The days of the week fell away like the gentle rain that began on Wednesday. Slipping down the roof to splash the spring tulips in June Farnsworth's flower garden, the rain freshened the whole outdoors. It had come to stay and peppered Thursday and Friday with its warm wet promise of new life. The clouds hung persistently in one spot giving the showers a continuous opportunity to drench the city until Saturday came and finally the rains lessened to a misting drizzle.

It was in this drizzle that Eva watched Gabriel trotting up the sidewalk to the front door. The girl dropped the curtain, and in a breathless swoop, flew to the door jerking it open for him. He was there --staring at her. For Eva, words would not come and she could feel wet tears slipping down her cheeks. She remained motionless ...the eyes saying everything that the mouth could not.

Gabriel broke the moment by whispering, "Hello," then his eyes darted behind her to the people sitting in the room beyond. He made motions with his hands, thumbing and whispering, "Who are those people?"

Eva shrugged frantically and remained in the doorway, grasping the knob until her knuckles turned white.

Gabriel shook his head and lowered his voice, "Eva ...honey, what is going on?"

"Who's there, dear?" It was June Farnsworth.

Eva looked over her shoulder. Her mother was in the kitchen, but where was her father? If he was upstairs in the bedroom...? Eva did not know. She turned desperately back to Gabriel. His eyes were boring into her, demanding that she tell. "Eva...! Eva, let me talk to them," he whispered.

Eva shook her head, frightened, and then she called to June, "It's just someone looking for a dog. I guess, it's lost. I'll be in in a minute." Quickly Eva stepped out and shut the door behind her.

Gabriel's eyes twinkled. "For a dog?"

Eva grinned. Lifting her arms in a defensive gesture, she whispered, "Well, what was I supposed to say?"

They both giggled softly. Gabriel greeted Eva by grasping her shoulders and kissing her passionately on the mouth. His hands released her shoulders and he enveloped her, pulling her against him. "Eva, I'm taking you with me. They aren't going to keep you from me."

Eva had put her arms around his neck and returned his kisses. Her face turned up to reach his ...and the rain drizzled down mingling with tears. Gabriel's big warm body leaned over her, shielding her. But his protection wasn't enough. Eva pulled away, answering, "I don't know. I'm afraid."

"You can't be frightened!" Gabriel was firm. "We'll go in and talk to them now. They are in there, aren't they?"

"Yes."

"Ok. And who are the rest of those people?" he persisted.

"Gator, I don't know. They are old friends of my folks; friends I never knew about. We can't go in there! Trust me. My father is in there! I won't do it."

"Is there some place that we can go for a few minutes?"

"There is a rock garden behind the house and it has a gazebo in it."

"Let's go."

A thick hedge of bridal wreath divided the back yard and thus provided a barrier between the gazebo and the house. Hanging behind the hedge, large weeping willow branches further obscured the view. Eva and Gabriel hurried across the lawn through the drizzling rain and entered the little garden house. The building was six-sided with each side half open to the weather, but the roof provided some shelter and the benches built along the walls rendered seating space.

"Eva, here." Gabriel took Eva's hand and guided her to sit down, then he joined her. His mouth was set in a determined line. There was a steadfastness about him that gave Eva strength and made her feel better. "Eva, we are going in there and tell your parents! No...now listen to me. They can't hurt you. Trust me, Eva. Please? I know the best way to handle this is to face them and explain that we don't want to hurt them or embarrass them and that we are willing to wait, but we will be married, Eva! That's what we need to tell them. Damn, Eva, how long have we been sneaking around like this? No wonder they don't like it!"

"No, Gator, you don't understand."

"Yes, I do. The question is, do they? If they understand and agree --I'll go home and wait a couple weeks. If not, we are leaving right now!"

With the conviction in his voice, added to the set look about him, Eva knew he meant it. He was prepared to face, and if must, deal with her parents. The girl felt a churning in the pit of her stomach. "Gator, I think we should wait. Let's talk to them as soon as school is over."

