Late the next afternoon Gerald drove into Tyler with a lot on his mind. He was a little early for school getting out, so decided to stop off and see Nanci as he had a couple of questions for her.

He found her at the parsonage, but was a little surprised when Amber opened the door. “Hi, Gerald,” she said. “You’re probably looking for the reverend.”

“Well, actually, I wanted to talk to both of you,” he said. “Have you got a minute?”

“I don’t think Nanci is doing anything she can’t put down. Come on in, take a seat. Can I get you something to drink?”

“Anything wet, maybe a soft drink. I am a little thirsty.”

“Sure, no problem. I’m sure Nanci will be out in a minute.”

A few seconds later Gerald heard the toilet flush, so he had a pretty good idea of what the parson had been up to, although he wasn’t going to say anything about it. “Well, Gerald,” she said when she appeared, “what brings you to town?”

“I came in to pick up Leah from school,” he explained. “It’s a pain in the neck to have to come to Tyler twice a day, but I think she needs some time with other kids. I’d be willing to let her ride the school bus each day, but I think she’s a little young for it. She didn’t have to in Kansas City.”

“Besides, it would be something pretty strange on top of a lot of other changes in her life in a short period,” Nanci said, completing his thought.

“Right. The problem is that this is the last week of school, so I have to come up with something else for her. It would be nice if I could just keep her around the ranch, but it gets lonely out there, and it would be nice for her to have some other kids to play with. Besides, there are times when I can’t have her with me. Last week I agreed to help Art out tomorrow and Thursday with a couple things, and I can use the money. Then, after church on Sunday Trent Westbrook said there was more work I could do for him a few days later, and that his wife might be willing to look after Leah when I’m helping him.”

“That was a nice thing for him to do.”

“Yes, it was, but I don’t want to have to depend on it. I asked around at the church if there was anyone else out in the area who had small children and would be interested in giving Leah a playmate for a day or two a week, but I didn’t come up with anything promising.”

“I can see how it would be a problem.”

“I’ll do what I have to do,” he said. “But then I got to thinking about last Friday evening and how well Leah got on with Amber. I was wondering if Amber would be interested in looking after her at least some this summer. I don’t know how often or long it would be or how much I could pay yet, but it would solve a big problem for me.”

“I wouldn’t have any problems with it,” Nanci replied. “But it’s up to Amber, not me. Amber, what do you think?”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Amber smiled. “It probably would be better if we could do it here in town. There’s the swing outside, and we could go over to the playground at the school. Besides, there might be other kids she could play with, some she met at school. On top of that, Nanci would be here if we had any problems.”

“That’s sort of what I was thinking,” he replied. “At the moment I don’t think it’s going to be every day, and it’s going to depend on what work I can find.”

“It ought to work out,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, I like hanging around with Nanci, but it would be nice to do things with others sometimes too.”

“My one question is whether you’re going to be around. When I talked to you on Friday, you thought you might move away from Tyler.”

“That’s changed,” Amber told him. “Unless something unexpected happens, I’ll be here for the next two years, at least.”

“We found out yesterday that her mother died,” Nanci explained. “So today we went down to Carondelet and I got made her legal guardian.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. Amber, I’m sorry to hear about your mother. Maybe this isn’t a good time to talk about all of this.”

“No, it’s all right. I haven’t figured out yet how I feel about it, but it doesn’t affect what we’re talking about.”

“Are you going to have a service for her or anything like that?”

“I’m sure we’ll do something when the time comes,” Nanci told him. “We don’t know when yet because the body won’t be released to us for a few days.”

“When you figure it out, please let me know,” he told them. “I didn’t know your mother, Amber, but I want to be at whatever service you have, just for your sake.”

“You’re probably lucky that you didn’t know her,” Amber told him. “But I appreciate the thought.”

“I need to get over to the school,” Gerald said. “But, Amber, thanks for agreeing to help, and both you ladies, thanks for having Leah and me over for dinner on Friday evening. It was the most enjoyable evening I’ve had in some time.”

“I enjoyed it too,” Nanci said. “Like I said, we’ll have to do it again sometime, but if you’re going to be leaving Leah with Amber we’ll see each other enough to work out when.”

“That sounds good to me,” he smiled. “With her being in school I’m all right for this week, and maybe a part of next week, but after that I don’t know. I’ll be in touch.”

“See you in church, if not before,” Nanci replied. “You might know more by then.”

That had made for an enjoyable stop, Gerald thought as he went back out to his van. Nanci was a nice lady, and they got along well. He’d been a little surprised to discover the previous Friday that she had never been married, but after her sermon on Sunday he’d had a little better idea of why she’d shied away from it.

A couple of times since then he’d wondered what it would be like to be married to a woman like her, a minister and very committed to the church, but he couldn’t imagine it, other than it would be the furthest thing possible from being married to Kasie.

If nothing else, the experience Friday evening had taught him one thing: he needed to clean up that loose end of his life so he could move on to someone else if the opportunity arose. If he didn’t find any more of his grandfather’s money – and there was hope that he would – things would be very tight until the ranch was in his hands. However, he’d made up his mind that if he did find enough money, his next stop was going to be Charles McGill’s office down in Carondelet to get a divorce going.

