Promise of Yesterday by S. Dionne Moore

work.

    “What you mean you’re taking his place?” Marylu sputtered. She eyed Zedikiah and frowned. For all appearances, the boy seemed sober, and the usual reek of alcohol didn’t saturate his clothes. And he was smiling.
    “Chester made it work with Mr. Shillito that I could take his place while he took care of some things.”
    “He left?”
    “Didn’t rightly say where he was going.”
    Marylu stared at Zedikiah. She pressed her hands together to still the trembling. “Did he—” She cleared her throat. “Did he tell you to tell me anything?”
    Zedikiah bent to haul a trunk onto his back. The weight didn’t allow him to straighten completely. “Nope,” he grunted.
    Marylu stepped out of his path but followed him down the steps to the first level and out to the road, where he loaded the heavy trunk into the back of a farm wagon. It amazed her to see the young man bending his back to any work after the many times she had heard reports of storekeepers finding him drunk in front of their shops or in alleys. “You’re doing his job?”
    He passed her, nodding his head as he went. “Yes, Miss Marylu.” Zedikiah turned his face away, but she could see the tendons in his jaw jump. “Chester wanted me to have the chance to prove myself. Told me to be my own man. Someone my mama would be proud of.” He sniffed and ran a sleeve across his nose. “Aim to do just that.”
    “Then you’ll be needing some help.”
    He stared at her, his brows lifted in question. “Help?”
    The conviction churned deeper in Marylu’s heart. She didn’t know where Chester was or if he’d ever return, but she felt sure God was telling her to stop chiding this boy and start lifting a hand to help him. She felt the bite of her conscience that she should have stopped chiding him long ago and, instead, offered to help him work out a plan for his future. He was only a boy. A confused and lonely boy.
    Why didn’t I see that before?
    If he refused her help now and laughed in her face for the tongue-lashings she’d handed out to him, not to mention the time she’d dunked him in that water tank, then she would have to work it through his head how sorry she was for being so blind to his needs. “We’ll start by getting you some new clothes and some food to eat.”
    Zedikiah’s nostrils flared, and he glanced away and licked his lips.
    Emotion swelled in her throat, and she felt the nudging of the Spirit. “I’m sorry, Zedikiah. Should have been helping you all along instead of being so pleased to make a spectacle of you.” She invited him for supper and made a mental note to work up a new pair of trousers for him.
    But biting at her mind hardest was not Zedikiah’s plight but Chester’s departure. Had she pushed him away as Cooper suggested?
    When she finally crossed over to Jenny’s shop and opened the back door, she knew immediately that she needed to talk. Jenny would listen and help her see things clearly. She scooted down the short corridor that led to the main room, the voices of customers muffling her desire to burst in and spill all the details, fears, and frustrations.
    It took a minute for the voices to register. A man’s voice. Marylu tiptoed and peeked around the corner into the main area of the dress shop.
    Jenny sat with a bolt of material in her lap and a smile on her lips as she gazed up into the eyes of Aaron Walck.

fifteen
    It about killed Marylu to stay out of the main room with Aaron there. She wanted so badly to know why he was setting foot in a dress shop. Alone. A thousand possibilities streamed through her mind. Instead of stewing, she decided to take action.
    She slipped into the smaller room that was used for the ladies to change and scanned the board wall for knotholes. She’d studied that wall enough to know the pine boards had them scattered all over. She pushed on each knot to see if any would work loose. The first three she tried didn’t budge, but the fourth, far down on the wall, popped out