Free Abby Finds Her Calling by Naomi King Page A

the sin that such an act involved when they took their kneeling vows to join the church.
    Truth be told, Barbara had taken them aside when they’d reached adolescence. As a midwife, she’d made babies her life’s work. So Zanna had no call to blame their mother for this predicament. The conversation had looped in this unbearable circle for nearly an hour, all because her sister refused to admit there were gaping holes in her story.
    “It’s easy to point up the failings of your parents while you’re growing up,” Mamm said in a low voice, “but let’s not accuse your dat of playing favorites, Samuel Jacob. Especially because, as his only son,
you
were the apple of Leroy’s eye. You never saw it that way because he expected more of you, preparing you to take his place at the head of this table.”
    A surprised silence enveloped the kitchen, because Mamm rarely stood up to her son, just as she’d never challenged her husband—or at least not in front of them. Abby was pleased by their mother’s remark. It meant Mamm was seeing beneath the surface of this murky situation to what really mattered: the bedrock of love that held them together as a family, through sunshine and shadow.
    Their mother sat straighter then, addressing her youngest child across the table. “Go to your room without your dinner, Suzanna, until you can tell us the truth,” she said firmly. “That’s how we dealt with you when you were little, and it seems you still have somegrowing up to do. Having a baby won’t suddenly give you any more smarts, or rights and privileges, believe me.”
    Mamm gazed directly at Zanna then, so there would be no dodging the rest of her lecture. “And don’t believe for a minute that you’ll be staying in Cedar Creek while you’re pregnant, or keeping the baby after it’s born.”
    Zanna’s mouth opened and then closed quickly. Dropping her napkin on her plate, she rose and walked stiffly toward the stairs, then paused in the doorway and turned toward them. “Come get me when you’re heading home, Abby,” she pleaded. “Do you see why I can’t stay here anymore?”
    “Enough out of you!” Sam stood up so fast his chair fell backward. “Your sister and the rest of us have taken all the sass we’re going to handle!”
    The sound of weeping drifted behind the upset girl, in a kitchen so charged with tension that Abby’s heart constricted painfully. Without a word, she and Barbara and the girls fetched the dinner Sam had banished to the oven. The tuna noodle casserole looked brown and too crisp, while the green beans had shriveled in their bowl. But there was no fixing things that had gone wrong this past hour—these past few days—until the right answers came along, at the right time.
    It was the quietest meal Abby could ever recall, as though their silent grace beforehand continued while they ate—although the atmosphere in the kitchen felt more frustrated and miserable than grateful. When everyone had finished picking halfheartedly at the meal, Sam and Matt headed outside for the last round of sheep chores. Phoebe and Gail began stacking plates while Ruthie busied herself with the broom.
    Barbara let out a long sigh. “All right, then,” she murmured, gazing at Abby and Mamm. “It’s time we took a closer look at this situation. Best to take Zanna over to your house, Abby. I’ll be right there with my medical bag.”
    .   .   .
    “Are you sure you’re pregnant, Zanna? Could be that the pre-wedding jitters are keeping you from your monthlies,” Barbara said in a quiet voice. “Happened to me, matter of fact—first couple of months after I married Sam, what with all the stress of setting up housekeeping and fitting into a new family. I didn’t have any sisters, and with my mamm already gone…”
    “I used one of those home pregnancy tests,” Zanna answered in a tight voice. She was lying on Abby’s guest bed, undressed beneath a sheet, as her sister-in-law prepared to examine