River's Song - The Inn at Shining Waters Series (17 page)

Readjusting to her mother's old methods of doing laundry had been a challenge at best. Even with the electricity fully connected, the old wringer washer felt archaic compared to the automatic machine Anna had been accustomed to using in her mother-in-law's sleek laundry room. The late model GE appliance with all its dials, buttons, and settings, combined with its matching clothes dryer, may have spoiled Anna forever.

Still, she reminded herself as she rearranged the soggy sheet to go through the wringer again, she'd rather wrestle dripping sheets and towels through the wringer and peg them on the clothesline than return to her old life with Eunice. In fact, she'd rather wash her clothes in the river, pounding them on the rocks like Grandma had done than to go back to Eunice's "modern conveniences." Of course, Anna realized that rainy days, which were common in this part of the country, could put even more of a damper on this already tedious chore. Plus if she ever had real paying guests here beyond Hazel, who was easy to please, she would need to provide them with fresh linens on a fairly regular basis. How was she going to handle that?

"Hallo?" called a familiar voice.

"Babette!"Anna yelled back. "I'm in the laundry shed!" She stepped out of the lean-to her father had built long ago and waved.

"Oh, there you are." Babette came over and joined her." Hard at work too."

"I don't know how Mother managed to do laundry out here for so many years." Anna swiped her forehead and caught the last of the sheet, carefully setting it in the basket to hang later. She turned off the wringer and shook her head. "This is hard work."

"Oh, your mother, she never use this old machine after your papa die, only once in a great while."

"How did she do her laundry?"

"She wash her clothes in the kitchen sink and she hang them in the house to dry. Then when it ees a bright sunny day, she come down here to wash sheets and towels sometimes. But she no like this old machine either. She call it the
Monster."

Anna laughed. "I'll have to call it that too."

"Clark is still here." She carried the heavy basket out to the clothesline. "He's putting up a lamppost this morning, between here and the cabin, to make it a little safer at night. We think we've had a bear roaming about here lately and the light might help to keep him out of harm's way."

"Your handsome handyman ees here, no?"

"Ees the electricity working now?"

Anna nodded as she gave a sheet a snap then flung it over the clothesline. Babette handed her a clothespin. "Even the cabin has power now. Can you imagine what Grandma would say?"

Babette chuckled. "Maybe ees good she ees not here to say anything."

"But I think she'd approve of what I'm doing." Anna snapped a pillowcase now. "I think she'd like the idea of making this place open to others."

"Oui. I think she like eet too. Your grandmamma, she liked people. Always wanting to help. You know, Anna, I wrote down some of her herbal medicines. Do you think your friend Hazel would be interested?" She handed her another clothespin.

"Why don't you ask her?"Anna reached for a towel. "In fact, why don't you stay for lunch?"

"I would like that. And perhaps I can ask your handyman some questions."

"Of course."

Babette helped Anna hang the rest of the wash then continued up to the house with her. Then, without asking or being asked, Babette rolled up her sleeves and began helping with lunch preparations. As always, Anna enjoyed working with Babette and she appreciated the cheerful chatter and hearing the river news that her French friend was so expert at collecting.

"The Flanders' baby ees so beautiful," Babette told her as she sliced a tomato, one that she'd brought from her own garden. Makes me wish I had children so I can be grandmamma."

"I still feel sad that my mother didn't get to see Lauren more."

"Ees no good to live in the past, Anna. Your mama, she love your letters, the photographs you send, eet make her happy."

"Hello!" Hazel called as she came into the house. "Something smells good in here." She greeted Babette and peeked at the sauce she was stirring then sighed happily. "I feel as if I have fallen into a fine feathered nest," she told them. "Someday The Inn at Shining Waters will be so popular that there will be a long waiting list for guests."

Anna laughed. "I hope you turn out to be right." She didn't mention that the idea of running a successful inn seemed more impossible now than ever.

"I was telling Anna," Babette said to Hazel, "I wrote down some recipes for herbal medicines from her grandmamma. I thought perhaps you would like to see."

