Onward Christian soldiers part 4

Then our trail boss rode around the camp,
"Pack up! we are an hour behind our schedule, load up!"

Captain, Alma, Helaman and Pa loaded and tied down our tent and supplies, while my sisters and I put away the food. Not long after we started Pa started to sing,  Come, come ye saints.... I started with him, and then one by one, Helaman was singing, Captain, Alma, Ester, Faith and Constance. And then we heard other scattered families singing the same song with us. For a little while, the entire company was singing Come, Come ye saints.

As we moved out of camp we went though a wide gate way. there were about seven angels, a majority of them adults. But I could see the two white silhouettes of the boys Helamen had mentioned earlier. All of them had halo flowers around their heads. They started to sing with us. I looked down at my feet, shading my face with my bonnet as we passed. A lot of times, I caught my big brother Captain looking in the angels' direction.
You know, some people think a lot about heaven. (And I am sure that's what Captain was doing.)

We soon made up that hour, my family could tell that we were getting ahead, because they made us stop for a lot of bath room breaks. Nevertheless,  our throats were tired of singing, but every once in a while I would hear someone trying to sing, with hardly any air to sing with. Closer to noon, we saw the angels again. There were a lot more this time.

We had been told to watch our feet so not to trip and sprain our ankles or break a nail. I saw one boy with a Dr. who  had his entire toenail torn off. Now imagine that with stiff hiking boots and miles of rocky ground to cross- Ouch.

So I was diligently looking down the whole time and hadn't seen the angels take a few more kids and adults. I began to look around, to see where some of my friends were, to check if  any of them had been taken.
One  of them  was  missing. Must be around somewhere.  But Joseph was still around. So happy where he was that he hadn't even said 'good after NOON!', or 'Hi Tali.' Maybe I missed him. I missed them both.

But walking, on the way, my family and I talked about different things, things we did before the trek, things we did normally. I told my Ma about my blog, drawings, (she'd also seen one in the bus I had been drawing) and that I worked for the trail boss at his horse camp, when things were normal.

Captain talked about going on his mission, but pulled more then he ever talked. Helaman began to worry about his sister, ( his real sister) who had been one of the ones to have passed out in the beginning of our journey to Zion. She was doing worse now, and had been temporarily taken away to recover. There were others, and some one sprained their ankle. Helaman said he wished the angels would come take him to heaven. He was having a very hard time.

Meanwhile, I was getting more and more worried about this friend I had not seen since yesterday. At noon, we broke for lunch. I finished my food, ( ham sandwich, chips, fruit and juice,) and excused myself  to say hi to Joseph.
I found him with a group of boys and Pa's, playing stick pull. I went to stand by him. He was very animated, with his eyes glued to the contest as if it were a TV show. Actually it was pretty interesting. So I watched for a while. One guy that looked a lot like a real country boy, and not just his clothes, was beating all the other Pa s' and boys. I was surprised to learn that this was the real oldest son of my Ma and Pa. We were role playing our trek families so well that you didn't know who really belonged to whom, in modern day time. Well, he beat everyone that played except one big Pa.

He even beat his pa, who was my bishop.

I turned to Joseph and asked if he'd seen this particular friend.
"What?"
I repeated my question, "Have you seen him?"
"Uh--oh look at that, he's beating everybody..."
I moved in front of him. "Listen, have you seen xxx?"
"Oh him? Tali, didn't you know? He died this morning. The angels took him."

My mouth dropped.
I had been fearing this, but I hadn't permitted myself to believe it.
"No way," I shook my head.
"Yes way, see for yourself when they come around next. Didn't you see them at the gate? I thought you did, because..." Joseph looked passed me at the stick pull match. "Whoa!" his eyes sparkled, "That was cool."

Demonstration of how males and females handle stress. Girls, its the ties that bind, the relationships, the feelings, family, the comings and goings. Boys? Distraction, action. Untouchable emotionless motion.

"Joseph!" I leaned over, "Because what?"
"Oh, because he passed you while you were eating breakfast."
"Oh."
"Why do you wanna know?" Joseph asked.
I left without answering. I was angry. This wasn't fair.
When we started off again, Captain noticed.
"Are you alright Tali?"
"Yeah. I 'm fine. Its just I found out one of my friends is hanging out with the angels."
 I avoided looking at him, so he wouldn't see my face.
"Oh... I 'm sorry... That's sad."
I felt a little guilty for not being sad at all, but I couldn't help it. I was feeling a little angry at this friend. For conspiring against us all to die. Why didn't he tell me?

I imagined all the things I would say to him, but the more I repeated them, the more they became just,
'Why didn't you tell me?' But how could he tell me? he was just taken. Unless...
The next drink stop I asked Captain, "Do they just take the kids, or do they pick them ahead of time?"
He glanced at me, and put his canteen back in the cart. It wasn't till we started moving again when he answered me. Thank goodness for Captain beside me. This cart-our home on wheels- moved because of him, and Faith.

"They picked them ahead of time." he said.
"They have to be, in order to bring white clothes." Ma answered,
"Oh. Okay."
Now he could have told me.
But I don't know how I didn't detect the next one to leave the company.