by Mary May
Sabrina nodded. “It is really good! Is that honey that I taste?”
Keelie shook her head. “You would think so, but it’s not. It is a spice that I mix with the butter before I add it to the batter. It’s called sweet meal and it comes from the petals of a cactus flower. I grow them in my garden at home. I’ll be happy to bring you some and show you how to make the bread if you would like,” she offered.
Sabrina smiled. “I would love that! Edgar taught me the proper way to hold the knife when I chopped vegetables earlier and with you teaching me how to bake this bread I just may open my own restaurant!” she laughed.
Carl spoke up. “It’s funny that you say that, Sabrina. Keelie and I have some news that we wanted to share with everyone today, a couple of things actually.” Everyone stopped eating and was looking at the couple. “First off, we have set a wedding date for June tenth of this next year, and everyone sitting here is required to attend!” The table exploded with words of happiness and congratulations. Keelie blushed and offered her thanks in her soft voice. “The second bit of news is that after the wedding and our honeymoon, we are opening a bakery in Devenport.” Again the table erupted with tidings of well wishes and questions about the bakery. Carl looked at Keelie and smiled. “This will be her baby, so I’m going to let her answer your questions.”
Sherrilyn took the lead with her questions: “What kind of bakery will it be? Will you have a specialty?”
Keelie actually sat up higher in her chair she became so animated speaking about her bakery. “Yes, I will, actually. I will specialize in baking the sweet breads that I brought with me today. There are several different varieties and I’m working on more recipes of my own.”
After that announcement everyone reached for her basket to try a sample of the bread. Catherine took a bite of the soft flakey roll and closed her eyes. “Oh, Keelie you will become a millionaire! These are just too good!” Everyone took bites and agreed with Catherine’s declaration.
“Do you have a name for it yet?” Sabrina asked.
“Yes! I’m going to call it The Cactus Rose Bakery, because the main ingredient, sweet meal, comes from the petals of the cactus flower.”
Carl looked proud as punch as Keelie went on to answer question after question from his family. He knew that she was really shy and found it hard to speak in front of more than two or three people, but she opened up like a cactus rose herself when she spoke of something she was passionate about. He thought back to the first time he saw her…
She was in the library on a reservation in Oklahoma when he came down for a convention. She was sitting in the middle of the floor surrounded by children and was reading Bible stories. Gone were the hesitant look and the fear of speaking; with the children she was relaxed, animated and enjoying herself, and she quite literally stole his breath away! He pulled up a chair and watched while she told the stories, using different voices for the different characters. The children all sat wide-eyed with wonder as she told them about Daniel in the lion’s den and Jonah and the whale. But his favorite story was when she told the story of the birth of Jesus. He could hear in her voice that she believed deeply every word of the story and that translated it into something extra special. Of course, it didn’t escape his attention that she was strikingly beautiful. With her long glossy black hair, deep brown eyes and her blinding white smile that she flashed so often, he was lost before he even had a chance. But what shone even brighter than her outer beauty was that sweetness and softness that radiated from her. After story time was over, she looked up and caught him watching her. Carl was nearly fifty-two years old, but he knew he blushed like a school boy.
“Can I help you?” She asked.
Carl just sat there for minute trying desperately to remember what he was even there for.
“Are you with the convention?” She asked.
Carl smiled. That’s right, the convention! He came in the library looking for more brochures. Keelie was starting to eye him with suspicion, until he finally told her what he was looking for.
“Yes, of course! We have plenty of brochures, let me show you.” She took off down the through the rows of books and left Carl standing there with a bemused look on his face. He thought her smile was beautiful when she smiled at the children, but when she turned the power of it on him he was blown away.
He finally followed her to where the stack of brochures was stacked neatly on the front desk; he walked right past them when he came in, but he didn’t regret that for one moment. What he found was a lot better than a stack of brochures!
