Beths hope part 3

Father sat me down.

Mother then said with worry in her voice, “Dear, what is the matter?”

He said, “Whatever happens, I just want you both to know I love you and I am just doing my job.  I am in control of that camp now…” He paused placing his hand over his face as though he could barely look us in the eye’s he then sniffed and in a voice I had never heard before he said “I’m just doing my job… I’m just doing my job.” It seemed like he was trying to convince himself not mamma and me.

I had never seen my father cry before until now, it scared me, and to me at that age he was the strongest man alive.  That night he was different.  I thought, “Who is this man kneeling in front of me?”   He was in tears.  I leaned over and said, “I love you and that will never change.” How very young I was. How very much I had to learn.

 

       The next day was a Sunday, Mother and I went to church.  The pastor said “We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”.  I ran those words though my head.  “ALL have sinned?”   But my father has never sinned? So that couldn’t possibly be true.

    When we got home, I went upstairs to see Anne.   I walked in and something struck me as odd they were all wearing a gold star on their shirts. 

“Look at my star, Beth!!!” Anne said excitedly.   “We got them today.  Father said we need to wear them until he says we can take them off.”

“Oh”, I said.  “Well, why don’t I get one?”  Anne’s mother walked in to the room.  She was wearing one too. 

She then said, “The reason is, Beth that we are Jewish and you are not.”

“Oh”, I said, feeling a bit left out. “Well, does every Jew get one?”

“Yes”, Mrs. Shetler replied.

“But”, I said, “Mamma said we are all the same, just a bit different in our own way.”

“Your mother is right.  We are the same in some ways and different in others.  One of our differences is our religious beliefs.”

That night I ran Anne’s mothers words through my head. The next morning, I woke to the yelling of “the Loud Man”, as usual. I went to go get ready for school.  I went down for breakfast and found Momma at the table, her head in her hands tears were streaming down her face.  I ran to her.  “Mamma!”, I said in a panic.  “What happened?”  She looked at me with fear in her eyes.  Her head sank to her knees. 

“OH GOD!!” she said.  “OH DEAR GOD”!!

 I had no idea what was wrong, but she was scaring me!  She looked up at me with a stern look on her face. “You listen to me!  Whatever happens, you must never let go of your faith, do you understand me?  The world is becoming a dangerous place, there are people who will try to hurt you and not always in a physical ways, do you understand me?  Beth? I raised you to be strong and to think of what’s right. Always do what is right no matter who tries to tell you otherwise, no matter how many threats you get, you can’t give in”

“Alright”, I said, “but what is wrong?”

 Mother gathered herself.  “Nothing…well not yet at least.” she paused for a moment. I remember her face was pale and stricken with fear. She then took a deep shaky breath and told me to “Go on to school.”   She turned off the radio and gave me my lunch satchel.  As I walked to school, I thought of the strange things that had happened lately.  First, father in tears, then mother sounding like she expected the end of the world. It was all very confusing. Then I heard John running up behind me.

“Hi!” he said in his normal excited voice.

“What?” I said in a daze.  He stared at me for some time before saying,

 “You look like you just saw a ghost.  Did you Beth?  Was it big?  Did you scream?”

“No”, I replied, annoyed by all of the nagging.  “I’m just not having the best of days, that’s all.”  I looked at him.  He looked to me with a confused expression, as I looked at him it looked like he had gotten a bit taller which I found odd considering I had just seen him a few days ago “I’m sorry” He said “ Are you are having a bad day” he asked.

“John, have you ever wondered what was going on and no one was willing to tell you?”

“Oh yes”, he replied.  “I asked my parents once where babies came from, and my mother gasped and told me never to ask that again.  So I never did… but I kept wondering.”

I giggled, and then sighed dramatically.  “Oh John, I hate being so young.   Sometimes, I feel like I don’t know anything.”

“Well” John said, “you will be 12 years old pretty soon, in only a couple of months. Then you’ll be older and smarter and then maybe you will just know everything.” 

 I looked at him amused at how certain he was of all of this.

“Maybe, but who knows what could happen in that short amount of time.” He looked at me with confusion, like I knew something he didn’t.

We walked inside the schoolhouse; Anne was standing in front of the class with some other kids I knew.  I put my books down on my desk, and started to go over to her. As I got closer I could see that she had a bruised eye and a

swollen lip

Author's Note

please have mercy on spelling and grammer I wrote this when I was 10 and have been trying to edit and get this published so please have mercy! :-) and enjoy. This is my book is my baby hahaha

Reviews

[M Garcia]

Excellent..

[tynamite]

I could never write this at 10.

[Calypso]

Oh wow. Just amazing. I found this to be wonderful. I like reading this.

[KATHY SUE SILLS]

Well this is an excellent baby, great story plot!

[the_kate]

You seriously wrote this when you were ten??? This is better than anything I could ever write now! PLEASE write more! This is great!

[Geralyn Miller]

Well, love, just remember, having a baby is both messy and painful.

[Misty Blue Eyes]

very nice

[KAREN]

This is getting better and better, and hope you go on writing this because I want to read it to the very end! BRAVO!!

[Cynthia]

wow! You are amazing! I agree, this story is truly well written! You got to publish it! Actually, I can help much with the grammer thing, cause I don't even can help myself much, but I truly hopes you can publish this into a book!

[Coyote Poetry]

You are a amazing young lady. The story is written with a experience pen. At 10 years old I was reading and trying to write. I like this chapter. Great conversation. Kids need to know all answers. Good and bad. A excellent chapter. Thank you.
Coyote