The Angel's Song Read online

  Cyrus could not see that the road in front of him was flooded, so it came as a shock when the car started to fill up with water. The water was rising fast and it was impossible to determine how deep it was. Cyrus quickly grabbed the soaking baby and put her on the seat then he rolled the window down. The car was quickly filling up with water and he had to act fast. If he didn’t get them out right now, he and the baby would drown. Within seconds, the water was climbing his waist and the child on the seat was submerged.

  He grabbed the baby and lifted her in the air as high as he could. She coughed. His heart beat so fiercely that he could feel it throbbing at his temple. Then for the first time in many years, Cyrus Hunt turned to God. He said a prayer out loud … “Dear God, help me, please. I can’t make it on my own.”

  In the sky, a bolt of lightning flashed and thunder roared. Cyrus took a deep breath and held it as he grabbed the child and pushed his way out through the car window. He tried to hold the baby up out of the rushing water but it was moving fast like a rapid river and Cyrus was swept away. Everything was happening so fast that he could not determine in which direction he was being pulled. It was all he could do to keep a hold on the infant. Several times he almost passed out but he forced himself to stay awake for the sake of the child. He had to try the best he could to keep her head above the water.

  Finally, the morning light trickled down from the sun, obliterating the darkness of the ravaged Keys. The winds began to die down. The rain stopped. Cyrus was able to carry the baby to a small patch of high ground. He stood there, surveying the earth for a few moments. Trees were swept into the middle of the roads. Flooded areas were everywhere, bodies and even the occasional body part floating in the water. Most of the buildings were completely demolished, others were missing roofs or entire sides, looking as if they’d been bit by a giant monster. Cyrus checked the baby to be sure she was still alive. She was. Her little green eyes were wide open. He whispered in her ear, “You come from strong stock little girl. You’ll survive this.”

  With the child in his arms, he began to walk toward his farm. It wasn’t easy navigating between the flooded areas and the debris but he had to find Ashlyn. He prayed she wasn’t dead.

  His legs, arms, and face were scratched and bleeding from the branches and debris he’d hit as the water carried him along through the night. The cuts hadn’t hurt at the time, but now they stung and his muscles ached with exhaustion. Still, he knew he must not stop. If by some miracle Ashlyn had survived, she would need him. With every ounce of strength left in his battered body, Cyrus Hunt made his way on foot back to his girl and his land.

  When he could finally see the farm, his heart sank. He and Ashlyn had worked so hard to build the place up and now it was in ruins. The base of the house was still standing but the roof and one of the walls were gone. The fruit trees he tended with such love and care lay torn from the ground with their roots exposed.

  So much time, so much work Ash and I put into this place and look at it now, he thought, shaking his head. Then he began to all call out, “Ashlyn! Ashlyn!” His voice was hoarse. His throat was dry and he choked on the dryness which left him coughing, but he kept calling her name, afraid of the inevitable. Then he rounded the corner where they kept the chicken coop and saw her. Her body was caught between two trees. One leg was twisted and she could hardly speak above a whisper, but she said, “Cyrus, I’m over here.”

  He ran to her and laid the infant at her side as he helped untangled her. “I’ve been so worried about you.” He said. She winced in pain. “I think my ankle might be broken. And my hip is hurting a lot,” she said.

  Cyrus nodded and looked at her twisted foot. “It might be. But thank God you’re alive. I have been worried sick about you all night.”

  She wept, leaning her head on his shoulder as he held her tenderly. And for the first time since he met her, he knew for certain that she was his one true love. She was the woman that God had chosen for him. She was his destiny. Ashlyn filled his heart with peace where before there had only been discontentment and chaos. And as he looked down into her eyes, he saw her as beautiful, truly and unmistakably beautiful.

  Ashlyn reached for the baby and picked her up. She held her in her arms. The infant’s towel fell away, exposing her dirty, naked body.

  “Lucy’s?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

  “And mine,” he answered.

  She nodded. “Where is Lucy?”

