Chapter one, part one

Even in the dark he could tell she was as nervous as a water drop on a hot skillet.
"We're goin' home, Zack, it's time" stated the young woman.
Home...one hundred, never-ending miles of Oklahoma road lay between here and where they grew up. Something in his gut told him he still had some growing to do. He reached across her to turn on the lamp and flinched as his arm bumped her belly.
As she went to sit up her jaw clenched
“Zach, we gotta’ git to Doc! I’m not stayin’ in the city and havin' some stranger touch me.”
He'd do anything for his "little, black magic" so that was that and they were going, no sense arguing. He jumped up and pulled his pants on over the jamers she made him wear. He'd always slept nude but she'd convinced him that wasn't civilized… He helped her into her robe and they headed for the car. He grabbed the suitcase sitting by the front door on their way out, got her settled then dashed back into the house for a couple towels, a blanket and his pipe. He raced back out and climbed in beside her. Situating himself behind the wheel he looked over and their eyes locked. Encouragingly he squeezed her hand, sensing she was scared, this being her first and all. What she didn’t know was that he was scared too. Secretly, he was glad they were going, because he was missing Ma terrible right now.
Then the corners of his mouth started curling up and his eyes kind of crinkled as he told her, "I sure hope this baby isn't in too big of a hurry, the only things I've ever helped birth are kittens and calves."
She started to laugh just as another of the pains gripped onto her so fiercely that her laugh felt deep red. That was why she had proposed to him...no matter what he could make her laugh.
He'd been all over the Pacific in the war but no distance had ever felt this great. This road home seemed never-ending and he felt like he wasn’t ready for where it was going. Shoot, he was still green behind the ears.
Home was a little town half way between the Goodnight Love Cattle Trail and the river. Something deep inside him was telling him that even when they got there it wasn't quite going to be like home had ever been. What was about to happen was big. His life was going to change more now than it ever had, more than going off to war, or college, even more than marrying up to her and moving to the big city. Here he was barreling them through the night in their shiny, new Plymouth with it's headlights cutting a big pie-slice through that big dome of dark. Without even knowing it he began to softly hum his tune.He'd always sang when he was tilting windmills in the night. It all started the evening he'd seen his very first moving picture show, the one with the werewolf. He had sat there in the movie palace paralyzed , just staring at the screen. That story was scary to the twelve-year-old and he was stuck there like a burr in an old tick hound's coat. Why he'd never been so flabbergasted in his life! He even forgot about his too small overall's that were cutting into his shoulders and crotch. He just sat there with his mouth dropped open even when the lights come up and Huber Green, commenced pounding away on the piano over in the corner. Shoot, Huber never played like that on Sundays, not even when people were a swooning and talking in tongues.
Suddenly his cousin Enos punched him in the shoulder, "What the fools wrong with ya’ Zack? Person'd know for sure ya’ never been to the movin' picture show before. Come on we gotta git, tonight's a full moon and ya’ know we're gonna git sent out to plow till the rooster crows."
Sure enough he got sent out to the lower east forty. Well, he’d taken his time moseying all the way out there, way past the warm glow from the kitchen lantern. He was kicking at a big ole dirt clod when the night had suddenly filled with a long, lonely, hair standing on end howl! His eyes had got as big as sipping saucers and he pert near turned the plow over, so he just started singing, right at the top of his lungs. He already helped hunt for Ma's table so he knew loud noises scared animals and he sure hoped they scared werewolves. He kept his croaky voice a booming out over that empty prairie all night long....Oh, don't you remember Sweet Betsy from PikeShe crossed the wide prairie with her lover IkeWith two yoke of cattle, a large yeller dog,A tall shanghai rooster and one spotted hog...Ever since that night, when he needed it, "Sweet Betsy From Pike" had always calmed him down and he had never needed it more than right now. He felt more nervous than that first movie night. Here they were crossing the wide prairie and his middle name was Ike. It was the middle of the night and they were heading for home, heading for morning, heading for that big bend in the river of their lives.
Slowly the sky went from midnight ink black to midnight blue, then to the deepest darkest gray. As the sky lightened so did his heart and he felt a welling up of purpose and responsibility in his soul. Up ahead was home, a sweet, little smudge on the prairie. He could make out the tall grain silos that stood watch on the edge of town. Like sentinels they protected the sleepy little town’s crops and proudly pointed the way to heaven.
He turned onto Main Street and reached over to put his protective right arm around his young wife’s shoulders .
“Everything is fine, little mama.” he said smiling protectively, “everything is just right.”
The roosters, all over town, saluted the sun as they arrived. Joyously the young man filled with wonder. This was why he was here. It was time and he was ready. It was dawn in the tree of life.
© 2008