As she stepped up to Howard and Sally Beth, she faltered and leaned on her father to get through another contraction, but as soon as it was over, she smiled and straightened, and walked to stand by Howard.
Sally Beth smiled shyly at Geneva and Howard and began:
“The right of joining in marriage is the work of the Lord only, and not the priest’s or magistrate’s, for it is God’s ordinance and not man’s. We marry none; it is the Lord’s work, and we are but witnesses. So, dearly beloved, we are gathered here together in the sight of God to witness the joining of this man and this woman in holy matrimony.” Geneva’s spirit sang and laughed. She flung her arms around Howard.
“Not yet, honey,” said Sally Beth gently. “We have to git through the ceremony first.” She continued, “Now, hold hands, please.” Howard snatched up Geneva’s hand and kissed it.
“Geneva, say this,” prompted Sally Beth. “In the presence of God and before these our families and friends…”
Geneva repeated the words.
“I take thee Howard, to be my husband, promising with Divine assistance…”
Geneva was overcome. She brought Howard’s hand to her lips, then touched his face as she spoke his names, “Howard, Chap, Ta li.”
“To be unto thee a loving and faithful wife so long as we both shall live,” breathed Sally Beth in a rush.
Geneva began the words, getting to “faithful wife” before she had to stop and breathe as the next convulsion began. It wracked her belly and spread throughout her whole body, but it felt like bliss, because Howard held her through it. As soon as she was able to stand alone again, Sally Beth prompted, “so long as we both shall live.”
“So long as we both shall live,” panted Geneva.
“Now Howard, say this: I take thee Geneva, to be my wife, promising with Divine assistance…”
Howard laughed and cried and pulled Geneva to him. “I take thee Geneva, Digvnasdi Atsilv Hawinaditlv Galvquodiadanvdo to be my wife. He covered her face with kisses as he said the words. “Promising with Divine assistance to be unto thee a loving and faithful husband, and a good father,” he added, as he kissed her belly.
“So long as we both shall live,” urged Sally Beth
“Hallelujah!” shouted Ike.
Everyone laughed, and there was a chorus of “hallelujahs,” before Howard said the final words. Then there were shouts and laughter and tears, but Howard suddenly stopped, “Wait! You didn’t do the ring part!”
Sally Beth replied, “Yew don’t need a ring, and we don’t have one anyway.”
“Yes, I do,” he replied, and from his own neck he took a pendant exactly like the one that Geneva wore. Her heart lifted high and joyous when she saw it. He had loved her all this time! He had worn this symbol of her next to his heart, even as he denied his hope for them. The tears flowed from her eyes as he wrapped the chain around her wrist and looped it around her fourth finger. The little red and yellow comet dangled from her hand. She turned it over, laying the bejeweled thing in her palm. “I give yew this, Geneva, as a sign of my everlasting love for yew. Thank yew for being my wife.”
And in turn, Geneva took the pendant from her neck, wrapped it around Howard’s wrist and looped it around his fourth finger. “I give you this, Howard, as a sign of my everlasting love for you. Thank you for being my…”
She stopped as a sudden “pop” resounded within her, as loud as a champagne cork leaving its home, and before she could fathom what it was, water gushed from her and spilled all over the ground, baptizing Geneva’s feet with the water of new life. Lenora laughed out loud, “I reckon yew’ve been pronounced man and wife, now and fer certain!” and she hustled the stunned Geneva into the bedroom, leaving everyone else to gasp and laugh and cry. Howard was on her heels.
The ambulance arrived, but there wasn’t much the paramedics could do. Lenora had taken control; she did not even let Wayne assist her, allowing only Rachel and Gaynell be on hand to comfort her. But it was Howard Geneva wanted, and she reached for him every time the waves came crashing over her, crying out his name over and over again while he clung to her. She tried to remember the training she had gone through weeks earlier, breathing carefully, concentrating, putting all her energies into her small, tight core, and willed her body to relax and do what it was meant to do. She stared at Howard’s face, and she felt herself lifting, rising out of herself, and floating into his eyes, feeling beloved, feeling she knew the answers to the mysteries of life. She delved into his love, and sank there, drowning in beauty. She did not want to move, to even breathe, afraid this moment would pass too soon. But then came the overwhelming need to push, and her body separated itself from her mind, and simply took over. She had no control, nor did she wish it. Her body was performing miracles all on its own, and all she could do was lie back and be awed by it.
Later, when the babe was wrapped in a soft blanket and handed to her, she felt the song of gratitude and praise rising out of her heart, Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, my soul! I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
The Lord answered her, Peace and love be unto you, my precious child.
And when she looked at Howard and their new son, she knew this promise would be kept.
A Saint in Graceland
a novel
deborah hining
To those intrepid adventurers, the missionaries who have
faced danger and hardship in order to share God’s Grace
Foreword
When I wrote A Sinner in Paradise, I did not know that a sequel would follow. It wasn’t until many of my readers demanded one that I decided to tell the story of what happened to Geneva’s crazy cousins and her bevy of disappointed suitors.
