down. “Lacy, did she keep using during her pregnancies?”
“She said she didn’t, but I never knew for sure. They all came out all right, though, so maybe it was true.”
A S D ENI AND M ARK RODE BACK HOME , D ENI TURNED THE conversation over in her mind. “So what do you think?”
Mark shrugged. “I think when we find her, she probably won’t be in any condition to take care of those kids.”
“I don’t get it,” Deni said. “If she loved her kids enough to stay clean while she was pregnant, why wouldn’t she love them enough to take care of them? My mom would lay down her life for me.”
“Mine too.”
“But instead, Jessie winds up so addicted that she’d leave her children to fend for themselves with absolutely no resources.”
“It happens all the time,” Mark said.
Deni knew that was true. She’d had friends in college who had succumbed to drugs and dropped out, ruining their lives, changing their ambitions, their personalities, their character. But there was always hope for redemption. Hadn’t God redeemed her, when she was wallowing in a spiritual pit after her own rebellion? If he hadn’t given up on her, maybe there was hope for Lacy Frye and Jessie Gatlin.
“Deni, I have to go work at the well. But don’t go visit that Jenkins guy by yourself.”
She shook her head. “I’ll give his name to my dad and the sheriff, and let them handle that. I’m not brave enough to visit him alone. But I have thought of another way to get the word out that we’re looking for her. I’ve been thinking about starting a newspaper. The Crockett Times has been down since the outage, and the Birmingham News probably has too. I was thinking I could do one that focused on human interest stories. Like these kids, for instance.”
Mark laughed. “That’s a great idea. But how would you produce it without Xerox machines and printers?”
“I’d have to handwrite it. Maybe post it on the message boards around town.”
“Okay, I can see that.”
“I could call attention to the poverty in some of these apartment complexes. Those people don’t have any place to get water. I don’t know how they’re surviving. They have one grill to cook on and they line up for it. Your guess is as good as mine where they’re getting their food. They have no place to grow it. All they have is a paved parking lot. Maybe if I called attention to it, people would try to help them.”
“I like the idea, Deni. Somebody needs to help them.”
“And there are so many other things to write about.”
“Wouldn’t be any money in it, but it would sure be a great service to the community,” Mark said. “I think it’s an awesome idea. Sounds like the kind of thing that’s right up your alley. And it’ll keep your journalism skills fresh.”
It would also help keep her mind off Craig, she thought. Busyness was the best medicine she knew.
sixteen
T HE WORK THAT AFTERNOON WASN ’ T AS HARD AS A ARON HAD expected. It was even kind of fun. The Brannings had sent him and Logan to fish for supper, and since he didn’t much like Logan, he sat down the pond from him behind a big tree. He tied his pole to a lower branch that hung out over the water, so he had his hands free to read through the letters he’d brought from home. He took all of them out of their envelopes and tried to figure out which letters came first.
His grandma’s cursive was small and as neat as a teacher’s. She had dated each letter at the top corner. The oldest one was on the bottom, dated six years before.
Dear Jessie,
I’m sending this to your old apartment in hopes that the post office will forward it. You need to know that as soon as you’re found, you’ll be arrested. We’ve filed charges against you for stealing from us.
I don’t know what you’ve done with the boys, but I pray you’re taking care of them. If you have any sense of right and wrong left inside you, you’ll turn them over to us. They don’t deserve what
“She said she didn’t, but I never knew for sure. They all came out all right, though, so maybe it was true.”
A S D ENI AND M ARK RODE BACK HOME , D ENI TURNED THE conversation over in her mind. “So what do you think?”
Mark shrugged. “I think when we find her, she probably won’t be in any condition to take care of those kids.”
“I don’t get it,” Deni said. “If she loved her kids enough to stay clean while she was pregnant, why wouldn’t she love them enough to take care of them? My mom would lay down her life for me.”
“Mine too.”
“But instead, Jessie winds up so addicted that she’d leave her children to fend for themselves with absolutely no resources.”
“It happens all the time,” Mark said.
Deni knew that was true. She’d had friends in college who had succumbed to drugs and dropped out, ruining their lives, changing their ambitions, their personalities, their character. But there was always hope for redemption. Hadn’t God redeemed her, when she was wallowing in a spiritual pit after her own rebellion? If he hadn’t given up on her, maybe there was hope for Lacy Frye and Jessie Gatlin.
“Deni, I have to go work at the well. But don’t go visit that Jenkins guy by yourself.”
She shook her head. “I’ll give his name to my dad and the sheriff, and let them handle that. I’m not brave enough to visit him alone. But I have thought of another way to get the word out that we’re looking for her. I’ve been thinking about starting a newspaper. The Crockett Times has been down since the outage, and the Birmingham News probably has too. I was thinking I could do one that focused on human interest stories. Like these kids, for instance.”
Mark laughed. “That’s a great idea. But how would you produce it without Xerox machines and printers?”
“I’d have to handwrite it. Maybe post it on the message boards around town.”
“Okay, I can see that.”
“I could call attention to the poverty in some of these apartment complexes. Those people don’t have any place to get water. I don’t know how they’re surviving. They have one grill to cook on and they line up for it. Your guess is as good as mine where they’re getting their food. They have no place to grow it. All they have is a paved parking lot. Maybe if I called attention to it, people would try to help them.”
“I like the idea, Deni. Somebody needs to help them.”
“And there are so many other things to write about.”
“Wouldn’t be any money in it, but it would sure be a great service to the community,” Mark said. “I think it’s an awesome idea. Sounds like the kind of thing that’s right up your alley. And it’ll keep your journalism skills fresh.”
It would also help keep her mind off Craig, she thought. Busyness was the best medicine she knew.
sixteen
T HE WORK THAT AFTERNOON WASN ’ T AS HARD AS A ARON HAD expected. It was even kind of fun. The Brannings had sent him and Logan to fish for supper, and since he didn’t much like Logan, he sat down the pond from him behind a big tree. He tied his pole to a lower branch that hung out over the water, so he had his hands free to read through the letters he’d brought from home. He took all of them out of their envelopes and tried to figure out which letters came first.
His grandma’s cursive was small and as neat as a teacher’s. She had dated each letter at the top corner. The oldest one was on the bottom, dated six years before.
Dear Jessie,
I’m sending this to your old apartment in hopes that the post office will forward it. You need to know that as soon as you’re found, you’ll be arrested. We’ve filed charges against you for stealing from us.
I don’t know what you’ve done with the boys, but I pray you’re taking care of them. If you have any sense of right and wrong left inside you, you’ll turn them over to us. They don’t deserve what
Similar Books