"No ...I have a feeling. I don't think we should wait."

"Well, at least, until I graduate."

"Ok. I can agree with that part." A patient tenderness stole into Gabriel's dark eyes and a huskiness in his voice, impassioned Eva. He said, "We will wait ...you win."

The two huddled together in the hazy gray mist, their bodies becoming an indistinguishable blur. In those few stolen moments of time their hearts became even more tightly bound to an endless commitment of love...

June Farnsworth leaned over the kitchen sink and pulled the swag curtain back to study the rain clouds. Her eye caught the movement first and then the outlines of the people in her gazebo. "Hmmm," she mumbled, "That's curious, I wonder who they are?" She peered through the window, straining her eyes. "Or is that Eva? It looks a little like her --if I could see through this gray mist. I thought she said someone was looking for a dog?"

Mable Sullivan set the broom behind the refrigerator and immediately moved to the window. "It is Eva." The woman spoke with a cold flatness in her voice.

"Oh! Why didn't she bring her friend inside. The weather is dreadful! Goodness, I'll call her."

Mable turned about. "No." She walked into the library where Lou Sullivan was sitting. "That James boy is here. Out in Farnsworth's gazebo."

Lou Sullivan did not take time to put on a sweater or hat. He bolted out the door as if he had been kicked. Startled, Nathan Gray looked up from the Bible he was reading. "Is something wrong? Can I help?"

June Farnsworth had followed Mable into the library. Mable laughed, pretending the affair was unimportant. "Oh, my no! Don't concern yourselves. That man was on his way through and he was supposed to drop off something for Lou --some insurance papers. Lou will be back in a few minutes."

June Farnsworth gave Mable a puzzled look and gazed toward the door before accepting the answer. "Then the insurance man must have been right behind the one looking for the dog?"

Mable nodded and acted surprised. "Yes, I suppose."

In seconds, Lou Sullivan had crossed the lawn and reached the gazebo. As he approached, the two were sitting on the bench talking, and Lou struck from behind with a piece of rain trough he had found by the house. Instinctively, Gabriel turned, shoving Eva to the side. Lou Sullivan attacked Gabriel --the trough whomping with a hollow thud as it bent over Gabriel's shoulders. The old man battered and assaulted until the younger man's hand snaked through the air juggling the weapon free.

"You know, Mr. Sullivan, I am getting very tired of this! If you ever club me again, I'm going to use whatever you're holding in your hand on you! I will flatten you!" Gabriel's voice remained soft and incredibly controlled. So soft, that Lou Sullivan hesitated for a moment. There was just a hint of fear in his own eyes. It passed quickly and the intensity of his rage gave him an added fury.

"You stay away from my daughter or I will club you again! I'll club you 'til I kill you!"

Eva had shoved herself in between her father and Gabriel. "No! No, Dad! Please, don't hurt him. He's going away."

Gabriel frowned. "No, I'm not." He turned and looked at Eva. The terror in her eyes told the rest of the story. Now, Gabriel knew. The man was beating his daughter. "Damn you," Gabriel cursed Lou Sullivan. "How could you treat Eva this way?" He spoke in a controlled rage of his own, barely able to keep from smashing Lou Sullivan. "She's your girl! She's the only thing you have that's decent!"

"Get out of here!"

"I'm not going anywhere!"

"Gator! Please go!" The girl was hysterical --rubbing at the wet rain on her face and tears. She was desperate.

"No, Eva! Don't let him do this! Talk to me --and to him. Both of us." Gabriel's voice raised. "Tell him you love me. I won't let him hurt you. I promise. If you make me go, he will hurt you now. Like he has done before!"

"Gator, go!" Eva was shaking her hands helplessly at her sides. "Just go."

