By Anna
*Note: This story takes place the night Lou and Kid spent at the Red Fern station. It always bothered me that there was no real explanation about why Lou was crying. I know there's the obvious guilt, but I always figured there was something more to it since she was the one who had pressured Kid more than he had her.
Lou sat up in bed and glanced over at Kid who had dozed off a few minutes before and pulled the sheet around her even tighter.
"What have I done?" she asked herself, "This wasn't how I was raised! My mother would never approve of this! Not to mention the sisters at the orphanage. I guess they wouldn't approve of a lot of choices I've made lately."
Lou felt the tears start to fall thinking of how the people she had loved and respected would react to her in the situation she was in now. A few hours ago getting to the Red Fern station had been the most important thing in her life, but now that everything was over she began to look back at her actions.
"Isn't this exactly what got mama into that misery she had to call a marriage?"
Lou had been born five months after he parents real wedding took place. Of course, for the sake of appearances they had created an elaborate lie to cover up the pregnancy and sudden move to Missouri. They told people they had married the year before but lost the certificate on the trip out west. The date was just never changed back when they married for the "second" time. People seemed to accept the explanation without question since they were respectable people. Of course, Lou's father would tell her the real story every chance he got. He wanted to make sure she understood she was responsible for his marriage to her mother. Lou was to blame and there was no two ways about it. Her mother would always tell her it wasn't the true, but Lou could tell no matter how cruel it was, her father wasn't lying to her. Just the memories of her mother and what had put up with because she had no choice made Lou feel even worse about her behavior that night.
"I guess there's no fixing it now. What's done is done. At least mama would approve of him. He's hard working and treats me better than any of the other men who have been in my life," Lou told herself wiping her cheeks and wishing the memories had never come back to her.
"You ok, Lou?" Kid whispered softly.
The End
Copyright 1998-This work is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author
The Way Station
Campfire Tales
