The Angel's Song

by Roberta Kagan

  May’s grandparents doted on her. She was an adorable child with her soft downy brown hair and eyes the color of sweet maple syrup. Anyone could see that May was small for her age, but she was smart. She turned over early and had just begun to crawl when something happened that changed the lives of the Hunt family forever. It all began with a visitor who came into the church right after Aiden’s Sunday morning sermon.

  It wasn’t until the entire church service ended that Viola saw the strange man approach her father. He was older than her paw, but he was devastatingly handsome, like an actor out of a movie magazine. A sturdy woman walked beside him. In her strong and capable arms, she carried a little girl with bright red hair. When Aiden saw the man his face fell and turned chalky white. It was rare for people who did not live in the town to come to the Mudwater church but it had happened a time or two. They were usually reporters and wanting to talk about the snakes. Aiden always treated visitors with respect and kindness and he always maintained an air of confidence.

  But not with this man. This man was different. Viola knew her father well, and she could see that there was something about this man that unnerved him. May was tired and fussing in Viola’s arms. Viola knew she should probably take the baby home for a nap. Her diaper was also probably wet and there was a good chance she was hungry too. Most Sundays Viola would take the baby home, give her a quick change and a bottle, and May would fall asleep in her arms. Then Viola would help Alice prepare their Sunday dinner. But today, Viola couldn’t leave. She saw that there was something about this stranger that struck a deep chord in her father, and even though she could not put her finger on what it was, she could not move from the spot where she stood, either.

  Then her mother saw the stranger. For a moment, her mother looked as if she were frozen alive. Then Alice walked over to where Aiden stood beside the visitors. Even from across the room, Viola could see her mother’s hands were trembling.

  Who is this fella? Why’d he come here and what’s he want from us? Viola thought.

  She cocked her head and her eyes were glued to the scene taking place only a few feet in front of her. Several of the church parishioners walked up to her father to thank him for his sermon, but Pastor Hunt was too distracted to talk to them. It was so unlike her father that Viola was worried. She saw her mother’s hand go up to her throat and although Viola could not hear what they were saying, she knew that her mother was distressed.

  The church was clearing out. But as the people were leaving, they were turning around to look at the pastor and his wife. Some of the older folks were shaking their heads as if they knew something Viola was not privy to. Aiden didn’t seem to notice any of them.

  Once everyone else left the church, Viola warily walked over to her parents and the strange visitors.

  “Why did you come back here to Mudwater?” her father was asking the man.

  “I needed to make peace with you, Aiden. It was time,” the man said. His clothes told Viola that he was from the city. He didn’t look like all the regular men from Mudwater Creek. He wore a nice pair of slacks and a clean white cotton shirt that fit him good. It looked store bought instead of homemade.

  “Years done gone by, Cyrus. I ain’t sure what you want from me. I ain’t sure what you want from us …” Aiden said, looking at Alice who looked like she might pass out.

  “I found that as a man goes through life he has plenty of ups and downs. And as he grows older, he realizes just how important his family is. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, Aiden. And I’ve hurt a lot of people. I can’t change the past. But I’ve come home to beg for your forgiveness. And … yours too,” he said, turning to Alice.

  “Paw, you all right?” Viola asked.

  “Yes, honey,” Aiden said.

  “Who is this man?”

  Aiden glanced at Cyrus and then at Alice. He had never lied openly to anyone. He had avoided telling Viola about Cyrus until now. But once she asked him who Cyrus was, Aiden knew he could not lie to her. “He’s your rightful father, Viola.”

  Viola and Cyrus both looked stunned.

  “I thought the baby died in childbirth,” Cyrus stammered. “That’s what Gracie told me. I came home right after the war. I wanted to see you. But I just didn’t have the guts. I saw Grace though.”

  “She lied to you. Probably wanted to protect us,” Aiden said. “She loves Viola very much.”

  “Where is Grace?”

  “Gone from Mudwater Creek. She got married and moved away to live in the city. It’s just us that’s left here, Cyrus. Paw and Maw died. Ain’t nobody else.”

  Viola was in shock.