He hadn’t been able to do much more searching specifically for his grandfather’s money over the weekend since he had Leah with him, and he didn’t want to let her know that he was looking for hidden cash. Word of it from her to the wrong person could cause him an awful lot of trouble that he could avoid by her not knowing about it.

There was a lot to search through, and he was having a little luck; just this morning he found over a thousand dollars in the pocket of a suit that apparently hadn’t been worn for years. While it wasn’t enough to make it through until the will was probated and the property was his, that find would get him closer to it.

There was still a lot of his grandfather’s stuff to go through, and it seemed likely he’d find other caches of money if he kept looking carefully. In fact, if his reasoning was correct there was a good chance that there was a mother lode around somewhere, since his grandfather had to have done something with the big chunk of money he’d gotten from his last livestock sale. Gerald was pretty sure he couldn’t have spent all of it, or possibly not even most of it.

Even though his find this morning had eased his financial situation considerably, it hadn’t fixed it. He still wanted to work, and he needed to work to feel comfortable. Even if he wound up not staying on the ranch in the long run – and he didn’t think he wanted to stay – it would be just as well if he had a reputation as a good worker. Because of that he welcomed the chance to do things for Art and Trent. He had absolutely no idea of what really happened on a ranch, and this would be a chance to learn. He thought back to when he’d visited his grandfather’s ranch as a kid and how he thought he would like to ride a horse. Now, maybe he could, though he knew he’d look like a fool compared to people who had been riding horses all their lives.

As he pulled up in front of the school and waited for Leah, he realized that he was satisfied with the way things were going for him. Whatever happened, stay or move on, it would be a lot better than he’d had it in Kansas City. He didn’t think his future was going to be here, but it was becoming clear that he might be in the area for a while. A divorce would take time, and if he put the ranch up for sale it might not sell right away. He didn’t think he wanted to spend the winter out there, not with Leah having to go to school over twenty miles away, but maybe, he thought, there would be some place in town he could rent for a while.

He didn’t have to decide right away; after all, he had all summer and into the fall to think about it. But, he had to concede, it would be nice to be in town so they’d be closer to Leah’s school, and yeah, he would be able to see Nanci a little more easily.

Although there wasn’t any legal requirement that called for Nanci to be the one to arrange for the disposition of Linda Wallace’s body, Nanci decided that a moral responsibility came along with agreeing to be Amber’s guardian. After some discussion with Amber, they agreed that it would be best if the body was cremated, which would keep the costs down. There was, of course, no legacy; anything that Amber wanted from her mother, and it was very little, had already been recovered from the shack where they had been living.

They talked about what to do with the ashes, and Amber’s opinion was that they shouldn’t stay in town where her mother had been the subject of so much disrespect. “Can I just scatter them in that little cemetery east of town,” Amber asked, and Nanci couldn’t come up with any better suggestion.

It was several days before the body was released, and Nanci arranged for it to be cremated at a place in Denver. The following week a small, plain urn was delivered to the parsonage in Tyler.

Because of the way Linda had lived and died, a big memorial service would not be appropriate, but both Nanci and Amber agreed that they would feel better if Nanci said a few words to bring matters to a close. Even using the church did not seem like the right thing to do, so they decided to hold a small ceremony right at the cemetery.

Realistically, Nanci did not expect anyone to be there besides Amber and her, but just to be thorough, Nanci let a few people of the churches know when and where the ceremony would happen. When the two of them arrived, they were both surprised to see Sheriff Shoemaker there, along with Larry and Bernice Reed and Art and Shirley Gamble. They were just greeting everyone when they were surprised to see Trent, Cathy, and Keith Westbrook pull in, with Gerald and Leah Pepper right behind them.

Of course, Nanci greeted the Westbrooks and thanked them for coming. “Keith said he felt like he ought to be here for Amber,” Trent told her. “She is his friend, after all, and I couldn’t deny them that.”

“She’s told me that for a long time he was her only friend,” Nanci said. “And he was a loyal friend who did what he thought ought to be done, and that counts for a lot.”

“It’s like you were talking about the Good Samaritan a week ago Sunday,” Trent shrugged. “I just hadn’t looked at it that way, and now I keep thinking he did the right thing.”

“I think he did the right thing too.”

Both Nanci and Amber had kind words for everyone before she got the service under way. While Nanci wanted to keep the service short, she also wanted to keep it respectful, for whatever Linda may have been in life she at least deserved dignity in death.

Finally, Nanci called everyone together and began in her formal voice, “We have gathered here to praise God and to witness to our faith as we celebrate the life of Linda Wallace,” Nanci began. “We come together in grief, acknowledging our human loss. May God grant us grace, that in pain we may find comfort, in sorrow hope, in death resurrection. Let us pray.”

Everyone bowed their heads as Nanci voiced the words, “O God, who gave us birth, You are ever more ready to hear than we are to pray. You know our needs before we ask, and our ignorance in asking. Give to us now Your grace, that as we shrink before the mystery of death, we may see the light of eternity. Help us to live as those who are prepared to die. And when our days here are done, enable us to die as those who go forth to live, so that living or dying, our life may be in You. Amen.”

