Read Online Six Miles From Nashville by Elaine Littau - Free Book Online

Sweetie read it. “That don’t mean nothing. Johnny came to see you. You have to write to him and let him know where you are.”
    “I can’t write to him!”
    “Why not?”
    “It would be...ah...forward.”
    “Now I have heard it all! Your mama probably told you that nonsense. It wouldn’t be forward since he came to see you and missed you. He has no idea where you are and you can let him know.”
    “I don’t want him to think that I expect him to come here to see me. It is a long way from his home.”
    Sweetie scoffed at the young thing wrestling with her upbringing. She plopped on a big rocking chair next to the desk. “Do you think I got Bill by being all shy and coy? No! I am ten years older than him. All the town gossips had a lot of ammunition with that  bit of information. I didn’t care what anyone thought of me. Do you know why?”
    “No.”
    “I loved that boy. I lived a long loveless life before I met him and I didn’t want to live another day without love. He was only sixteen when we married.”
    “But, I had a baby...and...I’m not...”
    “You’re not what? You aren’t crazy. You aren’t living at home being a slave for your mama? So, you had a baby. It isn’t like you are a bad person because of it.”
    “I gave him away! That makes me a bad person.”
    “Does it really? If you could see that little boy now with his adopted mama and daddy, do you think those people would think you were bad? You gave them a wonderful gift.”
    “A wonderful...gift.” She melted on the desk top in sobs. “God gave me a wonderful gift and I gave him away.”
    “Darlin’, you didn’t have a plan. You were a very sick little girl when you came here. What good would it have done that little child to have been on the street laying next to a dead mama? Didn’t you realize that you were more dead than alive when you got here?”
    Betty became quiet. Miss Sweetie’s view of the things she had done didn’t sound like the things she knew her mama would have said. “Why are you being so good to me?”
    Miss Sweetie knelt on the floor and put her head in the girl’s lap. She wrapped her arms around Betty’s waist and so bbed. “Our little girl died.”
    “Your little girl?”
    “Some wouldn’t call her little, but she was our precious child. She was only thirteen when a man ran over her right in front of the high school after a ballgame. He didn’t see her in time. We found out later that he had been drinking quite a bit in the bleachers. He killed our little Christiana.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “It’s been three years. She would have been sixteen by now. You see, I would give anything to have my baby girl back. I wouldn’t care what she had done. We would still love her to pieces.”
    Betty patted her friend’s back. “I am so sorry for you both.”
    “See, that is why I know that your mama would understand.”
    Betty shook her head sadly. “Daddy would understand, but Mama has her ridged rules. If you walk out of line, she can turn away.”
    “God hasn’t turned away from you.”
    “Mama would say that He has. He has rules too.”
    Sweetie took her place back in the rocker and straightened the front of her uniform. “God does have rules, but they are for our protection. He wanted to show us that no matter how hard we try to follow all of His commandments, we fall short.”
    “Miss Sweetie, I went to Bible School. I know all the Scriptures telling that the wages of sin is death.”
    “There is a finish to that verse. It says, ‘but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.’ That means that He wants you. He doesn’t want to keep you away. You are His child.”
    “But I have made so many bad mistakes. I haven’t prayed like I should. I never was good at reading the Bible every day. Memorizing is almost too much for me. I have failed on every attempt to be good.”
    “Haven’t you ever experienced the love of God? There is a place in His love where you know that