The Earring

Book 1 Part 1

Faith moved through the next week on autopilot. The wake and the funeral were a blur in her mind. She shook hands, accepted condolences, and murmured platitudes, but she retained none of the actual words, and the faces were all a blur.

After the funeral, close friends and family had gathered at Mama's house, where the church had brought in enough food to feed an army for a week. Faith and Josh had chosen Mama's over the church; it just seemed more personal and fitting somehow.

Faith put a few butterbeans, a slice of roast, and some rice and gravy on a plate, but she mostly pushed it around with her fork, only managing to force down a few bites. Finally she dumped the lot in the trash, took a glass of iced tea, and retreated to the back yard. She was sitting on a wooden swing hung from the branches of a large live oak when Aaron found her.

"Tell me what I can do to help." He perched on the edge of the swing, his body angled to face her.

Faith looked wearily at him. She knew he only wanted to ease her pain, but somehow his presence was more than she could handle.

"I can't deal with everything," she said. "You telling me about the abortion and then Mama's death, it's too much."

She twisted the engagement ring on her finger while she talked. Noticing Aaron's eyes straying to her hand, she looked down.

"Maybe I should just return this."

She started to remove the ring. Aaron reached out and caught her hand.

"Wait, Faith."

She looked up into his pleading eyes.

"Don't make any decisions yet. You're distraught. I understand that. Take some time. I'll wait for you to contact me."

That's how they left things.

The subsequent days blurred, a haze of pain and disbelief. She managed to collect statistics for her part-time job at the newspaper. She was relieved that she worked from home, because she cried every day as she wrote the obituaries with a fresh awareness that each of the deceased had been someone's loved one. In the mirror swollen red orbs replaced her usual green gaze. She clutched Kleenex as though they were her lifeline to sanity.

Since her graduation from college in December, Faith had not looked for full-time employment, planning to wait until after her wedding. The hours previously spent in preparation for the big event now stretched endlessly, allowing too much time for introspection. The television filled the air with sound but didn't distract her swirling thoughts. Finally, she decided to fill the empty hours with Mama's journal. Armed with a fresh box of tissue, she retreated to the sanctuary of her bedroom. After arranging a mound of pillows against the brass headboard that had once been her grandmother's, she made herself comfortable amongst the jumbled covers that she only straightened on cleaning day.

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PLEDGED

"Like newly purchased earrings, a marriage promises a bright untarnished future, pledging the 'happily ever after' of fairy tales."

David said it was love at first sight. Not so for me. I was just looking for someone who would play a game of ping-pong. We were both newbies, part of the incoming freshman class. I wasn't looking for love; I had four years of college ahead of me. Studies and career were paramount. He was open to combining the three. In the end, his logic won the day.

I found his humor irresistible and his intelligence a challenge. Our verbal sparring lent intrigue to every encounter. The fact that he had gorgeous beagle eyes, a Roman nose, and an inviting lopsided smile was a bonus, as was the runner's body that corresponded to the hunting-dog eyes.