Page 42 - MailOrderBrideFlipBook

“It wasn’t just me,” Eli said. “Jim swore he could smell that wonderful fried chicken your wife makes clear over to our house.” Whitman smiled and patted his stomach “She is a good cook. Why, when we first married, if I stood sideways and stuck out my tongue, I looked like a zipper.” Jim looked at Whitman, standing a good six inches taller than anyone else in town, and still thin enough to “fit through a keyhole” as he often told Eli. “Now you’ve only become a wrinkled zipper,” Jim mumbled. Eli was anxious about matters at hand and wanted to get right to what he thought were more important issues. “Did you take some time to explain more to your wife about Anya?” “I’ve got a few words in,” Whitman replied. “It hasn’t been easy. She and her lady friends have been running around, flitting here and there, getting this bow and that ribbon. Trying this dress on Anya, and that bow on Anya, and Anya this and Anya that.” It wasn’t hard to tell, by the tone of his voice, that he was more than a little annoyed. “Well, it sounds like they like her,” Jim said. “I don’t know about that,” Whitman said, “but I do know that Eli better be careful what decisions he makes. I think they’ve become pretty protective of her.” Eli stood up, frustration filling his voice. “I just don’t understand. I have tried hard to follow God’s will. Why would God answer my prayer about my wife this way?” “You remember how a few weeks ago you gave that sermon on how, when we pray, God answers our prayers 39