"Oh, Babette, I would love to see them. Would you mind if I copied them down?"

"Not at all."

"I'd like to copy them too,"Anna told her.

"I will bring them with me next time I come."

Now Babette began to reminisce about the early days on the river, telling them about when Anna's parents lived in the small cabin that later became the back room of the store. "We were so young and happy, Oscar and Marion, Bernard and me." She sighed as she turned off the flame beneath the sauce." So long ago."

"I sometimes forget that my parents lived in that small room,"Anna admitted as she poured coleslaw dressing over the chopped cabbage.

"Because you were only a baby when your papa built the big store."

"Since we are talking family history," Hazel began, "I still have some unanswered questions about timelines. Perhaps you and Babette can help to fill in some blanks for me."

"Certainly," Babette assured her. "I am happy to help."

So they agreed that following lunch they would sit down with Hazel and share whatever they could to help her with her thesis. Before long, Clark joined them and as they ate lunch, Babette explained the project she needed doing at her house." Ees this something you can do?" she asked hopefully.

He nodded. "Sure. But I have a suggestion. Instead of remodeling your bathroom, have you considered building an additional bathroom?"

Babette's mouth twisted to one side. "Another bathroom?"

"Adding another bathroom increases the value of your home, plus it allows you to have the use of the older bathroom while the addition is in the works. Lots of people are finding that two bathrooms are handy."

Babette giggled. "But eet ees only me in the house."

He smiled. "Yes, but if you have guests or if you sell."

"Or," she held up a forefinger, "if I marry again."

Anna was surprised. Would Babette really remarry? At her age?

She shook her finger at Anna now. "Do not look so shocked, chérie. There ees man in town. You never know." She chuckled." Where there ees life there could be love."

Hazel laughed loudly. "I like the way you think, Babette."

Clark cleared his throat, almost as if uncomfortable—and Anna certainly was—then he mentioned that it looked like deer had gotten into her garden.

"Oh, dear," she exclaimed. "Did they eat everything?"

"Not everything, but I think they enjoyed themselves."

"My mother used to have the same problem. In fact, she used to have a fence, although that seems long gone."

"Your mama did not garden the past few years," Babette explained.

"Oh."

"Well, we can put up a fence easily enough," Clark assured her.

Anna just nodded. She wanted to ask how that was possible when she was quickly running out of funds, but she didn't want to discuss her finances in front of everyone. And perhaps a fence wasn't as costly as she thought, or perhaps there was fencing material on the property somewhere. Besides that, it would probably be worth the investment to protect her garden. She had hoped to put up some of the produce at the end of summer, in order to save money on groceries when winter came. She thought of the big chest freezer in her mother-inlaw's garage, usually less than half full. Something like that would come in handy now that she had electricity. Still, she reminded herself, as the others discussed the local wildlife, she knew that her grandmother had made do with very little. Certainly, Anna could do the same if necessary.

"Is much hunting done around here?" Clark asked. And immediately, Babette began telling stories of her late husband Bernard, and how he and Anna's father had been quite adept at hunting and fishing.

"I remember the year they got the elk." Babette shook her head. "So much meat!"

Anna nodded. "I remember that too. It was during the Depression and between you and Mother, plus Daddy's smokehouse, I don't think much was wasted."

"And your grandmamma, she used the hide and antlers too."

"It's too bad people don't know how to live like that anymore,"Anna said sadly. "I mean the ability to hunt and fish and grow your own food, make your own clothes."

"Some people do," Hazel said. "But I suspect it won't be long before most people in our country depend on others for everything they need."

After lunch, Clark thanked Anna and excused himself. She wanted to ask him how much longer he thought he'd be staying with them. Not because she wanted to be rid of him—nothing was farther from the truth—she simply wanted to figure out how much she needed to order in the way of groceries. As greatly as she appreciated his handyman skills, especially since he took the initiative to continue with improvements he felt necessary, her budget, if she could call it that, was stretched a bit to feed another mouth.

With the lunch things cleaned up, Babette and Anna went over to the cabin to answer Hazel's questions. "Eet ees like an office in here," Babette said in surprise as she looked at the typewriter and papers and recording machine.

