Promise of the Summer Storm

Summer Storm's Promise



Chapter 1



“Missy, could you go out and check the barn door? It’s getting ready to storm out there and your Pa’s still in town!” Catherine Dwellyard, Missy’s mom yelled from the kitchen.

“Yes Ma!” Missy yelled back, putting her book down and heading for the kitchen to grab her bonnet from the table where she had laid it when she had come in from feeding the chickens earlier. Even though it was getting ready to storm, the hot summer sun was still beating down, not covered with the gray storm clouds yet. She ran out the door and to the barn, hurrying since the clouds were advancing towards their house quickly. When she got there she shut the doors and made sure they wouldn’t fly open in the storm’s wind, and made sure all the cows were in from grazing in the fields. When she was satisfied that everything was ready for the coming storm, she ran back in the house, just as a few raindrops started falling from the clouds above her. “Ma?” she called, not seeing her mom in the kitchen.

“In here, Missy,” her mom called from the living room. Missy took off her bonnet and headed there.

“Ma, when’ll Pa be home?” she asked, a worried look on her face. “He should be home soon, Missy. He might have decided to wait out the storm in town.” Her mom said, trying to convince herself at the same time. He had left quite a bit earlier that morning, and he should have been home before then.

“'kay...” Missy said, not looking very convinced. She flopped down in the chair she was standing ahead of, and grabbed her corn husk doll. She didn't play with it anymore, but she still had it laying around, just in case she ever got a baby sister. She nervously played around with it, pulling on it's corn husk dress and glancing at the door every few seconds.

“Missy, he'll be here soon,” her mom said, trying to sound convinced. “Why don't you go on up to the loft and get your school books? You were having some trouble earlier, weren't you?” she asked. Missy nodded, getting up and setting the little doll on the chair behind her. She tried to forget about her Pa, but she couldn't get that little thought out of her head-what if he had gotten caught halfway home in the storm?



“Ma, where do you think Pa is?” Missy asked, nervously pulling on the corn husk doll's dress again. Her mom sighed.

“I don't know Missy. It's almost completely dark out there, why don't you get ready for bed? I'm sure Pa will be home by morning,” she said, not sounded as convinced as she would have liked to have sounded.

Missy sighed. “Yes, Ma,” she said, getting up and stretching tiredly before heading up to the loft to change and get her bed ready. After she had, she went back down to the living room and got out the family's old, big, black Bible off the shelf and brought it to her mom, and they read and prayed together, especially for her dad's safety.



Missy jerked and sat straight up, looking out her little window her dad had made her in her loft. The  streaks of lightning across the sky seemed to be in competition with each other, and so did the big claps of thunder. She lay back down, not being able to get back to sleep for a while because she was worrying about her dad and the storm, but finally it started to move to the East, and she fell asleep, her last thought being of her dad and if he was alright or not.



The bright, morning sun beamed through the little loft window and woke Missy up. She rubbed her eyes sleepily, wondering why couldn't hear her Pa downstairs talking in his loud cheery voice or laughing his big hearty laugh at something her Ma had said. It had been the welcoming sound that she awoke to for as long as she knew, but this morning, instead, she heard the sound of another man. She strained to listen harder, but she couldn't make out the strange voice.

Giving up, she hopped out of bed and changed, and then went down the little ladder then went from the loft to the living room as fast as she could, then followed the voice. It was in the kitchen, and when she got there she was surprised. There was a big, burly young man, with dark hair standing near the door, nervously shifting his weight from one foot to the other and turning his hat around in his hands.

“Oh, there you are Missy!” her Ma exclaimed. “This is the new Pastor, Pastor Brown, and he was just getting ready to tell me something!” she said, turning her attention toward the Pastor. He stopped turning his hat for a minute, and just stared, licking his lips and swallowing, still shifting his weight uncomfortably.

“Oh, um, well, actually ma'am...”

“Catherine,” she quickly directed.

“Um, Catherine, I uh well I was just...”

“Yes?” Catherine asked uncertainly while Missy moved to stand behind her mom.

“Um,” he said, looking at Missy, “Would you like to go see my horses? They're all hitched up out there, they're very gentle...you don't mind, do you ma-Catherine?” he asked, starting to twist his hat around in his hands again.

“No, no, Missy, go see the horses,” she urged, her face looking worried. She could tell that whatever the new Pastor wanted to tell her was important, important enough that he needed to tell her alone with Missy elsewhere.

Missy walked out the door and for the Pastor's buggy. There were two black horses, and both had a white star and white socks on all four legs. She stroked their noses and they blew into her face and nuzzled up against her. She smiled and ran her hand down their glossy black well-groomed coats that were gleaming in the sunlight.

Then just as she started giggling because the horses were playfully competing with each other for her attention, the pastor stepped out of her house.

“Missy, your Ma wants you in there,” he said gently, a comforting look on his face. He smiled a weak grin, and then sat in his buggy. “Tell your Ma I'll feed the animals for you and I'll be out here is she needs anything,” he said before Missy took off for the house.

“Ma?” she said when she got in the kitchen. Her ma had her back turned from the door and was sitting at the table, her arms folded over the top and her face down in them, sobbing.