I slept until six o'clock that evening. The smell of Aunt Laura cooking dinner woke me up. When I tried to move my legs, the cuts stung, reminding me of the lashes Mom had put on me. Throwing back the covers and putting my feet on the hardwood floor, I followed the sound of voices roaring from the kitchen. When I entered the kitchen everyone stopped talking. There was an awkward silence. Aunt Laura spoke up saying, "Amanda find your place at the table." While she got up to fix my plate. Mom's stare bore a hole in me. Then, she spoke.
"I got a call from Larry. He said he should be here Thursday to visit with the kids and then take me back to Greenville. When he has another run through Georgia, then he will bring me back." As she shared this news, you could see the delight in her eyes that she would have time to herself without Kenny and me around to irritate her.

"I'll be sure to make a special meal on Thursday to welcome Larry to the farm. It will be good for the two of you to have some alone time together." Aunt Laura said with genuine thoughtfulness in her voice.

" We don't get much time together the way he travels. I am looking forward to being together for a few days." Mom admitted.

Then Aunt Laura told us kids to go outside and play while she did the dishes.

We took off out the back screen door. We played tag, hide and go seek and mother may I. Then, Aunt Laura came outside handing each one of us mason jars with holes punched in the lid. They were to catch fireflies in, she explained to us.

We ran around to the front of the house where Uncle Bob was cranking the handle on the home made ice cream churn. I'll have homemade banana ice cream ready not long from now. We screamed, "yeah." To that good news. Then , we started catching fireflies and putting them in our mason jars. After we had gotten our jars almost full we all three sat on the front porch steps and marveled at the fireflies lights flickering on and off inside the glass. Uncle Bob said , "You kids go inside and get washed up, the ice cream is ready."
So. We let our fireflies go into the night sky. Then we went into the house to wash our hands. When we came back on the porch, Uncle Bob had scooped each one of us a bowl full of his yummy, banana ice cream. Mom was sitting in the swing chattering away with Aunt Laura. It killed me the way she acted so sweet and normal to other people, but in private she was a monster to her own kids. The sound of Uncle Bob picking at his guitar made me forget the bad things that I had been thinking on and feel the normalcy of being at the farm with people who truly loved me.

Aunt Laura said, "Bob, how about playing "Amazing Grace" and letting Amanda sing the words.
"Okay I would love to her Suzy Que sing. It's been since last summer that we heard you sing like an angel." Uncle Bob said in a teasing way, but serious too.

Uncle Bob played the guitar and I sang along with the music. Everyone clapped and clapped when I finished singing, even Mom. But, that was probably part of her putting on airs in front of the adults.
I felt something when I sang a Christian song . It was like chill bumps came over me. I knew somehow that it was the presence of the Holy Spirit, anointing me to sing.

We all sat on the porch until late in the night listening to the crickets chirp and watching the fireflies blinking in the night.

I don't think you could have made a night more perfect and peaceful, if you tried to. I love being here at the farm and I secretly prayed to God that somehow I could stay here and never have to go back to Greenville with Mom again. I knew that was never going to happen, but I still asked anyway.

On Thursday, Katie, Kenny and me walked up the dirt road to visit with the Henderson's. They were an elderly couple who had never had children of their own. In the summertime when we were at the farm, they loved to have us kids come and visit. As we got to their driveway we could see Mr. Henderson working on something at his barn door. When he saw us, he put his tools down and said, "Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in." And he gave us this huge grin. I liked him a lot. He had eyes that seemed to smile along with his lips. He was always ready to tell us a story that he had made up. There was just something about him that was warm and kind. "Come on with me and let's surprise Mrs. Henderson. I think she is in the kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies as we speak." He put one finger over his lips as we went in the screen door to the kitchen."Eloise, look who I found wandering up the road?"

She turned around to see us three standing there and her eyes lit up like the fireflies had in the mason jars the night before. She let out a squeal of delight, "My precious darlings. I have been wondering when you would get around to visiting with us. I am so glad you chose today to come. I have just put two cookie sheets full of chocolate chip cookies in the oven. They should be ready in about fifteen minutes. So, tell me what the three of you have been up to. I want to hear all about school and about the first few days of summer." She said with genuine curiosity in her eyes.

I told her all about my year at school. How I was learning to add more than one row of numbers and how I won the spelling bee for the entire second grade. That I didn't like my teacher and I was glad that school was out and we were at the farm.

