A Hopeful Path Of Her Own – Extended Epilogue

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Chrissie pinned Betty’s hair back and then looked at her sister in the mirror, placing both hands on Betty’s upper arms. The sisters smiled at each other in the reflections.

“You look absolutely beautiful,” Chrissie whispered. “I couldn’t be more proud of you, I just want you to know that.”

“Thank you, Chrissie. I appreciate that. I think we picked out the right dress, don’t you?”

Chrissie giggled, putting her arms around her sister and hugging her tight.

It had been five years since the day Chrissie and Joe tied the knot. They had never heard another word about or from Freddie or any of the Galbraiths, who had been given extensive prison sentences. At first, Chrissie had been afraid that Freddie would try to contact her by mail. She told the postmaster in Low Banks that if any letters came through for her that looked strange, he was to throw them away. At his caution, she changed that directive to throwing only letters away that came from the prison.

In the end, Chrissie didn’t receive any that she knew of. And she was perfectly happy with that.

Now, she stood in front of the same mirror she’d used to get dressed for her wedding, helping Betty to prepare for hers. She was extremely proud of her sister and never hesitated to tell her of that fact.

At twenty years old, Betty was a happy, well-adjusted woman who had fallen in love with the only lawyer in Low Banks. The two hit it off right away and courted for a year before deciding to get married. Of all the people she could have fallen for, it was the one man who had helped put Freddie away five years ago, standing for the Ripley family against him in court.

There was a knock on the door, and both women turned to look at it.

“If that’s you, Jacob, you know you can’t come in right now,” Betty called out.

“It’s not Jacob. It’s me, Joe. Can I come in? Are you decent?”

“Oh, she’s more than decent,” Chrissie replied, hurrying to pull open the door. She stepped back and held out her hand to her sister as if presenting her finest possession. “Here she is. What do you think?”

Joe blinked rapidly, raising his eyebrows. “My goodness. I think Jacob is a very lucky man.” He turned his eyes to Chrissie, who was also dressed in her finest and looking quite nice. “Not as lucky as me, maybe. But lucky nonetheless.”

Chrissie laughed and moved into a hug with her husband. “That was very nice of you.”

“Jacob did want me to ask you if you’re almost ready, though. He wanted me to give you this note.”

Chrissie was curious about what was in the note but knew it was none of her business. She watched as her sister opened the folded paper and then turned to look at her husband.

“Is everything ready then?”

Joe nodded. “Yes, my love. Everything is ready. And how about you? Are you ready?”

He dropped his eyes to Chrissie’s protruding belly and rested on hand on it. “Look at that,” he murmured. “So beautiful. I can’t wait to see what he looks like.”

“Or she,” Chrissie added with a soft laugh.

“Or she, yes, of course. I would love to have a little daughter to dote on. But it would be so nice if she came second so she would have a big brother to protect her from all the harm in the world.”

Chrissie’s smile was wide. “Like Rennie had you?”

Joe nodded. “Yes. But I don’t want to wait five years. They need to be closer together than that.”

“The funny thing about that is that we don’t get to decide. That’s gonna be something God figures out for us.”

Joe laughed. “You know, you’re right about that. It’s all up to God, isn’t it?”

“Come on. Let’s leave her in peace to come down when she’s ready.”

“What should I tell Jacob then?” Joe asked, looking up at Betty.

The young woman lifted her eyes from the paper, and Chrissie could see they were misty. She knew Jacob was highly intelligent. He probably knew exactly what words to write to capture Betty’s heart. “Tell him I will be down in ten minutes, and we can get started. And tell him I love him very much.”

“I will.”

Joe took Chrissie’s elbow and ushered her to the door, opening it and letting her through first before following behind. He cast one last glance over his shoulder at Betty before his eyes met Chrissie’s.

“She’s really okay, isn’t she?” Chrissie asked, her heart ready to explode with love for her family.

“Oh yeah,” Joe replied, confidence in his voice. “She’s gonna be just fine. Jacob will take good care of her. And knowing his family, they will have lots of kids soon. You know he’s one of twelve children, don’t you?”

Chrissie nodded. “Yeah, that was one of the first things Betty told me. She said she will have a bunch in honor of ma and pa.”

“Like she has control over it,” Joe reiterated from their earlier conversation.

