The Runaway and the Redeemed

by Lucy S.

August 1882

“I pronounce you man and wife,” Reverend Harris said to Andrea Carter’s brother Justin and his bride, Lucy. “What God hath joined together let not man put asunder.”

Andi clapped with the rest of the wedding guests as the new couple walked back down the aisle. Soon she was on her way with the rest of her family to the Palace Hotel for the reception.

Her eyes widened at her surroundings. The windows were ceiling-high and covered with blue velvet curtains. A winding staircase was to one side of the foyer and the floors were polished marble. So much so that Andi could perfectly see herself in them. A few couches that matched the curtains dotted the room.

Andi then saw the guests were lining up at a table draped with a cream tablecloth. A luscious chocolate three-layer cake sat on a pedestal at one end. She hurried to grab a piece and sat down to eat. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up.

Lucy was standing in front of Andi. With her was a dark blonde girl about Andi’s age. She had warm brown eyes that matched Lucy’s exactly.

“This is my sister Evelina,” Lucy said. “I thought you might like to get acquainted.”

As Lucy walked away, Andi introduced herself. “I’m Andrea Carter, but I go by Andi.”

“I go by Evie,” the other girl said flatly.

“Lucy’s new husband is my brother. So that makes us family. Not exactly sure how, though. Maybe we’re cousins. That’ll be fun. I don’t have any cousins close by, but you live only one day away by train. We could visit occasionally.” Andi gasped. “I have an idea. I’ll ask both our mothers if you can come home with me for a week.”

She dashed away. Moments later she came back beaming. “Both our mothers said yes! I’m so excited!”

Evie nodded. She didn’t look excited at all. She looked a little—sulky.

            “Mother says we’re going to stay here at the Palace Hotel for tonight and leave for Fresno tomorrow morning. Since we’re going to be staying together, let’s get to know each other a little bit. What’s your favorite color? Mine’s blue.”

“Purple.”

Evie sure wasn’t a big talker. Andi would have to think of a question she couldn’t answer with a few words. “What’s your favorite Bible verse?”

Evie’s response greatly startled her. She glowered and all but shouted at Andi, “I don’t read the Bible!” Then she stormed away.

Andi couldn’t have been more stunned if Evie had slapped her in the face. She had never met anyone more hostile to her faith. Sure, her friend Macy had had a few rough edges, but she didn’t yell at her if she mentioned the Bible.

“If I could get through to Macy,” Andi thought, “surely I can make friends with Evie. After all, ‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’”

Evie crouched on the floor of her family’s buggy. She was thinking about what her papa had read to the Hawkins family that morning from his big black Bible—“But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil.” She certainly couldn’t tame her own tongue. She’d gotten in trouble in boarding school many times for mouthing off at the teacher. Another verse came to mind. “Be not overcome of evil.” Yet another commandment failed. The Bible sure had a lot of rules she couldn’t follow.

“Evie? What are you doing here? It’s time to go with the Carter family.” Her brother was looking down at her.

“Oh. I’ll be right there. Tell Papa and Mama goodbye for me.”

The following morning, Andi sat on the edge of her hotel room bed reading her morning devotions. Evie seemed impatient with her.

“Hurry up, Andi. We’re going to miss the train if you don’t stop reading right now. Can’t that wait?”

“I’m almost done with this chapter.”

“Come on, Andi! Don’t be such a holy roller that we can’t get home. I’ll be waiting outside for you.”

Andi was shocked. Nobody had ever called her a name like that. She didn’t feel like reading her Bible anymore. But as she closed it, her eyes fell on a verse in Matthew 5—“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven.”

That verse gave Andi a new hope. She greeted her family and Evie with a smile and said, “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

On the train ride back to Fresno, Evie pretended to be asleep so she wouldn’t have to talk to Andi. Not that Andi would want to talk anyway, after what Evie said to her.

“How could I have done that?” she wondered. “Andi will never speak to me again. My tongue always gets me in trouble.”

Hot tears pressed against Evie’s eyelids, and soon she really did fall asleep.

“We’re finally home!” Andi exclaimed as she ran into her grand ranch house ahead of her family. She was glad. She couldn’t stand big cities.

Evie walked in, and Andi began showing her around. Their first stop was the parlor.

“The wallpaper has been here since this house was built. We got the horsehair sofa for Mother for her birthday six years ago. The grand piano is a more recent addition, though. I’ve started taking lessons this spring, as a birthday gift. Do you play piano?”

For an answer, Evie sat down on the piano bench and began playing a minuet. When she finished, Andi applauded her as she stood up and took a bow. Evie was smiling. Andi was glad. She hadn’t seen Evie smile ever in the time they had met.

“That was great! You must have learned how to play a long time ago.”

Evie nodded.

“I have a couple songs in my music book. Maybe we can play a duet.” By the time supper was ready, the girls had played enough songs for a mini concert.

Despite a rocky start to the week, Evie was determined to enjoy the rest of her time with Andi. Unfortunately, she woke up the next day with a sore throat and fever. Evie spent two days aching and shivering. She felt sweltering hot, yet the bed in the guest room where she slept was piled with blankets. By the time she got well, she was in a sour mood.

Sunday morning, Evie went to church with the Carter family with a scowl fixed on her face. She felt angry, overwhelmed, and most of all, incredibly sad. She spent the service hatching a plan.