  “What do you mean he’s my paw? You’re my paw,” Viola said to Aiden. “You’re the only paw I ever knowd. This here fella ain’t nothin but a stranger to me. He sure ain’t my paw,” she said, staring at Aiden, tears about to run down her cheeks.

  “You got two fathers, honey. It don’t mean I love you any less. Nothin’ is gonna change in our lives today just cause my brother has come home. You hear me? Nothin,” Aiden said.

  “Maw, what’s paw, tryin to tell me? I don’t understand. What’s he mean by all this?” Viola asked.

  “When I was very young,” Alice said then she took a deep breath, her face as pale as a china plate. “I made a mistake. I hope you can find it in your tender heart to forgive me. Folks do stupid things when they’s young. Cyrus was wild and handsome and in those days, his wicked ways was somehow attractive to me. As I got to know Cyrus, I was bewitched by his handsome face and his charm. And fer a while, I thought I loved Cyrus more than I loved your paw. Things between Cyrus and me got complicated the way that things do sometimes and well, I am ashamed to say it to you, but I got pregnant. I ain’t sorry I got pregnant because God been good to me. He gived me you and you have been the joy of my life, Viola. But when Cyrus run off after he found out I was going to have a baby, it was your paw what stayed right here by my side. God show’d me that your paw, my Aiden, was always my one true love. And don’t you never forget that he always loved you too. He adored you from the time you taked your first breath. He didn’t never leave your side, no matter whether you was celebrating something joyous or mourning. Cyrus mighta made me pregnant, but Aiden’s your real paw. And he’s May’s grandad too.”

  “Maw … I don’t know what to say. I’m rightly shocked.”

  “I know, honey. We shoulda tol you. But it didn’t never seem like the right time. Your Maw and me just didn’t never want to see you hurt,” Aiden said.

  “I am so sorry for everything I’ve done to all of you,” Cyrus said. “I came back hoping that we could be a family again. But it looks like I’ve made things worse by coming here.”

  Aiden shook his head. “I ain’t sure what to say.” He took a deep breath then continued. “You plannin on stayin?”

  “I don’t know. I’d like your blessing if Ashlyn and I did decide to stay.”

  “I reckon, I needs some time to think about all this. This all sure comes as a shock.”

  “Of course,” Cyrus said.

  After Aiden walked out of the church, Alice turned to the woman who stood beside Cyrus and said, “I suppose you already know me. I’m Alice Hunt, Aiden’s wife.”

  “I’ve heard nice things about you, Alice. I’m Ashlyn Hunt, Cyrus’s wife.”

  Alice nodded her head. She sighed and took a deep breath. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. And, like I always say, God’s got a plan.” She smiled. “Why don’t you and Cyrus go on up to the old Hunt house? Ain’t nobody livin there. You could stay there for now and make yourselves comfortable. At least you’d have a place to set down and wait for Aiden. I cain’t say when he’ll come talk to you. But I know my husband, and he’ll eventually decide to talk to his brother. It might take him a day or two, but you mark my words, he’ll come. And don’t you worry about nothin, if’n you need fer us to bring you some food I can have Viola bring you some. Come on, let’s all of us go. Me and Viola will walk you two over to the Hunt house.”


  All of them left the church and began to walk over to the house where Pastor Hunt had raised his two sons. It stood there solid as the Hunt family itself, right behind the church.

  “This is all very kind of you, Alice. Cyrus told me everything that happened, I know it must be hard for you.”

  “It’s a lot easier than I ever thought it would be. You see, fer years I wondered what I’d do if Cyrus ever comed back. Now that he’s here, well, now that I sees him eye to eye … I know that God’s plan worked wonders. When I looks at Cyrus and I think about all that happened between him and me, instead of feelin’ bad, I realize God’s true intention. God used Cyrus to put me and Aiden together. And I am truly happy married to my husband. I love him somethin’ fierce. Even though it hurt me a lot at the time, I sure am grateful to Cyrus fer leavin when he did. Because by leavin, he was bringin’ me and Aiden together. And he also did another wonderful thing by givin us Viola. You see, Aiden and me ain’t been able to conceive a child together. So we feel mighty blessed to have our precious Viola girl and our little grandbaby. I don’t know how you feel about all this. But I hope that somehow you and me might come to be good friends.”