They both laughed as they went down the narrow set of stairs at the end of the hallway. The church was somewhat rounded, like the pillars of a castle, and the two had to curve to the right as they went down. Chrissie looked through one of the windows in the stone wall and saw the twins walking through the field beside the church. They were still rambunctious, fun-loving girls, but their age had slowed them down a little. Now they were maturing and seeing things from a young woman’s point of view. At thirteen, the twins were beginning to notice boys and think about what they wanted to do with their futures.

Chrissie knew she would always miss the happy-go-lucky girls she had raised from a very young age. But it was nice to see them taking off on their own even though they had plenty of years left for her to nurture, protect, and help them learn. Chrissie planned to be there for every smile, every laugh, and every tear she could until they were out on their own like Betty.

She and Joe mingled with the crowd in the church sanctuary, making their way to the front where they would stand with Betty and Jacob. Jacob had a long line of his brothers who wanted to stand as his best man, but he’d spared all their feelings and asked Joe instead. The brothers still stood by him, but Joe was the one with the honor of being the best man. It had settled plenty of fights that might have erupted with Jacob’s six brothers but put Joe in a spot where he was temporarily afraid for his life.

When Jacob’s brothers found out he was a little fearful they might come after him, they threw him a party and carried him on their shoulders to show there were no hard feelings. Joe couldn’t remember a night where he’d had more fun and had more drinks than that night. And he’d felt safe the whole time. He left feeling like he was an honorary brother in the Caldwell family.

The two of them stood silently by while the reverend married Betty and Jacob and came together behind the couple when they turned to their guests and bowed gracefully.

The entire crowd was cheering and clapping. Chrissie watched it all with joy in her heart, knowing her sister had endeared herself as an adult to many of the residents in Low Banks. She’d gone through her short bout with depression and stress and come out stronger in the end. As she accepted the fact that her parents were gone, she learned to lean on Chrissie in times of need and rely on God to help her get through when Chrissie could do nothing for her.

She’d told Chrissie all these things the night of the party Chrissie had thrown in her honor as her last party as a single woman. They’d had a little bit to drink, and it seemed to open the floodgates for her sister, who ended up weeping and telling Chrissie how much she loved her.

Chrissie held fond memories of Betty over their entire youth together. She hadn’t been able to be Betty’s mother. No one could replace that woman. But she had worked hard to be the best big sister she could be.

When their baby was born in a few months, Chrissie would strive to use what she’d learned raising her sisters to be the best mother she could possibly be. She often laughed to herself that if she had a boy, she might not know what to do. She couldn’t exactly tie his hair up in ribbons to make him look pretty as a form of comfort. Secretly, she did want a boy, though. She’d been surrounded by females for so long, she felt a little boy would be a nice change for her.

They walked behind her sister and her new husband as they left the sanctuary and made the same trek she and Joe had made five years earlier to the outdoor shelter, which had been decorated and was already filling up with guests. They were still cheering, following Betty and Jacob, tossing rice and rose petals over their heads from provided baskets set conveniently along the route.

Betty’s smile was bursting from her. She was glowing from head to toe. Chrissie couldn’t have been happier for her.

An ache in her back made her grab onto Joe and stop walking abruptly. He gave her a look of concern, and she heard the passion in his voice when he murmured, “Are you all right?”

She understood his panic. It was too soon for the baby to come. He or she would not be fully formed. She’d wondered about that though, as she was larger than any other seven-month pregnant woman she’d ever seen. Maybe the baby would be more fully formed if it came early, simply because she was so big? She also feared the baby would be a giant. Many confused and terrible thoughts had run through her head in the last two months when she discovered how large she was growing.

“I need to sit down,” she replied. “Right now.”

Joe helped her to the nearest chair, and soon, she was surrounded by concerned women. Betty pushed her way through the crowd and sat next to her sister. She leaned forward, taking Chrissie’s hand. “Do we need to call Dr. Bigsby? He’s around here somewhere. I just saw him.”

Chrissie didn’t know what to tell her sister. The pain was growing sharper and then it would ease off. This was what the doctor had told her would happen. He explained it to her and told her if she was in any pain she needed to tell him.

“Go and fetch him, Joe,” Betty ordered the man, who was standing beside Chrissie giving her a worried look. Joe’s eyes flipped to Betty, and he nodded curtly, scooting around the women who were behind him to go find the doctor. “He’s on his way, Chrissie. You just hold on now.”

