Honestly, some mornings I think I should be down in the ground not up here feeling every ache and pain. Humph. Life never turns out as we expect it. Dorothy joins me for breakfast, coming down out of Abigail's room into the small kitchen in the back. She's just like Maud was, if you want breakfast, might as well start it yourself for all the time it takes her to wake up in the morning. All those years ago when Dorothy turned me down, I never would have thought we'd be all the family each of us would have one day. Course we each got family, but none to turn to now.
I swear the moment Dorothy walked to the store doors, that boy Brian was ready to run in zooming for the candy. Nothing to tempt a boy like candy, especially that one. Back last year when he had lost his sight from a fall for a while. I brought him candy- nothing cheered him up more I'll say. Dorothy and Brian talk. From the looks of it though, it's more Brian appraising my candy and Dorothy pestering him questions.
I've got family, sure. I've got my sister, Olive. But that's it now. Our folks are gone. Olive's husband passed on some years ago, so did my wife Maud, Dorothy's sister. So did my own Abigail and her daughter. Some mornings I just wish I could be down there in that cemetery with my wife, daughter, and granddaughter. That boy finally escapes Dorothy, hands me ten cents for some hardware and runs out forgetting the candy. I shake my head. "Loren." Dorothy comes to talk to me. She's got that look, you can always tell with women, when they've got something on their mind, that is something on their mind and it's wrong. Can't tell you how many times Maud gave me that look, even Abigail. That look might be as simple as you've got two different color socks on. Or as bad as the world's going to end. With women it's most often the worst.
I brave a smile. "What is it Dorothy?"
She comes close whispering. "What Brian told me, I'm worried."
"What did he tell you Dorothy?"
"I asked him if Michaela was in town yet." Dr. Mike, now there's a woman who can give you that look like non other. "And he told me, that Michaela and Sully were still in bed!" Her voice cracked in a whisper.
"Bed?" Never knew Sully was sleeping over at that homestead. Course it is his, but it's Dr. Mike who lives there, rents it. Course he's always over there, but then didn't even know they were courting. "It does sort of look mighty suspicious with him always out there. Living in sin." I cross my arms in front of me, shaking my head.
"But that's not the worse, it sounds like Michaela is expecting." The words send me back, to one of Abigail's few visits after I disowned her. That's because she married Sully. She had come to tell us they were expecting. At least he married her. Course we lost her with the baby. Dorothy keeps talking. "I'm worried Loren, what if she's been keeping herself busy because she's scared to tell us"
Images flash back of my own daughter, telling me here about Hannah. Images of how I told my own daughter to go back- she'd chosen to turn her back on our family. I sigh. "We'll just have to be there for Dr. Mike. If she's in the family way, her life will be changing. A baby isn't like taking in grown children"
"I'm worried though Loren, what if she does something drastic?" Her eyes, they look just so miserable, like the day she first showed up at my door after so many years. "She and Sully it sounds like are doing what ever they can to prevent this baby. When you get scared what it's life will be, I know. It's easy to start looking for drastic ways. No life sometimes seems better then a life in this world"
"What do you mean?" I look more closely at her. "Dorothy Jennings, tell me what you mean"
"With my last one, by then, well you know life wasn't easy. It was me or the children. I didn't want another child to grow up with that. I tried all sorts of things, but" she sighs. "She came anyways, but she was a joy spite it. I'm glad she left home to have her own life." The woman sighs, and walks over to her desk, to work on her paper.
I stand at my counter and think. Funny how one day can change your life. My life changed in one day when Abigail ran away to elope with Sully. When she and the baby died. When Maud died. Even when I nearly died and Dr. Mike saved me, operated on me. Then when Dorothy showed up on my doorstep. Sometimes life's changes we're too proud to admit. I turned my own daughter out the door when she was pregnant, not willing to take back a grudge, because she married someone I didn't want. I turn to Dorothy. "We'll have to be there for her. Take care of her, who knows Sully might up and leave and move back with the indians for all we know. All her friends, we'll have to be there for her. She strives so hard to be perfect. She'll have a hard time admitting that she's not"
There's a gleam in her eye. "That is right." She walks over to one of the baskets with various yarns in it. "Maybe she just needs hope, that we're all there for her so she can tell us"
"Tell us what?" Jake had walked into the store. "Morning Dorothy, Loren"
Yes, we'd take care of her. Maybe there is a reason to get up in the mornings after all. Maybe there still is hope in this life. I smile, looking at Dorothy.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: It may be up to a week before the next section is posted. I've got a large project due Monday.
