Free While We're Far Apart by Lynn Austin

that those of us who know Him will go to heaven to live with Him after we die.”
    “Why does He need more people up in heaven? Didn’t you tell us that God owns the whole universe and all the stars and planets and things? Aren’t there already a bunch of angels up in heaven with Him?”
    Mrs. Nevin walked over to Esther’s side and laid her hand on her shoulder. “I can’t answer your questions, dear. I’m so sorry – ”
    “Well, who can?”
    “Would you like me to ask Reverend McClure to visit you at home?”
    Esther’s anger fizzled into the familiar darkness once again like the last dying burst of fireworks. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”
    “Yes it does, dear. I’ll speak with the pastor right after the worship service, okay?”
    “Don’t bother.”
    Penny Goodrich was waiting for Esther and Peter in the church lobby, smiling and talking with everyone in her mile-a-minute way as if she had attended Esther’s church all her life. She hadn’t. Penny had never set foot in this church before. She didn’t belong here. “Why can’t you go to your own church?” Esther had asked her this morning as they boarded the bus.
    Penny’s smile had wavered like a birthday candle in the wind. “Well . . . because your father wants you to keep going to your regular church. And I’m taking care of you now.”
    The sight of Penny making herself at home here in church the same way she had made herself at home in the apartment made Esther furious. She hurried ahead into the sanctuary and plopped down in the pew so that Peter would have to sit in the middle beside Penny. Esther lowered her chin and stared at her shoes. The familiar sanctuary seemed like a different place for some reason.
    She tried to remember what it had been like when she and Peter and Mama and Daddy used to come to church together. On the Sundays when it was Mama’s turn to play the piano they would sit up front in the very first pew, right behind Mama. Esther loved to watch her mother’s strong fingers dance across the keyboard. Mama had begun to teach Esther how to play, but now all the music had faded into silence.
    The service lasted forever. Afterward, they walked over to Grandma Shaffer’s house for Sunday dinner. Penny said good-bye and went next door to eat dinner with her own parents. Grandma greeted Esther and Peter in her housecoat and slippers.
    “There was no sense in fixing a big meal now that your father isn’t here to eat it,” she said. “I made beans and franks. You like that, don’t you?”
    Esther shrugged. “I guess so.” She didn’t feel hungry.
    It seemed very quiet without Penny’s endless, cheerful chatter. Grandma put the pot of food on the table and sat down with Esther and Peter, but she didn’t eat anything. She didn’t even have a plate or silverware in front of her. She seemed very sad. “What’s wrong?” Esther asked her.
    “What do you think is wrong? All three of my boys are fighting in this terrible war, and I don’t know what in the world I’ll do if anything happens to them.”
    Esther didn’t know what to say. She poked holes in her hot dog with her fork as Grandma’s parakeet chirped noisily in the background. “We got a letter from Daddy this week,” she finally said. “He told us that he has to sleep in a big room with lots of other men.”
    “Yeah, he sent me a letter, too. It’s here somewhere, if you want to read it.” Grandma braced her hands on the table and got up to search through the endless piles of papers on her countertops.
    “Never mind,” Esther said. “It’s probably the same as ours.”
    Peter didn’t play his usual game of fetch with Woofer after lunch, even though the dog begged and begged, dropping her slimy ball at Peter’s feet and gazing up at him with her happy doggy smile and lolling tongue. Instead, they all sat in the crammed living room, listening to The Old Fashioned Revival Hour on the radio. Grandma’s house smelled stuffy and stale, like a