"Eva." Gabriel reached out, catching her hand --pulling Eva away from her father. Gabriel held it tightly. He sensed somehow that he could lose her if he wasn't strong. He had to make Eva realize that Lou Sullivan was only a man. He couldn't stop them. But Eva had panicked and wouldn't be calmed.

"Ok." Gabriel consented softly. "Ok, I'll come back in a few days. Mr. Sullivan, think about what I said. Your daughter and I are in love. You will ruin her life and mine, too, if you come between us." Gabriel sent one more look to Eva, then he released her hand and moved away.

The young rancher hunched his head down into his jacket against the rain and trotted across the yard toward the street. His big shoulders heaving up and down, he disappeared around the corner of the house.

In a few seconds Eva heard the car starting and then it was gone. Lou Sullivan faced his daughter. "Go to the house and straight to your room. Don't say anything to anyone! And don't give a hint that there was some kind of trouble out here!" He spoke slowly and with a deliberateness that was meant to frighten Eva. Quickly, she left.

Lou Sullivan did not immediately follow Eva to her room; he was concerned that Farnsworths might notice. Eva sat on the bed and shivered in nervous fear reliving the pliers punishment --her mind tattered with thoughts of that pulled-gristle feeling. It was nearly an hour before he opened the door and strutted in with a tight-lipped rigidness that told Eva he was still angry.

She shrank from him. "Dad! There is nothing dirty about what goes on between Gator and me. Honest! He's never touched me in any way that wasn't decent. Why can't you believe me?"

Blue eyes iced.

The man moved across the room without responding to Eva's question. Lou Sullivan hit her with a force that exploded with his rage --unventing the fury that he had been unable to exhaust earlier. Eva's head flew back and she could feel the heat by her eye. It was a dizzying pain, but the girl sensed another blow was coming. Instinctively, Eva dropped behind the bed as her father lunged at her, this time catching her with a blow beside the mouth. The old man grasped a chair and held it above his head, approaching ...threatening.

Eva screamed, "Go ahead! Kill me! That's what you want, isn't it?" She was the caged wildcat.

He stood like a motionless statue with the chair hoisted. Quietly, he set it down. "No. I just want you to be a good woman!" He spoke softly as if he were afraid that someone downstairs might hear him after Eva's outburst. "And," he continued, "If you yell like that again, I'll beat you for that, too."

Eva taunted him; she couldn't help herself and she whispered, "Afraid you will be discovered?"

Lou Sullivan's eyes darkened like an angry sea. "I'll put you in the damn trunk! You need to be in a box ...do you good! No need in outsiders being involved when I correct you!" Then as if he were still worrying that someone might have heard, he snapped, "What you yellin' like that for, anyway!"

"You're not disciplining me. You're trying to murder me. You hate my guts!" A stench permeated the room, and Eva thought, ...why does he always smell like that. Eva cringed down, prepared to be hit as she spoke, but still unable to stifle the spirit within herself, she hissed, "You're crazy, crazy, crazy! CRAZY as a bucket of fuzz!"

Distracted, Lou Sullivan closed the chest lid. He towered above his daughter enraged by her chant. Indecision seemed to envelope the man and finally he kicked the abandoned chair slamming it against a dresser. Eva witnessed her father's boiling anger recede. Suddenly, he looked vague, as if his thoughts had clouded. "Get yourself straightened around. Start behaving." He headed for the door.

He's forgotten about the trunk, Eva thought. Then, at the door he turned and said something that surprised Eva. "I wish this damn rain would stop. Drizzles like the tropics." It was as if he were visiting and nothing had happened. Eva was stupified.

When he was gone, Eva moved to the mirror to examine her face. She was shocked by what she saw. The eye was purple and a large area around it was already discoloring, too. Eva touched the cheek, wondering if smaller bones could be broken. Some day he's going to kill me, Eva thought ...and how can I go downstairs looking so battered? I'll just have to say I tripped over a suitcase and fell into the wall. She walked down the hall to the bathroom, and worked with cold wet washcloths and make-up attempting to lighten the bruises.

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