Value

Hey Friends! Thanks for continuing the Country Girl Cattle Drive as we herd 111 verses from the pages of our Bibles to our hearts. (Matthew 5-7)

(If you are new, here’s the scoop: I write down a verse and then write a story to help us remember the verse. If you want to begin at the start of the current story, go to the post entitled “Store Up.” Verses are also posted on the countrygirldrive account on Instagram.)

Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

Blaze

The clock read 12:17, but Blaze’s growling stomach was fairly certain that it was at least three in the afternoon. Blaze grabbed the keys from his office wall and was headed out the door to lock up the elevator when the phone rang. He didn’t want to answer. He didn’t have to answer since it was after twelve on Saturday. But he did.

“Farmer’s Co-op,” he said.

“Hey man, sorry I haven’t got over there yet. How are things looking? Is all the grain in good condition?”

“Hey, Abe. No problem. Yeah, things are looking good. I’ve got one bin that’s a little warm, but I’ve been running the fans on it and it seems like it’s doing all right.”

“Folks are telling me that Roy’s been letting things slide. I guess his wife left him a few months back and he’s been hitting the bottle pretty hard.”

“Hmmm.”

“Have you looked in the bins? Smell anything off?”

“I’ve been pretty slammed. I’ve had milo going out and corn coming in.”

“Yeah. Same here. Maybe I was going to head over this afternoon, but I promised Ray Morris I would help him get some gravel down on his driveway this weekend.”

“I think things are all right. I haven’t locked up the elevator yet. I’ll take a look in the bins before I lock up.”

Abe was silent. “All right. Have a good weekend, man.”

Nia

The reflection of the van in the glass windows of the library looks so normal, Nia thought as she shut off the van. Like a vehicle any other family would drive.

“But we are not every other family,” Nia said aloud as she got out.

There was a large covered area in front of the library. Two barn swallows flew past her and perched on a little nest near the library door. Their young cried out and the parents fussed around them. “Surely there are times when you get stressed,” Nia said. “Like when a hawk is chasing you.” The commotion in the nest quieted for a moment. “Uh, sorry,” Nia said, fairly certain the birds couldn’t actually understand her, but feeling it rude not to apologize.

The door had a friendly swish as she entered the library. She passed statue of a civil war soldier and was about to call out to a passing, familiar toddler when she noticed a librarian sitting at the L-shaped counter. “Hello,” Nia said.

The woman’s bright eyes looked up from a book and she was about to smile, but froze. “You are Io’s sister?”

“Yes, ma’am. Has she been any trouble?”

The woman chuckled. “No. But when I asked her if she would like to get a library card, she said she couldn’t on account of not having an address.”

“I’m a full-time employee at the co-op. Could she use that address?” Ro crashed into Nia’s legs with a chuckle and Nia picked her up.

“Of course, but I’m more concerned about the fact that your family doesn’t have a place to live.”

“Oh,” Nia said, shifting Ro’s weight to one hip. “Thank you. It’s maybe not what it seems. My dad works—he’s been working on Ray Morris’ house.”

The librarian nodded. “South of town.”

“Right. He’s about done there. We thought we would live in this area, but nothing is opening up, so my parents are thinking about moving back to Kansas City when the Morris house is finished.”

“Well, I’m Cindy,” the librarian said, grabbing a pen and paper. “I’m going to write my number down for you. Io said you’re staying at Cheney Lake?”

Nia nodded.

“It’s getting cold. If your family needs a place to stay, you can stay at my place.”

“Thank you,” Nia said, taking the paper. “That’s very kind of you.”

Nia made her way through the library and stopped where Abe’s niece, Eleanor, and Io sat together, looking at one of the computers. They were looking at a news story on kansas.com. Nia only caught the words “The Foundry” and an image of the interior of a building where there was a large mural of a girl dancing.

“That’s you,” Io said in an awestruck voice.

Eleanor whipped her head around, burning Io with fiery eyes, and then clicked out of the news page. She stood, grabbing her purple duffel bag from the ground beside her, and stomped toward the back door.

Sapphire came through the back door just then. “Hey, girlfriend. Where ya headed?”

Eleanor closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and said, “I’ll be at the church, tap dancing for my life*.”

“Can I come?” Io asked.

Nia cringed. Could Io really not understand the situation?

Eleanor’s eyes opened into slits. “Very well,” she said, opening the door. “Come.”

Nia and Sapphire exchanged glances as the two girls walked out into a mass of orange and red leaves that scraped the parking lot and swirled toward the heavens.

*From “the poet” by Lucille Clifton