The Glorious Prodigal (26 page)

“Yes. I did some janitorial work, too, but I liked being outside best. It was good for me.”

The pancakes were just finished when they both turned to see Richard, who had entered the kitchen. He gave Stuart a quick look and nodded. “I heard voices. Good to see you, Stuart.”

Stuart waited for his father to come across the room to shake hands, for he had hoped for a better welcome from him, but there was something very reserved in Richard Winslow’s demeanor. “It’s good to be home, Dad. You’re looking well.”

“So are you.”

“Well, the two of you sit down. The pancakes are ready.”

They moved into the dining room, and Diane set the table with pancakes, sausage, and a large pitcher of maple syrup. “I’ve got some of that sorghum you like so well, Stuart.”

“I’ll have some of that, Mom.”

When the food was on the table, Richard bowed his head
and said, “Lord, we thank you for this food and for every blessing.” He hesitated, as though he would have said more but then cut the prayer off. “In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

“Here, eat all you can, son,” Diane said, piling three plate-size pancakes on Stuart’s plate.

“Mom, I can’t eat all those!” Stuart protested.

“You eat all you can,” she repeated.

Stuart cut the pancakes up and poured sorghum all over them, and at his first bite, he exclaimed, “Just like always! You’re the best pancake maker in the world.”

The meal was awkward and difficult for Stuart. Diane did almost all of the talking, with Stuart adding what he could. Since he had no news of his own to give, he mostly listened as his mother told him what had happened in the years that he had been gone. They had received a letter just that morning from Warden Armstrong, explaining about Stuart’s release and with deepest apologies for the problems that had occurred with Munger. The warden had high praises for Stuart—for how far he had come in his time there—and high praises for God for the transforming work He had done in this man’s life. For Diane, it was an answer to all her prayers to finally know that her son had not turned his back on them after all. She was torn between deep grief over all that had happened to separate them and joy over their reunion this momentous day.

Finally the meal was over, and Stuart sat back and held his hand up. “No more, Mom. I can’t eat another bite. You’re still the best cook in the world.”

Richard had said little, but now he made an effort at small talk. “Well, we reelected Woodrow Wilson last month.”

“Yes, and I’m so glad,” Diane chimed in. “He’s kept us out of the war in Europe, and I hope he continues to do so. At least that’s what he campaigned on.”

“I don’t think he’ll keep us out of it very long,” Richard said solemnly. He looked over at Stuart, and after a moment’s silence, he said, “What are your plans now, Stuart?”

Stuart met his father’s eyes. He saw little welcome there,
and when he spoke, his voice was very quiet. “I won’t be staying at home,” he said. “Leah would rather I go someplace else.”

His parents exchanged a quick glance, and it was Diane who said quickly, “It’ll work out, son. You’ll just have to give her a little time.”

“I’ll be working for Ace surveying for a little while until I get some money together. Then I expect I’ll move on.”

“But, son, you can’t do that. Where would you go?”

“I don’t know, Mom.” Stuart straightened up and looked into his father’s eyes. “I hear that Leah is seeing another man and thinking about a divorce. I don’t have any right to stop her if that’s what she wants to do. But I had to come back and ask her forgiveness—and yours.” Taking a deep breath, he said, “I was the world’s worst son, I think. There was no reason for it. You were always good parents to me, so what’s happened in my life is none of your fault. Never blame yourself for it. I do ask you to forgive me, Dad, and you, too, Mom.”

Diane waited for Richard to speak, and when she saw that he was having difficulty, she at once got up and went around the table. Stuart rose and she put her arms around him. “Of course we do, son.”

“Thank you, Mom. I never doubted that.”

Richard said stiffly, “I’m glad you’re out, Stuart. Let me know if I can do anything to help you.” He did not mention forgiveness, and there was something foreboding about his tone.

“I’ll do that. Well, I’d better get going. I have some things to do.”

Diane went with him to the door and kissed him. “Give Leah and your father time,” she said. “They’ll come around.”

“I thought about you every day, Mom. I know you prayed for me. Keep it up.”

