Sing a New Song (Red River Romance Book 2), page 11
Where are you Mary Esther, I miss you so much. Come home please. I still love you. I’ll always love you.
Samuel
She closed her eyes and scanned all the upper class girls, but couldn’t picture a Jody. Well, she would’ve been a year ahead. Okay, he continued professing love. She replaced number five into its envelope, set it aside then gently opened the next, but it was dated four months later.
December 19
Blessings Mary Esther,
Sorry it’s been so long sense I’ve written, but you are five letters behind now, and school and football then basketball and guess time slips by plus PawPaw bought me three mother cows. Their Black Angus, we’re keeping track, and I have to pay him back, but the way we figure it, the calves will pay off the mothers in three years, Lord willing, guess what.
I got saved, this real cool preacher came to Clarksville, I thought I was okay with God, but oh, after listening to the man, the Lord went to convicting me, well, I knew and he knew and so did about a dozen other folks, it was great, he stayed late baptizing us all, kind like the Church of Christ, PawPaw said
But anyway how are you and Jesus? I remember you got saved that summer you went to your Mimi’s, and she sent you to that camp right, so guess if I don’t ever see you again here, we can spend time together in Heaven. I hope you keep reading the bible, I love to
She closed her eyes and thought back to that summer at Mount Lebanon. Though hating being away from him for three whole weeks, she loved getting to go to summer camp. Totally awesome experience.
And he remembered when she gave her heart to the Lord. How precious was that?
He went on for a full page telling her about the revival and all the people who got baptized with him. Said he wanted to be a missionary, but then he’d never left Red River County. She, on the other hand, had no desire to go away across the world to share the love of Christ, didn’t want to get that far away from her mother.
Not when she could sing about Him right there.
Speaking of her mother, she should call her and catch her up on the news. Should she tell her about Samuel? Go ahead and just ask about Ralph so she could know for sure if he was still a heathen or not?
Well, it couldn’t matter whether he was or not. If Samuel still loved her… He did, didn’t he? She sat the phone back down and opened her next letter.
Then another number came to mind; he never mentioned that Jody girl again, slid her phone to life, after nine already, she could ask him tomorrow afternoon about the little hussy.
What was the girl doing telling him Mary Esther wasn’t ever coming back? She spread her arms out in a good stretch. Aches and pains shot through every part of her weary self.
“I’m here now, aren’t I?” She laughed at herself for being such a ninny over an old imaginary rival.
She picked up number seven and studied the date, shouldn’t open that one... Needed to get up early and work on whatever she was going to sing at Chucky’s mother’s church tomorrow, but.…
March 22
Hey Mary Esther,
Been a while, what two years, guess I don’t think of you ever day like I used to, but I dreamed about us last night and thought I’d write it down, I hope your staying real close to Jesus, that’s so important and well, I really want… Anyway, things have been going good here, how about you? Girl I miss you something awful, do you even remember me? In my dream we made up the very next day, how did you learn to slap so hard, I mean I never got hit as hard in football as you slapped me, or maybe because you were leaving and your dad had died or I don’t know, anyway I had a new calf this morning and PawPaw suggested naming her after you I said no, that there was only one of you and well I’ve tried to not think about you, but I can’t. I’m still in love with you.
Hey I’ve got my driver’s licenses now, once I save up enough to get my own truck I’m coming to Dallas to look for you. Needle in a haystack, but with God all things are possible.
Oh they’re having a special services this Sunday evening, anyone that wants to preach can have fifteen minutes, I was the first one to sign up, I’m so nervous and excited about it, and even worse the Lord says not to write it down. Sure would be nice to see you sitting there in the front pew.
It’s getting late and oh I almost forgot, Jody Reynolds ask me if I’d take her to the Junior Senor Prom, I haven’t decided yet, she said she knew she’d have to ask that I’d never say anything and she’s right, wow be great if I could take you, wouldn’t’ everyone be shocked if I waltzed in with my best friend on my arm. I’d have to sell a calf to pay for it but it’d be worth it.
