, and he didn’t preach about the end of time. At least not every Sunday. He sounded as if he might like to delay going on up to heaven a little longer the same as Kate.
    Aunt Gertie told Kate not to fret too much about the end of time. “The Bible says straight out that nobody knows when the Lord is going to come back. And that includes your Granddaddy Reece,” she said one day when they were walking home from church. “This or that preacher has been studying the signs and calling for the end of time ever since I can remember, but the plain truth of it is they don’t know. And that’s the best way, else the good Lord wouldn’t have decided on it. His way’s always best. Even your Granddaddy Reece can’t argue the truth of that.”
    Kate didn’t know about that. She wasn’t about to try to argue anything with Grandfather Reece or Grandfather Merritt. Not only would it be disrespectful to disagree with her elders, it would be useless. Her father said tying a piece of cold iron in a bowknot would be easier than changing the mind of either one of her grandfathers. They knew what was true whether it was or not.
    She looked over at her father, who was advising Tori that the best worms might be found in the soft ground just outside the barn. Kate shuddered a little. Worms were the last thing she wanted to think about at the breakfast table. She gave up on eating her biscuit and bacon and pushed her plate away from her.
    “Don’t waste food, Kate,” her mother said as she picked up her teacup and took a sip. She had already finished off her bowl of oats before Kate’s father got to the table. Oats. Another stomach turner for Kate. Gooey gray glop.
    “I’ll save it and eat it later,” Kate said. “I’m not hungry this morning.”
    “You’re not hungry any morning,” Evie said as she attempted to fork another piece of bacon. It broke and scooted away from her fork. Undeterred, she slid her fork under the