Free Untethered by Marcia Lynn McClure Page B

girls heard her exclaim. Mrs. Maloney set the lamp down on the porch and picked up the teapot. “Oh! Oh, it’s you!” she said to the teapot. “It’s you. It really is you! Oh, how I’ve watched you for so long…but…what’s this?”
    Nobody breathed as they watched Mrs. Maloney unfold Vilma’s note. They could hear her sniffling as she read—saw her wipe tears from her eyes.
    “Thank you!” Maymee Maude Maloney called from her front porch out into the night. “Thank you, whoever you are! It’s beautiful. So much more beautiful than it was when it was a prisoner at the general store! I promise to cherish it all my life. Thank you!”
    Cricket wiped the tears from her cheeks as she watched Mrs. Maloney pick up the lamp and disappear into her house, closing the door behind her. She began to cry all the more savagely, however, when she saw Vilma collapse facedown in the cool summer grass and begin to sob.
    Marie and Ann were as soppy as Cricket and Vilma, and it took several long minutes for any of the four black-shrouded do-gooders to recover their emotions.
    Red-eyed and with tear-streaked cheeks, the four young ladies of Pike’s Creek gathered themselves and started out for Mr. Keel’s home.
    “She really will love it, won’t she?” Vilma asked, taking Cricket’s hand as they walked.
    Cricket smiled, wiped a fresh tear from her cheek, and nodded. “More than anyone in all the world ever could,” she affirmed.
    “I feel warmed and happier now,” Ann said, stepping in beside Cricket, tucking her quilt under one arm, and taking her other hand.
    “Me too,” Marie added, clasping Vilma’s free hand.
    “I don’t even miss my silly hair,” Vilma added.
    Cricket squeezed Vilma’s hand with admiration and affection. “You’re very brave and givin’, Vilma,” she said. “One day you’re gonna burst out of whatever those invisible tethers are that keep you so wound up and be who God meant you to be.”
    Vilma squeezed Cricket’s hand in return, but the new tears in her eyes kept her from speaking.
    They walked silently for a time along the backside of the business buildings of Pike’s Creek, each lost in her own thoughts. Though she didn’t know what Marie or Ann or Vilma was thinking exactly, Cricket supposed their thoughts mirrored her own—that she wished she could spend more time doing lovely, kind things for folks in secret. It was what she felt she was meant to do, and she was glad for her companions in it.
    “Just look at that moon,” Ann said as they strolled along toward Mr. Keel’s house and barn. “Just like a new silver coin hung high in the sky.”
    Cricket smiled, touched by the way she and Ann often thought of things similarly.
    “And the stars!” Marie whispered in awe. “No wonder folks cast wishes at them. They truly twinkle like they’re trying to speak to you…don’t they?”
    “Well, I wish they’d speak to me,” Ann said then. “I wish they’d tell me whether or not Mr. Keel will think this quilt is the silliest thing or be glad he has it to keep him warm in the winter.”
    Mr. Keel’s house was in view, and Cricket could see a lamp burning in the kitchen window. “Well, maybe when he opens the door and finds it tonight, you’ll know, and the stars won’t need to tell you,” Cricket whispered. “Now let’s quit talkin’ and creep over behind that big lilac tree there by the kitchen door. It should hide us pretty well, don’t you think?”
    Quietly the girls made their way to the large lilac tree that grew to one side of Mr. Keel’s back porch. Oh, it was so fragrant! Lilacs abloom was one of Cricket’s favorite fragrances in all of heaven and earth.
    “I’m havin’ second thoughts about this,” Ann nervously whispered as they carefully settled behind the old lilac tree.
    “No second thoughts are allowed, Ann,” Marie reminded. “You know that.”
    “But this is different,” Ann quietly argued. “I mean, who in their right mind gives a