Here it is!! Sorry it's a little later than I planned but better late then never right? I hope you enjoy and this was only edited once so please pardon mistakes! God Bless and have a wonderful evening and weekend!!!😊😊😊😊
Prologue:
1973
Belinda
Lewis felt like the queen of Arcata, California as she approached her house in a
purple convertible with Brain Nelson, the heartbeat of all the girls in Arcata high
school, and then some.
Belinda thought she might faint when he had
asked her to a soda after school two weeks earlier. Wow! Brian Nelson had asked
her to a soda. She had been too excited to even drink her soda. And ever since
there she had gone out with Brian, she even missed church once-acting sick. But
she didn’t mind missing church if it meant going for a long ride with Brian
Nelson.
She felt such pride as they drove through her
neighborhood, several girls had stood on their lawns with jealous gaze, their mouths
gaping open.
Davy Jones’ voice on the radio was silenced
when Brian shut his car engine off. He had pulled it to a stop along the
sidewalk in front of her two story brown, brick house.
The warm spring air held a soft breeze causing
her long, brown, curly hair to blow gently behind her.
“It’s been real crazy fun, baby.” Brian’s cool
voice spoke to her.
Belinda’s stomach turned every time he called
her “baby”.
“Sure has, Brian.”
Brian scooted over and placed his arms around
her shoulder. “Okay, so how about tonight, there’s a crazy picture at the
drive-in tonight. Let’s go.”
Belinda knew she could never say no, although
she really needed to study for a huge test tomorrow, but still. This was way
more important. “Okay. What time?”
“Let’s say 8:00?”
“Sure.”
“Okay, baby, see you then.”
He stared at her for a long moment and Belinda
knew he was going to try and kiss her. She had never been kissed before…she
never imagined she would be kissed this way up until Brian had caught her eye.
Brian’s faced turned into a grin. “Tonight,
baby, tonight.”
She swallowed hard, a grin spreading across
her face. “Sure.”
She got out of the car with her heart beating
fast with excitement. She stood on the grass in her yard as Brian sped away;
she waved before turning and skipping to her front door. She let out a little
sequel as she closed the door.
“Honey, is that you?” Her mom’s soft voice came
from the kitchen.
“Yes, I’m going to my room to study.” Belinda
called back as she skipped up the stairs on cloud nine.
As she entered the hallway the soft peer of Ed
Ames on her sister’s record met her ears. She rolled her eyes. Why did she
listen to that stuff?
For her sister Brenda and her being twins
they couldn’t have been farther from being alike. Brenda was quite and so
obedient, her parents little pet. While Belinda enjoyed a wild side, or at
least she had since Brian noticed her.
“Hey, Belinda.” Her sister’s sweet voice
stopped her in front of her open bedroom door. Her sister lay on her bed with
her textbooks opened in front of her.
“Hey, Brin. I gotta go study.”
“You wanna do it together?”
“No, I can’t stand that Ed Ames bit.”
Brenda sat up on her bed. “You used to like
him some?” She frowned in question.
Belinda rolled her eyes. “Well, I’m tired of
living like I’m in another time period. I like things like Davy Jones.”
Brenda perked up. “Well, so do I. We can
listen to that.”
Belinda shook her head. “I wanna be alone. See
you.” She walked off with another roll of her eyes.
She walked into her own room and kicked off
her shoes and turned on her record player, Davy Jones met her ears. She sat on
her bed with a long sigh; she stared into space for a few minutes before
opening her books. She tried to study but all she could think about was Brian
and-
“Honey, can I talk to you?” Her mom’s voice caused
her to look up at her, who was standing in the doorway.
Aww,
man, I bet I know what this is. “Sure, mom.” She said in an irritated
voice.
Her mom walked in Belinda’s room and sat on
the edge of her bed, an old brown book in her hand.
“Honey, I’m worried about you hanging out with
this Brian fellow.”
Belinda rolled her eyes. “Mom, I’m sixteen.
I’m old enough to date.”
“Yes, maybe, but you never planned on dating
until you were ready for marriage until this young man caught your eye.”
Belinda stared at her mom a moment before
answering. Yes, that was true-but people changed. “Who says I won’t marry Brian
and who says that I’m not ready?”
Her mom placed her hand over Belinda’s left
hand. “Do you really think you are, honey? And if you are why aren’t you doing
this the right way? Why aren’t you talking to your dad and I? Why haven’t we
even met him?
