14.2 "What if I did hurt the spiders?" He worried.

Wichita, Kansas - June 13, 1874

ARJ watched Mum snuff the candle near the bed a short time later, and a fixed beam of blue moonlight replaced the flickering yellow. ARJ turned to face the wall. He heard Mum lower herself to the chair near Dad and listened as Dad filled her in on the day's events. Their hushed conversation comforted him, making it difficult to keep his eyes open. 

Laughter rose through the open window from the street below. Down the street, a door slammed, a dog barked, and a wagon rumbled by, pulled by horses who pounded their hooves into the soft dirt of the road. Even the noise of a cow town couldn't keep him awake tonight. 

The delicate buttercup lay safely on the table, but the tiny spider drawing remained in the palm of ARJ's hand. He blinked, closed his eyes, and felt his breathing slow.

Home. The Isle of Wight. He wished he could drift across America and the ocean on a cool breeze, like a money spider ballooning a silky web to travel home.  

And then he was there…, home. ARJ walked next to his grandmother along the road near Chatham House. Finally, they came to a green meadow. Buttercups lined the way, and he stooped to pick a bloom, then turned to show it to Grandmother. "I'll see if you like butter!" she told him. "Hold the flower under your chin." Laughing, he did as instructed. "Yes, I see you do! Your chin has turned as yellow as butter!" He held it under her chin and then laughed at the result. 

"Grandmother, you also like butter!"

As he turned to pick another flower, the meadow was suddenly covered in silvery gossamer spiderwebs. They sparkled like diamonds with the morning dew. ARJ gasped in delight! "It's so beautiful!" An arm's length into the webs was a beautiful buttercup waving on a tall stalk. He stretched to reach it over the webs and noticed tiny spiders filled the silver strands. 

"Money spiders! Careful," Grandmother said, "it's bad luck to hurt a spider."

ARJ hesitated and then reached out again. From behind, a hare bounded by him, hind legs stretched and long ears flat across its back. It leaped into the gossamer, cutting through the webs across the meadow. ARJ ran after the hare, using the path it created through the field. Long strands of web clung to ARJ's legs, pulling at him, slowing him down. Finally, he freed himself and looked around for the hare but could no longer see it. Turning around to look for Grandmother, he saw her standing far off at the meadow's edge. She blew him a kiss and waved. ARJ looked forward again and saw two figures standing on the field's opposite edge. Mum? Dad? He started through the webs toward them as the money spiders wove silk thicker and thicker ahead of him. Fear filled his heart as he attempted to push his way through without hurting the tiny creatures, but Dad motioned for him to carry on. 

The webs reached silver tendrils higher and higher, trying to hold him back, but he struggled on toward his parents. After what seemed like hours, Dad was close enough to catch his arm.

"ARJ! Wake up! It's just a dream." Someone shook his arm. 'Dad?'   

ARJ cracked open his eyes. Early morning light filtered through the room, and he saw that Dad was dressed and ready for the trial. 

"Dad," he whispered, "I want you to stay with us. I don't want you to go to prison!" 

Tears flooded down his cheeks with the release of his worries. Dad sighed.

"Maybe you should stay here with Mum this morning." 

"Please let me go to the trial with Uncle Albert. I got through the spiderwebs, and I don't think I even hurt one spider. So maybe it will be alright."

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, Son."

ARJ told him about the dream while Dad scrutinized his story as he talked. Serious concern wrinkled his brow. He lowered himself to the bed and pulled ARJ onto his lap. ARJ opened his fist to show him the tiny spider drawing still in his palm. 

"What if I did hurt the spiders?" He worried.

Dad gently shook his head and pulled ARJ closer. "Those are just stories. Just things people invent when they're afraid…, but our trust remains in God. We must go through this day; like it or not, Son. God takes care of the spiders, the hares, and the flowers. He will also take care of us."

