GI Brides (6 page)

She bought a few potatoes, some spinach and celery. There were oranges, too. At the end, Lexie struggled home with a towering paper bundle in her arms, and a heavy paper bag with a handle in one hand, all full to overflowing. It was surprising how much she had been able to get with the little money she had. On her way home she was thinking how profoundly thankful she was that the nurse and the driver had not had to take
her
money. She wondered how much more Elaine had hidden in her purse. Well, there was no use thinking about that. They must have a talk that evening, or perhaps it would have to wait until morning if Elaine was not disposed to talk tonight.

When she got back to the little white house she found she was very tired, and would have liked nothing better than just to sit down and cry. But that wouldn’t get anybody anywhere. There had to be some supper made right away. It was after half past six. And she heard Elaine calling her fretfully.

She hurried upstairs and found Elaine sitting up angrily in bed, arguing with a trio of naughty children.

“I know you are hungry,” she was saying angrily, as if the children were to blame for being hungry, “but your aunt didn’t have any supper ready for us, and what can we do?”

“She’s
bad
! I
hate
her!” roared Gerald, glaring at her from the foot of the bed.

“You certainly have been gone long enough to buy out the store,” Elaine snarled at her sister. “I hope you got us a good, hearty meal.”

“I’m afraid not,” said Lexie. “The store was just about to close, and I had very little money, but I got all I could without ration books.”

“Fiddlesticks. Couldn’t they trust you for the coupons? Didn’t you tell them we would give them the coupons tomorrow?”

“They are not allowed to sell things without the coupons.”

“That’s absurd when they’ve known you for years. They
know
you wouldn’t cheat them.”

“Well, they can’t do that for anybody. Now, I’ll go down and get something for the children to eat, and then you can tell me what you would like.”

“Well, I can tell you now. I want a cup of decent coffee and a good, tender, juicy beefsteak.”

“But, my dear, we can’t get beefsteak or coffee without coupons, or any more butter!”

The little boy began to howl.

“I want some butter!” he protested. “I want some bread and a lot of butter!”

“There isn’t any tonight, Gerald. But maybe I can find some jam down in the cellar. Won’t that do?” asked Lexie brightly.

“No, it
won’t
,” he roared. “I won’t eat your old jam! I want
butter
! A lot of it! You’re a bad old aunt, you are, and I don’t like you.”

In despair Lexie went downstairs and concocted the nicest supper she could out of the supply she had bought.

The children came down presently, one at a time. Angelica first. Lexie, hurrying to get everything on the table, heard the child calling, “
Hi,
Elaine! There’s hard-boiled egg-wheels on the spinach, and the potatoes have their overcoats on.”

And then she heard a howl from Gerald: “I don’t like old spinach! I won’t eat it, even if it has got old egg-wheels on it. I hate spinach. I want
beef
steak!”

Lexie took a deep breath. This was going to be an endurance test, it seemed. Oh why, why,
why
?

“Run up and call the other children, Angel,” she said with a forced smile. “I’m just going to take the omelet up, and it needs to be eaten while it’s piping hot.”

The little girl gave one eager, hungry look at her aunt’s bright face and hurried upstairs, calling the news about the omelet as she went.

But she came down again soon with a haughty imitation of her mother’s tone.

“Elaine says it’s no use for you to try to stuff spinach down us. We won’t eat it. We
never
do! And she thinks that’s pretty poor fare for the first meal when your relatives come home. She says we don’t eat spinach nor omelet, and
you can’t make us
!”

“Oh,” said Lexie cheerfully, “that’s too bad, isn’t it, when we can’t get anything else but what I’ve got here. But of course you don’t
have
to eat it unless you like. I’m not going to try to stuff it down you. I only thought maybe you were hungry, and since these were the only things I could get for us tonight, you might be glad to have them. But if you don’t want them, that’s all right with me. As soon as I get the dishes washed and everything put away I’ll try and fix a place for you to sleep. If you get to sleep soon I don’t suppose you’ll mind being hungry for tonight.”

Angelica looked at her aunt aghast as she set the puffy brown omelet on the table, put the open dish of bright green spinach with its wheels of yellow and white egg beside it, and then sat down as if she were going to eat it all by herself. Deliberately she helped herself to some of each dish on the table and began to eat with slow, small bites, smiling at the little girl pleasantly. Suddenly Angelica set up a howl: “Come down here quick, Gerry! She’s eating it all up! She’s got a nice dinner all ready and she’s
eating it up herself
! Hurry up and bring Bluebell down with you. Hurry, or it will all be gone!”