Come home to me Mary Esther, please come home
Samuel Levi Baylor
She grabbed another tissue and dabbed her eyes. Oh, Freddy Fender had it right about wasting days and nights. Why couldn’t that Jody girl mind her own business? She simmered a bit then sipped some tea and studied her room.
The mural on one wall in her room really set a good mood. Maybe she’d paint one on that back dining room wall. Well, even if he did go to the prom with the too forward girl, he wanted to take her instead.
She wiped her cheeks and read on.
Oh, you should have been there this past Sunday evening, preaching the good news is so cool, and well hope you don’t get mad, but I told Jody I’d take her, bless her heart, I was trying to tell her no, but well she started to cry and then when I said I couldn’t afford it, she said her daddy would pay for everything and well mercy Mary Esther I sorta want to go, I also told her I didn’t know how to dance, but she said that was okay too, I could come over to her house, her mother would teach me.
The desire to crumple the thing up and throw it in the trash almost overwhelmed her, but she didn’t. That Jody girl’s manipulation obviously didn’t work in the long haul. Tears, no less.
And inviting him over to her house so she and her mom could teach him how to dance. Really. Yeah right, the girl’s mother wouldn’t be anywhere in sight.
She gritted her teeth and read on. He wasted a whole page writing about cows, calves and his monster feed bill, then there must have been a break in time, or either his pen ran out of ink, and he got a different-colored one.
Okay, I did my due, I took her, her father even let us take his Cadillac nice ride, but dancing isn’t for me, the music was too loud and weird, and all that jumping up and down flinging your arms around, the band only played a couple of slow numbers, those weren’t too bad, but well Jody is going off to College next year and well she wanted me to promise I’d go too, kind of hinted that her daddy would loan me the money, but one more year and I’m done with school, figure with another fifty or sixty head I can live off my calf crop, especially if I can lease some good pasture land.
Been doing ranch day work on Saturdays, one of these days I might make a cowboy, and well I didn’t tell Jody this, but I’m not for sale, I don’t care how much money her daddy has.
She laughed out loud. “Good for you, Samuel.” She realized she was talking to herself, but hey, he had a level head on him even back then. “Okay, Lord, forgive me for hating on that Jody girl, and thank You for keeping Samuel single all these years.”
Wouldn’t it be cool if he’d saved himself, too? Could be. His letters sounded like once he got saved.…
Her nose dripped, and she grabbed another tissue and blew it. That was really too much to even hope for. She gulped more watered-down tea, it was still pretty sweet though, then read on.
Family news, boring, but it would be nice having it to refer to once she met all of his relatives, then another ink color change.
Mom and dad came yesterday, broke my heart, they’re driving this old junker car, and well both of them are in pretty bad shape, PawPaw offered to let them stay, but only if they’d agreed to house arrest. I thought they were going to agree for a while, but then turned out all they wanted was money, we didn’t give them any, PawPaw did put some gas in their car, and we prayed for them like we always do, I told them Jesus could heal them, but neither seemed interested.
Mary Esther don’t ever even try that stuff not even one time, PawPaw sat me down after they drove off and we had like the millionth drug talk, and for sure I will learn from their mistakes. Please you too, I couldn’t stand it if you got involved with drugs.
I love you, please come home, I miss you so much.
Samuel Baylor
She pulled the missive to her heart and thought of her own junior year. Wasn’t thinking about him much at all then. With all her extra-curricular activities and singing at churches, too, she’d been too busy.
That was right about the time she’d started composing, too. Wow, that’s when she’d written her first country song.
She leaned back and savored that first royalty check again. One hundred and forty-two dollars, nothing like some of the really fat ones that came later, but that’s when she knew....
