Free Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds Page A

But they said it was important for us to wait until all those urges passed and until we had secured our hearts in Jesus. They said we would find a mate among God’s special children if we didn’t show off, and to come and talk to them if we had problems because it hadn’t been too long since they were our age.
    Then they took questions, and Lorrie asked about kissing, and I could see David and Laura both thinking that next time, Lorrie would have to move up with the high-schoolers that Everett and Wanda taught. Laura told her it was “inappropriate,” and Lorrie shut up.
    Then Pammy asked if it was a sin if we accidentally let our knee socks fall down and a strange boy saw our legs. David told her it wasn’t one, but that she should keep her socks up, and Lorrie suggested that she could get rubber bands to hold them at the top.
    I didn’t ask anything at all, but I worried that the next year when Pammy went to junior high and had to dress out for gym, she’d tell.
    It was almost midnight by the time Ben Harback released the younger children. Then they began playing Red-Rover, and he started the popcorn, and pretty soon, the older groups were let out too.
    Pammy and I made up a little cushiony bed, and then we sat up talking for a while. Some of the smaller children fell asleep, and across the room, Ben Harback and David sat with some boys telling jokes, and Lorrie Evans was in the corner talking to Wanda and Laura and pretending to be all grown-up.
    Me and Pammy sat on our pallet and pulled a thick white blanket over us, up to the neck. Mustard came and stretched out beside Pammy, and she said, “You can’t sleep here. You have to sleep with the boys.”
    Mustard said, “I don’t want to sleep here anyway. I want Ninah to tell us a story.”
    And then James sat down beside me, and Barley sat at the foot of the bed, and Mustard smacked Barley with his pillow, and Barley hit him back, and everybody laughed.
    “Everything okay over there?” Ben Harback called.
    “Yeah,” Barley hollered. “Ninah’s gonna tell us a story.”
    “Shhhh,” Laura whispered loudly. “Some people are sleeping. Y’all keep it down.”
    “Go ahead, Ninah,” James said. “Tell us a good one.”
    “Hmmm,” I thought. “Okay. I’ll tell you about the time that Nanna and Grandpa Herman lost their shoes.”
    Barley settled down and pulled the tail end of our blanket over his legs. Pammy moved over to make room for Mustard, and James moved in closer to me.
    “See, back in the days when Nanna and Grandpa first started courtin, he’d come by her house early in the morning and pick her up for school. And that was how they dated. Just walking to school together.
    “One day Grandpa Herman picked her up, and they set out on the dirt road towards the schoolhouse two miles away.”
    “I’m glad we’ve got buses now,” Barley said.
    “Me too,” Pammy echoed.
    “Anyway, it was a sunny day, in April maybe, and the sap was running in the trees so the whole place smelled like pine, fresh and warm.”
    James, who was sitting next to me Indian-style, had started to shiver, and I moved in closer to Pammy so that our sides were touching and offered him part of the blanket.
    “Thanks,” he said.
    “What happened next?” Mustard asked, sleepy.
    “Grandpa Herman told Nanna that they should take off their shoes and not wear them that day. That they should hide their shoes somewhere and pick them up on the way home.”
    “Could you go to school without shoes?” Barley asked.
    “You could way back then,” Pammy answered, and yawned.
    “So they stopped on the side of the road. And Grandpa Herman peeled off his shoes, but Nanna was shy about her feet. Grandpa Herman said, ‘Look,’ and did a little dance for Nanna with his white skin shining.
    “And then he sat back down beside Nanna and started unlacing her boots.”
    “Nuh-uh,” Pammy said.
    “Yes he did,” I promised. “He reached down and untied her shoes and then he pulled