Lexie smiled to herself as she realized that she had conquered for once. Perhaps that was the way to manage them. Let them think you didn’t care whether they ate or not. So she went steadily on eating slow mouthfuls while Angelica fairly danced up and down in a fury.

“Gerald!
Ger-a-l-d!
Come
quick
! She’s eating it all up from us, and I’m
h-o-n-g-ry
!”

“Oh,” said Lexie pleasantly. “Would you like to have some dinner? Suppose you sit down here beside me. What would you like to have?”

“I want some of that puffy om-let!” announced Angelica, slamming herself into the chair indicated. “And I want some of that nice green stuff with yellow wheels on it.”

Lexie put a small amount of spinach on the child’s plate, with a slice of lovely hard-boiled egg on the top, and beside it a helping of beautifully browned omelet. The little girl lost no time in sampling the food.

“It’s
good
!” she screamed. Gerald, who suddenly had appeared in the doorway with Bluebell by the hand, looked on jealously.

Lexie paid no attention to him until he came closer to the table.

“I
want
some!” he announced.

“Oh, do you?” said Lexie calmly. “Well, sit down on this other side, and I’ll put a big book on a chair for the baby.”

Amazingly, they were finally seated, eating with zest.

“I want some
more
,” said Angelica, handing out her plate. “I want some milk, too. You’ve got milk.”

“Why, of course. You can all have milk!” said Lexie, filling a glass for each one.

At last without any coaxing they ate, heartily, eagerly, and asked for more.

When the spinach and potatoes were all gone, except for the small portion she had kept in the warming oven for Elaine in case she would deign to eat it, Lexie brought out a generous plate of cookies and a pear apiece, and the children by this time were almost appreciative.

“Say, these cookies are good,” said Angelica, setting the pace for the others. “They’ve got good raisins in them.”

“I don’t like cookies,” said Gerald. “I’druther have chocolate cake.”

“Well, that’s too bad,” said Lexie sympathetically. “Sorry we haven’t any chocolate cake. You don’t need to eat cookies if you don’t like them,” and she drew the plate back and did not pass it to him.

Gerald’s reply was to rise up on his chair and reach out for the plate, knocking over Bluebell’s glass of milk and sending a stream of milk over the table.

“I will so have some cookies! You can’t keep me from having some!” declared the obstreperous child. “You just want to keep them all for yourself, but you shan’t.”

Lexie, rescuing the glass of milk before the entire contents were broadcast, said gently: “Oh, I’m sorry. Did you want some? I understood you to say you didn’t like them.” She lifted the cookie plate before Gerald succeeded in plunging a willful hand into its midst. “Sit down, Gerald, and I’ll pass them to you.”

Gerald settled back astonished, about to howl but thought better of it, and soon had his mouth stuffed full of so much cookie he couldn’t speak.

When that meal was concluded Lexie felt as if she had fought a battle, but she felt reasonably satisfied with the result. The children were still munching cookies and demanding more pears, and Bluebell was nodding with sleep in her chair. Lexie hadn’t eaten much except those first few decoy mouthfuls, but she drank a little milk and hurried upstairs with the tray for Elaine. She was greeted as she entered the room by sounds of heartrending sobs, and Elaine turned a woebegone face to meet her.

“So you did decide to bring me something at last, did you? Of course I am only an uninteresting invalid, and it doesn’t matter if I starve, but you certainly might have brought me a crust of bread.”

“Well, I’m sorry, Elaine,” said Lexie with a sudden, quick sigh. “I thought you would want the children fed first. And I’m not altogether sure you’ll like what I’ve brought, but it was all I could get tonight. Toast and jam, a glass of milk. It isn’t bad if you’d try it. I made a little new omelet for you, too, so it would come to you hot. Of course, it isn’t the beefsteak you wanted, but I’m afraid from all I hear, that you won’t get much of that these days.”

Elaine surveyed the tray with dissatisfaction and was about to discount everything on it, but Lexie spoke first.

