The High Calling (7 page)

“I’ve come to see my best girl.” He came toward her, obviously intending to embrace her. She tried to dodge, but he was too fast. He grabbed her around the waist and spun her in a circle, her feet clear off the ground. Kat was squealing and protesting, and then he set her down and kissed her firmly. “After I get something to eat, I wanna take you for a ride.”

“I’m not going up with you in that thing!”

“Yes you are. You need to live a little, Kat. But first I need something to eat.”

****

Kat had put on blue jeans after Brodie had warned her solemnly it would be immodest climbing into an open airplane in a skirt. “You might shock my sensibility. You know how sensitive I am.”

“I know all about that,” she said with a laugh. He gave her a helmet and helped her strap it on. “Now, you get in there, young lady, and I’ll show you somethin’ you’ve never seen before.”

“Brodie, I told you I don’t want you doing any tricks. None of your acrobatics. You promise?”

“Well, if that’s what you want, but I do wanna show you what the world looks like from up there.”

With some trepidation, Kat climbed into the front seat. Brodie tightened her safety belt and put his hand on her shoulder. “Now, you just sit right there.”

“I think I’m making a big mistake.”

“No you’re not.” He climbed into the back seat. “Here we go now.”

Kat sat tensely in the airplane. She had never been in any sort of plane before, and everything about it seemed uncomfortably flimsy. As the engine revved up, the roar of it almost deafened her. The plane started forward, bumping over the ground, and Kat kept her teeth tightly clenched. Suddenly the nose tilted up, and the ground seemed to drop, as if the plane were still and the earth were moving away. Breathless, she felt a moment of panic.

“Hang on, sweetheart,” Brodie shouted, “we’re gonna grab a piece of sky!”

The plane continued to climb and soon banked to one side. “There’s your farm,” Brodie said. “How does it look from up here?”

“Look! You can see the river from here!” she shouted back over the wind.

Brodie banked steeply to the other side. “Look right down there,” he yelled. “That’s where we saw the bear that time when we were kids. You remember?”

“Yes. Clint shot it and it’s a rug in his house now.”

High above the landscape she knew so well on the ground, the new sights delighted her. At her request, Brodie slowed the plane down until it scarcely seemed to move. She saw where the old church house had stood until it burned down, leaving only the chimney still pointing up to the sky. She traced the roads and the cars as they made their way toward town.

Finally they passed over Summerdale, the small town not
far from the farm. It all looked like a living map. “Look,” she said. “I can see the men playing checkers in the town square.” The group of old men gathered there every day to chew tobacco and play checkers and tell lies about their younger days.

“Let’s give ’em a thrill,” Brodie yelled and, without waiting, plunged the plane into a steep dive. Kat braced her feet and begged him to stop, but they headed right toward the town square. One of the men jumped up and knocked the table away, and the others scattered like quail.

“Brodie!” she screamed, and at the last moment he pulled the plane up. He was laughing with delight, and she tried to shame him, but instead she began laughing with him. “They’ll hang you for this.”

“No they won’t. I just wanted to give ’em somethin’ to talk about. I’m gonna fly along the river now.”

****

“Oh, that was such fun, Brodie!” Kat exclaimed as he helped her out of the plane.

He pulled off his helmet and ran his fingers through his red hair, which shone brilliantly in the sunlight. Squinting against the brightness, he laughed. “Were you scared?”

“Not after the first few minutes.”

“Come on, let’s go to town and I’ll buy you a chocolate milk shake. Then we’ll try to stir up some excitement.”

“I really need to get back to the house.”

“No you don’t. You need to entertain me. Come on. Let’s ask Clint if we can take his truck.”

Kat protested but soon found herself seated beside Brodie headed for town, thinking about the old days when she’d been infatuated with this man.
I’ve got to be careful,
she thought.
I can’t let that happen again. He wouldn’t be a good husband for a woman who is looking for God’s will.

****

“Why, Parker,” Missouri Ann said as she opened the screen door. “Come on in.”

“I should have called before I came.”

“No need of that. Come on back to the kitchen.”

“Is Kat home?”

“No, she went to town with Brodie. She’s gone plumb crazy over that flying machine of his.”

