Crisp white cotton billowed in the wind almost knocking the clothespin out of my hand. After a struggle, I clipped one corner of the bed sheet onto the line to dry.
“You’ve got it!” Mother called from the window that looked out onto the backyard.
Heart disease kept her from doing much, so household chores like hanging out the laundry fell to me. I didn’t mind—even with my full-time job. Mother didn’t always ask for help when she needed it. I watched her closely so she didn’t have to.
Almost done, I thought as I clipped a second clothespin onto the sheet. I took the basket into the house to get the next load. Mother was waiting with a treat for me in the kitchen.
“I made you some lemonade,” she said, pouring me a glass from the pitcher on the table. “To say thank you for your hard work. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Mother and I chatted over our lemonade until we heard the washing machine finish up. She got up to put in the next load. I watched to see if I needed to step in and help her. Just as I’d thought, the load was too much for her.
“I’ll get it, Mother. You rest.”
I carried the clean load outside, the wind whipping my hair. I put the basket on the ground and pulled out a sheet. Finally I got a corner to the line and grabbed a clothespin.
Just then I felt myself move. I stumbled to keep hold of the sheet. Why had I stepped a few feet to the left and risked dropping my fresh laundry on the ground? I hadn’t even been aware of wanting to move. It was like someone had picked me up and set me down again. This didn’t make any sense.
I started to step back to my work when I heard a loud crack. I looked up. A huge branch from the decaying tree behind me fell through the air. It hit the ground with an enormous thud. And on the exact spot where I had been standing!
I looked at the house. Mother was at the window. The expression on her face told me she’d seen everything.
I ran inside. “I don’t know how I got out of the way!” I said. “It was like someone else moved me.”
“Someone else did move you,” she said. “It looked like a hand. It came on the wind and scooped you up.”
I went back to hang the rest of the laundry. Nothing had been disturbed by the falling tree branch. Like always, Mother waved to me from the window. Sometimes she didn’t ask for help when she needed it. Sometimes I didn’t either. Good thing God watched me closely so I didn’t have to.
