Junie

by Erin Crosby Eckstine

“I like Delilah June better.”

I do too. It's cute.

“I just think you deserve more than a pretty view, Delilah June. You deserve to take all the beauty of this world and hold it in your hands. You deserve to bite it like a peach and let the juice drip ’til your fingers get sticky.”

“Me? Naw, Junie, I hate to say I can’t do that no more. It was Caleb who brought you out here. Came running over and snatched you into his arms before we even called for him.”

Aww im all for this young budding romance

Junie’s cheeks are hot; from anger or excitement, she can’t discern. He is the boy who told her she deserves more, who distracts her from saving Minnie even if he doesn’t know it, who saves her when she falls, who sees through her too deeply. He’s the sort of danger she used to run into the woods to find, wild, affirming, and hopelessly doomed.

She sees now what he meant. She sees now that he understands what it is to create beauty, not just chase it. She craves it now, the taste of beauty still ripe on the vine.

“McQueen is your father,” Junie says, not a question, but a statement.

Keep up Junie

She will bring Caleb, of course, and Bess, as thanks for helping her. There will be room for Granddaddy and Muh, and she is sure Uncle George will be furious if she does not bring along Auntie Marilla, as well. They will all come along as soon as she tells them, she reassures herself, over and over again. They must.

Delusional. That man said only 3-4 can fit girl!

There ain’t no good and evil in this world, not when the devils are the ones setting the rules.