  “I think that would be very nice. I would like that very much.”

  They arrived at the Hunt house and Alice opened the door. Then she smiled and said, “Well, this here is the house. It’s pretty clean. Viola was livin here with her husband before the mudslide took him. She didn’t want to stay alone after he died, so she lives with Aiden and me now. Anyway, ain’t nobody here gonna bother you. So you’ll have you plenty of privacy. Like I said, I can’t tell you fer sure when Aiden will be ready to talk to Cyrus. But stay as long as you want. You’re kin. You’re Hunts and you’re welcome here.”

  “Thank you so much for your graciousness, Alice,” Ashlyn said. Then she and Cyrus closed the door.

  Sometime during the walk back, May stopped fussing and fell asleep in Viola’s arms.

  There was not a word spoken for several uncomfortable moments as Viola and Alice made their way up the hill together.

  “I sure am sorry that you had to find out about Cyrus and me this way,” Alice finally said. “I hope you can forgive me.”

  Viola stopped and turned to her mother. “It’s all right, Maw. I know you and Paw always loved me. I gotta say that I had a wonderful childhood. And, well, so what if this man called Cyrus Hunt was the one who fathered me? Paw was my real father. He been with me through thick and thin and I wouldn’t trade him fer nothing.”

  “I feel the same way about your Paw, honey. And I feel the same way about you too. I know I am so blessed to have you and your paw as my family.”

  “But Maw … I have an important request. I don’t never want my little girl to know that Paw ain’t her real grandpa. And if Cyrus and Ashlyn stay, maybe they’d agree not to tell their little girl neither. Cause I know’d if she knows, as soon as they’re older, she’s gonna tell May. I just reckon that I don’t think it’s a good thing for a child to know all this kinda stuff. It confuses them.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Aiden walked out of the church leaving his brother standing at the door. Aiden’s feet seemed to have a mind of their own as he raced down to the creek. He needed time to sort everything out. He couldn’t take on the problems of any of his parishioners right then. Aiden just needed time alone. Once he got to the creek, he sat under the old weeping willow tree and for the first time in many years, he allowed himself to remember his childhood and his brother Cyrus.

  We swam right here in this very creek when we was just boys, he thought. In his mind’s eye, Aiden could see Cyrus as a boy of ten whooping and hollering as he jumped off the rocks into the muddy water with Aiden behind him. Even now, he could hear them both laughing as they lay under the tree on a hot golden summer afternoon.

  Cyrus and me hunted rabbit and squirrel right here in these very woods so many years ago. Cyrus. When we was just kids, I admired him so much. Heck, he was my older brother and I was always so proud of it. It was Cyrus who taught me how to hunt and shoot. And I can still remember how we run through these woods chasin’ each other when we was playing cowboys and Indians. Part of me wants to be mad at Cyrus fer all he done to me and Alice and even to Paw but fact is, I cain’t. Everythin in my life has worked out pretty damn good. And, fact is, in the back of my mind I was always scared that if Cyrus come back, I’d lose Alice to him. But now that he’s here, I can see that she don’t seem interested in him no more at all. Maybe it’s good Cyrus come back home so as we can all finally put old ghosts to rest and start over again. I think it would be a right good thing if’n we could be a family again. And I am real sure that if’n paw were alive, he’d a wanted this.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Cyrus lit the kerosene lamp that sat on the table and within seconds, the room where he grew up came into light. He felt a heaviness weigh in his chest as he gazed around the empty space.

  “I was a boy here. Right here in this little cabin,” he said to Ashlyn, but he was also speaking to himself. “You see, right here?” Cyrus indicated a space on the dirt floor. “This is where I slept. Aiden slept right there beside me.”

  Ashlyn said nothing. She just nodded, listening in her strong reassuring way.

  “This old lamp?” Cyrus pointed to the lamp he’d just lit. Then he sat down on one of the two chairs in the house. “It’s been here for as long as I can remember.”

