| OCR Text |
Show in my father's house/ 155 his eyes misted. "Your kitten will be fine, Princess. She can stay and catch the mice in the barn." "But who will pet her and feed her?" I asked, my voice strangled. "Uncle Arthur will move into the white house tomorrow and take care of her. Now you must leave your daddy alone. He has a lot to do." I walked back to the house and watched my brothers tie a tarp over our household goods. As soon as supper was over, when it was dark enough to escape notice, we would leave. For some reason, I had assumed that we would all be going away together, following each other into Mexico, or north to Canada, where polygamists had taken refuge in the days of the Manifesto. But as we made final preparations, the other mothers and brothers and sisters crowded around the truck to kiss us goodbye. Then I realized that something big was happening. A sudden swelling in my chest, as though I had been caught by a gust of wind thrown into the sky, my heart pounding in my ears so that I couldn't hear what people said, made me yearn for the barn, the pond, the stream, the garden, the orchard, to say goodbye to the animals and all the places that held my secrets and absorbed my tears. But my father was kissing me goodbye, holding me tight until I felt my ribs would break, and my heart with "Goodbye, my Princess." Something like a sob stifled his |