  “She died in childbirth.”

  “Dear God,” Ashlyn said, holding the infant to her chest. “The poor child.”

  “I plan to raise this little girl, Ashlyn, and if you will have me, I would like you to be my wife. I don’t know if you could be all right with raising a child from another woman.”

  Tears ran down Ashlyn’s dirty face. “Yes, I will be your wife and I’ve always wanted to be a mother. So I would love to raise this child with you. I will always treat her as if she were my own blood because she is yours and I love you.”

  “I love you, Ashlyn.”

  “I’ve always loved you, Cyrus. From the first moment I saw you. But I would never have interfered if you and Lucy had stayed together. All I ever really wanted was your happiness.”

  “You know, ever since I got my hands on that money I thought it would bring me happiness, but the strange thing is that when the storm was outside and I was looking for the money I didn’t care as much about finding it as I did about getting back here to the farm and to you. I wanted to be with you to protect you as much as I could.”

  “We don’t have anything anymore except each other and this little infant. The farm is gone, the money is gone,” she said touching the baby’s cheek.

  “I can’t say I don’t feel real bad that we lost the farm. But as long as we have each other, we can manage, even be happy,” he said. “Don’t you agree?”

  She nodded. “I am here in the middle of our broken dream with dead fish surrounding us. We are both filthy, and so is this poor baby. I’ve never before been so thirsty or hot and yet, this is the happiest moment of my life.”

  “Me too,” he said. “Me too. I finally know what I want out of life. I’m no longer searching. I feel like I have finally found a home. By that I mean that I have found my home. And my home is where ever we are together.”

  He took the baby from Ashlyn and wrapped her back up in the towel. “She is going to need some water and some milk if she is ever going to survive this. You will need water too. We should go to the workers’ camp in Snake Creek and see if there are any survivors and any food. Can you walk?” Cyrus asked.

  “I hope so,” she said. “My foot and hip hurt like crazy, but I’ll try.”

  “Lean on me,” he said.

  Chapter Four

  When they arrived back at the camp there were many others wandering around looking frightened. They too had survived the hurricane. But there was no one there that Cyrus recognized. Their faces were pale, wrinkled, and tired. The storm had come upon them unexpectedly. They had already ravaged the food supply and were gobbling up what they found. Cyrus was able to find a rotting watermelon. He picked it up and threw it on the ground in order to break it in two. Then he dug out the rich red center and put tiny pieces into the baby’s mouth.

  Ashlyn and Cyrus shared a slice of bread that someone offered along with some of the watermelon. They shared the sweet but rotting fruit with the others.

  Neither Cyrus or Ashlyn slept that night. They didn’t know what the future held for them. Darkness fell and they huddled close together with the baby between them.

  The following day, Cyrus felt as if he were rising from the dead when the relief efforts began. The Red Cross arrived along with FEMA and several other organizations that Cyrus didn’t recognize. There was even a man who claimed to be some kind of a famous author who’d come to help. He said his name was Ernest Hemmingway and that he had a special place in his heart for war veterans. Cyrus wasn’t impressed. He had no idea who this man was and all
he cared about was getting his family to safety.

  The people who came to rescue the veterans were passing out food and water. Once Ashlyn and Cyrus had eaten their fill and had given the baby whatever water she was able to swallow, they traveled by boat back up to the mainland and were taken to a hospital in Miami. There, the baby was nourished with formula, cleaned up, and brought to Cyrus and Ashlyn wrapped in a thin pink blanket.

  “She’s so beautiful, Cyrus,” Ashlyn said when the nurse placed the child in her arms.

  “You should be seen by a doctor, ma’am,” the nurse said to Ashlyn. “If you’ve just given birth, you should have an exam to make sure everything is alright.”

  “Oh,” Ashlyn said. “She isn’t mine. I mean I didn’t give birth to her. Her mother died. But we are planning to keep her.”

  “But it would be nice if a doctor could take a look at my future wife’s ankle and hip, she’s in a lot of pain,” Cyrus said.

