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Amberlin Gentry watched the dishwater as it spiraled down the drain. It reminded her of another time several years ago when she’d been young and innocent and found it fun to play with water funnels. Then grandmother Rose had intervened. She paused a moment with her right hand poised over the water, her index finger pointing at the funnel, but then stopped. She recalled the angry reaction of her grandmother as she had played with the water spout of her draining tub when she’d been six or seven. She could still feel the crisp slap across her hand and the harsh words that accompanied it. It was the only time she could remember either of her grandparents using any form of physical force to correct her.
She relaxed her hand and drew it away from the sink, reaching instead for a hand towel. Using the special powers that had been passed on through the generations of the Gentry women had only led to trouble—had, in fact, eventually led to her dearly beloved Papa Herb’s death. It would be best to follow her grandmother Rose’s advice and leave such abilities alone.
She turned away from the kitchen sink and gazed around the spacious kitchen that was, in many ways, the focal point of her family now. It had been almost four years since she had arrived at Canyon Green’s homestead. It was tucked away at the end of a winding mountain road, miles from the closest town of Little Switzerland. She’d arrived with Miriam and her mother, Evelyn. Amberlin had spent most of her childhood thinking her mother had died in childbirth delivering her. She later learned that had been a lie perpetrated by her grandmother and Missy Stover, the minister’s wife of the Golden Acre Christian Community where they all lived. That lie had also been a product of the Gentry women’s special powers and had shaped much of Amberlin’s childhood. Papa Herb had insisted such powers could and should be viewed as a blessing from God, but Rose had insisted they were a curse from Satan. After what had happened to Papa Herb, Amberlin tended to agree with her grandmother.
The three of them had arrived at the Green’s homestead as fugitives from justice. Evelyn had been shot by Missy Stover at the same time that Reverend Stover had shot and killed Papa Herb. The Stovers had then turned the story around, convincing the police that it had been Evelyn who’d shot her father in retaliation for his condoning her being admitted to Western Carolina Sanitarium. There she’d met Miriam Mason, one of the nurses who had befriended Evelyn and eventually helped her to escape.
The three of them had fled from the asylum seeking someone who could doctor Evelyn's gunshot wound without turning them into the authorities. Canyon Green had been a godsend. A friend and Army buddy of Miriam's deceased husband, Canyon had been a medic in the service. He had no love lost for the police even though he was a staunch patriot at heart. They hadn't planned to stay long; just long enough for Evelyn to receive the help she needed, but days had turned into weeks and weeks into months. Before anyone knew it, those months had turned into a year, and then two. Somewhere along the way, Miriam had returned to her mother's home to reclaim her son, Matthew or Matty as everyone called him. She had then returned to the Green's homestead and to the man with whom she'd fallen in love.
Amberlin sat down at the round oak kitchen table with the carved lion feet around where they all sat for their meals. The sprawling log cabin had been in Canyon’s family for generations. It had stood abandoned for a few years, but when Canyon had returned from the Army with an honorable discharge, he’d reclaimed his heritage. He had spent years repairing the cabin that sat in the middle of about twenty acres of rolling farmland mixed with woods. It had become not only a haven from the law but, over time, a home complete with a new family.
While she still missed Papa Herb and yes, her grandmother Rose as well, Amberlin had finally released them to recede into the past. The only fragment retained was old Ruffian, Papa Herb's Australian sheepdog. She had found him wandering in the woods behind their burned-out home where Rose had lost her life, the only time Amberlin had dared to return to Golden Acres.
Now, she had Miriam and Canyon. On most days, she thought of them as her aunt and uncle, even though she thought of Matty as her younger brother. Then, there was Evelyn, her true mother with whom she’d reunited after so many years of thinking her dead. Some days she thought of her as her mom, but on other days when Evelyn was having one of her ‘off days,’ she felt more like an older sister. On the awful days, Evelyn seemed like a much younger sister that needed protection, compassion, and more than a little forgiveness.
Amberlin hung the towel up and walked into the foyer area where she pulled on her heaviest coat. The weather in mid-January in the North Carolina mountains could be brutal, but chickens still needed to be fed, and their nests checked for eggs that would make up the bulk of the next day's breakfast. Luckily, Canyon insisted on taking care of the small herd of goats and cows himself, though from time to time he called upon her to help with the milking. She wrapped the new scarf that Miriam had given to her for Christmas around her neck and donned a wool cap over her blonde curls before picking up the egg basket. She took a last look around at the myriad of coats, boots and other winter paraphernalia. There'd been no new snow for close to a month so the well-worn path to the chicken coop wouldn't require boots.
“Matty, I'm going to check on the chickens. I'll be back in a few minutes, and we can play that game of checkers I promised you."
“Hurry back,” the young boy called from the other room. “I’ll set the board up. Can we play the best two games out of three?”
“Sure, I guess so,” Amberlin replied. “I’ve completed my homeschool work for today.”
She took a deep breath, preparing herself for the assault of cold air as she opened the front door. As she trudged to the coop, she smiled. Life on the farm wasn’t always easy, but she’d grown to love it. She felt blessed that they’d truly found a haven here.