Free Cowboy Sing Me Home by Kim Hunt Harris

of their own to deal with.  Look at those ridiculous choir
robes Norma Buchanan made and expects us to wear.  You don’t think some phone
calls got made about that?”
    “What’s wrong with my choir robes?”
    Dusty deduced that the burly-looking woman who shoved her way to the
front of the group was Norma.
    “Nothing, except when we stand together we look like a bunch of grapes
grown near a nuclear reactor, that’s all.  Purple and green , Norma?”
    “Purple happens to be the color of royalty , Louise Mayella
Buchanan Sanderson.  And green stands for the color we hope to be seeing
soon, once the rains come and get everything started growing again .  I
explained all of this during the steering committee meeting. If you had
bothered to show up…”
    “I had an appointment !”
    “You had a tryst , and everyone in town knows it!”
    Louise gasped. 
    The room went silent. 
    Dusty backed slowly away.
    Then the group erupted again, in a commotion of shouted accusations and
outraged recriminations.   Half the women whirled with noses in the air, and
the other half followed, either apologizing or getting in one last insult.  The
pandemonium wound its way past the pews and out the foyer door, which closed
behind them all with a bang.  Dusty breathed a sigh of relief and thanked a God
she didn’t necessarily believe in for the silence.  What a bunch of hot heads.
    Helen came back a few moments later, hurrying down the aisle.  “I am so
sorry you had to see that.  We’re not normally like that, arguing amongst
ourselves.  Tempers are so short these days, with everyone worrying about the
drought.  I do hope you’ll come to the Jubilee and see how we can really be.”
    Dusty doubted she’d be anywhere near it, but she kept that to herself.
    “I hope we even have the Jubilee, now.  Mavis looked very upset,
bless her heart.”
    “She’ll get over it.”
    “Mavis has never really excelled at getting over things. Once she
gets…”
    “Bent out of shape?”
    “Yes, bent out of shape, she doesn’t get bent back in very quick.  And we
don’t have a lot of time.  I hope Brother Mark can appease her.”
    “You’ve got four churches here. Surely you can get by without her.”
    Helen frowned.  “I don’t know.  She’s our leader.  Everyone pretty much
waits for Mavis to say boo before they jump.  It’s just always been that way. 
Of course, we all know she can’t sing very well.  But she thinks she can, and
it’s really the only thing she has.  She can’t sew, she doesn’t quilt very
well.  She can’t cook worth a flip, bless her heart.  You should see her
cornbread dressing at Thanksgiving.  Has so much sage it’s green .”
    Helen peered at Dusty.  “I can not believe my manners.  Here I am
unloading our town’s secrets and I haven’t even told you my name.  Helen
Tanner.”  She stuck a large hand out at Dusty, a hand worn soft and comfortable
by time and work.
    “Dusty Rhodes.”
    Helen gasped again, but this time with a delighted smile on her face. 
“You’re the angel Luke told us about.”
    “Angel?” Dusty snorted.  “Whoever said I was an angel had me mixed up
with someone else.”
    “My son, Luke Tanner, said you had the voice of an angel.”  She grinned
at Dusty.  “He’s one of the deputies here, and plays in the house band at
Tumbleweeds.”
    “Yes, we’ve met.”  Dusty felt her cheeks get hot, thinking about the
conversation she’d had with Helen’s son just last night.
    “Are you going to stay in here and work your trap all day while I’m
waitin’ out in the heat?”   Dusty and Helen looked up to see a man about
Helen’s age standing in the doorway, holding a worn cowboy hat, his hand on his
hip.
    “Oh, shut up.  Like a little heat is going to kill you.” 
    Dusty drew back her head and stared at Helen, not believing this angry
voice had come from the same sweet woman who beamed when she talked about her
insane son.
    Helen put her