  The nurse nodded and said, “He’s very busy, but I’ll see to it that he comes into your room as soon as he can.” Then the nurse left Cyrus and Ashlyn alone with the infant.

  Ashlyn looked into the tiny face. “I’ve already come to love her,” she said. “What should we call her?”

  “I don’t know, what do you think?” Cyrus asked.

  “I’ve always been partial to the name Caroline. My mama’s name was Caroline.”

  “Caroline it is then,” he smiled. “Caroline Hunt. It’s a nice name.”

  Cyrus took Ashlyn’s hand in his. “It might be a while before we can go back to the farm in the Keys. The land is pretty ravaged.”

  “I know. So what should we do in the meantime?”

  “Well, if it’s all right with you, I’d like to go back home to West Virginia and make peace with my brother Aiden. He’s a preacher there. He can marry us. That’s if he’s willing. There is too much bad blood between Aiden and me and I sure would like to put old problems to rest so that you and me can start our lives together on the right foot. No more old grudges. No more anger between me and my kin. You see, Ashlyn, there is a lot you don’t know about me. There are things that happened, things I did before we met.”

  “You can talk to me, Cyrus. You can tell me anything. I love you no matter what you did.”

  “I did a lot of really bad things back home in West Virginia and even after I left and I was rambling around the United States. If we head back to my hometown, you’re going to hear a lot of terrible things about me. And I am not going to lie to you; most of what you’ll hear is true.”

  “But I know you, Cyrus, and that man was who you were before, it’s not who you are now. Is it?”

  “No, the man I was would have lied to you. I won’t ever lie to you, Ashlyn.”

  “I know that, Cyrus. I put all my trust in you. And I want you to know that you can go ahead right now and tell me anything and everything. No matter what, I will understand.”

  “I’m certainly no longer the man who did those things. That man could not have loved you the way I do. He wasn’t capable of love. Do you believe me?”

  “I believe you. And you just tell me everything that happened whenever you’re ready. You don’t have to talk about it all right here and now. I can wait.”

  “Thank you for being understanding about all of this. I always knew you would.”

  “And, if you’re sure that you’re ready, as soon as we get out of this hospital we’ll head up to West Virginia. We will go and see your brother together,” she said. “Then we’ll start out with a clean slate.”

  “That’s what I want, a clean slate. But you know, Ashlyn, I’ve been gone from Mudwater Creek, that’s the name of the town where I grew up, for almost twenty years. I’m not quite sure what we are going to find when we go back. A lot could have happened to change things there in the last twenty years. It makes me nervous to think about what might have happened. I don’t know who is alive or who is dead.”

  “I know, Cyrus. But things won’t be right with you until you go back and settle things with your brother.”

  “You’re right as usual,” he said.

  Cyrus squeezed Ashlyn’s hand and she smiled. “Have courage. It will be fine.”

  BOOK TWO

  Chapter Five

  1917 Appalachian Mountains, Mudwater Creek, West Virginia

  Aiden knew that his brother Cyrus would be gone even before he opened his eyes that morning. It was very early, just before the break of dawn, but Aiden was sure that Cyrus had left hours ago.

  The previous night, Alice and her father had come to see Aiden’s father, Pastor Hunt, and demanded that Cyrus marry Alice because he had gotten her pregnant. The very idea of Cyrus and Alice being intimate had come as a terrible surprise and shock to Aiden. Everyone, including Cyrus, knew that Aiden was sweet on Alice and that she was sweet on him since they were little children. Aiden was sure that everyone expected he and Alice would marry as soon as he took over the church from his father. Never in Aiden’s wildest dreams had he suspected that his own brother was keeping company with his girl. And now she was carrying his brother’s child in her body. The deep hurt Aiden felt at being betrayed by his brother, who had always been his closest friend, hurt like a sword through his heart. It made him think of how Jesus must have felt when Judas turned on him.

