The Kingdom Land (26 page)

Erik called the Fairfield funeral home about the
burial. It would be held in Billings on the next Thursday. He would
be there. All three, Mary, Henry and John, insisted that they help
Erik drive to Billings. “It's too long for you to make in one day
by yourself.” Erik insisted even harder and drove himself.

It had been fifteen years since he had been at a
funeral, but they were all the same. To Erik, death was death no
matter who lay in the coffin. This was a simple graveside ceremony
for Laura while his dad had both a church and graveside, but that
made little difference. Someone with unfinished hopes had died. He
always wanted to prove himself to his dad, but he died too early.
He wanted to share his thoughts and maybe even his life with Laura,
and she was gone. Nothing changed in his life. The prairie winds
blew each day, the drought would never leave, and those he loved
were taken away.

Erik estimated there were about a dozen people at the
funeral. He didn't care to count the exact number since it was too
few for someone so special. He felt out of place as the others
looked at him and wondered who he was. Fortunately there was a
black lady who drew even more stares. No one cared to introduce him
or herself, and Erik didn't want to meet them.

He didn't notice that the black lady had slipped
away, and he jumped when she whispered behind him.

“
You're that guy that got in the
fight at the Mint.” Gracie said.

“How did you know that was me.”

“
Cause you're the only one that
looks like they care, and the way Laura described you, I knew right
away.”

“
Yes, that was me. If I hadn't
started that fight we wouldn't be here today. She would be still
working at the Mint and none of this would have
happened.”

“
Things happen as they do, and what
you do or don't do won't change a plan,” Gracie said. “Besides, one
of the best things that happened to her was that fight and her
losing that job. She told me so herself. If that fight hadn't
happened, she still would be stuck in her misery and now she's
sitting with the Lord. Sounds to me like you did her a
favor.”

“
Standing in my shoes, it doesn't
seem like much of a favor. She told me the same thing about the
fight, but I don't know if I believe her.”

“
She told me you two talked about
God when you were at the Point, so you must know God.”

“
Yes, but only for a couple weeks. I
accepted Him right after that fight.”

“
Well, then that fight was for good,
and you ought to know better than to blame yourself.”

“
Sounds like you know the Lord,
too.”

“
I've known about Him since I was a
child but I don't know Him like Laura knew Him. I know about Him.
Laura knew Him. That knowing is different. Are you
different?”

“
Yeah, I guess you would say I'm
different.”

“
Then you're a lucky man and a lucky
man for getting to know Laura. You're a lucky man for even being
close to that lady. I rode a Greyhound bus for eight hours and used
my last food money for the month to get here. I'd ride for forty
hours and sell my last dress if I had to. There aren't many ladies
like her. I knew that the first time I met her. I could only
imagine what she was like before she got hurt. She was amazing,
even after the hurt.

“
She was a lady of class. She was a
lady that had her problems, but never let that keep her from
helping other people. It's a funny thing about class. There are
people who have money and try to act classy, and there are people
who are classy just the way they are. She had class and she made me
feel like someone just being around her. Now that's
class.”

Erik looked down at the ground. “Yes, I'm a lucky
man. I just hope my luck makes sense some day.”

 

 

It was 11:30 at night by the time he got back from
Billings. He had went the long way through Sweetgrass to drop off
Gracie. When he got to the bunkhouse it wasn't long before John was
at the door. Erik knew that John would be there, but he didn't
expect it to happen so quickly. John must've waited for hours to
catch Erik. John didn't say anything when he walked in. He waited
to see if Erik wanted to talk.

“
Does anyone know where Laura was
going when she crashed?”

“
Not that I'm aware of. I talked to
the sheriff, but he didn't say much. He was investigating the car
accident, but there wasn't much to investigate. They took all her
things from the apartment to the funeral home. I don't know what
happens then. I guess they sent them to her family.”

“
Do you think she was coming out to
see me?” Erik had mulled that question on the way home.

“
Like I said, I don't know, but if
she was, it wasn't your fault. She had a blowout. It wasn't
anyone's fault. It's an accident.”

“
I'm not talking about whose fault
it was. I was wondering if she was coming out to see me, and what
she wanted to say. I had a long time to think on the trip back. I
was hoping that maybe she wanted to apologize. More than that, I
was praying she had a chance to get things right with God before…”
The thought of the crash quieted Erik.

“
We went the county fair on Friday.”
Erik didn't bother to tell about the guy at the grocery store. He
didn't want John to think Laura had a troubled background. Erik
kept telling himself she didn't. “We had a nice time, but I talked
her into going on the Ferris wheel and she panicked when it started
to rock. Then I said too much and she got mad, again. I thought she
might have been coming out to apologize. It's a crazy thought, but
I thought it might be true.”

“
I couldn't tell you, but I guess
it's a possibility. Whatever was the reason, God's eyes were on
her. For whatever reason she was driving and the tire blew at that
exact moment. God was still in control when she went into the
ravine. I'm not saying God wanted her to get in a wreck, but I am
saying He was still in control.”

Erik shook his head, “There were so many things that
happened in such a short time, I can't make sense out of any of it.
She was the reason I went to the Mint, got in the fight and spent
the night in the pickup. I just prayed that He would help me with
my future in Fairfield and I come back to the Point and she's
sitting there when I walked in the door. There were just too many
things to cause me to wonder if He had a place for her in my
life.”

“
He did have a place for her in your
life,” John confirmed. “There's no question. It's just there is no
way to know what that meant. Sometimes we try to out guess God,
but, again, all we can know is that He is in control and the best
for us will happen.