As she had done at Elmer Pepper’s service a couple of weeks before, Nanci recited the Twenty-Third Psalm, and then asked if anyone had any thoughts or memories they wanted to share about Linda. There was silence for a few moments until Amber spoke up. “Linda was my mom. I know she wasn’t a very good one, but she was my mom and I will miss her. She taught me a lot of things, some good, some bad. I hope to put the good things to use and I hope I’ve learned not to do the bad things she taught me. I hope she’s gone to where she won’t have the problems she had here. So I guess I just have to say goodbye, Mom. There may not have been anyone else who loved you, but I did, and I know God loved you even if you wouldn’t admit it.”

Now, for the first time, Nanci could see tears for her mother in Amber’s eyes. They had been a while coming, but at least they were finally there. After a moment, Keith walked up to her and took her hand in sympathy. She put her arm around him, and stood there somberly with the tears rolling down her face.

“Let us pray,” Nanci said after a moment of silence. “Into Your hands, O merciful God, we commend Your servant Linda Wallace. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech You, a sheep of Your own fold, A lamb of Your own flock, a sinner of Your own redeeming. Receive Linda into the arms of Your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints of light. Amen.”

With that, Nanci handed the small urn of ashes to Amber, who took it and walked to the edge of the cemetery, out to where the well-mown grass turned to prairie grass. She was far enough away from the rest of the group that no one could hear if she had any final words for her mother. If she did, they were hers alone.

As she returned to the group, Nanci spoke up in a more casual manner. “Amber and I didn’t plan for anything after the service,” she said, “but for the people who showed up today to give their last respects to Linda Wallace, if you’ll come by the parsonage, we have some fresh-baked cookies and I’m sure we can find some coffee or something else to drink. I know Amber joins me in thanking you all for coming.”

After those words the group slowly dispersed. Nanci and Amber got back in the Camry for the short drive back to town. “I’m glad we did that,” Amber said. “That was more people than I expected to see. I know they came because of you and because of me, but I’m glad they came.”

“I’ve often thought that funerals aren’t for the dead, but for the living,” Nanci replied, after a brief pause to think of something to say. “I know Keith was there because he’s your friend, and it was good that his parents thought it was important enough to bring him.”

“Yeah, I didn’t expect that, but I’m glad he was there. He was the best friend I had until you came along.”

It only took a few minutes to get back to the parsonage, where there were indeed fresh-baked cookies; Nanci had made them earlier in the day, just on the odd chance that there would be a gathering after the service.

It was no surprise to Nanci that everyone from the service showed up in the next few minutes, including the sheriff. It was enough people to about fill the parsonage, and Amber and Nanci quickly had the coffeepot going and served cookies around to everyone. Of course, they had to talk with everyone, but after a while Nanci got a chance to be alone with Trent and Cathy for a moment. “Thank you for bringing Keith,” she told them. “It meant a lot to Amber.”

“It’s only right that he ought to learn that he needs to respect his friends,” Trent said. “Or, maybe we had to be the ones to learn it. He was pretty serious about wanting to come. He was all set to ride his horse into town if we didn’t bring him, but after I thought about it a bit I realized we should be here ourselves.”

“Well, I think you made the right decision,” Nanci smiled. “You’ve got a good kid there. He understands brotherly love and charity toward others.”

“You know, I hadn’t really had many chances to see Amber, but she’s really not the kid I thought she was.”

“I think she’s a pretty good kid, and a little to my surprise I think she’s on her way to being a fine young Christian lady. I know she impresses me all the time, and I think she’s going to turn out all right.”

“I hope you’re right, Reverend, but I still think that you’re going to have some trouble from her.”

“You could be right,” Nanci grinned. “But Trent, I have to ask you. When you started raising buffalo, didn’t people think you were crazy?”

“Just about everyone but Elmer thought that, and even he thought I was going a little overboard on them.”

“Didn’t it cause you a lot of trouble?”

“Tons of trouble. There were days I was just about ready to shoot the whole bunch of them until I started to learn the differences between them and cattle.”

“I imagine so. But do you think was it worth it?”

Trent got a light in his eye; he could see where Nanci was heading with this, but he thought he ought to carry the point out. “Yes, I do. They’re still a lot of trouble, but in the long run it’s going to be the right thing to do.”

“Trent, in the long run I think Amber is going to be worth the trouble.”

“You may be right,” he nodded. “In fact, I hope you are. Look, I know I went off half-cocked back at the gathering a few weeks ago, and it may have gotten us off on the wrong foot. I told you one time that if you wanted to learn to ride a horse, I’m willing to teach you. That invitation is still open, and you’re welcome to bring Amber along with you.”

“I don’t know if she’s interested.”

“Reverend, with all due respect, somewhere in this country there may be a girl her age who isn’t interested in horses at least a little bit, but I doubt if she’s to be found in Walke County. Bring her along. If she isn’t interested in horses, I suspect Keith will be willing to keep her company.”

“You’re probably right,” Nanci snickered. “But what if she is interested?”

“Then I suspect Keith will be even more willing to keep her company, but on horseback.”

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