Angel's Child
Chapter One
"Luke, git in here, yer child has been born," I heard my mother call in a pleased voice. Then an edge of worry filled her voice. "Luke, quickly," she said, as she handed me the baby. I looked down at the child tenderly, as Ma thrust her into my arms, all cleaned up. She sure was pretty. She opened her pretty cornflower blue eyes and looked right at me. They were Angel's eyes, and on her head there was a mop of dark curly hair, hair that everyone would assume had been inherited from me, when in reality it was Angel's own stepfather. "Ya have ya whole life to look at ta chile," Ma said, "Angel needs ya." Panic filled my heart as I looked down at the infant still in my arms and brought her to her mother.
"Angel, ya did good," I told her. Leigh smiled at me, and at the little angel in my arms. I laid the girl in her arms.
"Heaven," she whispered in a thin voice, "Heaven Leigh Casteel," she said, smiling up at me. Pain filled her eyes as she gripped my hand harder than I would have thought possible. "Promise me Luke, promise me that you will keep her safe….from my mother and Tony."
"I promise, Angel," I said and then I heard her call for my mother. My mother listened to her voice and her words. I couldn't help but stand nearby as I thought about going to town for a doctor, something was wrong, I thought as I watched Angel look down at her daughter and theirs eyes met seemingly forever. "Give all that I brought with me to my little girl, Annie, please," she pleaded my mother. My mother didn't say much, just nodded as she did what had to be done. Later, I would be told that she had died from some kind of blood loss. I would have given her my blood if I could. Something cold seemed to wake inside of me. But for the baby, Angel would still be alive. I ignored the baby after that, so that Ma and Pa seemed to spend more time with her than I did. I saw the looks of pity on their faces, pity for me and that baby.
They laid my angel to rest on a cold wintery day in February, and I could feel the townspeople with their eyes on me, wondering if I was going to turn out just like Jeff and Landon and end up in jail for petty crimes. My other brothers had returned home for Angel's funeral, though they had never met her. They came to see Ma and Pa and meet Angel's child. On February the 28th the child that everyone thought was mine had come and taken my wife from me. The very next day, we buried her in Winnerrow, and it broke my heart to see her lowered into the ground, for I doubted in all my life, I would never see such a beautiful crown of silvery blonde hair, nor would I find in this life anyone to love me as much as Angel did. I watched Jed, Langdon, and Toby Jr., leave with Ma and Pa and that child whose name was Heaven but had really just brought me hell on earth.
I spent the night on her grave, and I talked to her, and recalled my promise to her. I would keep that child from the evil Toy king no matter what. It was a promise that I would one day break, but not for many, many years.