Salvation for the Wounded Hearts – Extended Epilogue

Clara pinned up the last of the clean white shirts. She had been washing all of the clothes while she was waiting for lunch to cook. It was one of the few times in Texas when the heat was somewhat tolerable. Those times were rare. She wasn’t sure what to think about it. 

She felt as if at any moment, the sweltering heat would come back. She took a tin bucket and dumped out the dirty clothes from the wash and then took the empty basket from the clothes into the house. 

She set it on the floor underneath the kitchen table and then walked over to the window. She leaned against the counter and stared outside for a few minutes. The vibrant green grass was nice to see against the light blue sky. 

It looked so peaceful. It made her want to abandon her responsibilities and go out there and enjoy it while it lasted. While it was still rather warm, it was tolerable in a good way. 

Clara watched the new colts romping in the pasture beside the barn. New life; it was the best part of spring. She looked down at her own stomach. She had been hoping for that miracle to grow inside of her since she and Andrew had decided they wanted more children. 

She had just found out a few days ago that their desire was finally granted, and she was pregnant. She hadn’t told anyone yet, but she was going to try and find a way to tell Andrew and the children. 

She knew they were going to be excited, as they had wanted to expand their family for what seemed like forever now. 

At first, Clara had been afraid of expanding their family. She had been focused on how Mark had talked about them having another child and the fear of having a baby with the same disability as Tommy. 

But Andrew had put her at ease with many conversations and assurances. He had convinced her that it wouldn’t matter and that he would love the baby no matter what. And besides, it was a rare affliction so the chances were not high that the baby would have any problem.

Clara and come to believe him and more importantly than that, she had come to terms with it herself.

Clara set the last of their afternoon meal on the table, then called outside for the boys and Andrew to join her. 

She had worked hard on lunch as a way to tell everyone about the news. 

“Thank goodness food is ready! I’m starving,” Andrew gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as he came in. He had been working on repairing a patch of fence in the pasture. 

Clara tried to keep her excitement hidden. She wanted her news to be a surprise. They had thought that they’d never be able to have more children together. Most people were able to have a baby in a couple months from when they tried. 

But for her and Andrew, it had been more than six months. It was past due for them to be able to grow their family. 

Clara sat down opposite of Andrew and made sure that everyone had food in front of them. 

“Are you all right? You look strange,” Andrew was peering at her. 

“What do you mean I look strange?” Clara held back a giggle. 

“I don’t know. You just look really happy or like you are hiding something.” 

“I’m not hiding it. What’s something we’ve been waiting for forever?” Clara had to bite her lower lip from grinning so big that it would give it away right then. 

It took a few moments and she could tell that the wheels in Andrew’s head were turning. 

“You mean- you’re… are you?” Andrew rose from the table. “Are you pregnant?” Joy and excitement burst over his face like a flower. 

He rushed around the table and Clara met him halfway. He wrapped his arms around her and swung her around in a half circle. “We’re having a baby!” 

“We are! I can’t believe it.” Clara’s eyes were full of tears. They were happy tears; her heart was overflowing with happiness. She was finally going to be a mother again. 

“What’s going on?” Tommy was looking completely confused. 

“We are going to have another baby. Your mother is pregnant!” Andrew was practically yelling. “Did you hear? We are going to have a baby!” Andrew was so excited. Clara had never seen him like that. 

“Are we going to have another brother?” Kevin asked. He stood up from his chair and looked as if he were trying to get in on the excitement. 

“I don’t know. Maybe it will be a brother or a sister,” Clara smiled at her two sons. She couldn’t wait to see them with another sibling. 

Tommy leapt up from his chair too. Now everyone was standing up around the table. The boys were nearly jumping up and down, as well as Andrew. 

“Really mama? We will have a baby here?” Tommy’s eyes were large and round with disbelief. Clara knew that he had always asked for a sibling before they had come and lived with Kevin and Andrew. She realized that she hadn’t even asked him if he still wanted one. 