Of course, it had to be about Sally Beth—everyone insisted on that—but in order for her to grow beyond the guileless country girl who readers found so endearing in Sinner, I had to get her out of Tucker, West Virginia and onto the larger stage of 1978 world affairs. The events that test Sally Beth and her simple faith are so extraordinary you may find them difficult to believe, but they are, in fact, true. I invite you to read the notes at the end of the book for more information about the trials Sally Beth faced in her journey from artless innocent to mature woman.
I have to thank a number of people who have been a godsend to me during this process of birthing another book. Thanks to all of you who read A Sinner in Paradise, made such kind comments, and insisted on a sequel, and especially to Jean Lesesne, Delores Crotts, and Phil Hollingsworth. Your frequent friendly reminders that you were still waiting were a great incentive to keep going. My sisters of LOL3, your constant encouragement and inspiration have been more treasured than you realize. Laura Brown, thank you for doing the tedious task of finding and correcting my many mistakes. Many thanks to my musician friend Jim McConnell for the beautiful music he wrote for both A Sinner in Paradise and this sequel, my pilot friend Mike Bensen for educating me about flying small amphibious planes, and to Dr. Eldred Wiser for serving as my medical consultant.
I am very thankful to my husband, Michael, who endured my moanings and groanings, read very bad early drafts, always offered encouragement and sound advice, and for that marvelous road trip when you cheerfully drove hundreds of miles with me across the American Southwest so I could envision that rollicking road trip for Lilly and Sally Beth.
A big, squeezy hug to my publisher and friend, Lady Betty Turnbull, for your constant enthusiasm and for the opportunity to claim friendship with a real Baroness. And finally, to my editor, Elizabeth Turnbull, who made everything possible, then made it better, thank you.
Part One
In Search of Graceland
One
June 24, 1978, Tucker, West Virginia
Annilee slapped her leg and threw her head back, her mouth wide open with delight. “I declare, you two are the worst young’un’s I ever saw!”
She had a laugh that would limber up the neck of a sour Presbyterian cle
ric, and today its wholehearted abandon made Sally Beth’s heart dance. Her mother had been through some hard, unhappy years, what with Daddy dying and her heart problems, and then all the mess with the house falling down around her ears and not enough money to fix it. She wanted this moment to last a little longer, to give Annilee a little more time to steep in happiness.
“Don’t blame us, Mama,” she giggled. “You were the one egging us on to sing Mr. Hawkins’ new song! Now, hold on til you hear the second verse,” and she and her cousin Jackson launched again into the song they had already begun.
Annilee leaned back, clutching her stomach and laughing until water gathered in her eyes. Sally Beth was enjoying the brightness of her face, when suddenly she saw her mother wince and sit up straighter. Before Sally Beth and Jackson could begin the refrain, Annilee stood, lurched forward, and tumbled down the ten steps of the front porch. As she lay sprawled at the bottom, her head cocked at an absurd angle, Sally Beth’s heart leaped again, this time with fear. She gasped, dropped her guitar, and flew down to her.
She knew Annilee was dead even before she had come to a complete stop on the patch of gravel and dirt at the bottom of the steps. There was something about the way she fell, clutching at her chest with her face gone gray that made Sally Beth know that her mother’s frail heart had finally given out. Grief and shock exploded through her gut, but still, she couldn’t stop a part of herself from taking in the scene with a critical eye and wondering what she could do to make Annilee’s passing a little more dignified.
Annilee would not want to be caught dead upside down, with her dress bunched up around her waist so that her drawers were exposed. Not only that, but she had those awful knee-high hose on, and they looked even tackier than the panties. Sally Beth had told her mama not to wear those knee-highs, that bare legs were better, but Annilee had been concerned about her varicose veins showing, not to mention the fact that she hadn’t shaved her legs since Easter. Now, here she was, dead at the bottom of the steps, with those ratty panties and those hose exposed—one of them even had a run in it—and Jackson seeing all of it, after Annilee had taken such pains to make herself look good for his visit. Sally Beth sobbed aloud while she straightened her mother’s dress, and then her head.
She wondered if she ought to try to fix her hair a little. She just looked so pitiful with it all wild and covered with dust, the faded blonde turning ashy against the gray of the gravel. One shoe still teetered on the edge of a step, and her eyes were wide open, empty of the joy that had been there just a moment before. Sally Beth hoped she wasn’t still hovering nearby, looking at herself the way they say people do before they rush upward into the arms of Jesus. If she could somehow spare her mother the humiliation, she would do whatever it took. But Sally Beth wasn’t capable of much more than what she already had done. Knowing she would have to go on without her mama was more than she could handle right now. She put Annilee’s shoe back on, smoothed her hair, and gathered her mother in her arms, hugging her close and weeping inconsolably.
Jackson made his way gingerly down the steps. “Is she gone, Sally Beth?” he asked gently. She nodded, sobbing, rocking her mother.
Her cousin patted her on the shoulder before going inside to call the ambulance. It seemed like no time at all before they got there with their sirens blaring and their equipment clanging. She was still cradling Annilee in her arms when they gathered around her, big men who, by their very presence, made the scene more clumsy and painful. Sally Beth wanted to tell them to be more respectful of her mother’s sleep, but she let them pull her away so they could examine the body. She stood hugging herself in the shade of the sugar maple tree and wondered how on earth she was going to tell her sister that their sweet mama was gone.