  “How are you feeling?” Ashlyn got up and began to gently massage Cyrus’s back.

  “I can’t say really. I guess you could say it’s pretty emotional for me being back home. Aiden’s gotten older. His hair has thinned out and there’s a touch of gray at the temple. I should have expected it. I mean, I know I got older. But somehow … I was foolishly expecting him to look just the way he did the day I left him.”

  “I can understand that. It’s like he was almost frozen in time the last time you saw him.” Ashlyn hesitated for a moment. Then she said in a soft voice, “You never told me that Alice was so pretty.”

  “She’s pretty. But it doesn’t matter to me. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”

  “But you have a child with her. There has to be some feelings still there between you …”

  “The only feelings I have for Alice are that I wish her and Aiden the very best. And … I am sorry for how much I hurt both of them. I love you, Ashlyn. I love you for all that you are.”

  Ashlyn turned away, hiding a tear that fell down her cheek. “I love you too, Cyrus,” she said.

  “You know, there’s only one thing missing about being home. I sure wish my paw were still alive so I could talk to him. I have so many questions for him that will never be answered.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like why he loved Aiden more than me.”

  “Oh, Cyrus, stop hurting yourself by asking that. Maybe he didn’t love Aiden more. Maybe he just thought Aiden would be a better pastor.”

  Before Cyrus could say another word there was a knock on the door. Ashlyn looked at Cyrus. He nodded for her to open it. When she did, Aiden walked in. Cyrus rose from his chair not knowing what to expect. Then without saying a word, Aiden walked over to Cyrus and embraced him. For several moments there was silence. Then through his tears, Aiden said, “Welcome home, brother.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The raising of two little girls only a year apart was a challenge for Viola, Alice, and Ashlyn. They all discussed Viola’s request not to tell the children about Cyrus being both of their fathers, and they all agreed that it would be too confusing if they told them. So it was agreed that May would believe that Alice and Aiden were her true grandparents while Caroline would grow up to believe that Ashlyn and Cyrus were her parents. Neither girl would know the truth.

  Of course, this was only to keep the children from being embroiled in a situation that took place long before their time. What difference could it ever make that May’s grandfather by blood was Cyrus and Caroli
ne’s mother was a beautiful vixen who died in childbirth? And so the secrets of the Hunt family’s past were buried deep like the coal in the mountain that rose high above Mudwater Creek.

  With the children so close in age, the three women spent a lot of time together and they developed a deep friendship. Alice taught Ashlyn how to plant potatoes and various other vegetables while Ashlyn taught Viola and Alice to read. They also found clever ways to share their workloads by alternating jobs. Each day, one of the women would cook for both families, another of them would clean and do the wash for both households while the third would watch and care for the children.

  Meanwhile, Cyrus helped Aiden manage the church. He didn’t preach, but he did plenty of maintenance on the building. He also took a job working at the general store in town. The two men sometimes reverted back to the little boys they’d once been when in their spare time they would once again sneak off for a day of swimming in the creek and fishing. Cyrus was finally at peace in his life for the first time.

  A few years back, a company came to town to build a local dam and they brought electricity to the small village. It was a big change for the folks who lived in Mudwater Creek as there were fewer fires from the candles and lamps.

  “Progress,” Cyrus called it.

  And when Aiden and Cyrus worked on the Hunt house together, repainting it and adding modern conveniences, they painstakingly installed that newfangled invention of electricity. For the first half hour, everyone flipped the light switch on and off and marveled at the cleverness and magic of having light so easily attainable.

  Although Aiden had planned to replace the dirt floor, he hadn’t gotten around to it before Viola and Virgil moved in. Things just happened too fast. But now the old Hunt house had a wood floor and a fresh coat of white paint. Ashlyn and Cyrus slept on the bed that Aiden had built for Viola and Virgil but Viola didn’t mind. She found that she really liked Cyrus and she loved having a big family around her. Instead of being angry, she accepted the situation. On the rare occasion when folks got nosey and hinted that they thought that Cyrus might have been her paw, she just smiled and said, “He’s my uncle, but he’s like a second father to me. So I guess I’m special. I got me two paws.”