“Yes, are you excited?” 

“Yes. When will it be here?”

Clara and Andrew laughed. “It will be some time still. A baby takes a long time to grow.” 

“What will its name be? Can we take him fishing with us?” Kevin asked, stuffing another bite of food into his mouth. 

“Yes, it doesn’t matter if it is a boy or a girl, you can take them fishing with you. And I don’t know about a name, I am sure we will figure that out when the baby is here.” 

Andrew pulled her into another hug. “I don’t know what else to say, I am so happy.” 

Clara shook her head, “I know. Let’s eat lunch, I made it special in honor of the news.” 

They all sat back down at the table, but Clara could tell that the energy was still in the room. The rest of the meal, they all talked about the baby, when it would be there and how they would take care of it. 

By the time the meal was over, Clara was tired, but happy. She knew that her family was as happy as she was to receive this new little person in their lives. 

“I have to go back out and work some more.” Andrew said as he finished. “If you need absolutely anything, just send one of the boys.” 

Clara nodded, “I am sure I will be fine.” 

“Don’t lift anything heavy. Call for help. Okay?” Andrew’s eyes were full of concern. 

“Don’t worry about me, Andrew. I am the same as I was yesterday. I will be fine.” 

“And baby, don’t forget about the baby.” 

Clara gave a giddy smile. “I won’t forget about the baby.” It was all she had been able to think about for days and she had a feeling that she would be thinking about it non-stop until it was safely here in her arms. 

She watched Andrew leave outside. She smiled as she watched him go. It felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She had been thinking that she was unable to have children. She had started to wonder what she would tell Andrew and if he would feel the same about her if she couldn’t give him more children.

She had fantasized about him holding their little baby in his strong arms, rocking it to sleep. She had imagined what it would be like for their family to welcome an infant. She had also begun to try and accept that those dreams may never come to fruition. 

Clara took a deep breath She realized that she was already more out of breath than she normally was and felt a little light headed. She hadn’t paid much mind since she hadn’t known until recently that she was really with child, but she had felt more exhausted over the past few weeks too. 

She should have paid more attention to the signs. This wasn’t her first pregnancy, after all. 

Maybe pregnancy was going to have more of an effect on her than she thought it would. She didn’t remember much about her pregnancy with Tommy. She just remembered that Mark had not been very supportive and it had often been hard to finish everything with her minimal energy. 

It seemed that with this child she wasn’t going to have much more energy than she’d had with Tommy.

Once she finished cleaning the kitchen, she retreated to the parlor and pulled out an unopened letter from her apron. She had picked it up at the post office that morning when she’d sent the letter to her mother announcing her news. 

She knew it would be a good week before her mother received the news, but it didn’t matter. It almost felt as if she’d already told her. 

My Dearest Daughter,

We are looking forward to the fast approaching date of when we will move there out west with you and your children. Your father and I want you to know how proud we are of you for making a new life for yourself in Texas. 

When we heard the news of Mark, we thought that for sure, you would have a terrible time. But you have given your son a family and made us some of the proudest parents. 

We want you to know how loved you are and how much we enjoy reading about what you are doing out there in Texas. 

Please continue to send your letters and don’t be discouraged about not being able to have a child yet. I am sure that it will happen in time. I am sending you a hug here in these pages. 

Love forever, 

Your mother. 

Clara giggled as she read the last bit. If only her mother knew. If only she could see her face when she read the news that Clara was finally expecting the long-awaited baby. 

She placed her hand on her stomach. She realized now that it was a little rounder than it had been before. For a while she had just thought that she was eating too much and was gaining weight. 

She couldn’t wait to get to town and tell Martha and Amy. They would be overjoyed for her. 

She thought of Amy with pity for a moment. She knew that Amy and Tyler were also trying to start a family. They had been married for two months and Amy was still working at the general store. 

Clara had a feeling that with a little more time though, Amy would fall pregnant. She knew that most people did. 