June 27, 1978
Doc Alvers pulled Sally Beth aside, motioning for her to follow him into the bedroom, away from the crowd that milled softly in the living room. He closed the door behind them before turning to face her with a slight grimace.
“Sally Beth, I heard you telling some of the folks out there that Annilee grabbed at her chest and went gray before she fell off the porch.”
“Yeah, Doctor Alvers. I think her heart just went, and maybe she died before she even hit those steps. I hope she did. I hate to think how much it hurt to fall like that.”
“Now, honey, I want you to listen to me real good.” He looked at her intently but with compassion. “The fall killed your mother. She broke her neck. I have written ‘accidental fall’ on the death certificate, and I don’t want you giving anybody the idea that she might have died of a heart attack, or any natural causes. So you need not say another word to anybody that might shed some doubt on her dying accidentally. You got that?”
“Well, why on earth not? It seems to me that dying of a heart attack is a little more dignified than just falling off your own front porch. Mama wouldn’t like anybody thinking she would do anything that foolish.”
Doc Alvers sat heavily on the edge of the bed, his hands between his knees, the posture of a tired, old man. After a moment of looking at the floor, he returned his gaze to Sally Beth’s face. “After your mother’s first heart attack, after your daddy died, she knew she didn’t have much longer to live, so she tried to buy some life insurance. She couldn’t get any regular insurance because of her heart, so she got the only kind she could get—accidental. A bunch of policies with small death benefits and no underwriting.” Dr. Alvers held eye contact, dipping his head meaningfully.
An ugly conclusion wormed its way into Sally Beth’s head. “You mean my mama fell down those steps on purpose so she could cheat the insurance company?” She was shaking her head before the sentence was completed. “No, Mama wouldn’t do that, never! She never cheated anybody in her whole life. And besides, she wouldn’t kill herself, either. That’s a sin.”
“No, I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that she had accident insurance. It was the only kind she could get, and she wanted to make sure you and Lilly were taken care of just in case she died of an accident, which, in my opinion, she did. She acted above-board. The insurance companies were willing to sell it to her without requiring any medical exam—to collect all those premiums—and now I don’t want them latching on to any excuse not to pay the claims. They find out there’s even a possibility of her dying of natural causes, they’ll give you a world of grief, and you and Lilly need that money.”
Horrified and ashamed, Sally Beth blinked back angry tears. He hurried on. “It was the only thing she could think of she could do for you. Just—just think of it as an act of Providence that she happened to die accidentally, even if she might have been having a heart attack at the same time. Sometimes people panic when they feel pain in their chest, and they’ll jump up like that.” The doctor took Sally Beth’s hand. “Your mama was a good, honest woman. She wouldn’t ever do anything to hurt or cheat anybody. I believe she happened to die of a broken neck falling down the stairs, and that’s what I put on the death certificate. There wasn’t any need to do an autopsy, so I never checked her heart. Now don’t you go putting me in jeopardy by giving anybody the impression that I told a lie or that I didn’t do my job proper. And don’t give anybody the impression that your mama was nothing less than the righteous woman we all know her to be. Do her the honor of enjoying this money. Lord knows, she had a hard enough time making ends meet and still make those payments.”
Sally Beth bit her quivering lip. “How did you know about the life insurance?”
He sighed, a long, painful sigh full of resignation, his eyes sad and burdened with forty years of the closeted confessions of dying patients. “She told me.” He held up his hand. “Not that she had anything in mind. She just mentioned in passing that she had been getting these offers in the mail for accident insurance with no medical questions asked, and she wondered if it would be all right to get some. She never implied that she had something fishy in mind.” He put his arm around Sally Beth. “You hear me, now? She didn’t know how she was g
oing to go. She was just hoping the Good Lord would arrange something. And it looks like maybe He did. You hear me? I just don’t want you casting any doubts on the nature of her death.”
Her head began to swim.
“Sally Beth,” he said gently, “you need to breathe, honey.”
Sometimes, when she felt overwhelmed and there was absolutely nothing she could do to make the situation better, Sally Beth forgot to breathe. This was one of those times, for such news was more than she could comprehend, and although something in the back of her mind was insisting she should do something to fix this, she did not know how to begin. She forced the air into her lungs, put her head on Doc Alvers’ shoulder, and cried afresh.
June 28, 1978
Sally Beth woke to a beautiful blue and green morning, fresh and glorious after last night’s rain. There was a moment of appreciation for light and warmth before the weight of her loss hunkered down on the edge of her bed and crept over to press down on her. Grief did that, hiding behind the sunshine, skulking in the corners to come and spoil every moment of hope and life. She remembered how ugly it was from the weeks and months after her daddy’s death, how it lurked and leered.
Breathing in the morning air, she decided she would not wallow in the foulness of grief, but would give it over to the Lord. She sat up in bed and began, trying not to complain, but nevertheless taking her grievances before Him in a rush of words.
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