The scraping of the chairs as everyone rose from the dinner table brought him out of his memories and he watched as Keelie and Catherine along with Sabrina started clearing the table. The three seemed to fall into the cleanup, each one taking on different duties and working together with ease. Sherrilyn had Charlie on her lap and was wheeling herself into the den where the butler was tending a good-sized fire. The room felt overly warm to Carl, so he removed his jacket before sitting in the chair the farthest away from the blazing hearth.
“For crying out loud, Edgar, we don’t need a taste of hell in here, just need the chill knocked out of the air; you could hatch an egg in here!” Sherrilyn exclaimed, fanning herself.
Edgar looked a little peeved. “Yes, madam, I am aware of the temperature in the room; however, it appears someone has replaced the oak kindling with old pine and that creates a very hot fire… I am trying to get it to die down,” he said as he worked with the fire.
Gideon stood in the corner leaning against a wall with his legs crossed at his ankles and was cleaning under his fingernails with what appeared to be a small oak sliver. When Edgar finally looked in his direction, the warrior saluted the old butler with the sliver of wood…then winked.
Chapter 22
Sabrina was putting Charlie down for the night when she heard someone enter the room behind her; she turned and saw that it was Keelie. She smiled. “She is getting almost too big for me to carry up all those stairs! We may have to invest in an elevator.”
Keelie laughed softly. “Sherrilyn said that you and Charlie will be living here on a permanent basis now; I think that’s wonderful.”
Sabrina closed the door and the women walked down the hall. “I have to admit that her offer took me by surprise. Did she also tell you that she is planning on leaving me this estate in her will?”
Keelie’s eyes widened. “No! She didn’t! That is very generous of her!”
Sabrina shook her head, “I agree; however, I’m not real comfortable about the whole idea. I love living here, don’t get me wrong, but to actually have her give this estate to me? I don’t know, it makes me nervous for some reason.”
Keelie nodded. “Well, it would be a lot responsibility, but I believe that Sherrilyn is wise enough to know that you could take care of the estate and of Edgar or she wouldn’t have come to that decision.”
Sabrina stopped and looked up at Keelie. “But why would she think that, Keelie? I’m barely twenty-four years old; I’ve never taken on anything this big before! There are so many different ways I could really mess this up that I don’t even want to think about it!”
Keelie smiled her beautiful smile. “Sabrina, Sherrilyn isn’t concerned about the knowledge you carry here.” She gently tapped the side of Sabrina’s head. “She is impressed with the amount of love that you carry here.” Then she tapped her chest over heart. “When you love something, you do your best to take very good care of it, isn’t that true?” Sabrina nodded. “Do you love this estate?” Again Sabrina nodded. “Do you love Edgar?” Sabrina wiped away a tear before nodding this time. “Then this place will be in the best of hands, don’t you agree?” Sabrina smiled as she felt the burden lift from her shoulders from the fear of taking on the huge estate.
The four ladies were all sitting in the den, which was now a more comfortable temperature, discussing Keelie’s upcoming wedding. Carl and Evan had retired for the night and left the ladies chattering about dr
esses and flowers. Catherine asked Keelie if she had an idea about what type of dress she wanted.
“I would like to wear my grandmother’s gown. It’s not what you would call a traditional wedding dress, but it’s very beautiful and I love it.”
Catherine reached over and patted her knee. “If you love it, then that’s all that matters, Keelie. You could wear a flour sack and still be beautiful!” she laughed.
“I’m nervous that Carl may not approve of it; let me show you a picture. I just had it dry cleaned and I tried it on at home.” Keelie pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and scrolled through it until she found what she was looking for. She handed it first to Catherine who took it and stared at the picture without saying anything then passed it on to Sabrina. Sabrina looked at the picture as well and was silent.
Sherrilyn finally spoke up. “Well, for Pete’s sake, is she naked? Is it see-through? Why are you all so quiet?”
Sabrina laughed. “No, it’s not transparent. I just don’t know what to say really…words can’t describe how beautiful Keelie is in this gown.”
