THE WAR IN EUROPE WAS OVER!
Abe, a very pregnant Violet, and Anna piled into the Model T and motored into town to join the VE-Day celebrations. The bells in the Methodist church tower pealed across the valley. There was music and singing and dancing in the streets and liquor consumed by more than a few residents of Kings Meadow. People laughed. People cried. Those who had lost someone in the war cried the most.
At least that was true for Anna who felt afresh the reality that her daddy would never come home from Europe.
After an hour or so, she wandered away from the crowds until she found a place where she could be alone to remember her daddy. With the passing of each month, it had become harder and harder to remember the details of his face without the help of the photograph of her parents that she carried with her. The memory of his voice had become little more than a whisper.
But one thing hadn’t changed. Whenever she was with Shiloh’s Star, she sensed her daddy’s presence. It gave her courage when she felt like sliding back into fear. It helped her hold onto the dream that had been his first and was now hers to see to fruition.
“Next year, Daddy,” she said aloud, her eyes squeezed shut. “Next year there oughta be a colt or a filly out of Golden Girl by Shiloh’s Star. He doesn’t say it, but I think Abe’s as excited as I am.” She paused, willing her words to reach her father. Could those who’d gone on to heaven hear the folks left on earth? She wanted it to be so. “They’re good to me, the Leonards. Real good. Tell Mama I’m doing fine and behaving, like she taught me I should.”
With her forearm, she wiped away the last of her tears and opened her eyes again in time to see Violet walking across the field toward her. Waddling might be a better description of the way she moved through the tall, pale-green grasses of spring, one hand resting on her swollen abdomen, the other pressed against the small of her back. And she still had six weeks to go before the baby was due. How much bigger would she get?
“Anna? Are you all right, hon?”
Anna nodded.
Violet stopped beneath the tree where Anna sat and awkwardly lowered herself to the ground next to her. “We got worried when we couldn’t find you.”
“Sorry. I was . . . I was—” Her throat closed up, cutting off her words.
“You were thinking about your father,” Violet finished for her.
Anna nodded.
“I don’t blame you. If I’d lost somebody close to me in this awful war, this day’d make me feel the same way. Over at last but such a huge price was paid. And still not done in the Pacific.” She put her arm around Anna and drew her close. “It’s all right, you know, to ask God why things happen the way they do. I used to think I had to pretend that I was all right with everything the way it was, that if it was God’s will for something to happen in my life, then I ought to be happy about it. But that was just pretending. God doesn’t need me to pretend, and He isn’t afraid of my questions. You go right on and pour out your feelings to Him. Don’t hold back. He’ll listen, and then He’ll comfort. You see if He doesn’t.”