Her nasty-mouthed phone rooster crowed his little red head off. She pried one eye open. The sun shone bright through the lace curtains on the east window. She touched her cell. Oh, gracious, she had better get it in gear.
And she hadn’t even decided what to sing either, much less practiced.
Oh, Lord, what am I going to wear? Or sing?
DO YOU TRUST ME?
Of course, I do. You know I do.
But He didn’t tell her what to sing.
Chapter Twelve ✞♥♫♪
Sunday morning in Cuthand Methodist’s new sanctuary, the last note of the last hymn drifted off. The song leader smiled at Samuel. He nodded, filled his lungs, stood, then strolled to the pulpit. “Good Morning.”
A few audible greetings sounded, but most folks only nodded or smiled. He closed his eyes and waited. A peace settled over him, and a scripture came to his heart.
“To find a Godly wife is to find a good thing.” He smiled, scanning the congregation and the reactions the statement brought. The Lord cracked him up sometimes with His excellent sense of humor.
Was Samuel preaching to the people or himself? Guess he’d have to see exactly where the Holy Spirit was going with that train of thought.
For the next few minutes, he spoke directly to the young ladies, quoting the scriptures that came to him on the subject of being good wives then after using some of the mothers in the Word as examples.
Then he switched to address the young men and boys. “Now, guys.” He paused and searched the two dozen or so males of marrying age or soon to be. “The onus is more on you than the ladies.”
No amens sounded, but their eyes remained fixed on him. A few even sat forward and leaned on the pew in front of them. It didn’t seem any tuned him out either. Maybe, like him, they were waiting to see what God’s message would say to them.
The topic definitely proved to be one they all were obviously interested in.
“God is faithful. He will not allow the devil to tempt you more than you can bear. That’s found in the first book of Corinthians, chapter ten, verse thirteen.” He loved it when a particular scripture’s location came to him.
A blessing the Lord granted him at times, usually only when he stood in front of a congregation. He knew the word well on his own, but rarely remembered most of their addresses.
“Doctor Luke reported Jesus said to pray that you don’t enter into temptation. I’d advise that you not even put yourself in the position to be tempted.”
He grinned at the serious expressions facing him and at himself for agreeing, even volunteering; to be Mary Esther’s carpenter. So… he wasn’t only talking to those sitting in the pews.
“Once upon a time, a young lady talked me into taking her to a dance. It was the first and last time I went to such, but the shindig wasn’t the problem. Most of ya’ll know my grandfather reared me, and PawPaw had a rule.
“He called it Cinderella Liberty. I had to be home before midnight, period. Well, the young lady’s father loaned me the use of his car, claiming his daughter couldn’t go to the prom in an old diesel truck.
“Anyway, my date wanted to go to this big after-prom bash at North Lake. She assured me her parents were not expecting her home until very late if at all. She said we could party all night, that she’d even packed an overnight bag and had it in the trunk.”
He paused and searched out the parents’ reactions. “After a brief discussion—it did get rather heated—I took her home, early. Praise God for old men with absolute rules and firm hands for the young men in their charge.
“Parents, you’ll answer for how you train up your children. Fathers, the bulk of that responsibility belongs to you.” That drew a few amens, most from the women, and more nods of agreement. A wife or two elbowed her husband.
“That night… the party turned into a drunken brawl and many of the young men ended up incarcerated the next morning. The young lady apologized profusely the next time I saw her at school and thanked me for escorting her home.”
The congregation’s attention seemed intense.
“Not too long ago, maybe only a hundred years, a young lady was not allowed to be alone with a young man. At a marriageable age, if interested, he went courting, and the young couple would always be chaperoned to maintain the woman’s honor and reputation.
“Our nation’s morals are in decline, but just because the wicked maintain a thing is okay, God doesn’t change. Sin is still sin.
“That prom party changed several lives.” A few older heads nodded; of course they remembered. Who didn’t? “A bit before dawn, one of my classmates shot and killed his ex-best-friend.