Katie who always had to compete with everything I said, told that she had a great year and everything had been easy for her and that she loved her teacher.

Mrs. Henderson, who was a retired school teacher, seemed to know that Katie was exaggerating a little. But, she didn't let on like she did, to Katie anyway.

Then, Kenny piped in telling how he was in kindergarten and had learned all his ABC's and123's and he would miss his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Emily so much next year.

The buzzer went off and Mrs. Henderson got up from the table to get the cookies out of the oven. Then she gave each one of us three cookies each and a full glass of cold milk. It was like a little taste of Heaven on Earth.

When we finished our cookies we went into the living room and sat in the floor at Mr. Henderson's recliner. He made up a real scary ghost story to scare us with. We were so into his story that was getting scarier and scarier by the minute, when ding dong, ding dong, went his grandfather clock. We all thee screamed like a monster had a hold of us.

Mr. and Mrs. Henderson laughed at how jumpy his scary story had made us. When he finished his story it was time for us to head back to the farm. The Henderson's came out onto their front porch waving good-bye to us as far as they could see us go. We found a tin can in the road and began to take turns kicking it down the road. As we kicked it red dirt flew up in the air. We had a huge red cloud of dirt forming in the air. There was a loud sound coming down the narrow road. It was the sound of a transferred truck. Kenny and I both knew that sound, it was our daddy. We both took off sprinting as fast as we could to tell Mom that daddy was coming. I beat Kenny in the front door , running into the Kitchen where Mom sat with Aunt Laura snapping string beans in a bowl. "Amanda, what has come over you? Why are you barging into the house like this?" Mom asked as if she were going to get mad at my behavior.
"Mom, Daddy is coming down the road." I said breathless from running.

Mom jumped up from the table and went to the mirror in the foyer. She patted her hair and licked her lips. Then she smoothed the front of her dress down. She went to the porch and watched Daddy pull the big rig into the long driveway and park near the back pasture. Kenny and me ran to him as he jumped down out of the cab. "Daddy, Daddy" we both cried with excitement.

"My little angels." Daddy said and picked both of us up turning us upside down. We giggled at being carried upside down by our strong father. He put us down when he got a sight of Mom.

She was a very beautiful woman. Daddy, never tired of telling her how beautiful she was. He said, "What a vision of beauty, little lady. You get prettier every time I leave and come back."

Daddy was six feet tall and Mom was five feet four inches short. Daddy always picked Mom up to kiss her. He kissed her and put her back on the ground. Man, are you a sight for sore eyes, Daddy told Mom. She was so sweet and happy when Daddy was home. I wondered if he were home regularly if Mom would stop being so mad and hitting me.

Aunt Laura came out on the front porch and came down the steps to give her brother-in-law a hello hug. "I've made a special dinner for your visit at the farm. It's good to have you here. How long can you stay?" Aunt Laura asked.

"I can't stay longer than tonight, I'm afraid. We'll have to leave about noontime tomorrow for me to get my load delivered on time in Greenville." Daddy said as if he really did regret not having more time to visit on the farm.

I was glad to hear that Mom was going tomorrow. Noon time couldn't come soon enough, although I wished I could have had more time with Daddy. It was bittersweet , I guess.

That night when I went to bed, Daddy came in to tuck me in the covers. He said, "Good night my sweet princess angel. I love you."

"I love you too, Daddy." Then I gave him a real big hug and kiss.

I went right to sleep that night. There was something extra comforting knowing that my Daddy was there at the farm with us.

The next morning went by fast. Noontime was there before we knew it. I went and stood by the big cab while Daddy put Mom's suitcase inside. "Now, you be a good girl, Amanda and take care of your brother." Daddy said almost like an order from the general.

"Yes, sir, Daddy. I will take care of Kenny, I always do." He didn't know how true that statement was.

Mom came out and gave me and Kenny a kiss on the cheek. "You two kids be good for your aunt and uncle. I will be back in about a week." With that Daddy helped her climb up in the cab. They pulled out of the long winding driveway with a cloud of red dirt filling the air again.

I was so glad she was gone. It was like a fresh feeling, a free feeling that life was good and I was just a normal kid.

Katie interrupted my thoughts, "Let's go swimming at the pond." So, we took off racing to see who could get there first.