LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter Three

      Hendrick cornered his sister the moment they’d walked out of sight of the parsonage. “Why did you volunteer to go on that trip?”

       Anna tossed her head and wormed past him. “It’s time I got out of this town and saw the world. Pearlman is so limited. I want more. I want to experience everything.”

       What had gotten into Anna? She’d always been the quiet and shy type, until… “Did Mariah put you up to this?”

       Anna laughed so loudly that everyone else on the street looked to see what was so humorous. “That’s what’s bothering you, isn’t it? That it’s Mariah.”

       Hendrick choked back more than a little irritation. “That has nothing to do with it. I wouldn’t let you make a trip like that with any woman.”

       Anna skipped ahead. “Well, you don’t have the final say, do you? It’s up to Ma. You said so yourself.”

       Hendrick charged after her. She scooted along, face lifted to the sun, and only by virtue of his long legs did he catch her. “Ma won’t give her permission.”

       “Yes, she will.”

       It felt like they were kids again, sparring over a toy or a game. Then Pa died, and Hendrick had taken over as head of the family. Anna had listened and obeyed him for years—until Mariah set foot in Pearlman.

       “Ma wants me to be happy,” Anna was saying, “and seeing the world will make me happy. I certainly don’t need you along, and neither does Mariah.”

       Hendrick felt the slap of those words, but he refused to let her childish emotions change his mind. “Anyone driving that far needs a mechanic along. Two thousand miles on bad roads will break apart an automobile. Neither one of you can do more than change a tire.”

       Anna huffed. “Then we’ll find someone who does, but the last thing I need is an overprotective big brother tagging along. We’ll find someone else. Even Peter.”

       “Peter? He’s too young for a trip like that.” Hendrick wasn’t about to entrust his only sister to a sixteen-year-old. “Besides, I thought you hated him.” They’d reached the house. The sun hung low, just above the trees. Ma would be reading her Bible and saying her prayers. Peter was probably building something with the Erector Set that Hendrick had given him last Christmas.

       “I don’t hate him. I just don’t love him.” She wrinkled her nose. “He’s two years younger than me.” Anna stopped in the front doorway. “Promise you won’t go?”

       He set his jaw. No way would he let Mariah—or any woman—drive west alone. “Let’s see first if Ma gives you permission.”

       The door opened, and Ma stepped outside. “Give you permission for what?” Her cheeks rounded above her embracing smile. Ma was the most optimistic person Hendrick knew, despite losing Pa.

       Hendrick didn’t wait for Anna to wrap Ma around her little finger. “Mariah Meeks is driving her car to Montana, and Anna wants to go along. I say it’s a foolish idea.”

       Of course Anna disagreed. “No, it’s not. It’ll be such fun, Ma. I’ll see the world. Oh, please, let me go.”

       Hendrick hated to disappoint his sister, but he had to stick a pin in her plan. “It’s dangerous. The car will break down. If they’re far from a town, they could die of thirst before they get help.”

       “We’ll bring water,” Anna countered.

       “There could be wolves or bears or cougars,” he added.

       “Then we’ll bring a rifle.”

       Ma looked from one to the other as he brought up every possible catastrophe and Anna refuted each one.

       “You might run into outlaws and rumrunners,” he pleaded. “It’s not safe for two women.” He nearly choked calling his kid sister a woman.

       Ma smiled softly and touched his arm. “It’s good of you to worry about your sister’s welfare, but she’s grown up now and needs to spread her wings.”

       “But Ma.”

       Anna grinned in triumph.

       Ma clucked softly. “We can’t protect our loved ones from everything.”

       Her eyes misted, and he knew she was thinking of Pa. A lump rose in his throat as he recalled finding his father crushed beneath a truck, his spilled blood already dark. He’d been dead for hours, and none of them knew. For years Hendrick wished he’d come home from school earlier, that he’d skipped classes that day, that he’d listened to his pa’s advice to quit school after he graduated from the eighth grade. If he had, he might have been there. He might have saved his father. At least Pa wouldn’t have died alone.

       “I have to protect Anna from unnecessary risk,” he countered.

       Ma nodded. “That’s why you must go, too.”

       “But—”

       “The garage will be in fine hands with Peter. Plus Mr. Thompson said he’d help out anytime you wanted to take a holiday.”

       Hendrick recalled Pa’s working partner, now retired, extending that offer. “I think he meant he’d help for a couple days. This could be a month.”

       Ma patted his arm. “Everything will be fine, Hendrick. Go, with my blessing.”

       Had all the women in his life gone crazy? Suddenly they wanted to run all over the country and thought nothing of the risk.

       “But what if something happens?” he said, not quite able to spell out the possibility that they could be killed in a wreck. “We’re all you have. Except Peter, of course, but that’s not quite the same.” Peter was just a foster son. He could leave at any time. Hendrick and Anna were blood. Nothing could break blood ties. That’s why a man needed his own children.

       “Peter will take good care of me.” Ma patted his arm again. “You two will be in the Lord’s care, and that’s all the assurance any of us

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