Down the Dirt Road Read Online Free

never wastes time thinking about all the possible outcomes.  Me, I can’t even get dressed in the morning without working a plan.  It’s exhausting, Momma.”
         The tears threatened again but she ignored them.  Momma sighed and reached out a hand to touch her gently on the arm.
        “Be true to yourself, Jennifer .  Don’t be anyone but who God intended you to be.  Someday the right boy will come along and you will just know it.”
        “I thought Michael was the right boy, Momma.  Obviously I can’t even trust my own heart.”
         “Oh, Jennie, you are so young.  There is plenty of time to really fall in love.  What you had with Michael - that was puppy love.  Not the real thing.  If it were, we wouldn’t be havin’ this conversation right now.”
         “It just hurts so much, Momma.  I never knew how much a broken heart could hurt.  And I am so angry with them both but I’m even madder at Trisha.  I trusted her with all my secrets.”
        “The loss of trust hurts more than any physical injury I can think of and is so much harder to heal from.   But you will , sweet pea, you really will .  Trisha may never recover completely from losing you as her friend, but you will come out of this OK .  You are much stronger than she ever will be.”
        “I hope it hurts her for a very, very long time.”
         A loud thump followed by the sound of breaking glass from the floor above them interrupted whatever Elise was about to say next.  Jennie looked at her mother in shock.
         “What was that, Momma?”
          “I…I’m not too sure.”  She rose from the table so quickly her tea sloshed over the side of the cup and onto the white lace placemat staining it a dark brown.
         In seconds Jennie was following her mother up the cr eaky wood stairs and down the dim hallway to the master bedroom.  The door was closed ; something heavy leaned against it because it would barely open a crack when Elise turned the knob.  The top of Daddy’s denim clad thigh was all she could make out through the space.
         “Oh, Johnny, no!  What happened?!”  Momma was sobbing as she pushed against the heavy wooden door trying to slide Daddy’s still form forward just enough to squeeze into the room.  Jennie pushed alongside her, fear filling her heart.  She had tried to push a dead cow once, the weight had been ridiculous, impossible to move .  Daddy’s living two hundred pound s should have been so much easier but it wasn’t.   A sob stuck in her throat as she dropped to the bedroom floor.
        “Please don’t be dead, Daddy.”  She whispered as she and Momma shoved the door with one final burst of strength.  The body on the other side shifted just enough that they could fit through the opening.
         John Marshal lay as still as a stone and as haphazardly as a rag doll, his limbs turned at odd angles to each other.  The ashen grey of his skin, the bl ue tint of his lips and the pain locked forever in his brown eyes told them everything they needed to know.
          “Oh, God!  Oh, no!  Johnny, no!”  Elise crumpled to the ground next to her husband and grabbed his hand as she felt for a pulse.  “You can’t leave me, John Marshall!  You can’t!  DO  YOU HEAR ME?!  You must wake up now!”  She shook him hard, pulled on his arms, yelled in his ears but there was no response.  Tears ran down Momma’s face in rivers as she yelled and yelled but Daddy never made a sound. Jennie watched in horror as harsh reality sunk in. 
         Daddy was dead.
         Momma looked up a t her, wild eyed.  Her face already tear streaked.  “Call 911 Jennie!  Call an ambulance!  Call Doc Hansen!  He will know what to do!”  She climbed on top of h er husband and started pumping on his chest frantically .  John’s body flopped like a fish out of water with the effort but his heart refused to begin beating again.