“I didn’t know she was interested in flying.”

She motioned Parker to a seat at the kitchen table and then pulled a pie out of the upper compartment of the wood stove. “This is fresh peach pie. You eat that in England?”

“Something like it.”

“Well, see if this suits your likin’.” Missouri Ann picked up the coffeepot that always remained on the stove, even in the hottest part of summer. “Would you like some coffee?”

“Why yes, thank you. That’ll be fine.” Parker tasted the pie and exclaimed, “My, this is wonderful!”

“Well, it’s middlin’, I reckon.” Pouring them both a cup of coffee, Missouri Ann sat down and picked up the conversation. “Brodie came by about a week ago, and he took Kat up in that plane. It would scare me to death, but she enjoyed it. He’s been here every day since. They’ve been flyin’ all over the county. He wants to teach her how to fly, but I told her pa to set his foot down about that. It’s not natural for a woman to be doin’ a thing like that.”

Parker laughed. “I don’t know about that. One of the most famous fliers ever was Amelia Earhart.” His face sobered. “I met her once. She’s a fine lady.”

“They haven’t heard from her since she disappeared out there over the ocean, have they?”

“No, I think everyone’s pretty much given up hope.”

“What do you reckon happened?”

“It’s pretty dangerous flying over the ocean. If you go down, your chances of surviving or ever being found are pretty small. But that won’t stop people from flying.”

Parker ate the pie and lingered over his coffee, thinking
about how different this simple kitchen was from the one where the meals were prepared in his own home. This large room was probably the most used room in the house, as the family tended to gather there while Missouri Ann or Kat cooked. A black wood stove dominated one end, and a rectangular table with cane-bottom chairs anchored the center. The walls were covered with pictures chosen by Missouri, and some of the drawings done by the triplets decorated one area. A calendar with a large picture of an angel guarding two children about to fall into a creek was prominent, and he saw that each day was neatly crossed off.

He thought about the ornate kitchens that were operated by servants in his own home. The family never gathered there, and Parker felt a sudden twinge, for there was a hominess about the Winslow house that appealed to him greatly.

“What all have you been doin’ since you’ve been gone?” Missouri Ann asked.

“I’ve been looking over cattle down in Texas.” He shook his head. “Texas is so big. Anywhere you go you can see for miles—farther than anyplace I’ve ever been. And it’s so dry—the rivers are nothing but dust right now.” Parker continued to tell about his travels, and finally he fell silent.

“I reckon Brodie and Kat will be back pretty soon,” Missouri Ann said.

“Is he serious about her, Mrs. Winslow?”

“First of all, I don’t feel comfortable being called Mrs. Winslow. Why don’t you just call me Missouri Ann? And to answer your question, I don’t think he is. Of course, Brodie is a lot of fun. He was raised in these parts. His family didn’t amount to much, but Brodie’s different. He’s got lots of ambition. I reckon it’s pointed in the wrong direction, though.”

“Aviation is a good profession for some.” Parker shrugged. “He’s skilled at what he does.”

Missouri Ann understood why Parker was asking for her opinion of the relationship between Kat and Brodie. She hesitated, then said, “I don’t think Kat’s really interested in
Brodie. He’s a Sunday man. Not much good for everyday work. Women like him, though. They’ve always chased after him, even when he was just a yonker.”

She took a sip of her coffee and looked at Parker with a grin. “I ask most everybody I meet how they stand with the Lord, and I can’t make any exceptions, even if you are a baron.”

Parker smiled. “I’ve been wondering when I would get your sermon. I felt a little sad because you didn’t preach to me as Kat says you do to everyone.”

“Well, I always like to know where a body stands.”

“I’ve always believed in God,” he said simply. “And I remember going to what you would call a revival when I was just ten years old. It was an outdoor meeting that I went to with a friend of mine, and the minister preached like no one I’d ever heard before. All of our ministers are such scholarly men, and as a boy I was very bored by their sermons. But this man had something special about him. I didn’t know what it was. It was as though he were speaking directly to me.”

Missouri Ann leaned forward and nodded. “He had the Spirit of God. That’s what he had. What happened?”

