Free Nazareth's Song by Patricia Hickman Page A

don’t know anything about what the upper crust is using, so you may as well give up trying.”
    “Upper crust, hah! The day you turn into upper crust, is the day Wolvertons’ hogs sprout wings.”
    “I don’t expect you to elevate your thinking just because things are changing for the better for me.” He returned to the kitchen and gathered up his sermon notes.
    “Life don’t have no elevators, Jeb Nubey; I have news for you.” Angel tossed aside her letter and returned to the stove. “If we hear from Daddy, Aunt Kate says I should tell him to send money. Like I’m going to hear from Daddy! Seems like ever since Uncle Wayne left, money’s all Aunt Kate ever talks about.”
    “I guess if you got it, you don’t think about it.” Jeb put away his Bible and picked up a copy of Augustine’s writings. It had been in a stack of books Fern had given to Gracie to give to Jeb when his internship commenced.
    “If I were taking care of Momma, she’d be well.”
    “Did your Aunt Kate ask you to come?” Before Jeb could find his place again in the book, Angel said, “I think I should quit school and get a job. If I could get my own place, Momma could live with me. ”
    “Girls like you can’t find jobs no better than cleaning houses. You want to do that the rest of your life, then quit school!”
    “Maybe I should and maybe I will!”
    “You always get like this when you want something.”
    “I see how you look sometimes if we get into a fight or don’t seem to have enough food to go around at supper. I know when I’m not wanted.”
    “I saw you eyeing that dress in the Woolworth’s. This is a new dress fight, ain’t it?”
    “You don’t hear nothing that I say. Momma’s sick because she don’t have real care, not the kind that I can give.”
    “There you go again, acting like you’re going to haul off and leave. Funny how it always happens after Woolworth’s opens a new box of goods.”
    “You think I’m talking about dresses? You lost your mind or something?”
    “Maybe I’m not the best provider. But I’ve seen people in worse situations than us. We got this roof over our head. No one’s making us live out of a cardboard box.”
    Angel started pacing and shaking her head.
    “I’ve been looking for extra work, in case you hadn’t noticed. One of these days that lumbermill’s going to need another hand again, and I’ve got my name in for it. All the other mills have gone out because no one is building right now. But everybody needs barrels, and now, due to Hayes Jernigan’s know-how, we got the best stave mill between here and Texas. Besides all that, I’ll soon have some income as the new preacher. Least I should.” He stopped to consider the matter. “Come to think of it, maybe I need to bring that up with Gracie.” He came back to his original thought, let out a breath, and said, “Keep your mind on school, Angel, and stop worrying about how you look all the time.”
    “Are we talking about me or you?”
    Jeb shrugged. Angel was complicated. Like Fern. “Can we talk about dinner?”
    Jeb slaughtered a rabbit out in the woods away from Ida May’s sight. The critter squealed like a girl and then fell limp over his hand. He skinned it and left the pelt to dry on a stump while Angel dressed and cut up the rabbit and stewed it an hour before adding the soup. By nightfall, the stew and hot bread were ready for supper just as Jeb turned on
The Grand Old Opry
.
    The headlights of the Foleys’ DeSoto shone through the trees as the car rattled up near the front porch. Willie leaped out of the car and nearly fell onto the stone steps before running across the porch and into the living room.
    “They’s a riot downtown, Jeb!”
    Jeb turned off the radio. “Anyone hurt? You all right, Willie Boy?”
    Willie could not get his breath. Mrs. Foley eased onto the front porch holding her handbag against her thin stomach. She called out to Jeb, “We’re all fine, Reverend. But someone’s