Jubilee's Journey (Wyattsville #2)(14)

“Isn’t so wrong,” Olivia corrected. “And, no, it isn’t.” Her anger subsided, but a cluster of suspicions still picked at her brain. It wouldn’t be the first time Ethan Allen had stretched the truth to the closest edge of a lie.

“Even though you claim to have had good intentions,” she said, “you’re still in trouble for stopping when you were supposed to be on your way to school.”

Olivia looked at the girl who was half the size of Ethan and skinnier than a string bean. She squatted to the girl’s height and looked into eyes as blue as Charlie’s had been. “Jubilee, dear, how old are you?”

“Seven.”

“Do your parents know you came home with Ethan Allen?”

Jubilee shook her head.

“Good gracious!” Olivia exclaimed. “By now they’re probably worried sick. You’re certainly welcome to stay for dinner, but first let’s call and let them know you’re here.”

“There ain’t no need,” Jubilee said.

“Of course there is,” Olivia replied. “Why, your mama’s probably worried crazy—”

Jubilee shook her head. “Mama ain’t worried, on account of she’s dead.”

“Dead?” Olivia blinked. “Your mama is dead?”

Jubilee nodded.

“Well, what about your daddy? Surely he’s—”

“My daddy’s dead too.”

“Your daddy is dead too?” Olivia gasped.

Jubilee nodded again.

Believing the child had to be making up such a horrible story, she repeated the question. “Jubilee, are you telling the honest truth when you say your mama and daddy are both dead?”

The girl tucked her head down and without looking up answered. “Yes, ma’am.”





Olivia could see the weight of sadness bending the child’s neck and knew Jubilee had spoken the truth. She stammered a few words about how sorrowful such a situation was and then inquired who Jubilee was staying with in Wyattsville.

“Who’s taking care of you?”

“Paul,” Jubilee answered. “He’s my brother.”

“Okay, then, we’ll call Paul and let him know where you are.”

“You can’t. He still didn’t come back from a job.”

“Well, when he does get back he’s sure to be worried. Give me your home number, and I’ll leave a message.”

“I don’t got a home number.”

Growing a bit less tolerant Olivia said, “Then give me Paul’s address, and I’ll have Ethan take a note over and leave it in the mailbox.”

Jubilee gave Olivia a quizzical look. “I done told you, Paul ain’t at no address, he’s still at the job.”

“Well, I have to notify someone. So give me the address or telephone number of wherever or whomever you are staying with here in Wyattsville.”

“We ain’t staying nowhere yet. We’re gonna get a sleeping room after Paul gets money.”

“You’re homeless?” Olivia gasped. “A child your age homeless?”

The word had a shameful sound and slammed into Jubilee like an angry fist. “We ain’t homeless! We’re gonna get our own sleeping room, or go stay with Aunt Anita! We just ain’t decided yet.”

“Oh,” Olivia backed off. “Thank God you have someone.” For a brief moment, she’d feared the girl was another Ethan Allen, a child with no one. “Well, then, we can call Aunt Anita.”

“Before you start asking me again,” Jubilee warned, “I ain’t got her address or telephone number either.”

“Just tell me her last name. I can look it up in the phone book.”

Jubilee struggled to remember Paul’s words and after several seconds said, “Walker. She was Mama’s sister, I think.”

“Anita Walker,” Olivia replied. “That should be easy enough to find.” She pulled out the telephone book and began flipping through the pages.

Before Olivia even reached W, Jubilee said, “That ain’t gonna do no good.”

“What isn’t going to do any good?”

“Calling Aunt Anita.”

“Why not?”

“She don’t know Daddy’s dead, and she don’t know we’re coming to stay with her.” Jubilee remembered Paul’s warning about Aunt Anita possibly not wanting them, and she wasn’t anxious to check it out alone.

“Your aunt doesn’t know you’re coming to stay with her?” Olivia repeated. The reality of the situation became apparent—Jubilee and her brother were not from Wyattsville. They weren’t from anywhere around here. The girl was different, her way of speaking, her dress…

“Where did you and your brother come from?” Olivia asked.

“Coal Fork.”

“Where is Coal Fork?”

“Up the mountain,” Jubilee said. “Past Campbell’s Creek.”

“In Virginia?”

Jubilee rubbed her nose with the palm of her hand and thought for a moment; then she shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Bewildered by this turn of events, Olivia asked. “How on earth did you get here?”