Diane watched him leave, and her heart seemed to break. She closed the door gently and then went back and stood for
a moment at the window watching him go. Richard came over to stand beside her.

“I was disappointed that you didn’t give Stuart a little more consideration, Richard.”

“He’s got to prove himself, Diane. This is an old pattern. Don’t you remember?” Richard turned her around. His face was lined, and the years of shame of having a convict for a son disturbed him. It had eaten away at him, and he could not seem to find it in his heart to do other than he had. “He would always get in trouble and then come and confess. We’d forgive him, and then for a while he’d behave. And then he’d go back and do the same thing again. He’s got to prove himself, Diane. I’d like to believe what Warden Armstrong has told us—nobody would like to see him change his life more than I would—but I’ll have to see it for myself to believe it.”

“Richard, I’m disappointed in you.”

Richard Winslow’s face revealed shock. He loved this woman and always wanted her approval. “What is it, Diane?”

“In the Scriptures, when the Prodigal Son came home, his father ran to greet him. When the son confessed he’d done wrong, he brought him to the house and put a ring on his finger and killed the fatted calf.”

Richard Winslow dropped his head. The truth of his wife’s words hurt, but the years of shame had marked him strongly. He muttered, “You may be right, Diane, but I’ve got to see honest change in him before I can do that.”

****

Leah was listening to Merry as she read out of her reader. She did not read like a child, one halting word at a time, but fluently, and Leah thought,
She’s so smart.

When Merry was through reading, she looked up smiling and said, “Was that good, Mom?”

“Very good, Merry. You’re a fine reader. Much better than I was at your age.”

Merry closed the book and then stood up and came to
stand beside her mother. “Mom, is Daddy coming to live with us?”

It was the question that Leah had dreaded. A week had passed since Stuart had appeared at the house, and during that time, Merry had said nothing about her father, nor had Raimey. Now she glanced quickly across to where Raimey was sitting in the light of the window working on a model ship that he had been building for some time. Something in his eyes troubled her, and she knew that he was waiting for her answer, as well.

“No. I don’t think so.”

“Why not, Mama?”

“I’m glad he’s not coming here,” Raimey said defiantly. “I don’t want him here!”

“Why not?” Merry said, turning to face Raimey.

“Because he’s nothing but an old jailbird!”

Leah was shocked to the bone at the hard edge of Raimey’s voice and at the adamant glare in his eyes. Usually he was a gentle boy, and this cold fury shook her. “You mustn’t say that, son.”

“You don’t want him here, Mom, do you? You sent him away.”

Leah had tried to think of some way to explain the situation to her children, but now even as she spoke, her words sounded false and hollow. “Sometimes a man and a woman have difficulty. They start out loving each other, but then things happen.” The more she tried to talk, the harder it got, and Leah found herself groping for words. “And that’s what happened to your father and me. He’s done things that have hurt us all, and so we think it’s best that he not live here.”

A silence filled the room, and then Merry said in a small voice, “Mama, if I do something wrong, will you not love me anymore like you don’t love Daddy?”

The words cut Leah to the heart. She suddenly threw her arms around Merry and hugged her tightly. Tears rose in her eyes, and she blinked them away. “Don’t even say that,
honey,” she said. “I’ll always love you.” Unable to continue, she got up and left the room.

Raimey stared down at his model and could say nothing. Merry came to stand by him and said, “Mama’s crying.”

“She’ll get over it.”

“I feel bad, Raimey. I want a daddy, and I liked him. He listened to me read.”

“Well, he’s not coming back here, and that’s all there is to it. You’d better be glad of it, Merry. He’s not a good man.”

****

The scene with her children had overwhelmed Leah emotionally. She avoided talking to them as much as possible, trying to get control of herself. About three o’clock that afternoon, she heard a car pull up and then a knock at the door. Desperately she hoped it was not Stuart. When she opened the door, she saw Reverend Charles Fields standing there and said at once, “Come in, Pastor.”

“How are you, Leah?”

“Very well.”

“The kids all right?”

“Yes, thank the Lord. They haven’t got that flu that’s going around.”

“It’s very bad. The whole family is down at the Hendersons’.”

