OCR Text |
Show in my father's house/ 176 The next time we went to the mountains and my father bent to pick a plant. "This is golden rod," he told me. "It can be made into a tea and used for pain - especially rheumatism." He handed the yellow stalk to me. I turned and looked at Saul. His eyes were narrow. I looked back at my father, wondering whether the plant were really golden rod, the tea really useful in relieving pain. I didn't know what to believe. On Sunday, we held a small meeting in the livingroom with the drapes drawn, without the piano to accompany our singing of hymns for fear the neighbors would hear. My father talked about honoring one's father and mother. I saw him glance at Saul and Jake. Isaac and Deanna sat by, listening carefully, but we all knew my father's sermon was not for them. My father spoke of honoring our parents. "Except ye be as little children ye cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven," my father recited. I gazed at Saul, noticing that his Adam's apple had grown larger and seemed to throb with the burning of his eyes. He had to shave every day now. I glanced down at my long, gangly legs, thinking of the months since my father had picked me up when"I ran to greet him, since he had held me on his lap cradled in his arms. I would not be a little child much longer. And Saul's time for being a child had passed. Only Friday he and Isaac came home with news that made the mothers gasp. "We've both been nominated for student-body president," Isaac announced. "We'll be running against each other," Saul added. |