“
Remember one other thing, Erik. He
used you to touch her life. It sounded to me like she needed to be
close to Him again, and it sure seemed like with all that happened
He used you to make that happen. Never try to out guess God, but
never underestimate how He'll move mountains to have His plans
fulfilled.”

“
But I don't understand why she had
to die. I guess I don't understand a lot right now.”

“
I told you the first time we talked
to keep things simple, and that hasn't changed. He came to you that
night because He wanted to love and care for you. That will never
change No matter what happens, put that in the front and the other
questions will make a lot more sense.”

“
What I need to do right now is to
sleep,” Erik sat in total exhaustion. “I just need to sleep and get
back to work. Maybe things will make sense later.”

Erik pulled a single sheet over himself as he lay in
the hot evening and tried to sleep. He should have fallen asleep
out of sheer exhaustion, but it would be weeks until he slept
soundly again.

 

 

 

Chapter
Twenty-Five

T
his land
was bone dry after years of drought. It would take more than one
rainstorm to make this land look as the land should look. One
rainstorm would turn the dust to lifeless mud for a short time. A
few surface weeds with shallow roots would grow only to once again
become victims of the sun. The moisture would quickly be zapped
from the topsoil. Nothing would reach the hard dry ground beneath
where only the longer roots would reach and the reserves of water
usually waited.

After a few rain showers, a few buds and even leaves
would come to the willow brush next to the Cooper’s coulee. In
false hope the bushes would be hoaxed into the fact that rains
meant spring, and their roots would live by the lie for a time. But
the other vegetation, without the benefit of the willow’s roots and
coulee runoff, would exhaust themselves with the sudden growth.
They would not be able to sustain themselves once the cloud cover
gave way to the sun.

Only a long rainfall measuring inches and days would
bring a noticeable change to the land, and even that would be
minimal. The rain in that type of storm would come in sheets. Its
pellets would pierce the dust, driving splashes inches into the
air. It would keep coming until the subsoil had had enough and then
it would begin to make ravines in the topsoil.

The water would head to the coulee in whatever
fashion it chose, being stopped only by boulders and occasion
ditched roads. It would carry with it topsoil that was needed to
grow the wheat, not to line the bottom of coulees. The contoured
strips the farmer designed in his field were for protection from
the winds that were always present, not the rain that was a
stranger. However, any farmer would gladly exchange this loss of
topsoil for relief from the drought. That rain would not mean a
bumper crop. For that year it would mean there would be a harvest
and a chance to sleep with the smell of growing freshness in the
night air.

It was a shame to think that the hard thunderstorms
almost brought more destruction to the land than help. Everyone
would live on the euphoria that the rains had come, but such
sudden, hard rains actually destroyed the land. Each such storm
would take from topsoil already thin from the constant winds and
make it more vulnerable to the next dry spell. Beneath the topsoil
there was nothing to maintain growth but hardpan dirt. The farms
that held the best farming land were those with few exposed hills.
Their farms contained land that had gathered the deposits of the
glaciers as they moved and dissolved in the plains. The glacier
soil was rich with life.

The rains were the crucial element on the Great
Plains, but without the topsoil the water did little good. The
farmer would attempt to fertilize his crops to replenish the soils,
but only native topsoil would guarantee a harvest. The fertilizers
were expensive and could burn the crops if the sun came too
quickly. So the rains were wanted and needed, but they came with a
price if they struck the land and then quickly left.

This was the land that Henry Cooper had inherited
from his father, and that Erik Winters worked. The Coopers believed
the promise of restoring this land. Erik only worked the land. It’s
future wasn’t his concern.

Erik couldn’t leave his dreams of Laura. From time to
time a certain smell or touch or a certain place brought her back.
Laura was his future and his family and everything his life would
ever need. He had only known Laura for a short time, but he had
held dreams of her image for years. Laura was the face that made
those dreams within grasp, and it felt like Erik had known Laura
since the first time he had dreamt of someone needing him and
wanting him and loving him. Then she, too, was gone.

No one else couldknow what Laura meant, or how
important were those precious moments that Erik held. Many days his
pain was so sharp he wished he had never met her.

His aunt and uncle did everything to make sure he
wouldn’t retreat to the bunkhouse after Laura died, but they
failed. Christ was near in his thoughts and Christ would be his
only companion.

Erik had tried to get involved with the New Life
Center. At first people gave a warm reception for the new brother
in their midst. After a time, Erik became just another parishioner
and people’s comments turned to questions of why he was such a
loner if Christ had truly entered his life. It was almost being
like the new kid in school that all the girls want to know on the
first day, but forget by the first weekend.

A few people in the church started to question
whether Erik really was any different or if his commitment to
Christ was only on a surface level. A few parishioners gossiped
that maybe Erik had made up the story merely to be accepted and be
thought of as normal. They questioned how normal he could be after
his parents had left him as they did, and him still living alone in
that stale bunkhouse. They reasoned that if he had changed, he
would have moved from that bunkhouse and joined the Coopers in
their house. Not all the people carried these rumors. Still, there
was enough talk by a few members who loved to create excitement to
hide their boredom of Fairfield. Erik heard some of the comments.
Some of the reports came from church members themselves who told
Erik about the stories to protect him. He didn’t know if they
really did this to warn him or because they wanted to be part of
the excitement and wanted to see how he would respond to the news.
In this fashion, the cycle of gossip could be complete.