Earthly Vows by Patricia Hickman Page B

ought to be horsewhipped,” said Willie. Angel asked Ida May to fetch the iced-tea pitcher.
    She said to Claudia, “Have you ever heard from Daddy?”
    “Not since he sent you off with Lana.”
    “You knew about that, then?”
    “I got his letter, the last one I ever got.” Angel and Willie exchanged glances. Angel said, “So he told you that Lana was
     bringing us to your place.” Claudia stopped crumbling corn bread over her beans. “If you knew we were on the way, why’d you
     leave?”
    Willie asked. “I shouldn’t have said nothing,” said Claudia. “So you and Bo up and left after you knew we were coming to live
     with you?” Angel asked. “That’s a fine howdy-do, Claudia.” Willie put both wrists on the table, his gaze resting accusingly
     on Claudia.
    “You don’t understand how things was with us. Bo wasn’t good with John and then we had little Thorne on the way. I knew he
     wouldn’t be good to either of you.”
    “We could have starved, Claudia,” said Angel. “Ida May was sickly. You knew all of that and you left us behind. Even Daddy
     did better by us. At least he wrote to tell you we were coming.”
    “That was a bad time,” said Willie. “After Lana took off with a salesman, we hitched a ride with a crazy woman. She stole
     everything we had and left us out in the rain.” He described that night well, not leaving anything to the imagination.
    “I was scared,” said Ida May.
    “So was I,” said Angel. “I thought we’d all been left for dead.”
    A tear trickled down Claudia’s cheek. She set Thorne on the floor, brought the napkin to her face, and sobbed.
    Angel, Willie, and Ida May stared at one another and then at their oldest sister.
    “I made the wrong choice,” said Claudia. “I should have picked you. I was afraid that I couldn’t make it without Bo.”
    “You were right about that,” said Willie.
    “Willie, don’t make it worse than it is.” Angel wiped the sheen from John’s mouth.
    “When you got the letter from Daddy, is that when you decided to leave?” asked Ida May. She set the tea pitcher on the table.
    “It wasn’t exactly like that, no. Bo had gotten a telegram with a job offer to work for the railroad near Oklahoma City. I
     told him about Daddy’s letter and that you would be on the way soon. I asked if he would let me stay behind and wait for you-all
     and then send for us. He told me that if I didn’t leave then and there with him, that I’d be on my own. He knew he had me.”
     She refilled her tea glass. “He gave me almost no time to pack up our belongings. We left the next morning before sunup.”
    “You could tell,” said Angel. She paused for a second or more before saying, “I don’t blame you, Claudia, for what you did.
     It’s hard to know what to do when you got no one to call.” She gave Willie a look.
    “I even tried to write you a letter, Angel. But he tore it up, burned it in the cookstove,” said Claudia. She wiped her eyes
     again.
    “Angel’s right. I won’t hold it against you,” said Willie. “So you married a louse. You made a mistake.”
    “It wasn’t always like that between me and Bo,” said Claudia. She blew her nose into the napkin. “We made a few memories,
     the two of us. But it never accounted to much, not like the times I had with you-all.”
    Ida May scooted her chair away from the table. She walked up beside Claudia and threw her arms around her.
    Claudia kissed Ida May’s cheek. She hesitated as if she needed time to form her next sentence. “There’s something I need to
     ask you, Angel.”
    Angel rested her face in her hands and nodded at Claudia.
    “I’d like to ask you to come and stay with me until I get back on my feet. If you watch these two, then I can find a good
     job.”
    “Claudia, you couldn’t feed all of us,” said Angel.
    “Not Willie and Ida May, I couldn’t. But with you helping out, I could see to our needs.”
    Ida May withdrew from Claudia.
    “Don’t get