Dawn

The late November sun struggled over the trees as I raised the axe over the last of the kindling. It was right warm for the time of year and not much need for a fire but the kettle wouldn't boil on prayer alone.

I could hear the baby fussing while Ma readied the young'uns for Sunday school. I wanted to lay out of the meeting, head up the trails early but she wouldn't hear it.

"Sunday is God's day Emmett McCarty," she'd declared.

I hid my rifle gun under the buggy reckoning I could head out directly it were finished.

Noon

When the sun was overhead I stopped to sit a spell in the shade. Inhaling deeply I picked out the heavy scent of cedar and a faint but pungent odor of a long gone polecat. I was high enough that I could smell the snow that was already falling to the north.

As I watched a hawk circle high above, I thought back to the preacher's sermon – all fire and brimstone and hell. He thundered, "Repent ye or suffer eternal damnation." I couldn't understand how a God who made such wonder would punish an honest man for his human frailties.

Twilight

It had been a good day. After searching high and low I'd come across a small doe. Swinging my pokestock to my shoulder, I fired without hesitation. In no time I had her trussed and was dragging her back toward home through the skift which dusted the lower slopes.

As I reached the tree line I stopped to glance back over the beauty of my home. I thought as long as I could breathe fresh air, swim in clean water and provide for my family I'd be as happy as any man.

Too late to react, I heard death approaching.

Midnight

I felt myself slipping away as the ground beneath me soaked up my life. I couldn't stop the images that rushed over me: the hungry faces at home; the bone weariness that aged Ma beyond her years; the mournful look in the doe's eyes the moment before the crack of the rifle gun – her lying stone still as acrid smoke curled lazily from the barrel.

Throughout it all, I heard the preacher intone, "Repent, repent, repent."

Closing my eyes, I whispered a prayer of contrition, hoping it would save me.

When I opened my eyes, all I saw was gold.

Midnight

(two days later)

The fire sanctified me, burning away my mortal sins. Whether it lasted days, or weeks, or years, I didn't know, but throughout it they remained by my side. On my left, an angel cried, sobbing apologies and begging my forgiveness. On my right was God – so gentle, so fatherly – more than Pa had even been before he left us.

I knew I deserved my fate – I drank when I could afford to, I gambled when I could not, and I lay with loose women. But all through my ordeal they did not desert me, and I took comfort in that.

~.~

a/n Thank you to AccioBourbon, TheHeartOfLife and hmonster4 for hosting The 30 Days of Emmett; and thanks to daisy3853, my lobster, who knows where the commas go.