Onward christian soldiers part 10

So after the cow hole, we all headed back to camp, prepared dinner, and had our own family home evenings. We could have been a family together for a long time, the way it felt.  It was our first night without Captain. There was an empty space left in our circle of upturned buckets. Pa suggested we move closer. It was a different family home evening this time, Helaman was back now and fine, but he wasn't so chipper, and walked with a  limp.

And Alma had done a wonderful job at being big brother while he was gone. We shared our feelings about the day. My sisters cried about Captain again, but I couldn't even feel sad anymore. I was happy. I missed Captain, but he wasn't gone, and I looked forward to the next time I'd see the angels. But then, when it came time for my oldest sister Ester to share her opinion of the day, I was caught off guard. I had been thinking again, about life, and was shook back to the present when I heard her say my name.

She talked about how she noticed I was working hard as I could, and she was humbled by that and realized that she wasn't at all putting her best effort into helping the family. It was such a nice thing to say.Well, I felt guilty. I didn't say anything.
I wasn't much, really. I didn't think she should be comparing herself with me.

So, after dinner,  I wrote in my journal until it was dusk. There was an odd exclamation mark in the sky.

I heard people whispering, and though I did not hear exactly what they said, I caught one word: "Angels."

I looked up, and there they were. They were actually in front of me, far enough though, that I could hardly make out Captain's face, and the face of the friend that had died earlier. They were singing hymns. I stopped writing and listened. As they sung, from somewhere in the camp, the musician who had played the recorder earlier began to play along with the hymns they sung.

Then they left. 

It was now dark. Ma was rummaging in our kitchen supplies, and I was using a flashlight to write, still unfinished with my very long, very detailed description of this and the other day. But I look back and wish I'd written more. Anyway, I asked Ma what she was looking for. 

"Constance is missing, and I need a flashlight to look for her..."

"Well gee, Ma," (I was getting good at pioneer talk,) "I have a flashlight, I'll help you."
So we went looking. I found her, sitting under the stars in the open. Ma explained how worried she'd been, and then this fellow with a strange self moving contraption, ( an ATV,)  came and talked to Ma, and I sat down and sat with Constance.

We talked about lots of things, some random, and some not so much. But it was a nice and comfortable feeling. There was a little bit of summer lighting in the distance, and we heard thunder. Constance suggested we go inside our tent, but I excused it and told her the lighting would be gone in a few minutes. But I was wrong. As we talked after that, it came closer and closer, and we forgot about it until soft thunder rolled  across the sky. 

"Oh, okay it is coming this way, I guess we'd better go." 

We went to our tent, said our good nights to Ma, Faith and Ester, ( Pa and the boys left for the men's camp more then an hour ago and we had already told them good night,) and went to sleep. Well, they went to sleep. I still needed to finish that entry.  But I didn't. I fell asleep on it maybe ten minutes later.

I woke to to furious howling wind, blowing on our tent the way the big bad wolf did in the the three little pigs. Wow, was I wrong about that being just summer lightning. The wind blew so hard that in pushed the tent walls in. It was also raining. I checked my journal to see if it was wet; but nothing was. I tried to go back to sleep, except for an annoying thought in my head that the tent would blow away. Ridiculous. Be quiet head, and go to sleep!

I am not scared of storms. I used to be in the first few years of living in MO, terrified that all my drawings would be sucked up by a tornado. But there had been so many, and never did a real tornado come within 10 miles of our house, I was completely sure that we would be protected. 

But this silly thought wouldn't go away. I opened my eyes. There was suddenly an odd flapping noise.

I sat up straight.

The tent !

The same time I sat up, Constance did so also. 

"You know, I think I'd better go see what that is," I told her.

She nodded, I''ll come with you." She took a flashlight, and we dove out into the rain. The flapping noise was the rain fly, and we were just fixing that when a big Boom of thunder cracked all around us. Faith and Ester were up as fast as the flash of lightning that followed it. They were terrified.

"Tali, Constance, where are you? Is that you?" Faith cried, I answered, "Yes; the fly's come undone," I was about to say we had just fixed it, when I saw above my head by the sharp light of lightning and Constance's flashlight, the pole, one of the ones that held our tent up---was broken. 

"Uh, okay, I think ... I think I can fix that." I hoped.

You know that in stories they talk about blinding rain? The rain really came down that moment, and it was hard to see, blinking to keep waster out of your eyes.

While Constance held the flashlight, I worked the tent pole into fitting back into it's mettle clasp, but the clasp thingy was bent the wrong way. How on earth did that happen? It was hopeless.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew even harder, I was almost pushed forward, feeling much like pooh bear in the episode of the blustery day.  All the tent stakes came loose. The tent tipped, the only reason it kept it's place was that Faith and Ester were huddled inside, screaming. Constance and I abandoned the pole and went for the stakes. They were the cheap thin metal kind that comes with most tents when you buy them. They are a joke. Get the big bright yellow plastic ones please!!!  And get extra when you get your tent!  Trust me, they grip the ground  better.

We stomped them back in and grabbed the pole before it came down. Ma woke up and came to help us. I explained the problem and how I had woken up. She helped us keep the tent down and reassure our older sisters that everything was okay.

As I stood there, holding that pole, I wondered if I would be here all night and saw that no one else was having tent trouble! A blessing for the rest of us.  It was because ours was the tallest, and biggest. Everyone else's was a small ground hugging dome shape. Soon, though, help arrived. Through the same way my own first impressions came`~ the Holy Ghost. That's his job. God does care how we are and where we are, and sometimes it is through inspiration to another that he meets our needs.

  My real-life, ward Bishop's wife, and mom of my friends, was another Ma on the trek, and camped near by with her trek daughters. I don't think we were super loud and interrupted her sleep, I think she just knew that out there, there was trouble and someone needed her. I did. How else would I have been relieved from my self-imposed duty of keeping those poles up?

She came with the right tools for the job:  duct tape. I have heard some say that duct tape holds the world together. I disagree. But it did hold our tent that night. My pioneer grandma's had troubles, and the benefit of  "sisters in Zion, who all work together", and even more often, where such ministering sisters themselves,  but I sure wish they could have had duct tape. 

When our neighbors came, and the work was done, I left the scene, and went to bed. As I crawled into the tent, Ma whispered to me, "Tali, you are the hero of the night.Thank you." 

I sure felt good that night. But I hardly slept after that.