Belinda lowered her eyes to her textbooks.
“Brian isn’t that type. Besides we don’t have
to do it that way.”
“No, nothing says you have to-nothing but
that there is a right way to do things and a wrong way. Honey, I think you
settled for things because a handsome-popular boy has caught your eye and you
have caught his. But is this even someone you should be with? Do you really
know what kind of man he is? He’s asking you do things like skip church.”
Belinda’s eyes shot up.
“Yes, Belinda it didn’t take me long to figure
it out.” Her mom smiled sorrowfully. “And you don’t hardly ever spend time with
your sister anymore. In fact you’ve grown to almost despise her. Your grades
are dropping. And all for some boy, who I think is not for you. Brenda says
that he plays the game. How do you know he doesn’t have three other-“
“Mom!” Belinda’s voice rose in defense. “Just
stop! I’m seeing Brian and that’s it.” Belinda had no intention of stopping
that. Although if she was being honest with herself she would admit she was
scared Brian would leave her for someone else. She knew he had a couple of
girlfriends before. But someone’s past actions didn’t determine their future
actions.
Her mom sighed heavily. “Okay, honey, I can’t
make you. But I want you do know something. So much of our life is determined
by our choices. Think about what your doing or-or what you may be planning to
do. And think how it’s going to cost you. It’s so very important that we make the right choices. Ones that please
God.” She picked up the worn brown book, that she had laid on the bed beside
her, with both hands. “This book is a family heirloom. It’s been passed down
from generations to generations. It was your great-grandmothers message to us
all. I want you to read this. Please promise me you’ll read it?”
Belinda sighed inwardly. Oh, great! “Sure,
mom.” She took the journal-like book. Anything
to get my mom off my back. Seriously you’d think dating was a horrible sin or
something.
“Thanks, honey.” Her mom’s smile was bright. “I’ll
leave you to study now.”
As soon as her mom had walked out and closed
the door Belinda tossed the book to the side. She certainly didn’t plan on
reading some accent old lady scribbling.
She turned her eyes back to her textbooks but
something deep inside her made her look back at the worn book laying a few feet
away from her. She didn’t know exactly what compelled her but she reached
forward and retrieved the book.
She opened the thick book, the pages light
brown from time. Belinda swallowed hard as her eyes rested on the words….
Chapter one
1865
Nine year
old Lizzie Peterson slapped in another shovel full of dirt into the deep grave
right as lighting flashed across the sky, causing her twin sister Lexie to
shudder.
Lizzie
didn’t blink as she continued feeling up the dark hole. She had been at this
since dawn this morning and she wanted to finish by midnight.
After a
few more minutes of hard work Lizzie finished filling the hole. She patted her
shovel over the surface to pack the dirt good. She stepped back with a huff.
There
lay her parents, in graves, side by side. Lizzie thought she may cry again but
held it in. She needn’t to be strong for Lexie, after all she was a minute
older. Lizzie didn’t know what to do exactly now that papa and momma were gone,
except she needed to go over to Mr. Tucker, their closest neighbor. He’d know
what to do.
Lizzie rubbed her eyes. She had prayed every
night that momma and papa would get better, but….
Lexie walked over to Lizzie’s side. “Lizzie, I
miss ‘em.”
Lizzie
put her arm around her little sister.
“I know. So do I. But we got to be brave.
“I
don’t know how to be brave.”
Somehow
through her pain Lizzie smiled. “I’ll help you.”
She
turned her little sister away from the graves and they headed back into the
small cabin.
“We’ll
stay here for the night, then we’ll go to Mr. Tucker’s ‘cause he’ll know what
to do.” Lizzie said as they walked into the dark cabin.
She
closed the door against the dark night; the room was lit by the flashing
lightening outside. No need for a lantern to be lit. “Come on. Let’s go to
bed.” She took her sister’s hand and led her to their bed in the far right
corner.
They
pulled of their shoes, slipped on their worn nightgowns. Lizzie let Lexie slip
in bed first and then she crawled onto the thin mattress and slipped under the
threadbare sheets.
Her
sister nestled up against her and Lizzie put her arm around her. “Goodnight,
Lexie.”
Lexie
sniffed. “Goodnight, Lizzie.”
“Lexie,
it’s okay to cry.”
Lexie
sniffed again. “Okay.” She said then sobs erupted from her tiny frame.
