what she had overlooked. Emma moved around the outer edge of the area, filling her basket slowly. Sophie stopped several times and watched Emma gather eggs for her yellow basket. To see her come this far meant that Sophie hadn’t done the wrong thing when she rescued her.
“Fun, ain’t it?” Sophie bent down and picked up two eggs.
“Are you going to ask me how I feel?” Emma smiled.
“Hadn’t thought about it, but now that you mention it.” Sophie grinned back at her.
“The same excitement that I did when Rebel let us hunt out in the backyard. Mother would have thrown a fit, and she probably would now if she could see me,” Emma answered.
“Why?” Sophie saw a bright-colored plastic egg in the grass, but she let Emma find it.
“She said eating eggs that had been boiled the day before would make me sick,” Emma replied, “but they didn’t. Why do we get the mothers that we do? I would have rather had Rebel.”
“Don’t know, but I’m glad I got her. Remind me to call her this evening and tell her happy Easter,” Sophie said.
The sun had begun to sink below the western horizon when Filly shouted that she had found the prize egg. She carried the big, gold plastic egg apart from the others. When she got to the porch, she popped it open to find a hundred-dollar bill.
“Do we all donate toward that?” Emma whispered to Sophie.
“No, each year one person takes care of the prize egg. This year was my turn, and I had no idea what to put inside it, so I opted for money,” Sophie answered.
“I’m going to buy a bottle of whiskey for us all to share, and a new skirt like the one Em is wearing,” Filly declared. “Now, let’s go peel the eggs, and I’ll devil them for our snack. This has been the best hunt ever. Not just because I found the prize, but because you girls are here with us.”
Sophie loved her grandmother, and Filly reminded her so much of Granny Mason. She was past eighty and still a flower child who didn’t give a tiny rat’s butt about society’s rules.
Emma laid all her beautiful eggs out on the picnic table and sighed. “They’re too pretty to break open. We should figure out a way to preserve them.”
“Oh, no.” Arty shook his head as he cracked the first one open on the edge of the table. “I’ve been looking forward to our traditional snack all day. Filly makes wonderful deviled eggs, and she won’t tell me her secret, so we only get them once a year.”
“Besides, darlin’ girl,” Filly said, “this is a spiritual lesson on many levels. We have the beauty, and then we crack them open and remove the outer shell, which is just physical prettiness anyway, and then we see what’s inside.” Filly picked up the egg that Arty had designed and smashed it on the tabletop. “What’s inside is the real prize, both in the real eggs and the plastic ones.”
“Amen,” Josh agreed. “Kind of like me buying this place. It didn’t look like much when the Realtor brought me out here to see it, but there’s an inner beauty to it.”
With another long sigh, Emma picked up the first egg and gently cracked the shell. Was this like figuring out the nightmare? Was the yolk symbolic of her heart, sitting close to the center of the egg and trying to break away from the cords that had bound it for so many years?
“I love the friendships I’ve made here.” Sophie had already peeled four of her eggs. “And the fun that we all have together.”
“We’re a family, and we’re adopting you into it just like we did Josh and Sophie,” Arty said.
Emma didn’t say a word, but she hoped like hell they weren’t like her biological family. From her experience, family meant tension and control. She’d far rather that they all just be friends.
Maybe if you’d had a backbone, Victoria wouldn’t have run over you like she did, the voice in her head said.
I’m getting one now, Emma shot back. If push comes to shove, I will stand up to her.
Sophie nudged her on the shoulder. “You look like you’re ready to chew nails.”
“More like railroad spikes,” Emma said, “but I’m finding a heart inside this brittle shell, just like Filly said.”
“That’s great. Want to talk about it?” Sophie asked.
“Not now. Maybe later.” Emma hoped the heart that she had finally located would someday be soft