Shifted By The Winds by Ginny Dye Page B

their absence affected the factory. She should have gone back.
    Abby spun around to look into May’s eyes. “It’s going to get worse, isn’t it?” she demanded. She wanted to hear the truth that her heart already knew. Perhaps if her mind and heart were on the same page, she would find a way to deal with it. She hated feeling weak and ineffective.
    May regarded her steadily. “I reckon it will,” she admitted heavily, sadness cloaking her eyes. “But it ain’t nothin’ new, Miss Abby,” she added. “We are used to it.”
    “ Used to it ?” Abby scoffed as frustration boiled in her. “How can you be used to being badly treated? How can you be used to knowing you could be beaten at any minute?” She knew she was asking not only for May, but also for herself and her family. Unable to control her explosive emotions, she slammed her hand against the porch column, biting back a cry when a splinter penetrated her hand.
    “Well, for Pete’s sake,” May muttered. She grabbed Abby’s hand and stared at the long splinter glaring out at her from Abby’s soft white palm. “That will be enough of that, Miss Abby,” she said. Turning, she pulled open the screen door and led Abby inside. “I gots to take care of that hand.”
    Abby was still scared and angry, but the burning pain in her hand was overshadowing some of it. “How foolish of me,” she cried.
    “Hush now,” May said soothingly as she led Abby into the kitchen and settled her in one of the chairs. She brought out the medicine kit Carrie had put together, and pulled up a chair opposite from Abby. “This gonna hurt some, but it will feel better when I done got it out.”
    Abby bit her lip as May probed her delicate skin with the tweezers. She almost welcomed the pain that made her forget some of her earlier feelings. It also gave her a chance to get her emotions under control.
    May spoke as she worked. “There is enough of the splinter sticking out that I should be able to pull it right out. It’s gonna hurt like the dickens, but at least I don’t have to dig around with a needle.”
    Abby shuddered but felt ashamed when she thought about how many people in the country were truly hurting. “It’s nothing but a splinter,” she said, filled with self-disgust.
    May held her hand still, grabbed the end of the splinter, and gave a smooth, firm pull. She held up the splinter with a smile and then doused Abby’s hand under water. “Now that the splinter is gone, I got some things to say to you, Miss Abby. You’re being plum ridiculous,” she scolded, her eyes flashing fire.
    Abby blinked at her.
    “You be one of the bravest women I know, but you be wallowing around in fear like you sit in it every day. I know for a fact you don’t, so I be tryin’ to figure out why you be sitting in it today.”
    Abby hoped May could tell her, because she was clueless. She just knew she couldn’t break free from the emotions threatening to swallow her.
    May cocked her head as the fire faded from her eyes. “I reckon you’re trying to figure out a way to go right around all the fear and anger boiling up in you. The last years done been some real hard ones. You was needing a real break out there on that plantation, but you didn’t get it. Now that you’re back, everythin’ just be buildin’ up inside you like that boiler that blew up on the steamship that almost killed Mr. Matthew.  You ain’t gonna be able to go around all you’s feelin’, Miss Abby.” May took hold of her hand. “You gots to go right through it. You got to figure out what you really be afraid of and then you got to push right through it. Tryin’ to go around it ain’t gonna do nothing but make that steam build up inside you, because you ain’t gonna be able to do it. Your heart knows that be true, but your mind tryin’ to convince it of something else. Your heart ain’t believin’ it for even a second.”
    Abby considered her words. She recognized the truth, but still resisted