Sherrilyn groaned. “Do you think you could try? You have a blind person here and I could really use a visual description, please!”
The ladies all laughed and Catherine said, “I’m going to try, Sherry, but whatever I say won’t come close to what we are seeing…The gown looks to be made from albino buckskin. It’s almost a pure white but not quite. It’s long like a traditional wedding dress. The bodice is snug and the neckline is sharp and goes down into a deep V. From inside the V white feathers are coming up and conceal her breasts so it’s really very modest. There are leather ties cinching up her waist like a corset in the front and the back. Her skirt is long and sweeps the floor and trails out behind her as she walks. The front of the skirt is split up the middle to mid-thigh and there are more soft white feathers that cover her legs. Keelie looks like an Indian princess bride and is too beautiful to describe. If she doesn’t wear this gown, I’m going to tell Carl on her!”
Sherrilyn sighed. “It’s times like these that I really hate being blind! You did a wonderful job, Catherine. Thank you. I think I got an idea and it truly does sound wonderful. Why would you think that Carl wouldn’t approve, Keelie? He would never ask you to deny your heritage.”
Keelie nodded, “I know that he wouldn’t ask that of me; I just don’t want to make him uncomfortable. It’s his wedding, too.”
Sabrina got up and knelt down in front of Keelie. “I have known Carl for four years and I can promise you, Keelie, he would want you to wear that dress. He would be hurt if you thought that he wouldn’t approve of something you love. Promise us you will wear it?”
Keelie smiled and wiped away a tear. “I promise.”
Catherine clapped. “That’s wonderful! I can’t wait to see Carl’s face when he sees you; we might want to have a paramedic standing by to restart his heart!” They all laughed.
“Will you incorporate any other of your traditions in the wedding, Keelie?” Sabrina asked.
Keelie smiled and a mischievous look came in her eyes. “Well, there is one tradition that I would like to use. It’s where the man proves he is worthy of his bride and can feed her by jumping into a nearby stream and spearing a fish with a spear that he has to make…the honeymoon can’t take place until he has speared a fish! I’ve seen honeymoons not take place for a week!”
The women all looked at each other and busted out laughing. “Oh, yeah, you have got to use that one! That’s priceless!” hooted Sherrilyn! “Of course, we won’t make Carl wait a week for you, but let’s let him splash around for a bit anyway!” The women spent the next couple hours going over more wedding plans and possible honeymoon destinations before calling it a night.
Gideon had listened to the ladies talk about Keelie’s weddings plans and he wondered what that would be like. To fall in love and want to spent the rest of your life with someone? Humans had such short life spans compared to angels that it would seem to him one would need to be very careful in choosing a life partner. He knew you could get divorced and that’s what so many people did these days. When things got too rough, they would just divorce the one and move on to another. But he knew that wasn’t what God intended. He thought that Keelie and Carl would be one of the few to make it. He then wondered if Sabrina would ever remarry. She was so young and Charlie would need a father figure to guide her through life. If she ever did decide to remarry, Gideon decided he would help her choose the best one for the job, although no matter who she chose they would have some pretty big shoes to fill…
The group of friends and family spent the remainder of weekend indoors as the weather proved to be unpredictable at best and downright nasty at the worst. Everyone would agree that the best part was when a strong gust of wind tore the large inflatable turkey off its bindings and the men had to chase it across the yard to keep it out of the road. You would think the turkey had control of its movements the way they would nearly reach it then it would dart off in another direction. Poor Edgar got trounced by it several times…it seemed the turkey took a serious dislike to the old butler! By the time they finally caught it and tied it back down firmly, they were all soaked to the bone. Charlie thought it was a great game and laughed and squealed while she watch the men run from one end of the yard and back after the turkey. She was disappointed when they finally got it!
Sunday morning they all went to church and that afternoon the guests left after making plans for Christmas. It may have had a rocky start but they all agreed it was the best Thanksgiving that they could all ever remember.