"This cabin has been very handy for me," Hazel told them as she pointed to the chairs she'd arranged by the kitchen table. "And with electricity, I'm happy as a clam." She nodded to her machines. "Such time-saving devices." She turned on the recording device. "You don't mind if I record your words, do you? It saves me from having to take notes." They both agreed this was fine, then Hazel began to question them. She started by asking for dates regarding births, deaths, marriages, and other things. Mostly Anna had to estimate, but Babette was more helpful with some things.

"I assume your grandmother had some schooling," Hazel said.

"Yes,"Anna confirmed, "she attended school on the reservation. I think for most of her childhood she went to school. But her reading and writing skills were somewhat minimal. At least that's what it seemed like to me. If she ever had something that needed to be read or written, she relied on Daddy, and later on, she would ask me to help her."

"Do you suppose her vision was impaired?"

Anna considered this. "I think you could be right. I remember she would peer at books as if trying to see them."

The questions continued, and many of them made Anna think. For instance, she had never considered what Grandma Pearl might've gone through in her young adulthood. "I know she married my grandfather when she was about seventeen,"Anna explained. "They had met on the reservation."

"And they came here to live?"

"I don't think they did that. Not right away. I remember hearing that they both worked in town. I think at a fish cannery. Although later my grandfather worked in logging. Until he was killed in an accident."

"Oh, no, chérie," Babette said. "Eet was not an accident."

Babette shook her head. "No one spoke of eet, but your mama, she tell me her papa ees killed."

"What?"

"Killed?"Anna questioned. "How do you mean?"

Anna felt a wave a shock. "What?"

"Murdered."

With wide eyes, Babette nodded. "Oui. I am sorry to tell you. But eet ees true."

"How did it happen?"

Babette now told them how Pearl's first husband, the one who didn't drink, was a good man, a hard worker—he had built the cabin they were sitting in—but that he had been killed while working for a logging company. "Your grandmamma, she was very pretty," Babette told Anna. "Like you, but not so tall."

Anna just shrugged.

"Women were scarce back then," Babette continued. "Your mama, she tell me that her papa was killed so that another man can marry your grandmamma."

"I've heard stories like that before," Hazel confirmed.

"But your grandmamma, she no marry the bad man—the one who murder her husband."

"But she did marry a white man,"Anna pointed out. "Her second husband, the one who drank."

"Oui. He was not a bad man, he just drink too much."

"Oh."

"That must've been sad for your mother," Hazel said to Anna. "To lose her father so tragically."

Anna just nodded, trying to take this in.

"Eet was hard on her," Babette said. "I think eet ees why she build a wall."

"Build a wall?" Hazel queried.

"To separate her from the Indian. Marion want to live like white woman. She attend white school. She dress like white woman. She feel safe."

"I see." Hazel nodded, making some notes.

They continued to talk, piecing together Anna's family history as if it were one of her mother's patchwork quilts, until the recording machine began to sputter—indicating that they had filled up an entire tape.

"I think I see too." Anna sighed.

Anna looked at her watch. "Time for me to go begin dinner," she announced.

"And time for me to go home," Babette added.

"Unless you'd like to stay for dinner." Anna smiled.

"Lunch and dinner? All in one day?"

"Why not?"Anna slipped an arm around Babette. "You are my family."

Babette beamed. "Oui. I stay for dinner. But you must let me go and get something to bring!"

"Great." Anna nodded. "And if you want to stay late, you can spend the night, just like you sometimes did with my mother."

"Oh, chérie!" Babette hugged her. "I am so glad you are home!"

Despite her impending sense of poverty, Anna felt happy as she started dinner. And once again, she realized she would rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable. Really, that was all there was to it! And if she had to hunt and fish and grow her own food just to survive here on the river, she was more than willing to do so. In fact, she decided, as she vigorously mixed biscuit dough, that she would get up early tomorrow morning, just like Daddy used to do, and get out the fishing pole and tackle and take out her canoe and catch some fish—and she would do it all before breakfast time.