“He preached about the death of Jesus, and I found myself crying. As I think back on it, it might have been pretty embarrassing for a lad of my age, but I didn’t care. He finally asked everyone who wanted to follow Jesus to come forward, and I did. There were only three of us, and he prayed with each one of us. I’ll never forget it, Missouri. It’s just as clear in my mind as if it happened today. Since then I’ve tried to follow the Lord and be obedient to Him.”

“Well, that’s mighty good, Parker. I’m pleased to hear you’re a man of God.”

Parker stared into his coffee cup as if he expected to find some answer there. When he looked up there was a troubled light in his eyes. “I’m afraid there’s going to be a war in my country. I think most men of vision see that. All of us will be called upon to fight.” He hesitated and twisted the cup
around nervously. “I may be called on to kill men. I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I
should
do it.”

Missouri Ann suddenly felt a great affection for this fine young man. He was different from the men who grew up in this area, refined as he was in his speech and manners, and there was a goodness and firmness and honesty in him that she appreciated. “A man has got to do what God tells him to, and a man that won’t fight for his folks is no man at all. No Christian enjoys having to shoot other people, but it’s happened in our own country and in yours too, I reckon.”

Missouri Ann got up and brought back her worn black Bible. She began to read to him, moving from the Old Testament to the New, barely glancing at the words. It was as if she had memorized the entire book! Parker had never met an individual who knew the Bible as this woman did.

“I reckon as how you can be sure of one thing,” she said. “Whatever happens, I’ll be praying for you, young man.”

“That’s good of you, Missouri. I need it.” He rose then, saying, “Is your husband around? I’d like to ask him some more questions about his livestock.”

“No, I’m afraid he’s not. He should be back in a couple hours.”

“I’ll come back later, then.”

“That’ll be fine. Come back anytime.”

She walked out to the car with Parker and watched as he drove off, then shook her head. “That’s one fine gentleman. His country is headed right into trouble and he knows it, but he’s trustin’ the Lord.” She turned back toward the house and spoke to the chickens that had gathered there. “Get out of the way, you fool chickens! Get back in your pen where you belong!”

****

When Kat entered the house with Brodie a while later, Missouri Ann noticed that her daughter was flushed and
excited. She was laughing, and words tumbled out of her as she told her stepmother about their latest flight.

Missouri Ann shook her head. “I wish to goodness you’d stop goin’ up in that contraption. You better be careful with my girl here, Brodie.”

“You can believe I am careful, Missouri Ann.”

“Parker stopped by while you were gone,” Missouri told Kat. “He was sorry to miss you.”

“Is he coming back?” Kat asked quickly.

“Yes. He’s coming back later this afternoon to talk to your dad.”

Brodie shifted his weight. “I wish that Englishman would go home. He’s trying to steal my girl.”

“No he’s not,” Kat said. “He’s looking for cattle. And besides, I’m not your girl.”

Brodie made a face, squeezing his eyes together. “But you will be before long. I ain’t educated like he is, but I reckon I know about men. He don’t look at you like a man interested in Black Angus cattle.”

“Oh, don’t be foolish, Brodie!”

“I’m not foolish. I guess I know when a man is interested in a woman. I’ll see you later.” He turned and left the room abruptly.

“Brodie’s workin’ up a bad case on you, daughter. I hope you’re not encouraging him.”

“Oh no, we’re just having a good time.”

“That’s not the impression I get from him.”

Kat stared at Missouri and then changed the subject. “I need to go change clothes. I got some oil on me. We were working on the engine.”

She went upstairs to her room, changed her clothes, and then sat down to read her Bible. She found she could not concentrate, though, for thoughts of Parker Braden kept coming back to her. She was disturbed that she was thinking of him so much of the time. She began to pray, but again her thoughts were jumbled, and she found herself thinking
back to Parker’s embrace. She had been kissed before, but something about this man was different.

Frustrated with her lack of concentration, she went over to the window and surveyed the farm. She noticed that Clint was mending a fence, so she went outside to help, hopeful that the physical labor would clear her mind.

****

When Kat came back to the house, she noticed Parker’s car in the driveway and smiled. She went inside and found him talking with her father in the parlor.