Lizzie
tightened her grip around her sobbing sister and cried with her.
The
night was so scary, it was dark, lightening flashed, thunder cracked so loudly
it shook the small cabin. But what was worst was that, save for God, they were
alone. So very alone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lizzie
opened her tired eyes around the peak of dawn. The storm had calmed and now
light rain poured outside the small window by their bed.
Lizzie
hated to awake her sister but the walk to Mr. Tucker’s would take awhile and
they had chorus first.
“Lexie.”
She said as she shook her sister’s shoulder gently. “Lexie, we got to get
going.”
Lexie
groaned as she stirred. She slowly sat up and rubbed her green eyes. “What’s
for breakfast?” She said as Lizzie slipped out of bed.
“Um, I
think there’s a biscuit left.” Lizzie reached for her gray dress. “We’ll split
it.”
Lexie
frowned. “We going to milk Rita? And feed the chickens?”
Lizzie
pulled her dress on over her head. “Yes. But let’s hurry.”
With
that knowledge Lexie crawled out of bed and dressed quickly. They walked out
into the light rain and hurriedly made their way to the barn to fetch the
chicken feed. Lizzie carried the sack and they walked back into the rain. The
chickens were all huddled inside the little chicken house. They tossed the feed
inside the small house by handfuls.
“You
‘pose we’ll be back in time to look in on them tonight?”
Lizzie
was slow to answer, she didn’t know what the future held but she did know that
they might not be back.
“I
don’t know what’ll happen, Lex.”
They finished
in silence and made short work of milking the cow.
“What
do we do with the milk?” Lexie asked as they walked back unto the cabin.
“We
strain it and take it to Mr. Tucker.” Lizzie said and shuddered against the
chill of the rain.
“Oohhh.”
They worked
together to strain the milk and the job was shortly done.
“Do we
go to Mr. Tucker’s now?” Lexie asked as Lizzie was finished washing the
strainer and milk bucket.
“Yeah.”
“Okay.
I’ll get our bonnets.”
With
their bonnets securely on their heads, they each took a hold of the milk bucket
and walked into the rain.
“It’s a
good thing we covered the top, huh, Lizzie?”
“Sure
thing.”
They
continued on but something inside Lizzie, something deep inside her, made her
stop and turn back to the cabin.
“What’cha
doing, Lizzie?”
“I’m
not sure, I just have a feeling we’ll never see it again.” Lizzie felt sad at
that, very sad.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
rain was still sprinkling heavily when the two little girls walked up to Mr.
Tucker’s small cabin. A large coon hound jumped up at the approaching presence
of the two frail frames and begin barking loud enough to wake up all of the
country side.
“What’s
that’a hollering about?” Mr. Tucker demanded of his dog as he opened his cabin
door. His jaw dropped as she saw the girls walking up to his dwelling.
“Hello, Mr. Tucker.” Lexie said as they stopped at the bottom of the
three steps leading up to his front door.
“Why,
girls-what are you…” His look shown of confusion. “What’cha doin’ here?”
“Our
parents are died. Happened yesterday. But we brought you some milk.” Lexie
blurted out bluntly and held up her end of a large milk bucket.
His
eyes widened. “What? How’d it happen?”
“It was
the fever.” Lizzie answered.
He
slowly shook his head, his eyes still wide. “I’m sorry little gals, um.”
“We
figured you know where to take us.” Lizzie stated.
Mr.
Tucker stared at her a moment before speaking. “I-I guess we’ll take you to the
sheriff.”
Lexie
gasped, dropped her end of the milk bucket-which caused the other things to
slip from Lizzie’s hand and milk splattered all over them-and flung her arms
around Lizzie, squeezing her tight.
“What’s
wrong?” Mr. Tucker said in a panic.
Tears
begin to pour down her cheeks.
Lizzie
tugged her slightly. “What’s wrong, Lex?”
“Sheriffs scare me. I don’t wanna go.”
Lizzie
wrapped her arms around her sister. “There is nothing to be scared of.
Nothing.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sherriff Sam stared at the two little beings
in front of him with his arms folded. Their hair was wet, their clothes old, they
smelled like milk, and Lexie’s eyes were wide with fear. But on the other hand,
Lizzie seemed to be calmer.
“‘Tant
much for me to do but take ‘em down to the orphanage.”
