Sophie's Heart (25 page)

Friday and Saturday brought warm enough temperatures that Sophie and the children all went skating. Bundled up in her new jeans and a thick sweater, Sophie realized the girls had been right: It was much easier to skate in jeans. It was a great time of fun and laughter and seemingly their last chance.

Sunday dawned with freezing temperatures. Knowing how cold she would be, Sophie could not bring herself to wear a skirt to church. But since she felt that attending was more important than how she was dressed, she set off with plans for Sunday school and the late service.

She spotted Brad across the classroom during Sunday school. But other than a small wave with no accompanying smile, he did not look her way. Sophie would have liked to have told him that she passed her test, but his manner did not encourage such familiarity. In her final lessons he had been more like the warm, encouraging Brad from the first lesson, but Sophie still sensed a reserve without knowing the cause.

Brad’s behavior was still on her mind as she walked home, since she was a little fearful that she had done something wrong. In fact, she was so preoccupied that it took her a moment to see that the Rileys’ van had pulled to the curb ahead of her. She stopped and watched the big sliding door open and Tory’s head poke out.

“Hop in, Sophie. We’ll give you a ride.”

Sophie moved forward and climbed in to sit on the backseat. Alec was driving, Craig had the other front seat, and the girls occupied the second seat.

“Thank you,” Sophie spoke softly when the door was closed and Alec moved out into traffic.

“Do you always walk to church, Sophie?” Tory had turned in her seat to ask.

“Yes, I do.”

“It’s a long way.”

This was true, so Sophie only smiled. Alec had listened to this interchange and watched it in the rearview mirror, but he didn’t comment until they were home.

“Thank you for ride, Mr. Riley.”

“You’re welcome, Sophie. Why don’t you plan on riding with us each week?”

Sophie blinked at him. “I do not wish to crowd, Mr. Riley,” Sophie spoke soberly. She wasn’t sure it was her place to ride with the family and didn’t know what else to say.

“I appreciate that, Sophie, but it’s getting too cold to walk all that way. We leave at 9:30, and from now on we’ll just plan on it.”

He turned and walked away then, leaving no time for discussion. Sophie wasn’t sure her joining them was wise, but she could not find an argument that sounded reasonable. She had no choice but to let it pass. It stayed on her mind for quite a while that day, but she still had no answers. Then she realized that he was right. It was cold and it hadn’t even snowed yet. She did need a ride.

Unlike Sophie, Alec walked away from the conversation and didn’t give it another thought. Today was the day he’d settled in his mind for an unpleasant task, and right now it consumed his thoughts. He had made a quick sandwich for lunch, had a glass of milk with it, and now he stood in the walk-in closet of the master bedroom and stared at Vanessa’s clothes.

He had shopped with her for some of these outfits and had actually given her others, but most she had bought on her own. Some she hadn’t worn at all. He picked up the long sleeve of a paisley dress and found a price tag.

Rita was Vanessa’s size, but months ago when they had talked about her taking some of the clothes, Rita had not been interested. He now made himself grasp a handful of hangers and carry the clothes to the bed. He had worked methodically for some minutes, hangers in this pile, blouses here, dresses there, pants over there, when Tory joined him. She sat on the bed, almost on top of the blouses, and watched as he brought another load from the closet.

“What are you going to do with Mom’s clothes?”

“Give them away. I don’t think Rita wants any of them, and they’re still a little big for you.”

“This isn’t.”

Alec stopped his sorting and looked at Tory. She was holding a pale pink sweater that he had tossed off to one side.

“Try it on, Tory,” he said easily, trying to ignore the yearning in her eyes.

She slipped into it and then stood before him for inspection. He rolled the sleeves back several times, but still spoke encouragingly.

“It’s going to fit you before we know it, so why don’t you run and put this in your closet?”

“All right. I can maybe wear it next year.”

“Maybe.”

She was off, and Alec thought he’d seen the last of her, but she was back just minutes later. Without being asked, she began bringing shoes from the closet and stacking them at the foot of the bed. She got sidetracked at one point when she tried on a pair of very high dress heels, but she worked efficiently for some time.

Rita was the next family member to join them, and not long after that Craig made an appearance. They both watched silently for a time and then began to help, too. Rita also slipped into a sweater, one that was a perfect fit, but she returned it to the pile. Alec had already decided to put a few things aside and mentally noted to include that sweater.

“What are you going to do with all of this, Dad?” Craig finally asked. He was used to seeing his father with a hammer in his hand, and this all felt so odd that he didn’t know what to think.

“I’m going to box it up for your Aunt Janet. She offered a long time ago to take care of them for me, so I’m going to let her do it.”

“But what will she do with them?”

“Give them away.”

“Like to a charity or something?”

“I don’t think so. She’s too tall to wear any of them herself, but they go to a large church, and with her Bible-study class she probably has someone in mind.”

This was an answer Craig could accept. He couldn’t stand the thought of these clothes going into the boxes that sat in the parking lot of the grocery store. He loved and trusted his Aunt Janet enough to do the right thing.

“When will you give them to her?” Tory wanted to know.

“At Christmas.”

It was quiet for a moment and then Craig asked, “Could we just have Christmas on our own this year?”

“Yeah, Dad,” Tory chimed in. “Just the four of us.”

