Taking a Leap of Love – Extended Epilogue

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It was just a year or so later that Bella, Josh, and their newborn child Ronald went to the Archer homestead for the wedding of Dean Archer to Cynthia Johnson, of the Johnson’s Iced-Cream Parlor in burgeoning downtown Barnock, Nebraska.

And it looked like the entire town had come out to celebrate. Otis Remington had organized all the food and refreshment for the event, though none of it was of a spirituous nature. The homestead seemed bigger than the year before, when she’d married Josh and they’d built a house of their own. But Bella could hardly resist the pull of nostalgia. They’d faced good times and bad at that place, and now she’d moved on to a new home, a new family; though Bella knew that she would never leave her family behind, that they would always be the Archer family, no matter how big or sprawling, no matter how many other names were added to their family tree.

Little Ronald, named after Turner Moss’ departed father, wriggled in his mother’s lap. Bella held him close, arms wrapped loving around his little body.

Elroy and Sybil were the first to greet them, smiles wide and arms outstretched. “There’s my daughter and grandson!”

“Nice to see you too, Elroy.”

They all shared a hearty chuckle, Elroy and Sybil clustering around Bella and Ronnie, Elroy extending his hand to Josh. “No offense, young man, but you’ve got stiff competition.”

“Quite so,” Josh said, standing back and smiling in the corner of Bella’s eyes as they embraced their daughter and grandchild.

Elroy asked, “How’s everything at the new house? The new ranch coming along well?”

“Quite well, Father,” Bella said, “thanks to my fine husband here.”

Josh waved a hand in front of his humble smile. “I couldn’t do it without my amazing wife … and I’d have no reason to!” They all shared another little chuckle.

Barton and Helen Callahan stepped up with jovial smiles and their Sunday best. “Elroy, you cad, cornering the market on my daughter-in-law and grandchild!”

“Your grandchild? You cur!” The men shared a little laugh.

“Sybil,” Helen said, “so nice to see you again.”

“Helen, you’re looking as well as ever.”

Bella was glad to see her in-laws, as always. But she couldn’t help noticing that there was a certain somber air about them, one which didn’t befit the happy timbre of the day. The matriarchs hugged and cooed over little Ronnie, and Bella was grateful enough for that.

“There they are!” Richie Knob and Hugh Callahan strolled up. “The prodigal couple! And my little cousin!”

They clasped hands and hugged, sharing some goodwill amid that vague sense of dissatisfaction.

“Richie, Hugh,” Josh said, “what have you boys been up to?”

“Nothing worth noting,” Hugh said with a little smile. Bella knew he was up to some mischief. But knowing her brother-in-law, Bella knew there wouldn’t be very much mischief in it.

“Glad to see you two have become such good friends,” Sybil said. “We’re all one big family, are we not?”

Richie nodded. “I’m so glad still to be a part of it.”

“And you always will be,” Elroy said, “no matter what happens.”

But Bella only had to glance around to see that one member of their family was lacking in particular. “I’m sure Dean is readying himself for the big moment,” she said. “And Jonah is at his side, as usual?”

The smiles fell away, eyes downcast. “Not this time,” Sybil said. “Things between them haven’t been the same for quite some time now, ever since the events of last year.”

Elroy said, “We agreed to leave that in the past, Wife.”

Sybil nodded and shrugged. “But there is still the present to tend to, Husband.”

Bella could tell something was seriously wrong. She and her mother had remained as close as ever, and they’d always been able to read the secrets of the other’s heart.

“In any case,” Elroy said, “Jonah’s been … difficult of late, hard to reach. He’s probably off sulking somewhere. I’ve no doubt that he feels left behind by his twin brother, that he has some new sense of being alone. Of course we’re all still with him, in body and spirit, but that can only do so much good for a young man in his circumstance.”

Bella stepped back, and Josh followed her, his eyes on hers. “What are you thinking, Wife?”

“Bella,” she corrected her husband with love but sternness, “and you know what I’m thinking.”

“That it’s none of our business, and that we should stay out of it?”

“They’re my brothers,” Bella said.

“But they’re our family, Bella, and that gives me a vested interest.”

“Not more so than mine,” Bella said, handing their infant son to Josh. “I’ll go talk to him.” She left the wiggling child in his father’s arms and walked across the house. Bella knew she’d find Jonah in the stables, grooming Glory, still the favorite horse on the Archer homestead.

Jonah looked up from the side of the venerable old mare, which turned to glance at Bella as she walked into the stable. “Bella, not surprised to see you here.”

“Why should you be? I’m still part of the family, aren’t I?”

“You may be,” Jonah said. “Me? I dunno.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Bella said, “you’re always so quick to go to the extreme.”

“I’ve shown judiciousness before, Bella, or do I have to remind you?” A guilty silence filled the room before Bella said, “What’s troubling you this time, Jonah?”