Both
girls looked at each other and Mr. Tucker, holding his hat with both hands in
front of his chest, looked down.
“I sure
hate to see that happen.” Mr. Tucker stated sadly.
“Yeah,
well, ‘tant much else I can do. I can ask around and see if anyone wants them
but meanwhile they need to go the orphanage.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The
girls clang to each other as the sheriff confirmed they’d have to go to the
orphanage. They had said goodbye to Mr. Tucker and asked him to take care of
their animals. They held on to each other as the sheriff drove them in a wagon
to the orphanage. They held on tighter when he introduced them to the mean
looking Miss Smith. They were so scared as they were assigned a bunk bed in the
corner of a large room. They tried not to cry as they sat down at dinner with
the twenty other kids. But they cried that night, and the next night, and the
next night. After two weeks Lizzie was able not to cry, but Lexie couldn’t
quite control the tears.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“This
is all her doing.” Said the large man, Mr. Jackson, who stood in front of Miss
Smith’s desk. “I don’t even want a young’n.”
Mrs.
Jackson, who sat in a chair across from Miss Smith, spoke sweetly. “All I’ve
had is boys, and I don’t think I’ll be having anymore children. I want a sweet
little girl. One who needs a lot of tending to.” Mrs. Jackson smiled knowingly.
Miss
Smith tapped her chin with a pencil in thought. Well, Lexie certainly needed a
lot of care. She was always crying and wouldn’t mingle with any of the other
children. But then there was her sister Lizzie. “I don’t suppose you want
twins?”
Mrs.
Jackson opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by Mr. Jackson’s loud,
“NO.”
Miss
Smith sighed and lowered the pencil to her desk. Well…it was what it was. She
had to get Lexie out of her hair before she drove her crazy. Her crying and
sadness was constantly getting on her nerves.
“Wait
right here.” She stood and went on the search, in the back yard, for Lexie.
She
found her sitting beside a tree with her sister who was drawing.
“Come
here, Lexie.” She called over the children’s loud playing.
Lexie
looked at her with wide eyes and remained sitting. Lizzie laid aside her
pencil, took her sister’s hand, and escorted her over to Miss Smith.
“Lexie,
I want you to come with me. But you had better hug your sister before you
leave.” Miss Smith said when the girls reached her.
Their
eyes widened. “Why?” Asked Lizzie.
“Because there is some nice people who want to
adopt your sister. But they don’t want both of you.”
Tears
streamed down Lexie’s face. “I’m not leaving without my sister! I’m not!”
Lizzie began to cry as well.
“Well,
sorry, darling, you are. Say goodbye right now.”
“Please-please Miss-Miss- Smith. We-want to
stay together. Please-”
“No,
now huge now, they’ve come all the way from Denver to find you.”
Lexie
squeezed her sister’s hand. “NO! I won’t go! Don’t take me!”
Lizzie
threw her arms around her sister. “PLEASE!” She screamed at Miss Smith who in turn
rolled her eyes and called for two bigger boys.
“Bring
Lexie but hold Lizzie back.”
The
girls screamed and kicked as the boys pried them apart, one taking Lexie into
the house and the other holding Lizzie back.
“I love
you!” Lizzie called out through sobs as her sister was taken away.
“I love
you, too!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had
been a whole month since her sweet sister had been tore from her arms. And
Lizzie had been crying every night since.
She
wondered where she was. Who she was with. If they treated her good. If she was
able to not cry all the time.
“Lizzie,
come here.” Miss Smith’s sharp tone pierced through Lizzie’s deep thought.
She slowly
climbed off her top bunk bed. She followed Miss Smith unto her office, when she
entered she saw a man and woman sitting in chairs in front of Miss Smith’s
desk.
“Lizzie,” Miss Smith said as she brought
Lizzie around her desk. “This is Mr. and Mrs. Tyson. They are interested in
adopting a young girl around your age.”
Lizzie
stared at the couple in front of her; the woman had light brown hair with tan
skin and blue eyes. Her hair was pulled into a fancy looking bun and she wore a
pretty green dress. The man looked tall; he had black hair and also had tan
skin. He clutched his hat in his hand. They looked…nice…real nice….
Mrs.
Tyson looked over at her husband with a soft smile and then she turned to
Lizzie. “What’s your name, honey?”
“Lizzie.
The
woman smiled bigger. “Lizzie…I like that.”
