Evangeline (Part One)

I’ve been sittin’ on this porch for over 60 years. Every evening I come out here to drink my iced tea and watch the sun set. I’ve been a witness to a lot of things from this porch. I saw the bank get robbed in ’65 and I was sittin’ here when ol’ Doc Callaway crashed his Piper Cub in to the hardware store. They didn’t find too much of him. The paint caught fire and that was that. I’ve seen funeral processions and motor cycle rallies - lots of stuff. But the strangest thing I’ve ever seen happened five years ago this Christmas. See, that’s when Evangeline stepped through.

Evangeline was not a pretty girl. But there was something about her that made people want to be near her. She was an orphan, left on the steps of the Tabernacle Church in a laundry basket. She was naked as a jay bird wrapped in old newspapers. They say she didn’t cry one bit and if it hadn’t been for Jack Tanner’s hat flying off and landing nearby, she might have been out there all night and froze to death.

The authorities searched high and low, and put notices in all the papers, on the television, and on the radio. But no one came forward to claim her. Finally, the pastor at the Tabernacle Church and his wife adopted the baby. They didn’t have children of their own and believe me, there was much speculation about that. So, they took the baby home and named her Evangeline Grace Goodman. Which means her initials were E.G.G. People need to think about things like that when they name their children.

….to be continued.