When Sparrows Fall Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Any creek you want, sugar.”
    “The one my mama drowned in?”
    “She didn’t drown, sweetheart. She had a real hard fall, but the doctors will take good care of her. We’ll keep praying that she’ll be fine.”
    Martha leaned closer. “Maya isn’t,” she said in a confidential tone. “Maya fell. And died.”
    “Who’s Maya?”
    Her long-lashed, crystal blue eyes widened further. “I don’t know. Timothy knows.”
    Jack sought Timothy in the crowd of kids. “Who’s Maya?”
    “I don’t know anybody named Maya,” he said.
    Rebekah laughed softly. “A pretend friend.”
    Martha was the right age for it, but imaginary friends weren’t supposed to die. They were supposed to be cast off like outgrown clothes.
    Still crouched beside her, Jack looked up at the boys in the middle, trying to remember which archangel was which, then over at the littlest guy. Noah. No, it was Jonah. The big fish, not the big boat.
    Timothy brushed past Jack and walked outside without another word.

three
    J ack spent a solid hour on the front steps with his phone to his ear. Thank God, he could find a signal. He hadn’t accomplished much though, besides irritating Farnsworth back in Chattanooga. She was skeptical of his story about being saddled with six kids.
    He told her that if he barely had enough time to teach fiction, he certainly didn’t have time to concoct it. She was not amused.
    He closed his phone and wished Miranda’s cupboards held coffee. He’d checked, and she was completely out.
    Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen a coffee maker.
    Behind him, their voices muffled by the closed door, the kids bickered and laughed. Except for the slight undercurrent of worry, all was well. Timothy had come back from wherever he’d been, and under his and Rebekah’s competent supervision, the younger ones had tackled their chores and a smattering of schoolwork.
    At some point, Jack needed to run back to ’Nooga, grab a few of histhings, and check in at work, but he couldn’t tell Farnsworth how long he’d have to play baby-sitter. The hospital was being stingy with information about Miranda. He might have to show up in person and prove he was kin before he could pry a prognosis out of somebody.
    Locating her attorney was his second priority. He had questions.
    Across the driveway, the wind ruffled pale grass on the hillside. A small patch of darker, taller grass lay on the slope like a bruise on a face, and a gray sky brooded over it all, threatening rain. At nearly noon, it was still cold outside but the chill wasn’t a bad trade-off for a piece of solitude.
    He jumped as the front door banged open and shut. Michael and Gabriel raced outside so fast that they might as well have had wings.
    “Boys,” he hollered to their backs. “Don’t go far. Stay away from the cliffs.”
    “Yes sir,” the archangels answered as one. They vanished around the corner of the house without slowing.
    Jack took a moment to sort them out. Michael was the older of the two. Sturdy, freckled, and a bit resistant to schoolwork. Gabriel, six years old, had fewer freckles. He was thin, restless, full of energy.
    Martha trotted outside, wearing a hooded gray cape over her long denim dress. Jack half expected to see elf slippers with curled-up toes, but she still wore those clunky clodhoppers.
    “What are you up to, Miss Martha?”
    “Picking violets.” She hopped down the steps, making a racket.
    “Don’t go far. Don’t go anywhere near the cliffs.”
    “Yes sir.” She ran in the direction the boys took, her elf cape billowing after her.
    Jack hoped the kids weren’t as accident-prone as their parents, with a predilection for falling from high places. Their dad from the roof, and now their mom from the cliffs.
    He shook his head, and it gave him a throbbing reminder of his caffeine deficiency. Miranda’s kitchen didn’t even stock real tea. He could hunt downwhatever passed for a Starbucks in Slades Creek, except he couldn’t leave