She smiled; babies were truly a miracle. No one really could understand that until they’d lived through that miracle and given birth to one, or at least been there for the process and raised one. 

They were so perfect and so loved and yet they caused so much havoc when they were born and were little. She knew that from experience. 

Clara carried the letter from her mother and set it gently into the small box on the mantle that was gathering her mother’s letters. There were over twelve there now. Her mother had consistently sent her news of home. 

Clara gave a little smirk. She knew pretty much who was marrying, who had died, and what the current gossip was back in her town. Her mother kept her updated on everything. 

For a moment, Clara wondered if she would miss knowing what was going on in her old town when her mother no longer lived there. It was strange to think that her parents would be moving here. 

She could hardly imagine what it would be like to see her mother for tea or invite her to lunch once more. It would be strange, but it would be a welcome change. She missed her mother. She was fairly certain that it was natural for any person to miss their parents. 

Sadness washed over her for a moment. She thought of Andrew, who didn’t have his parents. She knew that one day, she would no longer have her parents either. 

She leaned back against the chair and closed her eyes. Her back was aching, and she had a slow throbbing in the back of her head. She was going to blame these abnormalities on her pregnancy. 

She closed her eyes and decided to rest. After all, she was growing a new little person in her stomach right this minute. 

—*—

“Hold it a little higher.” Andrew told Kevin. He liked having the boys help him with chores on the ranch. He thought it taught them responsibility and hopefully it would teach them the skills they needed to run their own ranches someday. 

“Are we almost done?” Kevin asked. 

“I think so. We just have one more place to patch after this one.” Andrew hated patching the fences as much as his son did. They had received a recent storm, and per Texas style, it had come out of nowhere and left plenty of devastation behind it. 

Andrew hammered in another nail. Today, he didn’t mind the work so much. Clara’s news had changed the entire day for him. He felt like everything was light and seemed just a little bit better. 

“Thank you for helping me boys. This makes it a lot easier.” 

Tommy and Kevin beamed under his praise.

“We like to help, pa.” Tommy handed him a nail. 

Andrew shook his head as he remembered how he had used to leave the fences. He hadn’t used to really bother taking care of small problems like this right away. He had let things add up until they were terrible and large, because he couldn’t be bothered to try and better things. 

Andrew could see now that his process of grieving for Laura had been necessary. He was sure he probably could never have gotten over her death without it. But he had been terribly irresponsible toward his ranch and his son. 

He had suffered from so much guilt over the past couple of months, but slowly, he was able to forgive himself. 

He smiled. He had finally managed to leave the past where it belonged. He was no longer angry at himself or at Tyler. He understood that God had a plan and had put them all where they belonged for a reason. 

God had done his part in Andrew’s life and Andrew appreciated it, even if some of it had almost torn him to pieces. 

“It’s awfully hot out here, isn’t it, boys?” Andrew shook his head. There were a lot of things he enjoyed about Texas, but the heat was really not one of them. 

“Do you think when we finish chores we could go fishing?” Kevin asked, a hopeful glint in his eye.

“I suppose we could. I don’t see any harm in it.” Andrew liked taking the two fishing. They tried to do it whenever possible. 

They hadn’t been able to go recently because they’d had so much work to do to recover from the storm. Some of the boards had fallen from the barn roof and they’d needed to repair several fences. He knew that the boys were tired of the hard work and needed a break. 

“Tell you what, let’s just finish this hole, and then we’ll get our gear and we can go and get our stuff and go fishing for the rest of the afternoon. How does that sound?”

“That sounds good!” Tommy yelled, doing a bit of a half dance. 

His inspiration tactic seemed to work because Tommy and Kevin worked faster and harder than before and in no time at all they were gathering their fishing rods and gear and heading down to the creek. 

When Andrew had gone to tell Clara, she had been sleeping in the parlor. So instead of waking her up, he had scrawled a little note on a piece of paper where she would find it. 