“Why don’t you ask the happy groom? You and he are so close.”

Bella couldn’t keep from rolling her eyes. “Jonah, honestly, we … we shared a secret, but that’s all over now. Is it wrong that he and I should be friends as well as siblings?”

“No, it’s … it’s not that at all.” Jonah turned and stepped toward the doors of the stable, Bella’s attention lingered behind him. “I just … we used to be friends too, Dean and I. We were best friends.”

“Well, you’re twins.”

“We were twins. He starts conferring with you, then this girl from the iced-cream parlor.”

Bella broke a nervous smile. “She seems a very nice girl.”

“Plenty nice, Bella, almost too nice! That’s not the point.”

“Then what is the point?”

“I … I don’t know, Sister.” Jonah turned back stroking Glory’s shimmering hide and looking off into the distance. “I just know I don’t like it!”

“Because you think you’re being left behind? Because you’re afraid you’ve lost your sister, now your brother, and that … in some way … you’re alone in the world?” Jonah nodded, apparently unable to disagree. “You’re afraid you won’t find the girl that’s meant for you, the girl God’s set aside for you.”

“But there isn’t any such girl,” Jonah said. “Can’t you see? I … I’m meant to be alone in the world! It’s clear as a bell.”

“It only seems that way now,” Bella said, “but things will change. God works in his own time. Everything is beautiful in its season, Jonah.”

“But what about my season, when will that come? I’ve toiled, dutiful and loyal to a fault! I never faulted to support Father even when you and Dean were in secret conclave!”

Bella responded, “We were … it just happened, Jonah, and it also happened to help save our families!”

Jonah waved her off with a bitter sneer. “Oh, here it is, the savior of the families! My kid sister, sainthood’s not good enough for her!”

“Stop, Jonah, please!”

“You and Dean shut me out,” Jonah barked, “when the family needed us all, you two worked together to shut … me … out!”

Bella looked around. “Jonah, keep your voice down!”

“It’s too late, Bella!” A miserable silence passed between them. “You and Dean have your lives; you’ve turned your backs on me. I won’t stand in the way of your happiness, but … it’s more than anyone can ask to have me … to feel nothing, nothing at all!”

“Nobody asks that of you,” Bella said. “But … you’ll have to find your own happiness, Jonah. It’s time to leave the nest, so to speak.”

“Alone,” Jonah said with a distinctly melancholy air. “And that’s fine, but … I’m a twin, Bella, I’ve never been alone.”

Bella cracked a bittersweet smile. “You’re with Jesus, Jonah, you’ll never truly be alone.” Jonah spat out a contemptuous huff, shaking his head as if Bella would never understand. But she already did, better than he knew.

“Jonah,” Bella said, “you know the story of your namesake, from the Bible. Jonah, the reluctant prophet, resisted the Lord’s call to go to Nineveh.”

“As well as anyone, I should think.”

Bella nodded, stroking Glory’s smooth haunches. “Then you’ll recall the lesson we learned from that tale.”

Jonah sneered at his younger sister. “That we cannot escape God’s will; yes, yes, I know. So what am I to learn from that? To travel to some desolate land alone, leave my family and friends?”

“No, Jonah, Lord no! At least, not unless that’s what God desires. I hope it isn’t. I believe God has a plan for you to stay right here in Barnock with your family, old and new.” Jonah looked at Bella as if in disbelief, and she went on, “What I recall about the story of Jonah is that Jonah knew the whale was attacking the boat for him, not for the others. He could perceive what God was creating, a new thing.”

“Yes, yes,” Jonah said, “your favorite scripture, I recall quite well.”

“No, Jonah, this is about you, not me. Jonah sacrificed for the good of the others, and we’re both well enough acquainted with sacrifice, aren’t we?” Jonah seemed to think about it before nodding just a bit, enough to tell Bella she’d made her point. “All you need do is what Jonah did … step aside. God will put you where He wants you to be. And at least the ship you’re on now won’t sink, bringing innocents down with you.”

Bella offered her brother a soft smile before turning to leave him with his thoughts, his feelings, and her advice. But she had grave doubts about whether or not he had ears to hear her.

Bella rejoined Josh and the others, a thick sense of worry and doubt all around them. Josh asked Bella, “Well? What’s going on back there?”

“It’s as you thought, Husband … though I hope I’ve already heard the last of it.” Josh’s proud smile faded fast. Bella went on, “I don’t know what will happen when Pastor Robinson asks if anybody knows any reason why the two should not be married.”

“He may speak now,” Josh surmised, “and not ever hold his peace.”

But Jonah stepped out of the crowd, approaching his twin brother in his groom’s black. All went quiet as the twins faced each other as if for the first time in a long, sad while.

“Looking well,” Dean said with a bit of a manly nod.

“Congratulations again on the day,” Jonah answered. “Brother … Dean, I … I’m a bit ashamed to say it, but … I feel that I’ve let you down, and let myself down by not being the brother I should have been, the twin brother you deserved.”

