The Earring

Book 5 Part 1

TRAPPED

"Without forgiveness love finds itself trapped by life's betrayals, like an earring washed down the drain and tangled in the sludge until freed. "

The addition of a baby to our family changed more than my status as public speaker. The demands of a wee one put a crimp in my friendship circle. All of my friends were focused on pre-teens and teenagers. Their schedules and mine no longer jived. Breast feeding and sleepless nights were over for them. I became the party pooper and gradually we drifted apart. By Faith's first birthday, my social life had dwindled to afternoons with the neighborhood after-school gang and weekly dates with my husband.

One day when I was feeling abandoned David called. "Syd, I'm going to bring a student couple home for dinner. They are new arrivals and in need of support."

"What kind of support?" I asked, wondering how we were going to stretch our income to help a couple of needy students.

"Moral support mostly. They need friends, mentors."

I had always been a sucker for strays. David was more into weird. As I said, "Bring them on," I wondered just what I was getting myself into.

Before he hung up, he said, "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. They've got the cutest twin girls about Faith's age. Make sure you've got enough pureed goop for three."

Anya and Carl were like sunshine and shadow. Anya had riotous, naturally blond locks that waved down her back. She was like fine champagne, bubbly and effervescent. Blue eyes brimmed with excitement. Carl was dark and quiet, almost brooding. His black hair rivaled Anya's in length, hanging in a braid down his back. His skin tone and facial features pegged him as Native American. He spoke in monosyllables. The twins were almost miniatures of their parents, except the dark-haired one had the curls and the charisma, while the fair-haired one stared solemnly from under a mass of straight, pale hair.

After a few minutes, I excused myself to check on dinner and suggested David give me a hand.

"Which one is the student?" I whispered.

"The silent one," came the reply. "That's why I wanted to bring them home. His spoken English is limited."

"How did he get into college?"

"His written English is better, and he understands perfectly well."

"What is his language?"

"Apsaalooke."

"Oppsah what?"

"Oop-sah-loh-kay," he said the syllables slowly. "He's Crow. I learned my first word in his language. Apsaalooke is their name for the tribe. It means child of the long beaked bird. White invaders called them Crow."

"Okay," I said. "You'd better go back to our guests. Tell them supper will be served in five minutes if they want to wash up."

Despite the fact that Anya was at least 15 years my junior, we became fast friends. We had toddler interests in common. She was scared of the prospect of becoming a preacher's wife and living in one of those glass houses. I became her mentor. She was like a big sister to Josh and Zach. She became Faith's second Mama. I told Faith she was Aunty Anya, but when she began to talk, the name came out as Auntya. To her girls I was Aunty Syd.

#

Faith had almost forgotten about Auntya and the twins. As she read, memories came flooding back.

"I wonder why we didn't keep up with them after we moved?" Faith thought. "I don't even remember Mama getting Christmas cards from them."

She stared pensively at her fingers.