“Now I’ll go and see if I can find some blankets and things to make up beds for the children. They are dropping over with weariness. If you need anything, send Angelica up to the attic after me,” and she quickly retired from the room before her sister had time to say anything more. But when she came down, every crumb and drop was gone from the tray, and Elaine had retired to her pillow to prepare for another weeping spell.

“Did you contact my lawyer?” she asked sharply.

“Oh no, of course not. I hadn’t time. I knew you all would have to have some supper. Now, do you want Bluebell to sleep with you?”

“Heavens no! Do you think I could be bothered that way, me, in my condition? She’ll sleep all right by herself. She’s not used to being petted, not since I’ve been sick, anyway. Not since the nurse left.”

Lexie gazed in compassion at the poor baby, now asleep on the floor in the dining room, tears on her cheeks and an intermittent hectic sob shaking her baby shoulders. Poor little mite, with nobody taking care of her, and already a hard, belligerent set to her little lips! What could she do for her? Obviously she was the first one to be made comfortable. The rest could wait.

In quick thought, she reviewed the possibilities of the house. There were two folding cots in the attic. She could easily bring those down for the two older children. There were plenty of blankets, now that she had opened the big old chest in which they were packed. But there was no crib for Bluebell. The last one in the family must have been her own, and only a very valuable piece of unneeded furniture would have survived so many years. But there was a wide couch in the room that used to be her mother’s. She could make a bed for the baby up there, and herself sleep in her mother’s bed, if she got any chance to sleep at all in this disorganized household.

Swiftly she went to work and soon had a comfortable place for Bluebell with chairs to guard the side so she couldn’t roll off. Then she brought down the cots, an armful of sheets and blankets, and made up two beds for Angelica and Gerald.

“What in the world are you doing there in the next room?” called Elaine. “It seems to me you might keep a little still and give me a chance to sleep. And what is the mater with those two children? They’ve done nothing but wrangle since you brought the baby upstairs. I should think you might amuse them a few minutes and let me get a little rest before that lawyer comes. What time did he say he would be here?”

“There’ll be no lawyer here tonight,” said Lexie firmly. “And the best amusement these children can have is a little sleep. I’ve made up two cots here, and they’ll soon be in bed. You better tell them what to do about nighties. I’ve got some things to attend to in the kitchen, and it’s time we were all asleep. We’re very tired. Angelica, go ask your mother where you can find your night things.”

Lexie hurried away to find more blankets and left her petulant sister to deal with the two sleepy children. Returning a few minutes later she found all three in tears. Elaine crying heartbrokenly into her pillow like a well-bred invalid, Angelica struggling with a resistant button in the back of her dress, which wasn’t really a sewed-on button at all, but was only pinned on with a safety pin. Gerald was howling as usual.

“I won’t sleep in that old cot. I just
won’t, so there
! I want a real bed, not an old cot!”

Lexie, tired as she was, breezed into the room and spoke cheerfully.

“Well, come now, we’re going to play the game of go-to-bed. Who wants to be
It
?”

The two young wailers stopped instantly, surveyed her for a moment, and then changed face and put on eagerness.

“I would like to be
It
,” said Angelica sedately, with a speculative attention that showed she was interested.

Then Gerald sounded his trumpet.

“That’s not fair!
I
choose to be
It
! I’m the youngest, and you ought to let me be It. Isn’t that so, Elaine? Mustn’t they let me be It? I won’t play if I can’t be It!”

Then came Elaine’s sharp voice: “Certainly, Lexie. You must let Gerald have what he wants or he won’t go to sleep tonight, and I shan’t get any rest.” But Lexie chimed right over Elaine’s voice, just as if she hadn’t heard her at all. Lexie said cheerfully: “Why yes, of course, you can be It
next.
You can’t be first because you didn’t choose to be as soon as I spoke. However, you can be It
second,
and that gives you a chance to watch the game and see if you can improve on the way Angel did it. That gives you quite an advantage, you see. Besides, there’s a prize! That is, there are two prizes, and one is just as good as the other, because the winner of the second prize gets to choose whether he’ll have one just like the first, or a new one. But there’s one rule that makes them both alike. There positively won’t be any prize at all if there is a
single squeal
or
yell
or
howl.
It’s got to be all very quiet and gentle, because your mother is sick and needs taken care of. Now, are you ready to hear the rules?”