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We kissed like two lovers who had run across a long field to leap into each other's arms and hold each other forever and forever. The circus people cheered and surrounded us. I had to kneel down so the midgets could give me a good luck kiss. The acrobats had located rice and passed out handfuls to many of the others so they could rain it down upon us as we left the judge's house.

We got into Luke's truck and waved to them. Everyone was on the front lawn waving and smiling and throwing kisses, everyone but one woman in a purple dress, a matching bandana around her forehead. There were long, silver leaf earrings dangling from her lobes and she had a dark face with eyes even darker than Luke's. She looked serious, somber, and stood back from the crowd.

"Who is that woman, Luke?" I asked and pointed.

"Oh, that's Gittle, the Hungarian fortune-teller."

"She looks so serious, so worried," I said with trepidation.

"She always does," Luke explained. "That's her act. People take her serious that way. Don't worry. It doesn't mean anything, Angel."

"I hope not, Luke," I muttered as we drove off. "I hope not." I looked back and waved as we bounced out of the judge's driveway and turned onto the main highway. In moments it was all behind us and Angel and I were off to another life, another world, which was hopefully a much happier one than the one we had known at Earthy, the life we had left behind forever.

I looked back once more. There were storm clouds on the horizon behind us, but we were riding away from them, rushing down the highway as if in flight from the threat of rain and wind and cold. Off in the distance before us, the sky was bright blue, warm and inviting. Surely that meant all that was sad and ugly was in back of us. Even my memory of the somber face of the fortune-teller couldn't survive the glow of warmth in the promise spread out by the welcoming sun.

I squeezed Angel to me.

"Happy?" Luke asked.

"Oh yes, Luke. I am."

"So am I. I am as happy as a pig in . . ."

"In what?"

"Never mind. Got to watch what I say from now on. I want to be a better person and all because I have you."

"Oh Luke, don't make me seem like some royalty. I'm just another person trying to be happy in a world that could rain down pretty hard at times."

"No, you ain't. You're my angel and angels come from heaven.. Say," he added smiling. "If we have a girl, that might not be a bad name for her: Heaven. What do you think?"

I loved him for saying, "If WE have a girl . . ." "Oh yes, Luke. Heaven would fit her real fine."

"Why, we'll give her your name, too. Then, we can call her Heaven Leigh Casteel," he said.

He laughed and we rode on toward the sunlight and the promise.

twenty-one THE WILLIES

. The trip to Winnerrow and the Willies was a long, hard one in Luke's old truck. Shortly after we had started out, his engine overheated and he had to walk a mile to get some water from a gas station. He kept apologizing for making me wait in the truck on a hot day. I told him it was all right and that nothing could make me unhappy now. Even so, he insisted we stop at a small restaurant just outside of Atlanta so I could get something cool to drink and he could get a cold beer. He downed it quickly and ordered another.

"Don't you worry about drinking too much beer, Luke?" I asked him.

He paused as though it had never occurred to him before.

"I don't know. Where I come from, it just seems natural to drink moonshine and beer. We hardly ever think about it."

"Maybe that's because you're drinking so much you can't think about it, Luke," I suggested gently.

"You're probably right." He smiled widely. "You're lookin' after me already," he said. "I like that, Angel. I just know I'm goin' to be a better person all on account of you."

"It has to be on account of yourself, too, Luke."

"I know," he said. "I promise you this, Angel. do all I can to, make you happy, and if anything I do makes you unhappy, why you just don't hesitate to bawl me out. Besides, when you bawl me out, I feel good," he added and kissed me on the cheek. It made me tingly and warm to hear a young man like Luke tell me he wanted me looking after him. I felt as though he and I were growing up years with the passing of minutes.

While we were at the restaurant, I saw some postcards on the counter and decided to buy one to send to my mother. I thought it just might be the last thing I would say to my mother for a very long time, so I thought carefully and then wrote.

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