Petticoat Ranch Read Online Free PDF

died. With my folks gone, we have no family on either side to help us.”
    “So you think this man looks like Pa, even down to that birthmark?” Sally began chewing on her bottom lip.
    “Now, Sally, honey, we don’t know if there’s a birthmark under that scar.”
    “It was right there, Ma, I remember,” Sally insisted.
    “Do you really think it’s possible two men could look this much alike?” Beth asked skeptically.
    Sophie was skeptical herself. But she also knew who she’d cut down out of that tree. “There can be no other explanation, girls.” Sophie said quietly to her weeping daughters, “Look at me.”
    One by one they tore their hungry eyes away from a dream that all children who have lost a parent carry with them. They looked at her and waited.
    “I don’t know who this man is,” Sophie said. “But I know who he is not. He’s not your pa. Your pa is dead.”
    Mandy and Beth nodded. They knew it, too. They’d seen it with their own eyes. Only Sally wouldn’t give up the dream.
    They all turned back to look at him again. As they did, his eyes fluttered open.
    Sally began sobbing and leaned over him. “He’s alive!”

T  H R E E                  
    H e was dead.
    That was the only possibility. He was dead, and he must have been good, because he was in heaven being ministered to by angels. They floated around his head. They cried for him as if his death were a sad thing, which made him feel like his life must have been one worth living. They touched him, held his hand, leaned against his legs, and knelt and bowed over him. And every one of them had her blue eyes riveted on his face, as if he held the answers to all the world’s problems.
    He’d never known there could be such love for him. He’d never seen so many blue, blue eyes. The closest one caressed his head with a gentleness that almost broke his heart, it was so sweet. He sighed under the loveliness of heaven.
    The angel who touched him spoke, but he was having trouble making sense of what she said. His mind seemed to be groggy, not working much at all. He thought a man should listen carefully when an angel spoke, so he tried his best to pay strict attention. Finally, after she’d repeated it several times and stroked his cheek as if to coax an answer out of him, it made sense.
    She said, “Who are you?”
    Shouldn’t an angel know the answer to that?
    The nearest angel was also the biggest. He looked from one angel to the others. They seemed to come in all sizes. One of them was cryinghard, broken sobs that stabbed into his heart, as he wondered if he was the cause of her unhappiness. He couldn’t remember the angel’s question, and instead of answering her, he said to the one who wept so, the littlest one, “Don’t cry, little angel.”
    He reached a hand up to comfort her. A spasm of pain cut across his chest. He cringed, as his head spun and his stomach lurched with nausea. He thought he might be sick all over his glorious angels.
    Funny, he wouldn’t have expected there to be pain in heaven.
    Even with the agony, he reached for that one brokenhearted angel, to try and make amends with her. Then he saw his muddy hands and knew he didn’t dare touch her.
    Funny, he wouldn’t have expected there to be dirt in heaven.
    He dropped his hand, but the little one grabbed it. “Pa? It’s you, isn’t it? Tell them it’s you. No one believes it, but I know it’s you.”
    Pa? He didn’t understand. He knew she was talking to him. She was clasping his filthy hand to her chest, as if it were the greatest of treasures. He looked at that one little blond angel and wished he could be her pa.
    Maybe that was it. Maybe this was his lot for eternity. That sounded very good to him. Tears of gratitude for God’s goodness cut across his eyes. He held that little hand firmly, until darkness caught hold of his mind and pulled him under.

    Sally almost flung herself down on top of him. Sophie grabbed her.
    “It’s him!