He had used a charcoal pencil and a scrap piece of paper because he knew how much it meant to Clara to conserve paper. 

It didn’t take too long and they were all sitting on the side of the creek, their bare feet dangling over the edge and into the cool water. 

Their fishing lines were in the water and soon, they were getting nibbles on their bait. 

“Can you help me? I think I got one!” Kevin called out loudly. 

Andrew rushed over to Kevin and put his arms around him, helping him to pull in whatever creature was on the end of his line. It turned out to be a good-sized fish that was flopping and jumping all over the place. 

“Look at that! You caught the first fish.” 

Kevin looked as if he had just done something worthy of a trophy. His entire face was glowing, and his shoulders were high and square. 

Andrew chuckled. “You know what? If we keep catching ones like this one, we’ll have enough to cook up for dinner tonight.” 

“You mean that, pa?” Tommy asked, jumping in little circles. 

“Of course, I do. If we work together it won’t take long at all.” Andrew usually didn’t like scaling the fish the same night they caught them. He usually left them in the ice house and then did it in the morning so that Clara could cook them for lunch. 

But in gratitude for the boys’ help, he was willing this time to make an exception. 

“Come on, I think we can catch lots more.” Kevin threw his line into the creek again and Andrew did the same. He loved a good afternoon of fishing. 

Andrew felt sad for a moment. He remembered how when Kevin was born, he had thought about how it would be like when they could enjoy a good fishing trip together. 

He and Laura had discussed it. Andrew still visited Laura’s grave sometimes. There were days when the whole family would go and other days when just he or he and Kevin would go. He still loved his memories of Laura and he hoped that she would be happy with what he was doing with their family, and their son. 

“I got another one!” Tommy’s little yell interrupted his thoughts. 

“I’m coming.” Andrew leapt up from his sitting position and went to help Tommy with his fish. He hoped that Clara was going to be happy about all the fish they were going to be bringing home. 

—*—

Clara sat down on the bed in the bedroom that she shared with Andrew. 

“Did you and the boys have fun today? I don’t believe I have seen them as excited as they were about the fish in a terribly long time.” 

“I think they haven’t had that much fun in a while. We have been awfully busy.” Andrew sat down beside her. 

When she had woken up, she’d found his note and had been surprised when they’d come home with over a dozen fish and then ended up scaling them and cooking them for dinner. 

It had been delicious, but Clara was sure that it had been a lot of work. 

“Did you finish patching all the holes in the fence?”

“I believe we got all of them. The boys are such a big help; even though they are small, they are capable of a lot.” Andrew sounded surprised and pleased. 

“I’m glad.We are going to need a lot of help when the baby comes.” 

“I still can barely believe it.” 

“Believe what?” 

“That I am here with a wife like you and will be having three children. Isn’t that a bit wild?”

“It is indeed,” Clara giggled. “I am just glad this is all happening with you.” Clara paused. She wasn’t sure she wanted to express what she was thinking, but she didn’t know if she would get a chance at a different time so she decided she would. “You know, I never thought this would be possible that day when I first laid eyes on you.” 

“Really? Why do you say that?” Andrew sounded surprised.

“I just… well, you know how things were back then.” 

“I know.” Andrew was blushing and even though it was hard to see in the moonlight, Clara was sure. “I was a terrible man back then.” 

“That is not true,” Clara took his hand. “You just needed someone not to give up on you. Tyler didn’t give up on you and then I didn’t give up on you and finally, you didn’t give up on yourself.” 

Andrew took her hand, surprising her. “You won’t ever give up on me, right?”

“No, I won’t. We are together forever, for the good and the bad.” 

Andrew chuckled softly. “There can’t possibly be any bad as long as you are by my side.” 

Clara took a deep breath and put one of her hands on her stomach. She hoped that he was right. She knew that if that if it was possible not to have bad times with anyone, it was possible with Andrew.

THE END

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