Alec stopped what he was doing and stared at his kids. Rita hadn’t said anything, but he could see in her eyes that she was warming to the idea.

“I thought you guys loved going to Janet and David’s.”

“We do, but we want to do Christmas and Christmas Eve here, on our own,” Tory explained.

Alec was so surprised that he was speechless. He was already looking forward to seeing David and his sister, but his kids’ faces were hard to ignore.

“We can have our own meal here.” Rita now caught the idea. “I know Sophie would help us put it together.”

“So now we’re inviting Sophie?” Alec asked.

“No,” Craig said quietly, “but I think she would help us cook if we ask her.”

“I see. We just say, ‘Sophie, cook the meal and then take yourself out of here.’ ”

That wasn’t what they had meant at all, and in truth Alec did not know why he was giving them such a hard time—or maybe he did. Didn’t they know what it was costing him to box up these clothes? And didn’t they know how hard it was to be here at Christmas without Vanessa? They obviously didn’t.

“If you don’t like the idea, Dad, we can still go to Chicago,” Rita said after studying her father’s face.

“It’s not a bad idea,” he began, and then realized he was running again. He’d been on the verge of making excuses, but he had to stop. He spoke a moment later after he’d taken time to ask God for strength in this situation.

“Run and get the calendar, Tory, so we can see what days we’re talking about.”

She was gone and back in a shot, and everyone’s head bent over the page when Tory pressed the 1989 calendar into her dad’s hands.

“Christmas is on a Monday. Would you want to go down Tuesday, or not at all?”

“Yeah, Tuesday,” Craig said, but Rita said no.

“What do you want, Rita?”

“I want to have our own turkey dinner on Christmas Eve, then open gifts that night, just the four of us. Then I want to sleep in on Christmas morning, get up, and go to Chicago. We could be there by 1:00 or 2:00 and still have dinner with Uncle David and Aunt Janet. Then we could spend a few days. I mean, we all have that whole week off from school.”

Rita had not been in on the original plan, but as usual she had the best ideas.

“All right, but I do think we should at least ask Sophie to eat with us.”

“Ah, Dad,” Craig complained, but Alec was adamant.

“I mean it, Craig. I’m going to ask her. She doesn’t have to stay long, but it wouldn’t hurt to at least invite her to share our meal.”

“All right,” he said with a long sigh. He really wasn’t that against it. Sophie had been very nice to him all along, and he knew it was the least he could do. But his first choice was that they would be alone.

After the holiday plans were settled, the kids lost interest in the job at hand. Alec finished on his own, but he really didn’t mind. He needed to be alone when he pulled out the last hanger in the closet and then swiftly replaced it. Nothing in the world would make him part with her wedding dress.

Twenty-One

T
he doorbell rang the next day just before 2:30, and Sophie laughed in delight to see Gladys on the front step.

“Come in,” Sophie cried, and the women embraced as soon as Sophie shut the door.

“How is your daughter?”

“Doing great. The doctor has given her leave to get out of bed, and even though she has to rest in the afternoons with her feet up, she’s out of the woods.”

Sophie frowned. “She is allergic to trees, maybe?”

Gladys blinked and then chuckled softly. “No. ‘Out of the woods’ means she’s out of danger. In this instance, out of danger of losing her baby to a miscarriage.”

“Oh, yes. I am see now. Come, Gladys, come and sit in kitchen.”

“I’d love a cup of coffee if you have it. I got in late last night, and all I’ve done today was try and catch up on my mail.”

“I just got letter from my grandmother,” Sophie remembered and told her. “She is doing well, but says she is very tired.”

“What does she say about the political situation?”

Sophie looked a little confused and then said, “I think is pretty much the same.”

Something was wrong here. Gladys could feel it.

“Sophie,” she asked her slowly, “haven’t you been reading the papers or watching the news?”

“No, and I miss it, but Rileys do not get local paper here and I never watch TV.”

Gladys stood. “Do the Rileys have cable?”

Sophie only shrugged and followed Gladys when she marched into the family room. A moment later she put the TV on and found the news. World coverage came on the heels of a sports report, and Sophie listened in wonder to the changes going on all over Europe. Her grandmother had not written of such things, but the maps clearly showed that Czechoslovakia was included. Sophie wondered if her grandmother had been waiting to hear her own response, and here she hadn’t even known of the dramatic changes. Sophie had heard rumors from time to time in the last weeks, but dismissed them as such.

Now the screen changed. Sophie watched in amazement. Footage of the Berlin Wall coming down flashed at her from thousands of miles away. Sophie’s emotions overcame her. Tears poured down her face as she heard Germans talking and understood every word.

“Victory!” they shouted.

“We have freedom!”

“The rule is over!”

“Oh, Gladys,” Sophie cried. “I am so out of touch. This house has become my world. I realize now that this was talked about at Sunday school, but I missed the understanding. If only I had waited, my babushka could have come with me.”

Sophie was openly crying now, and Gladys moved to put an arm around her.

“It’s all right, Sophie. You came when God wanted you to, and He never makes a mistake. Maybe He’ll open a door now. Maybe He’ll provide a way. Your coming was not a mistake.”

“I am try to believe this, Gladys, but I am so confused right now and feeling so stupid for not knowing. I could have searched out paper. I could have bought my own, but I am try to save all my money. I miss the news, and now I have missed the world.”