The guardian., 1941-01-04
Fear
-
By MACNUS OLESON
ASSOCIATED Newspapers.)
WNU Service.

Ill WGAC O1SSSllS HGT IOT 1eT
wedding. Emily submitted pas
sively, more concerned with the
darkened sky and continuous roll of
distant thunder than with the silks
Mrs. Lape had been so busy over
these past weeks. The two elderly
women in the room tried to forget
or ignore the coming tempest,
though their efforts merely made
them Historically cheerful Minerva
Lape's babole was hindered by a
hare-lip, but her troubled voice NUT
tered as if in competition with the
steadily lifting reverberations of the
storm. Stout Ma Snavely had no
such handicap.
Emily merely knew that they were
talking. Pale and tremulous, with
eyes glazed by emotion, she looked
In her haf-clad slenderness like fear
itself by the window. Bittner's
creek was bank full from the morn
ing storm. She could see the liquid,
yellow mud swirling under the old
bridge.
Mems voices mumbled from the
porch below. Emily impulsively
flung up the window sash and leaned
out. Her father was there, stiff and
clumsy in his starched linen and
black clothes; the hired hands were
there in their clumsier best.
Emily had little more than a
glimpse of the anxious group. Ezra
looked up at the rattle of the win
dow sash. His dark face famed at
sight of her and his lips parted. Her
father glanced upward, too.
Hes COMM" Pa Snavely bel
lowed. "Seen his car racin' down
Blackjack hill"
Emily's mother pulled her back
into the room and slammed the win
dow. Emily heard little of the TRADE
that followed; it was something
about showing herself shamelessly
like that-and what would Ezra
think? Though he'd be her man
quick enough, if the storm would
get by and the reverend would
come.
"He's coming" Emily said. "Pa
saw his car"
Driven rain lashed down uneXpect-
edly, with an impact that smothered
under its continuous roar the snap
of lightning and crash of thunder.
In the dusk they lit a kerosene lamp,
Lowered the window shade and went
on hurriedly to complete Emily's
costume. But Emily could not be
kept in the center of the room. She
was staring at the bridge, until at
last, she saw a dark car dart over.
"Well," she said, che got across.
1t didn't wash out"
"Tn run right down." Ma Snavely
said. Reverend Perkinson's a
brave man-never afraid when it's
the Lords work. I'll tell him you'll
be ready soon as the thunder stops"
'Pl go, too," Mrs. Lape said ner-
vously. "Emily's ready now. It's
comforting to have a man O. God
in the house during such a terrible
storm. Comforting and protecting"
"The Lords work" Emily sat
and stared at the shaded window,
where blue light came fitfuly, and
the rain clamored against the glass.
1t was hailing now. A tinkle of
stones on the panes threatened to
break them. yellow Clouds" she
thought DULY, always hailed" And
again, "The Lords work." Well,
money and fear had more to do with
it than God. Fear of poverty and
love of money. Ma had known how
to use arguments like that. PAS
way had been more fortnight; it
had been: Marry Ezra, or take a
beatingl Hail came again; or was
it hail? Emily ran to the window
and whipped up the blind.
A yellow dusk was out of doors;
dusk and the black rain, flooded by
the blue glare of hurtled bolts.
Sheets of water washed the window
glass, but at times she could see
the cars parked in the yard below;
among them Ezra's roadster, al
ready decorated with tin cans, and
beside it small, battered runabout.
The hail ratified again close to her
face; but it was not hail. And the
runabout was Jim O'Hara's. Of
course, jim! She flung the window
open to the storm.
He extended his arms. His CAV.
Irish face was laughing as the water
ran over it. His lips moved. She
couldn't hear, but she knew what he
was saying.
"If you're not afraid of the storm,
darlin', and $50 week-if you're
not afraid"
She had been afraid, horribly. AL
ways she shrank to a pin-point when
the lightning came. And she had
been afraid of life-of $50 a week.
But now she was afraid of Ezra:
deathly afraid of his thick lips and
flushed face and prisoning farm
house. Fear of Ezra had smothered
other fears. She had welcomed the
storm, praying that it would wash
out the bridge, do something. any,
thing, to keep %he Reverend Mr..
Perkinson where he belonged, at
home. Afraid of it! 1t was glori-
ousl