| Dorothy's Angel |
| By Renae Cane |
| Dorothy was a sweet little 6-year-old girl. She lived with her mama and papa. Her mama had a baby in her tummy now, and she couldn't wait for her new brother or sister to come. Her house was right next to the woods, so she played around there all the time while her mama worked in their gardens. Today her mama was staking the beans, so Dorothy helped her. "If we don't tie them to stakes, they'll get all scraggly and won't make nice beans" Mama said. Dorothy was getting pretty good at tying knots, so Mama held the plants while she tied them. After they finished, Mama said "Thank you for helping me. Would you like to pick a carrot to eat?" Dorothy loved picking the vegetables and eating them from the garden. She jumped up and started creeping around like she was a cat hunting for food. She saw the top of a nice carrot with beautiful green stalks and soft fringe and pounced, careful not to step on the other plants. She pulled it and held it up like a prize. "I got one! I got one!" Mama laughed and washed it off with the hose. "Please let Hennie and RooRoo out" she asked. Dorothy ran over to the gate of the chicken house. She lifted the latch, and Hennie and RooRoo happily stepped out into the garden, followed by six baby chicks. RooRoo was really talking and clucking today as he scratched and searched for bugs. "Now would you like to help me rake or go play with your toys?" Mama teased. She knew that Dorothy was always ready to play outside. They both loved the smell of the pine trees and loved watching the squirrels play tag, chasing each other around the trees. Her parents would take her on a walk through the woods every evening, and they showed her all kinds of neat bugs and birds that lived there. They usually saw some deer, too. Today she was playing with her wooden zoo animals. They were all lined up, eating grass. Dorothy said "Here, babies. You need a bath." and in a little baby voice, she answered "Yes, Mama." Dorothy was careful not to soak them in the water. Her mama had told her they would break if she left them in water, so she just used a wet rag to clean them. She looked up from cleaning her giraffe, and she saw a raccoon shuffling through the grass toward the woods. She hardly ever saw them, because they usually came out after her bedtime. The raccoon was going back into the woods, and Dorothy knew she wasn't allowed to go in there by herself. She followed it and went to the edge of the trees. There was no real path here and the brush was pretty high, but she wasn't really in the forest yet. She looked back and Mama looked up and held up her hand like a stop sign, but she was still smiling. That meant she was okay there, but she wasn't supposed to go any farther into the woods. She saw the raccoon nosing around in the underbrush, but then he just disappeared. Dorothy stepped forward next to a tree and heard a crack of a dry limb. Suddenly a snake rose up and she heard the rattle of its tail. She knew she had scared it, and as she looked into its eyes, she was scared, too. She knew she could get really sick if it bit her, and she wanted to run. As she started to turn and run, a voice said "No!" inside her head. She saw the snake rear back to strike, then everything seemed to move very slowly. She saw an angel rise up in front of her, even though there wasn't much room between her and the snake. She knew about angels, because Mama had told her about them, but she couldn't remember seeing one before. Then the snake's eyes seemed to be looking for her and not seeing her. He swayed his head back and forth, still looking for her. Since he couldn't find anything to be scared of any more, he dropped his head and stopped his rattle, then slithered away under the leaves. |
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| As Dorothy watched the snake leave, she realized that the angel was gone. She looked around, but everything seemed to be just like normal. So she said "Thank you" and went back to her animals. But now she knew for certain that she was never alone, because her angel was always with her. |