In memory of my sister

I remember Delanie and I running around the fire room then warm by the fireplace. My dress caught fire. Delanie called mother and she put the fire out with her wool shirt by wrapping it around me. Mother took off my clothes. When Effie, Emmette and Delanie were in school. Rachel and I would watch at the window for their arrival home. Arnettie use to keep Ralph and Delanie sometimes when George and Eva did not want to take them on errands. Once Eva took Effie with her huckleberry picking and left Ralph and Delanie with Arnettie. Ralph began to cry and asking over and over, “Is my Mama dead? Is my Effie dead?” Arnettie became upset with them and decided to take them both back home. She walked them home guiding them with a switch she held in her hand. They walked over the Ditch Bridge between the house and the persimmon tree George, Eva, Effie and Emmette picked cotton in the late summer and early fall. Lanie looked after the Ralph and Rachel. She often took them to her playhouse under the grapevines. Lanie entertained them with stories. She possessed a fantastic memory and loved to retell stories she had heard or read. One day after several hours of listening, Rachel grew tired and wanted her Ma. Lanie used her hands as she told them, “No, you stay here. Now you listen to me, there are big eagles flying around that catch bad children, just like hawks catch chickens. Do you remember when that hawk picked up that hen when we were playing in the yard? If they catch you, they'll pick you up with their feet and feed you to their babies, up there in those nests, high in the trees!” Rachel, afraid and tired, started cryin'. Finally Rachel curled up on the old quilt and cried herself to sleep.