An Excerpt from When Light Comes
Unexpected
Book 4 of the Misty Creek Series
By John W. Vander Velden
When the morning broke clear with an
unusual coolness, the residents of Hancock’s Bluff had decreased by one.
It was at that moment Matthew had come
to her. Perhaps he had heard the whispers, or perhaps the man who had bound his
life with hers felt the need. The instant he entered, Elizabeth rushed to the
arms of the man whose face reflected the sadness she felt. Within his embrace
she melted, as if her legs could no longer support her. Matthew held her close
as she wept. But the tears that fell were not hers alone, for Elizabeth felt
her husband’s as well.
***
Those who lived in the wide-open
places understood life and death better than some living in what might be
called a more civilized world. The mud and blood of life was something each had dealt with. Mr. Welcome Morgan had built a
box. A pine casket that he knew his friend would need when the time came.
The time had come.
Mrs. Schoff and another had dressed
the dear woman out, and then everyone
over the age of ten came to pay their final respects. Nearly all had said their
goodbyes to Eloise before her passing, but that did not fulfill the need to pay
honor to the woman who seemed to have always been there. Eloise lived at the
Bluff before anyone thought to name the place.
It was mid-afternoon of another
cloudless day when all was completed and everyone had gathered. Ben told her
that it was time.
“No,” Elizabeth insisted.
“But…” he began.
“In the morning Ben. Early, while the
dew is on the grass and the lark sings. That would be the time Eloise would
want it done. She would want us all to experience the glory of the day’s
awakening. To be surrounded by what she called the “wild opens.” The land she loved.”
***
They left the settlement known as
Hancock’s Bluff before the sun had risen. Mr. Morgan had hitched his horses to
a flat wagon, and the men—Matthew and Nick among them—had carried her out the
store’s front door, down the steps, and slid the coffin gently onto that wagon.
It was early, with only the gray dimness of the day, when Welcome Morgan eased
his horses forward. The wagon was followed by the sad-faced preacher-man,
holding his Bible. The pallbearers came next, and behind the six men, Elizabeth
and a multitude of those that called the settlement their home. The procession
went up the hillside, past the smoke stacks jutting out of the soil. The train
of wagon, preacher, and the rest veered to the right, leaving the strips of
dirt that passed for a road behind.
How far they had gone, Elizabeth
wasn’t certain, but far enough that she found herself surrounded by the open
prairie land. The place they approached was no different than other places she
had seen on the prairie, except they followed the crest of the bluff. To her
right she could see miles of open land, dotted by a sod house and barn here and
there. Fields lay below the bluff as far as she could see. Perhaps further.
They stopped, surrounded by the near waist-high, dew-covered wild grasses, the
blades burnt golden by the summer sun. There was no fence, no row of markers,
nothing to separate the featureless grassland from any other, save for the
mound of earth and the place from which that soil had come.
A pink blush in the eastern sky caught
everyone’s attention as they waited. The day was dead calm, so unusual for the
open country. It felt to Elizabeth as if nature itself held its breath in
reverence of the moment.
Ben took his place at the grave, here
in what felt like the middle of the vastness of Kansas. The way grasslands had
been before it was Kansas. A time before any settlers had come. The men set the
casket at the side of the grave and Elizabeth, like the world around her, found
herself holding her breath as the sheer brilliance of the first rays of the
morning sun tore apart the sky.
9-24-2025 (710 Words)
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