 

14.1 In the flickering candlelight, it seemed to be moving.

 ARJ sat at the hotel room window most of the afternoon, staring at the building across the street and wondering what was happening at the trial. Mum rested behind him, but he knew she wasn’t sleeping. He could hear the bed creak as she turned over again and again. They took dinner in their room as the sun descended lower in the west. Neither had much of an appetite or a desire to hold much conversation.
Mum returned to the bed, and ARJ moved back to the window. He could see the lamps lit through the courthouse windows, illuminating the rooms and dispersing the shadows. The noise of the town strangely reminded him of home, his real home – Ryde, where the neighbors were close, and one could hear the comings and goings all around the community. It was a big adjustment when they moved to Kansas and the farm.
Laughter erupted from below, followed by scuffling boots on the boardwalk. ARJ leaned out the window as far as he could to locate the source of the noise coming from the street. Dad had cautioned him to stay in the hotel, especially on Friday night. The unruliness of the cowboys and farmhands was ramping up as they filled the Wichita streets, pushing through the doors to the saloons.
Suddenly, the doors of the courthouse, where Dad sat, flung open, and the crowd filed out, hushed voices replacing the disorderly behavior of earlier that morning. He watched as Uncle Albert cut through the crowd and crossed to the hotel.
“Mum, they’re finished. Here comes Uncle Albert.”
Mum slowly rose from the bed, smoothing her dress and running her hands over her hair as quick steps climbed the stairs and sounded in the hall.
ARJ had the door open before Uncle Albert reached it. He immediately sensed a change in his uncle’s demeanor.
“Anna, I think you might have done it. You seem to have knocked some wind out of the prosecution!”
Mum let herself smile for an instant. “I was surprised they didn’t bombard me with questions this afternoon.”
“I think Sluss realized you’d captured the hearts of at least some of the jury with your testimony. He knew he risked pushing more  your way by questioning what you had to say.”
“Is it over for today?”
“Yes. Arthur may be late. He and his lawyers were in deep discussion when I left. I’ll head to the farm to check on everyone and see you tomorrow morning.”
An evening breeze wafted through the open window. Mum sighed and wiped her brow with the back of her hand. She took ARJ’s hand as they watched Uncle Albert walk toward the livery. She sighed, and ARJ knew she was thinking about JW and Eva Anna. She placed her hand on her belly and then looked back at the nearly empty courthouse,
“If only a person could be in two places….” Mum said quietly.
The sun was now below the horizon, and shadows
filled the room. Mum walked to the table and lit the candle. ARJ turned to watch her, keeping one eye on the doors across the street. She pulled an envelope from her pocket and sat in the flickering light.
“Is that a letter from Grandmother Jarman, Mum?”
Mum nodded. “Uncle Albert handed it to me before he left. He must have stopped by the post office.”
She opened the envelope and slipped the creased papers from it. ARJ watched as a flat yellow object fell from it and drifted silently to the floor. He left the window to retrieve it.
“Mum, it’s a pressed flower.” ARJ held his palm out for his mother to see.
“A buttercup….” Mum said, returning her eyes to the page.
ARJ examined the five yellow petals, round and encircling a powdery golden center.
Mum glanced up at him. “The buttercup is for you. Grandmother wants to know if you remember the meadow near Chatham House.”
He nodded. “Shiny yellow flowers grew along the edge of the field… and spiderwebs covered the grass!”
Mum smiled. “You and Grandmother must be thinking of the same day. Look what she drew in the corner of the letter for you.”
ARJ bent toward the page and spied a tiny spider. In the flickering candlelight, it seemed to be moving.
“A money spider!” he exclaimed, “Grandmother said I must never kill a spider. It would be bad luck!”
Mum carefully tore the corner from the letter and handed it to ARJ.
“I don’t think there is any danger that you’ll kill this one, and we could certainly use some luck right now.”
ARJ walked back to the window with his new treasures in hand. He looked down at the courthouse just as the windows went dark. A few moments later, the doors opened, and Dad came through, followed by two of his lawyers. The men shook hands, and Dad started across the street toward the hotel.