Sabrina had decided to wait until summer to put in her resume at the local schools, and she had put the largest part of the insurance money into a trust for Charlie. She still wouldn’t let Sherrilyn talk about giving her the estate, even though she felt more confident in her ability to take care of it after talking to Keelie. The main reason she didn’t want to talk about it was that would bring up the subject of Sherrilyn dying, and that thought was just too painful for her. Surely, SURELY God wouldn’t take another person from her life so shortly after Luke’s death. Sabrina knew deep inside she was being selfish, but she couldn’t help it. She needed Sherrilyn so much! She would find herself praying several times a day for either a complete healing for her friend or a kidney donor; she didn’t really care which as long as it meant she got to have Sherrilyn in her life for a few more years. She wished she could be as strong as her mother and be more willing to let her go if it came to that, but she was afraid she would beg her to stay. She struggled with herself, knowing that she should have more trust and faith in God to do what was right for Sherrilyn, even if that meant Sabrina would lose her.
Sherrilyn’s condition was growing worse and now she had to have dialysis twice a week to clean her blood of the toxins and impurities. She had to go to a local clinic and it would take several hours. Sabrina would go with her sometimes. She was terrified, watching the machine pump the blood out of one of her arms and run it through a machine and return it through the opposite arm. The trip and treatment always wiped Sherrilyn out, and Sabrina honestly wondered if the treatments were going to kill her before her failing kidneys did. What truly amazed her was the fact that even though Sherrilyn had to feel terrible, she kept her smile and bright attitude. Sabrina knew that if she was in that condition she would probably be so cranky they would have to put her in isolation to protect the rest of mankind! She made that comment to Sherrilyn one afternoon while they were waiting for her treatment to end.
Sherrilyn just chuckled. “Sweetheart, either way it goes, I win.” When Sabrina looked confused she explained, “If I get a donor or if the Lord heals me, then I get to stay with you and Charlie and Edgar and all the others. If I pass on to glory, then I get to be in the sweet presence of my Savior, so the way I see it either outcome is good for me.”
Sabrina didn’t really agree with that…it certainly wouldn’t be good for her if Sherrilyn passed, but she kept that to herself and just n
odded and smiled at her friend.
Sabrina and Charlie were putting up the huge Christmas tree in the den. Sherrilyn was lying on the couch listening to the Christmas music and to Sabrina and Charlie as they decorated the tree. She had grown so weak now that even sitting up in her chair for any length of time would tire her out. Sabrina felt the fear of her friend’s death clamp around her heart like a cold fist. She was just a little bit angry at Sherrilyn, truth be known. How could she be so okay with leaving them? Didn’t she know how hard it was going to be on all of them to lose her? The more she thought about it, the madder she got. She didn’t even realize she was throwing boxes around and stomping until she heard Sherrilyn ask Edgar to take Charlie up to her nursery for a little while.
“You mind telling me what’s got your dander up, little girl?” Sherrilyn asked her. Sabrina stopped and stood with her hands on her hips and stared at Sherrilyn. “Don’t stand there giving me your death glare; what’s the matter? Don’t even bother saying nothing! I’ve been lying here for the last thirty minutes trying to listen to Nat King Cole sing Christmas carols and I all can hear are your feet stomping around and boxes being thrown. Not to mention all the muttering under your breath that you’re doing, so just spill it!”
Sabrina sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Sherrilyn raised her brow at that comment. “I think you do! You are already talking about it, but just not where I can hear you. Sit your behind down, little girl, and tell me what is the problem!”
Sabrina was surprised at the strength in Sherrilyn’s voice. She knew that unless she just refused she was going to have to talk to her. She sat down on the end of the couch where Sherrilyn was lying.
Sherrilyn nudged her with her foot. “So talk.”
Sabrina would rather eat worm dirt washed down with fish tank water than to hurt Sherrilyn, so she wasn’t sure how she was going to do this. “I’m upset,” she stated.