  There were no mattresses in the Hunt’s cabin. Aiden sat up on the dirt floor in the small room he shared with Cyrus all of his life. Sleep still in his eyes, he looked over at the ground where Cyrus had slept.

  “My brother, the only brother I have ever known. How could you do this to me? Why would you hurt me like this?” Aiden whispered to no one but himself as the sun rose outside the window. “I could understand it if you loved Alice. I could even forgive you if you truly loved her. But, if you did, you would never have run away and left her pregnant and alone. Cyrus, why?” But there was no answer, only the sounds of the birds awakening and the chirping cicadas. Even though Aiden was heartbroken, he couldn’t help but be shaken by the beauty of the morning. He always felt that way each day when he looked outside at God’s creation. Today he ached with anger but he was looking deep into his heart for forgiveness.

  Chapter Six

  “Gone, ain’t he?” Pastor Josiah Hunt said as he walked into the room and looked into Aiden’s eyes. He shook his head. “Well, I figured as much. He done run off and left us to clean up the mess.” Josiah shook his head.

  Aiden was too broken to speak. His angelic face was filled with pain.

  “We gonna have to take that gal in here to live with us so as we help her raise that child. Her paw is real sick with the black lung and he got no money to be taken on another mouth. Come on, let’s go tell your Maw and your sister that we’re gonna have to help poor Alice out.”

  Aiden followed his father into the kitchen. He sat down at the table beside him while Josiah told his wife and daughter that Cyrus had run away.

  “Where you think he gone off to? He ain’t got no money,” Josiah’s wife said.

  “The war. Where else would a young man go to escape his responsibilities? I’d say he lit out of here and went right down to the recruiting office.”

  “You think we oughta go and look for him, Paw?” Aiden’s sister Grace asked.

  Josiah considered the idea then he shook his head. “Naw, if a man wants to get away, he’s gonna get away. Ain’t much you can do to stop him. We might could bring him back today, but he’d be gone again tomorrow.”

  “I’ll marry her,” Aiden blurted out. Everyone turned to look at him. “I’ll marry Alice if she’ll have me.”

  “You ain’t gotta clean up your brother’s mess, boy. You know that, right?”

  “You mean I ain’t my brother’s keeper, Paw?” Aiden asked.

  Josiah shrugged.

  “Don’t matter what she done, I still want Alice to be my wife. I always did. Y’all know that. I loved that gal since we was little kids,” Aiden said.

  “Aiden, why don’t you come out
side and walk with me awhile?” Josiah said, patting his son’s shoulder. “We need to talk, son.”

  Aiden followed his father out the door of the small shack where they lived. They walked side by side in silence for a while on the path behind the church where Josiah held his weekly services.

  “Now, son,” Josiah said, taking a deep breath. “You know that you’re my chosen one. You’re gonna be the leader of this here church. When I decided between you and Cyrus who would be best suited to follow me, I looked deep into my soul and I knowed then and there that it was you.”

  “Yes, Paw, and it sure is an honor that I don’t take lightly.”

  “I know that, son. But I want you to think long and hard about marrying Alice. Cause you know that it wouldn’t be fittin if you got yourself married and then later on you decided that you couldn’t raise your brother’s child as your own and you wanted to divorce Alice.”

  “I wouldn’t do that, Paw.”

  “If’n you take this thing on, then you gotta love that baby as if it sprang from your own loins. Otherwise, the child is going to grow up and resent you. Are you sure you can do that? Are you sure you ain’t gonna hold nothin’ your brother done against his offspring? Or against Alice? Cause if you is, then you ain’t never gonna have a good marriage.”

  “I am sure, Paw. I learned from you. I got plenty of love inside me. This here is an innocent baby. I wouldn’t hold nothin against an innocent. And as far as Alice is concerned, ain’t you told me many times before that we are all sinners? She made a mistake. Love don’t just disappear cause a person makes a mistake. I still love her and I forgive her just as you have always forgiven me when I did something that was wrong.”

  “You gotta good heart, Aiden. You know that your brother always thought I loved you best, don’t you?”