Concern for her child was eating away at Chrissie, making her want to cry. She felt paralyzed with fear that the baby would be born early and would not live. She didn’t know if she could bear to have a life inside her that did not live on, her child, her baby.

“What if it wants to be born today?” she whispered, barely able to get the words out. “It is too soon. It can’t live on its own at this young age. It won’t be fully developed.”

Betty shook her head. “We’re not going to think about that right now. We’re going to concentrate on getting you somewhere you’ll be comfortable. The doctor will take care of you then. Thank goodness he or she decided to wait until after the ceremony.”

Betty was talking like it was a sure thing the baby would be born that day. She didn’t seem overly worried, which made Chrissie irritated. Didn’t she know how serious this was? Her baby might die.

After two more contractions, Dr. Bigsby pushed through the crowd of women and knelt beside her. He checked her heart and pulse and pressed his hand into the small of her back.

“Let’s get you to your house.” He turned to look at Joe. “You have your buggy, don’t you?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Bring it down here. You need to pick her up from here. I don’t want her walking around too much.”

Joe turned and ran off toward the lot in front of the church.

Chrissie took the doctor’s hand and looked up in his eyes directly. “Dr. Bigsby,” she moaned. “It’s too early for the baby to come. It won’t be fully developed. How will it live?”

Dr. Bigsby smiled at her, which she thought was completely inappropriate until she heard what he had to say.

“You shouldn’t worry, Chrissie. I’ve done some calculations, and I think you were mistaken about the date of conception. You stayed small for longer than most women and blossomed toward the ending months. I do believe your baby is coming exactly when he or she is supposed to.”

Chrissie felt a tingle race over her skin as relief flooded her. She studied the doctor’s face, intent on seeking the truth. “Are you sure? Are you positively sure?”

Dr. Bigsby continued to smile and pat her hand just as another contraction overtook her. “Yes, I’m sure. Let’s get you to that bed so you can have your baby.”

“Will I make it to the house? There are rooms upstairs. I wouldn’t mind having my baby in the church. If that’s all right with the pastor, of course.”

“I think it would be excellent for a baby to be born in the church.”

Chrissie turned to see the pastor and his wife had joined the crowd around her. Joe was racing down from the lot in the buggy, the horses kicking up dust.

“Oh dear,” Chrissie said, struggling for breath as the pain came to a peak. “I think Joe will need to do some lawn repair soon.”

She was grateful when the crowd around her laughed. Even the pastor, who shook his head.

“He’ll be required to do no such thing. But I have a feeling Joe will want to anyway. That’s the kind of man he is.”

“You just tell this little man or lady nice going showing up on my happiest day,” Betty said, patting her sister’s hand. “It actually made it even more special.”

“Will you come see me tomorrow, Betty? Before you leave for your honeymoon?”

“You better believe I will, sis,” Betty replied in a loving tone. “You know I will.” She leaned over and kissed Chrissie on the forehead. “Now come on. Joe’s here. Let’s get you into that buggy and back up to the church.”

In response to Joe’s questioning look, Chrissie said, “I’m going to have our baby here.”

Joe grunted in response. She got the feeling it didn’t matter where she had the baby as long as they were both healthy and alive by the end of the day. He scooped her up like she didn’t weigh a ton and took her to the buggy, where he carefully placed her feet on the floor. She maneuvered herself into the seat just when she felt another contraction coming on.

“I think we better hurry,” she said anxiously. “This baby wants to come out.” She groaned in pain, lifting her chin up, squeezing her eyes shut, and pressing one hand into the small of her back.

The buggy rumbled underneath her, but once the contraction had passed, Chrissie was better able to handle it. She held on to the arm railing and told Joe what the doctor had said.

She saw obvious relief on his face and realized he, too, had been worried about the baby being born too early.

“By two whole months?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Yes. Can you believe that? That’s a long time to be mistaken. He said I was just small much longer than other women.”

“Well, you are one of a kind, my love.”

“Aww, thank you, dear.”

***

Two hours later, Chrissie and Joe were holding their baby in their arms. It was a lovely little boy with big ears whom they named Nicholas Joshua. He was perfectly healthy, with all his fingers and toes and a scrunched-up face that Chrissie couldn’t help kissing over and over.

She had a new little life to love and care for. It was what God made her for, and she was happy to oblige.

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