“Jonah, no —”

“Please, Dean, hear me out. I suspected you unfairly, and I … I let my baser instincts get the better of me. You’re a good man, and Cynthia is a fine woman. I’m glad you’ve found each other, and I praise God that you will have a long and blessed union. I know you will, and I’m blessed to be able to play any part of it which I can. I’ll always be an eager uncle to your children, helping out whenever I can.”

Dean smiled, putting his hand on his brother’s arm. “You’re a help just being here, just being my brother. No matter where we go or what happens, we’ll always have that.” Jonah smiled, and Dean shared it; a mirror image come to life.

“Well then,” Bella said, “shouldn’t we get on with the wedding?” The others threw up a great cheer and the crowd made their way to their seats and to the altar, everybody taking their places for the grand ceremony to come.

But their attention was distracted, and all heads turned to see a band of Comanche warriors riding up to the property. They came empty-handed. Everybody tensed around Bella, and she understood their apprehension. But she held her hand up to calm her neighbors, sensing that their unusual and uninvited visitors meant no harm. Her friends and neighbors seemed reluctantly willing to follow her lead.

Jesse Hayden and Samuel Meyerson glanced at one another, each seeming ready to grab a holstered pistol if need be. They seemed to recognize the Comanche, and Bella had no doubt that these were the same Comanche who had scared Jesse and Samuel and their men off the commons to abandon their trenches and barbed wire.

The leader climbed down off his pony as Dean walked up to greet him. Each man rapped their fist against their own chest before embracing the other. They grunted a few words of greeting which Bella could not understand. But she didn’t need to know the words to understand their meaning. The men were friends, and this was clearly a visit of congratulations, one man honoring another and being received in kind.

Dean nodded and Jonah approached, sharing a like-kind greeting, a bond clear between them for any with eyes to see. The Comanche offered Bella and Josh and little Ronnie nods of respect, the new Callahan/Archer family having established itself in a long line of peaceable traders with and allies of the native nations.

Bella could only interpret the conversation between Dean and the leader of the Comanche, but it seemed as if Dean was offering a sincere invitation, but that his Comanche counterpart was politely refusing. With a shake of his head and another fond embrace, the leader of the Comanche climbed back onto his pony and led his fellows back to their tribe. These were simply peaceable men, not desirous of violence against the whites, inclined toward mercy. But Bella knew that there would be a new era of peace in Barnock, ushered in by the union of Dean Archer and his iced-cream bride.

Pastor Robinson read his sermon and stood before Dean and Cynthia, reading the vows which, once recited, would unite the two together before God and that community, until death do they part. The congregation applauded as they walked down the aisle together, the picture of Barnock’s bright future; young and pleased and walking together into the promise of a new day, a new life.

The congregation gathered after the ceremony to celebrate in the town square, Bella surveying the happy crowd to find her melancholy brother Jonah alone in the crowd.

Lord, Bella prayed, deliver the woman You’ve set aside for him. Make this the greatest day I could imagine, and the greatest day poor, sad Jonah could have hoped for.

It was just then that a lovely young woman unknown to Bella drifted up to Jonah, and Bella could tell by his smile that the girl had caught her brother’s fancy. They seemed to strike up an instant conversation, smiles and coy looks this way and that. Bella didn’t need to hear what they were saying; she could see and feel what they were sharing with one another. Bella had shared something very similar not long before, and she would enjoy it for all the years of her life.

Love.

It was what they were gathered to celebrate, but the life of commitment and dedication was not to be the only one marked by that day, Bella felt certain. Both Archer twins had been granted their fondest dreams on that day, and Bella knew she and Josh and Little Ronnie would be back among the same fond throngs to celebrate another union. God was great in His plan, and all would be satisfied who served His glorious cause. The members of the families Archer and Callahan were well known in the town of Barnock, Nebraska, to be such people. But they were known by another, in another place, and it was by His grace that they were blessed. It was to their credit that Bella and her family never forgot that, and that none among them ever would. Instead they would go on teaching those lessons to their children and grandchildren, populating Nebraska and the whole of the United States with that good and divine word of the Lord:

‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.’ For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

Yes, Bella thought and prayed, protect us from our own sins, our own failures and frailties. We are but little things, Lord, and You are great. I will always be your faithful servant, Lord.

‘See how the faithful city has become a prostitute! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her, but now murderers! Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water. Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.’

Bella knew the corrupt men among them the Lord meant to identify; for there was corruption among them, working against them, innumerable and unconquerable by any Earthly means. But the Lord provided other means of defense, greater means, and Bella knew they’d be calling upon those in due time.

Therefore the Lord, the Lord Almighty, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: ‘Ah! I will vent my wrath on my foes and avenge myself on my enemies. I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities. I will restore your leaders as in days of old, your rulers as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.’

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