The List:
-Ruby, Rachel, Richard
-Richmond, railroad, riverside
-Resurrection Sunday
-right, Redeemer, roots, rye, reason, raspberry, roses, ruched, raisin, rolls, reminder, random, return, rectify, redemption
The Result:
"Regarding The Rye"
Ruby felt the stares as she sat in the rigid pew of the
Southern Baptist Church of The Redeemer. She focused on the ruched fabric
covering her knees as the pastor rambled through several passages on the
crucifixion. Nora had reminded her several times that the raspberry color did
look absolutely stunning, and no, Ruby wouldn’t stand out, but among all the
voluminous pastels and porcelain-pale faces, Ruby knew that her dark-amber skin
stood out like a raisin in a pound cake. It didn’t matter what she wore; in
Harlem she could blend in without so much as a hat. In this Alabama church,
there was nothing she could do to rectify the situation. She sat, eyes glued to
the pastor, praying to Jesus that there wouldn’t be an outcry here like there
had been at the train station.
The church held an Easter potluck on the lawn after the
service. Ruby bustled behind Nora with the basket of hot cross buns made by her
mother-in-law. They had almost reached the table when an older woman in a
bright floral-print dress made straight for Nora.
“Oh, Ellanora, my dear!” she said loudly, grasping Nora’s
hands in her knobby, ringed fingers. “It was so good to see that raggedy old
head of yours in front of me this morning. Prattville just hasn’t been the same
without you!”
Nora winced and tried to pull her hands out, but the woman
held on. “Thank you, Lorraine—“
“Now, think nothing of it, Ellanora; that’s what friends are
for.” More women joined her, reaching out to Nora and clucking their tongues
sympathetically. The ring closed off between Ruby and her mother-in-law.
Lorraine smiled even wider. “Now, speaking of friends, we of the Ladies Society
wanted to give you a gift, as a reminder that we’re here for you, no matter
what.”
Ruby couldn’t see what it was, but she heard Nora’s
reaction.
“Have you all lost your minds?” she squealed, bursting out of the circle.
Lorraine looked on with a face full of shock and pity. “Why,
Ellanora! We just heard about what happened…” she glanced around privately. “We
all wanted to help you. That’s all this is.”
“I may be a widow but I am not a charity case, Lorraine Charlotte Rose Montgomery!”
The expression Lorraine wore made it seem like Nora might
have pushed her. “I never said anything about charity. Richard even said he would be willing to—“
Nora grabbed the basket from Ruby and scowled at the woman.
“Just stay away from me, Lorraine! Mount Placid belongs to the Mulberry family,
and none of you are welcome there any more!”
Ruby followed her to the table, where she set the basket of
rolls amid the loaves of bread and pastries.
“Arrogant, meddling women, throwing their money around and
thinking they’re better than other people!” Nora grumbled, moving to join the
long queue of ravenous churchgoers ready to feast.
“What was the gift?” Ruby wasn’t sure if it would be safe to
ask, but she did, anyway.
Nora scowled. “Money! The women I would socialize with on a
regular basis heard the rumor about the bank laying claim on Mount Placid—Lord
knows how they could have found out,
nosy gossips! So, naturally, they assume I am just a poor, destitute wretch and
they took up a collection for me!
And that rude, stuffy Rachel Thurston thought I would be head over heels to
rent one of her guest rooms—the very idea!”
They had reached the table, heaped their plates with a
rainbow of delicious foods, and now Nora had decided to take her wounded pride
to a table all by herself. Ruby sat beside the woman, as she had done this
entire time. She hadn’t taken the first bite before someone called her name.
“Ruby!” A young woman with rich auburn hair curled back
along the nape of her neck approached the table.
Ruby set down her fork and smiled. “Hello, Diana,” she said
quietly.
Diana pinched her pretty rose-colored lips into a smile.
“What are you doing sitting way back here? Come over, there’s still a place at
our table yonder!”
Ruby’s eyes went right to Nora as she replied, “Oh, thank
you for your offer, but—“
“Oh, go ahead,” Nora waved her hand. “I need some time to
sulk alone before the Holy Spirit comes along to convict me, anyhow.”
Ruby gave Nora’s hand a reassuring squeeze as Diana giggled
awkwardly at the insinuation. She picked up her plate and moved to join this
new circle of friends she had managed to find in a place as regimented as
Prattville.
“So,” Diana continued as they threaded their way between the
tables. “Have you heard the news?”
Living at Mount Placid with only the few house servants and
her mother-in-law, Ruby hadn’t found much of a resource for all the comings and
goings of Prattville. “What news?”
“Basil’s back!” Diana’s eyes gleamed as she said it.
Ruby fancied he must be someone important, but she hadn’t
heard the name. “Basil who?”
Diana set her plate down and plopped into her chair. “Basil
Sheppard, of course! Oh, Rubes, he’s only the largest landowner in Prattville. You know that pile of refuse
at the edge of Carver’s Wood, down by the old railroad crossing that nobody
uses anymore?”
Ruby nodded; she hadn’t told anyone, but instead of going to
the grocers in town, she’d been digging through the pile for the deformed root
vegetables, and she’d even found a pile of wild rye growing in this seemingly
random patch of garden in the forest. Nora had yet to ask where the provisions
came from, but there hadn’t been any reason to tell her before now. “Yes, I
know the place.”
“That’s the edge of his property, while the main house and
the stables and barn are closer to the riverside—can you imagine all that
land?” Diana sighed. “Anyway, since you don’t seem to know much about him, I’ll
just tell you that he’s recently returned from a milling competition in
Richmond. He’d supplied grain from his fields, you know, and rumor has it that,
out of all the other grains in the competition, Basil’s grain was pronounced
the Best in the South!”
Ruby barely heard her, as guilt crowded over her mind. Her
pounding heart roared in her ears. Award-winning grain! That had been his rye she had stored in the cellar of Mount Placid! His radishes and roots! Here she had almost convinced
herself that it had been free for the taking; that the mound of produce was all
rejected specimens as less-than-perfect—but in reality, she was stealing! Ruby Corden Burke was nothing more than a common Negro
thief after all! She needed to rectify this transgression, or risk losing any kind of redemption she had hoped to gain.
>>>>>>>>>
This story is based on a future installment of the ReBible Series, a collection of novels based on Bible stories, set in more modern times. This particular story is based on the story of Ruth, set in America in the years just before and immediately after the Great Depression.
Those familiar with the Biblical account might recognize this scenario; for those less familiar, the climax of the story of Ruth comes when Ruth, poor and penniless in the land of her mother-in-law, Naomi, takes it upon herself to glean after a group of harvesters, as the law allows her to do. She ends up gleaning in the fields of Boaz, whom she finds out later happens to be a distant relative, and the means by which she could potentially save herself and her mother from homelessness.
In "The Remnant Resonance", Ruby, in a fit of guilt after finding out she'd been gathering roots and grains from another man's field, uses some of it to make what she calls a "Restitution Pie", intending to present it to him, confess what she'd done, and apologize for the thievery. Unfortunately, the man who greets her at the house isn't "Mr. Sheppard," but his supervisor, who accepts her apology and grants her permission to keep anything she finds in the mound at the edge of Carver's Wood. As for what happens after that, time will tell... Check the hyperlinked text above for more excerpts from this and other potential installments in the series!
Also in the A-to-Z Challenge Series: ( * Continuations of Suggestion Box installments)
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