Thunder growled over heaven demanding to be released from the dark clouds that entombed it. The shadows of rain reflected on the parlor floor from the tall windows that faced the front yard. The seven sisters laid on the floor in a circle with their heads together listening to the ceiling as the storm blew outside.

"We need a plan."

"What can we do, Taitiann?" Alifair asked. "We're just girls. No one will care to listen to us."

"Grandpa cares and listens to us," Hannah contradicted.

"But what can Grandpa do?" said Alifair. "We have no hope. They took everything from us and now Papa will hang."

"Be quiet, Alifair don't say such things!" Heloise said. "Hannah is right to be optimistic. Grandpa let me read a poem by Grandma today." She sat up from the circle. "In the beset hour of my days is when I raised my head up. When the rain breaks the sheets of clouds that retrain it then is when I raise my hands up. I am stronger when I am sawn down and I am courageous when I'm wounded. Make be brave always oh Lord, whatever evils may come," she recited. "If we all believe that then we can win."

Selene sat up. "Young Mr. St. Cloud said he'd talk to his cousin in Oklahoma Territory," she said. "He might be the one to help us."

Miriam sat up. "How can you know that? We don't know this man and we can't trust him."

"It's worth a try," Astrid said as she sat up. "We don't have much other options, Miriam."

"I won't trust the life of my father into the hand of a white lawyer from Oklahoma Territory." Miriam stuck up her nose.

"I agree with Miriam," Alifair said rolling onto her stomach.

"What do you want then, a colored lawyer?" Taitiann sat up shaking her head. "When pigs fly. Besides the judge will be white. Do you think a white judge is going to care that a white man represents a colored man or that a colored man represents a fellow colored man?"

Selene hugged her knees to her chest. "Taitiann is right," she said. "Please Miriam this may be our only hope."

"I've seen more of the world then you, Selene," Miriam said. "I've seen more than all of you. I know exactly how brutal it is. Towns exist when devils don't wait for sundown, they walk about in broad daylight."

"Jethro is not a devil, and he said he'd help us," Selene fired back. "We need all the help we can get."

"Jethro now is it?" Miriam reared. "Really, Selene for a colored woman you put a lot a faith in a white man." She got to her feet.

Selene stood too. "And what's the difference between asking Jet— Young Mr. St. Cloud for help and asking Mr. Calico for help?"

"Because he can actually make a difference," Miriam said. "Father would trust him."

"I still say we try," Selene said.

"And I say no!" Miriam's voice echoed loud in the parlor. A flash a lightning followed by a roll of thunder filled the silence between them. Miriam grabbed the lantern from the mantel then faced her sister. "We can't put faith in someone we don't know," she said calmly. "Let's go, it's late and Grandpa might check in on us."

The girls left the house quietly. They had never fought there before. It was supposed to be a sanctuary where they could retreat. It had mostly stopped raining but the wind was misty. Heloise walked a few paces back from the rest of her sisters with Selene. They didn't need to speak for both seemed to know what the other was thinking. Selene could never tell Miriam that she loved Jethro.

Astrid stopped at the back of the line and waited for the two stragglers. "Don't be upset, Selene. I believe you," she said meekly. Selene put her arms around both her sisters and the continued up the road toward home. Heloise made a mental note to visit the house tomorrow. She remembered how after a good rain if the following day was very hot it made the house smell like the sea. She used to lie on the blue parlor rug with her dress skirts spread all around her pretending she was a ship on the ocean. It was a comforting memory.

/

Heloise opened her eyes to the still night. The window was open and a faint breeze blew through the sheer white curtains. She was still in bed with Selene who was sprawled across her pillow snoring. She sat up and looked in the next bed where Miriam had joined Astrid, Alifair and Hannah.

She suddenly became aware of how hot the night was and kicked the blankets off. Checking that she didn't disturb Selene, she got out of bed and crossed the room. The curtains waved, touching her skin and the mattress squeaked as Hannah groaned and rolled over.

"No potatoes."

Heloise had to cover her mouth to mute her laughter. There was never a dull moment with Hannah. When she had her laughter contained she inhaled deeply and something about the air felt odd going down.

She took a big sniff of it and racked her memory for the smell. Sticking her head out of the window she took a deep breath. "Smoke?" A dreadful feeling began to creep up on her when she noticed an orange glow in the distance. "Fire." She stumbled back from the window. "Fire!"

Miriam sat up in the bed rubbing her eyes and looking around. "Heloise, what are you going on about?"

"Miriam, there's a fire!" Heloise panicked. "Something is burning." The others girls began to stir, but by then Heloise was out the room. She put on her boots, forgetting to tie the laces and ran out the house. She could hear Miriam ordering her back but Heloise didn't listen. If her suspicions were correct, and she prayed they weren't, then their lives were about to be changed once again.

When she reached the house she felt an ache to her stomach like someone had delivered a hard kick. At the white fence she bent over in anguish as the red flames crowned in the trees in a sadistic game of leap frog. All her past, all her fondest memories were going up in smoke.

"Why!" she screamed and fell to her knees in the sopping grass. She gripped the white fencing and pressed her face against the gaps. "Why." Squeezing her eyes shut she let the tears fall. When she opened them she had to look away. Seeing the house engulfed made her sick to the core. As she turned away from the blaze she noticed a man standing at the gate. "Grandpa?" Rising to her feet she joined him as he watched the house burn. The flames highlighted her tears as she looked up at the elderly man. His own eyes were brimming with them and Heloise knew she could offer no words to ease the pain.

Miriam came running up to them out of the darkness. She stared into the flames overwhelmed with confusion and pain. "Grandpa, are you alright?" She asked him, putting her own emotions aside.

Jeremiah reached out his hand for her. "Help me home, girls. Help me home." The man staggered as he walked with the support of his two granddaughters. Other neighbors had seen the flames from their homes and were now arriving on the scene.

Some looked sympathetically at the three Fairchilds but no one could find words. Heloise and Miriam just clung to their grandfather guiding his weak steps home.

When they finally did reach the house beneath the pines he asked for the white Bible and knowing where it was Heloise hurried to get it while her sisters gathered round. When she returned outside Jeremiah was seated in the old porch chair. A new glow was on the horizon but this time it was the sun coming up. Heloise gave her grandfather the Bible and knelt down beside him. She expected him to open the pages and read a scripture or to share their grandmother's poem but he just sat it in his lap and placed his hand over hers to his left and on Astrid's who knelt at his right.

"My girls," he said and a smile played faintly on his face. "Now you know your pa was my only child, so I done never had daughters of my own so you just as well be mine as much as you is his." The girls all smiled and exchanged glances then Jeremiah nodded to the dim light in the east. "You see that? Your grandmother used to say that if you hurry yourself fast enough to the sunrise you just might be able to grab hold of his coat tail and if you do you'll get a ride across heaven. Course it's a mighty slow ride and a long ways to hold on. Besides that the way back can take a life time pending where you land." He nodded his head slowly. "I just might have the hankering to try it."

Hannah yawned and Jeremiah leaned forward and brushed her cheek. "You all be getting some sleep now. "It's Sunday and you'll have to be up hear shortly."

The girls all began yawning, and kissing their grandfather they walked off to bed.