help out the Bible publishing industry or to show her renewed dedication to the Lord or
something.
She walked a few steps before answering.
“It was my mother’s,” she said simply.
“Oh. . . .” I said it like I’d stepped on someone’s pet turtle, squashing it under my
shoe.
She looked at me. “It’s okay, Landon. How could you have known?”
“I’m sorry I asked… .”
“Don’t be. You didn’t mean anything by it.” She paused. “My mother and father were
given this Bible for their wedding, but my mom was the one who claimed it first. She read
it all the time, especially whenever she was going through a hard time in her life.”
I thought about the miscarriages. Jamie went on.
“She loved to read it at night, before she went to sleep, and she had it with her in the
hospital when I was born. When my father found out that she had died, he carried the
Bible and me out of the hospital at the same time.”
“I’m sorry,” I said again. Whenever someone tells you something sad, it’s the only
thing you can think to say, even if you’ve already said it before.
“It just gives me a way to … to be a part of her. Can you understand that?” She
wasn’t saying it sadly, just more to let me know the answer to my question. Somehow that
made it worse.
After she told me the story, I thought of her growing up with Hegbert again, and I
didn’t really know what to say. As I was thinking about my answer, though, I heard a car
blare its horn from behind us, and both Jamie and I stopped and turned around at the same
time as we heard it pulling over to the side.
Eric and Margaret were in the car, Eric on the driver’s side, Margaret on the side
closest to us.
“Well, lookee who we have here,” Eric said as he leaned over the steering wheel so
that I could see his face. I hadn’t told him I’d been walking Jamie home, and in the curious
way that teenage minds work, this new development took priority over anything that I was
feeling about Jamie’s story.
“Hello, Eric. Hello, Margaret,” Jamie said cheerfully.
“Walking her home, Landon?” I could see the little devil behind Eric’s smile.
“Hey, Eric,” I said, wishing he’d never seen me.
“It’s a beautiful night for strolling, isn’t it?” Eric said. I think that because Margaret
was between him and Jamie, he felt a little bolder than he usually was in Jamie’s presence.
And there was no way he could let this opportunity pass without sticking it to me.
Jamie looked around and smiled. “Yes, it is.”