Favorite Wife by Susan Ray Schmidt Page B

didn’t know either of them. But I wasn’t worried about anything; God had plans for my life! I didn’t need to fret about Lane anymore either, and that was a tremendous relief.
    Mom, Jay, and the little girls were out in the garden, making use of the last minutes of daylight when I walked by the fence. Fara looked up at me from where she was dropping seeds into the furrow Jay was digging. “Well, Sister Sue. How nice of you to come home,” she scowled. “Mom made Mona and me do your dishes, and Jay finally milked your cows because they were about to burst. Any chance you could spare a little of your time to help us out here?”
    I glanced at Mom but she didn’t say anything; she just kept hoeing. Fara handed me the sack of seed and stalked to the house. Not even her bad temper could touch the elation I felt. The evil of the dream had vanished at Grandma’s words, leaving only the wonderful peace of having a place on earth all picked out for me by God Himself. I wasn’t worried about the Devil. I had been warned, and I was on the lookout.
    I knelt and began dropping seed peas into the furrows Jay was making. I was so lost in my daydream about Verlan that I failed at first to notice Jay’s agitation.

C HAPTER F OUR
    J ay and I worked in the garden planting peas until it was almost too dark to see. As we reached the end of the last row, Jay straightened up and, leaning on his hoe, said in a low voice, “Sis, I need to talk to you.”
    I peered up at him, surprised at the seriousness of his tone. “Well, go ahead. Talk.” Standing up, I massaged my lower back.
    He glanced pointedly over at Mother and whispered, “Not here. Come on over to my room. I’m just going to put these tools away.”
    It must be about Carmela, I thought, as I followed him across the street to the little adobe house he had built. Jay had been working in New Mexico with Dad off and on for the past year and had put every dime he earned into the tiny house that sat across the road from our place. He had laid the adobes himself and had pounded every nail and set every window. I knew he had built the house with Carmela in mind. Although he had made a show of accepting Alma’s wishes that Carmela marry someone other than him, he didn’t fool me. He loved her, and he wasn’t the sort of person to give up easily.
    The house was filled with shadows, and Jay struck a match and lit the lamp. His boyish face beneath his shock of dark brown hair looked pale and serious in the dim light. I could sense his nervousness. “Sit down,” he said, motioning toward the unmade bed in the corner.
    I settled down on a rumpled mound of covers and leaned my back against the wall. “What’s going on?”
    He stuck his hands in his pockets, pursed his lips, and rocked on the balls of his feet. Keeping his voice low, he said, “Sis, I need your help. I need to see Carmela.”
    I nodded, “I figured that’s what you wanted to talk about.”
    His wiry body moved back and forth in front of me, his words coming out in angry bursts. “She sent me a note saying that Alma is having her watched, and she doesn’t dare try to meet me anymore. Get this; her own brothers are spying on her for him, watching her every move!” He scowled and shook his head. “It makes me sick. Now Alma’s decided that she will marry Hector Spencer. Being as how Hector’s over fifty and only has one wife, Alma’s afraid he’ll lose out on the Celestial Kingdom and godhood. So Carmela’s supposed to go to Hector’s rescue.”
    â€œOkay, and how does Hector feel about all this?” I asked angrily. “Does he want to marry Carmela?”
    Jay grimaced. “Oh, I guess he’s agreed, though he’s dragging his heels a bit.”
    â€œWell, what about what Carmela wants?” I snapped. I could feel the blood pounding in my head, and I had lost