“What I need is a nice, long ride by myself to calm down. I hope Andi won’t mind if I borrow a horse.”

When they arrived back at the Carter ranch, Evie ate lunch quickly and slipped out to the stables. She had learned to ride sidesaddle at her boarding school, Miss Whitaker’s Academy for Young Ladies. She remembered one particular outing during the 1881 winter term. One of the girls didn’t even know how to ride sidesaddle, and when she finally did get on her horse, it bolted. The memory caused Evie to giggle. She wished she could remember that girl’s name.

She quickly turned her thoughts to the present. Selecting a saddle, she put it on the nearest horse and cinched it up. As she mounted, she realized that the saddle was meant for riding astride!

“Now I know how that ranch girl felt when she got…wait. Ranch girl? Rebecca Carter’s niece? Could that have been Andi?”

Evie wondered. She sat awkwardly on the saddle, the skirt of her dress half tucked underneath her rear. She rode towards the creek listening to the birds and watching the animals. When she finally got there, she decided it would be best to dismount by a tall tree.

As she was dismounting though, a raccoon poked its head out of a hole in the tree and screeched at her horse. Evie felt her ankle being wrenched from the stirrup and suddenly found herself flying towards the rocky ground. She landed hard. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was her horse galloping away.

When Evie opened her eyes, the first thing she felt was pain. Her ankle felt like it was broken. She took off her shoe and stocking. Sure enough, her ankle was discolored and was already starting to swell.

“Just my luck. This is what I get for being a runaway.” She lay back, closed her eyes again, and groaned.

Andi had seen Evie going to the stables after church. She assumed Evie was going to look at the Carter family’s horses. But when Evie wasn’t back at the ranch for supper, Andi got worried. Halfway through the meal, her brother Chad jumped up.

“Where in the world is Evie? Something must have happened to her. She’s never late.”

Andi suggested, “I saw Evie heading toward the stables earlier. Could she have taken one riding?”

Chad shrugged. “I guess that’s possible. I think I’ll take a couple of hands and look for Evie.”

Andi jumped up and followed Chad out the door. “I’m going too!” she yelled before anyone could protest. In the barn, Taffy, Andi’s horse, seemed to have a concerned expression in her eyes.

“You’re worried about Evie too, girl?” Andi asked the palomino mare. “Chad’s right. Evie really is punctual. Like that one girl I remember from Miss Whitaker’s Academy. She had pretty hair, kind of the same color as Evie’s. I just can’t remember the girl’s name.”

As Andi rode around the ranch grounds, she noticed the sun starting to set. She hoped to find Evie soon; it would be hard to search in the dark. Suddenly she heard shouting. Someone was calling her name. She saw Evie sitting under a tall tree. Her ankle was badly swollen.

Evie sobbed as Andi approached. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have ridden off by myself and now I’m hurt really bad, I’m sorry!” Her words came out in a rush.

“Don’t worry about it,” Andi said smiling as she helped Evie into the saddle.

“Wait!” Evie shouted. “My shoe and stocking are over there. Please get them!”

Andi got them, and she headed Taffy for home.

The next morning after breakfast, Evie asked Andi to talk.

Andi agreed. “Meet me in my room.”

In Andi’s bedroom, both girls sat on Andi’s bed, and Evie kept her sprained ankle elevated.

“Andi,” Evie began, “I want to apologize for being so mean to you this weekend. I said awful things to you and yet you took it all like nothing happened. How were you able to do that?”

Andi replied, “Evie, Jesus said to do good to those who persecute you. That helped me especially when you called me a holy roller.”

Evie blushed.

“If you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, He helps you be kind.”

“How can I get the Holy Spirit to indwell me?”

“Romans 10:9 says ‘That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.’ Jesus died and came back to life to pay for the sins of the people of the world. If you believe that and put your trust in Him alone, you will be forgiven and have the Holy Spirit.”

Evie sighed and looked down at her feet. “I had heard that all my life, that I am sinful because I do wrong things and will go to eternal torment in Hell if I don’t confess my sins to Jesus and turn to Him, but I never realized what it meant for me personally until now. I’ve been acting horrible. Will Jesus really forgive me?”

“Yes. He said, ‘Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’ That means once you put your trust in Him, Jesus won’t give up on you. He’ll help you become holy and blameless.”

Evie realized she needed to turn her life over to Jesus, so she said a prayer asking Him to make things right in her life and forgive her.

“My heart feels so much better!” she said when she was done. “Jesus rescued me like that Chinese servant was rescued from my school, Miss Whitaker’s Academy.”

Andi’s eyes suddenly grew wide. “You went to Miss Whitaker’s too? I was there and helped the little girl! We could have met a year ago!”

They both giggled. Then Andi said, “Evie, remember at Lucy and Justin’s wedding reception when I told you we were related but couldn’t figure out how? I know now. We’re sisters in Christ.”

Evie tilted her head. “Sisters? I like that.”

“Andi, a couple months ago when Lucy got engaged, I felt happy for her, but I also felt very sad and a little angry because she was leaving. Lucy’s my only sister, and I will miss her very much. I think that’s what was making me act out this week. But now that I know Jesus, I won’t be so lonely with Lucy gone. And I certainly won’t call you any more names, sister.”

Evie smiled. Andi smiled back. Evie was assured that all her past sins were forgiven and that she would enjoy the rest of her time with Andi. And most of all, she knew her parents would be thrilled that she was redeemed.