“The young lady they fought over gave birth to her dead lover’s baby eight months later.” He glanced at the clock. Almost noon, he best wrap things up. “Now my PawPaw told me that it’s a wise man who can learn from another’s mistakes, but a fool that doesn’t even learn from his own.
“Be wise, guys. You don’t have to sow any wild oats. Why reap dour consequences of society’s acceptable behavior? Treat the ladies as if they were your mother or sister, or better, your grandmother.
“Show them respect, protect their honor.” He held his hands out. “God bless you, and keep you, and Lord, bless our meal and the hands that prepared it. Amen.”
A chorus of amens followed and the piano player softly keyed a departing song, then like most dinner-on-the-grounds Sundays he’d attended, the women hurried to set everything out and the boys scrambled to be first in the chow line.
Only a few hung around and shook his hand. A couple of ladies had heard about him and Mary Esther singing at Big Woods and were thrilled when he told them she was on her way.
✞♥♫♪ •*•♪♫✞
Mary Esther glanced at her phone, slowed, turned south like it wanted, then pretty quick, made a right going back west. Good, only one more turn. She leaned back and set her cruise control on fifty in the fifty-five miles per hour zone.
Getting there a few minutes sooner wasn’t worth speeding, except she could hardly wait to tell him about the Church of Christ service.
Mercy, she’d never ever… Oh, if only he would have been there. Okay, new rule, no more going anywhere or agreeing to do anything without him. Period. End of discussion.
The parking lot testified to a decent crowd. She pulled in and hurried to the entrance marked fellowship hall then swung the door open. Most of the Methodists already filled tables, with plates overflowing. She didn’t spot Samuel.
The serving line had thinned to four deep, but at least they weren’t all through. Not too bad considering DeKalb being thirty-six miles from Cuthand, but here in God’s country three cars at an intersection was a jam.
With no traffic, it didn’t take long to get anywhere, and forget red lights. Hardly ever had one of those to hold anyone up.
There he was. Just as she spotted him, Samuel looked up and grinned. He extracted himself from a small group of boys and young men then hurried to her side. “Hey, Baby, how’d it go?”
“So awesome I could hardly believe it. Chucky’s mother wanted me to sing “Amazing Grace.” That went okay. Then oh mercy, Samuel, the Lord gave me a new song, and I sang it right out.
The congregation caught it, and they joined in singing it with me, and.…” She chuckled and leaned in. “They clapped at the end. It was so sweet! Have you ever heard such a thing?”
He shrugged. “I’ve only been to a few Church of Christ services; knew they didn’t use instruments, but no clapping either?”
“Nope, not that I’ve ever known. But they sure did this morning, and it was awesome.”
“Sure would have loved being there, but it was great here, too.”
“What’d you preach on?”
He smiled. “Finding a good wife.”
“Really? Do they have a tape ministry so I could get a copy?”
“I don’t think so.”
A man about Samuel’s age holding a three-and-a-half or four-year-old girl slipped in next to her. He looked real familiar, but.…
“Hey, Mary Esther Robbins. Remember me?”
“Well, kind of sort of, yes and no. You definitely look a bit… It’s in the eyes. Happen to have a picture of you when you were twelve?”
The man laughed. “Not on me. I’m Dusty Singleton; I was a grade ahead of you guys.”
“Oh, Dusty! Sure. Wow, you got tall. Is this your daughter?”
“It is. Mallory, say hello to Miss Mary Esther.”
The little angel buried her head beneath her daddy’s chin against his chest. “Hello, Miss Mary Esther.”
“Hello, Mallory, you’re a very pretty little girl.”
“What do you say, puddin’? Can you thank Miss Mary?”
She put her finger in her mouth and wiggled in his arms. “Thank you.”
He faced Samuel. “I was at that party, and it was so much worse than you made it out.”
“Praise the Lord that PawPaw kept a tight rein on me.”