“I’ll run over and take some food and see what I can do. Come into the parlor where it’s warm.”

The two moved into the parlor, and Fields took a seat across from the fire and waited until Leah seated herself. “I’ve come to get some of Stuart’s clothes, Leah.”

“Stuart’s clothes!” Leah was taken aback. “What do you mean, Pastor?”

“Well, he’s working with Ace now, but he doesn’t have very many clothes. Ace asked me to pick up any winter clothes, including boots.”

“Oh! Yes, of course.”

“Did you know he was working with Ace?”

“No, I didn’t.”

Fields studied her carefully. He did not have the whole story, but enough of it had come to him, and he knew that things were not well. “He’s staying with Luke Garrison.”

Leah dropped her head and could not answer.

“I’m disappointed, Leah. After the miracle God worked to get him out of the penitentiary, I’d expected things to be a little bit . . . different.”

Agitation stirred Leah, and she could not meet her pastor’s gaze. “I . . . I just don’t know what to do,” she said faintly.

“I don’t want to be judgmental, Leah, but Stuart’s had a change of heart. I’ve talked to him. He knows the Lord now.”

“I just can’t forget all that’s happened. I’m afraid he would do something again that would hurt the children.”

Fields studied the woman across from him. Her face was flushed, and she could not look him in the eyes. He knew her well, for she was a woman he admired greatly. Her Christian character had always been one that he had held up as an example to others, and now he was troubled. “Did you know he was in church Sunday?”

Leah looked up with shock. “No. I didn’t see him.”

“He waited until the sermon started, and then he came into the balcony. He left during the benediction.”

A silence filled the room, and Leah was conscious of the voices outside where the children were building a snowman. She sought for words to express the fear that was in her about Stuart and what accepting him back might truly mean, but she could think of nothing to say.

“What are you going to do, Leah?”

Leah understood that he was asking her what her intentions were concerning Mott Castleton and what she would do about her husband. “I don’t know,” she said briefly. “I just don’t know, Pastor.”

Charles Fields saw the torment in Leah’s eyes and knew that it would do no good to preach at her at this moment.
It’s
something,
he thought,
that she’s got to work out for herself.
Aloud he said, “Well, will you let me pray with you?”

“Of course.”

Fields prayed a brief but passionate prayer for Leah and the children—and for Stuart. He ended by saying, “Oh, God, it’s your business to put things together, not break them apart, so I pray that you put this family together again in the name of Jesus.”

When he left the house and got into his car, Fields was seized with a sense of depression. He had seen so many things go wrong with so many people. It seemed to him, sometimes, as if people engineered their own destruction. He was terribly disappointed in Leah Winslow, but as he started the car and moved out and headed toward his next stop, he said aloud, “You can’t make people be something they aren’t. They have to make their own decisions. Lord, you’ll just have to help Leah and Stuart, for they’ve lost their way.”

****

Luke Garrison admired the .33 Winchester for a long time, and now standing in the hardware section of the Winslows’ store, he held it up and looked along the gleaming barrel. He pulled the trigger and enjoyed the satisfying
snap.

“If that had been a deer, you would have got him, Luke.”

Luke turned quickly to see Cora Simms watching him with a smile.

“Hello, Cora,” he said. “Yes. I guess I would have. I can’t make up my mind about this gun. It seems like seventy dollars is a lot to pay just for a rifle.”

“You can afford it. You don’t have any wife to throw your money away on. I guess I’m not the only one who wonders why you never married, Luke.”

Garrison smiled. He was used to the teasing of the townspeople. He had come to the point in life when he wished he did have a wife and family, but somehow he had not found the right woman.

“Never know about those things, Cora. I might marry a widow with six kids tomorrow.”

Cora smiled and laughed pleasantly. “I’d like to see that. Luke Garrison changing diapers.”

“There are worse things, Cora.”

The two stood there chatting for a time, and Garrison admired the beauty of the woman, as always. There was an aura about her that drew men, and momentarily Luke thought about making his own try. But he knew too much about Cora Simms for that.

“I hear Stuart’s living with you now.”

“Yes, he is. He’s working with Ace.”