An Instrument in His Hands

Part 3 Chapter 9

Part 3

Chapter 9

Leahla passed away three hours after enjoying her baby boy whom she named Lemuel after the land where she once lived. I and the healers did all that was possible to save her, but she passed with a smile on her lips as she greeted her Lord.

I will never forget her.

After the mourners left and the wet nurse took away the baby, I was left alone. I was considered unclean because I had touched the dead as I prepared her body for burial. I took out the leather package she left behind and unfolded it.

‘Are you here, Leahla?’ I asked the air.

I felt her presence beside me.

‘I’m going to sign this so that you may go on,’ I told her. It was the only thing I could still do for her.

I felt her approval and encouragement, as if she said, ‘Do it! Do it now! Please!’

I took out a pen and dipped it in ink, then signed my name, ‘Abigail, of Zarahemla.’ Then added, ‘The year eighteen of the reign of the judges.’

It was done. I stared at the letters I had written on the worn document. I was betrothed to Aaron and he did not yet know it.

I looked about the room for Leahla, but her presence was gone.

I hoped she went to be with Aaron.

What had I done? What if…? What if Aaron did not want this? Dare I show it to him? How dare I presume to do such a thing? Was I crazy to listen to a dead person?  His wife? Could I explain this to him?

I was terrified to meet Aaron again.

In the days and weeks that followed, as I cooked for his children and cleaned his house and bandaged scraped knees and bounced the baby, I thought often of putting the document into the fire. Would Leahla return to haunt me if I did?

What did the Lord want of me?

At last, desperately, I took it to Him on my knees. Leaving all the children with their aunts, I walked out to the flat fields of grain and knelt down by a lone tree.

‘Dear God,’ I began. ‘I have done all that you asked. I have served the poor and the starving. I have left all that I had. I have even obeyed thy servant, Alma, in serving the family of Aaron. And now, I have signed this paper, perhaps against thy will. What ought I to do with it?’

Then I waited under the tree for an answer. At last I raised my eyes to see a figure coming towards me far across the flat fields. He walked slowly, but purposefully. Could it be Aaron?

I was not ready. My heart pounded.

Yet, the figure that emerged was slighter than Aaron’s. Who’s? I watched it progress above the waving plants.

It was Alma.

‘You came,’ I said when he stood before me. ‘You came, like an angel. I was praying for an answer, for I have done a great evil.’ Then I confessed to him that I had signed the betrothal paper.

He held out his hand for the document. When I handed it to him he walked to a flat rock and spread it out to read. Then he took out a small pen and ink from his pouch and wrote upon it.

What had he written – cancelled? Not applicable?

He wrote, ‘Witnessed, year 18, by Alma the Younger of Zarahemla, former Chief Judge, High Priest of the Church of God.’

It could not be more official, and was not to be undone! I looked down at him, disbelieving.

He patted the rock beside him. ‘Sit down, Abigail, while I tell you a story.’

I sat.

‘Aaron was very disappointed when he returned to the Land of Zarahemla and you were not waiting there. He searched for you unsuccessfully during his travels in the Land of Nephi. We concluded that you had perished. It was at my advice that he took to wife one of the widows of the Ammonites. There were many that needed to be cared for. Perhaps one less of them would be in want.’

I picked up on one fact. ‘Widow? Leahla was a widow? She never said.’

He explained, ‘Leahla would consider it the height of disloyalty to speak of her dead husband while married to Aaron.’

I laughed a bit. ‘Yes, she would!’ It was so like Leahla.

I looked over at Alma, and marvelled, ‘She is with him now.’ Leahla would not want to go to her dead husband if she had to leave Aaron alone. It was all making sense now! Those spirits she often seemed to be talking to...

Alma explained gently, ‘Yes, she is with him now, and I am sure they are rejoicing. Her husband was killed by the Amalekites shortly before the People of Ammon left the land of Nephi. He was defenseless.’

Defenseless! ‘How could anyone do that?’

‘It is because they prey upon the defenseless that they are called Amalekites. It is why the People of Ammon came to live here in Jershon, to dwell in safety.’

‘Had they any children?’ I asked curiously.

‘None yet.’

‘Is that why, is that why she wanted the child? For him?’

‘Yes. Aaron gave her many children to raise up for her dead husband, who sacrificed his life.’

I began to cry. Aaron was very unselfish and I had misjudged him.

Alma patted my hand. ‘The children you will give Aaron will be his own - forever.’

I looked at the leaves of the tree and hugged myself, remembering sitting beneath another tree and speaking of children. ‘A little blonde girl, he wanted.’

Alma laughed and stood. ‘I can see that you are anxious to fulfill his wishes, but you will have to wait until the proper marriage ceremony, which will take place after a suitable time has passed for his mourning.’

‘Does he not know of Leahla’s death?’

Alma rolled up the document and placed it in his pouch. ‘She did not wish him to be told. He will be coming home shortly.’

I stood too. ‘Will you be telling him – everything? Before I meet him?’

‘Yes.’

‘Thank you,’ I said, humbly. God answers prayers!