Streams of Mercy (14 page)

Clara darted a glance from her hands to the door, to her hands and to the arch to the parlor, where her cot was her safe haven.

Ingeborg pressed on. “Manny loves to help people. I know you could walk back to your bed by yourself now, but I’d like you to try to do what I am asking. I promise you that no one will hurt you here. You are safe.” She reached over and brushed Clara’s now clean but still unruly hair from her face. “All will be well. You are safe here.”

One tear squeezed from Clara’s right eye and meandered down her cheek to drop on Ingeborg’s hand.

“Oh, my dear. You have been hurt so terribly, but that is over. Here you are safe.”

Clara turned at the sound of boots on the porch, her eyes growing wider, her hands clamped on the chair seat until the knuckles turned white.

Freda stepped in the door. “Why, Clara, how good to see you out here. Welcome.” She hung up her coat and scarf and then bent over to unlace her boots. “Look at my boots, and I already cleaned them on the scraper.” She toed the boots off and slid her feet into a pair of moccasins that used to belong to Haakan. “Ah, both the coffeepot and the teakettle are steaming. Are we having a party?”

Clara stiffened again.

“Now, now, just the three of us can be a party.”

Ingeborg set the loaf of bread and wedge of cheese on the cutting board. “You fix this, and I’ll make the tea. I thought we could have cookies too, if there are enough for Manny and Emmy.”

“Bread and cheese for all, then.”

Ingeborg measured the tea leaves and added them to the teapot, then poured in the hot water. “We’ll let that sit a bit. Are you cold?” At Clara’s nod, Ingeborg fetched a shawl off one of the pegs by the door and draped it around the girl’s shoulders. “There now, better?”

With the food on the table, Freda and Ingeborg sat down. “Now, this is tea.” She poured some in a cup. “Emmy likes hers with sugar and some milk.” Ingeborg added the two and handed the cup to Clara. “Drink some. It is hot, but see how you like it.”

Clara used both hands to bring the cup to her mouth. She swallowed, looked at Ingeborg, and sipped again, this time with a nod.

“Would you rather have coffee?” A slight shake of her head.

“Fine, then here.” Freda passed the plate that held slices of bread and cheese.

Clara set her cup on the table and helped herself to one of each before passing the plate to Ingeborg.

Ingeborg tried to keep from smiling but failed—miserably. She felt like dancing around the room. Clara was sitting at her table, eating with obvious enjoyment, and drinking tea.
Thank you, Lord God, worker of miracles.

Patches yipped and left the porch barking short, sharp barks.

Clara started to stand, frantically searching for a place to hide or run to—Ingeborg wasn’t sure which.

“Clara, listen to me.” She spoke firmly and clearly. “Patches is announcing the children coming home from school. That is his family bark. When someone he doesn’t know comes, you’ll hear the difference in his bark. Just sit here and finish your bread and cheese. Manny and Emmy will come through that door, and they will be so happy to see you at the table.” Slowly Clara sank back down, but when she reached for the bread, her hand was shaking so much she dropped it. Instead of reaching for it, she cowered back in her chair, her arms shielding her head.

Ingeborg and Freda stared at each other, Freda shaking her head.

“Clara, it is all right.” Ingeborg put her hand on Clara’s shoulder and kept it there. “We will just pick it up.” While Ingeborg crooned, Freda did just that.

They heard the children shouting good-byes and boots clumping up the steps.

Clara grabbed Ingeborg’s hand with both of hers, tears dripping off her jaw, and tried to disappear into the back of the chair.

Freda left them and stepped outside the door. Ingeborg could hear her admonishing the two to come in easy, Emmy first.

Ingeborg stroked Clara’s head with her other hand and kept on murmuring mother sounds.
Lord, help her and give us wisdom to bring her into the light and love, both yours and ours.

Emmy tiptoed into the house and stared at Ingeborg, who nodded. “Now Clara, you have met Emmy before. She has helped you eat a couple of times.” She nodded to Emmy, who squatted down by the chair so Clara could see her. “Hello, Clara. I am glad to see you here at the table.”

Clara raised her chin and slowly nodded. Studying Emmy, she nodded again.

Emmy smiled, her dark eyes gentle, her voice soft. “This is good. You will like living here. Grandma takes good care of everybody.” She reached out and touched Clara’s hand, then stood and turned to Freda. “Manny is coming now, Clara. He will not hurt you.”

Freda ushered Manny in and closed the door behind him. He looked to Ingeborg for instructions, sadness in his eyes. When she nodded, he walked softly to the end of the table and stood there, his hands on the chair back.

“Clara, you’ve met Manasseh McCrary—Manny. When he came here, he had a badly broken leg and could only walk with crutches, but now he can walk well again.”

“I limp some, but I’m getting stronger all the time. Grandma helped make me get all better.” His soft Kentucky drawl and ready smile dared Clara to quit strangling Ingeborg’s hand and greet him.

Eyes like saucers, she looked up at Ingeborg, who nodded, and back to Manny, who smiled and nodded. Slowly she released the pressure on Ingeborg’s hand and slowed her breathing. Her nod was imperceptible but grew until her whole head moved. She looked from Emmy to Manny and back to Ingeborg.

O Lord, if only I knew what she was thinking, how to help her.
Both Emmy and Manny are so good with the animals . . . will this be much different? A terrified girl or a terrified horse? As she watched, the other two pulled out their chairs and slid onto them, all the time reassuring Clara with smiles and nods.

“Would you like more tea, Clara?” Ingeborg asked. At the nod she refilled the cup. “Manny, Emmy, what would you like? Manny, yes I know, we have cookies for after the bread and cheese.”

“Manny likes cookies best of all,” Emmy said. “Someday maybe you and I can bake cookies. Do you know how?”

Clara nodded, again so slightly it would be easy to miss, but Emmy was watching carefully and sent her a sparkling smile. “Good. You just need to get better quick so we can do that.”

“So, Manny, how did your test go?” Ingeborg asked when they were all eating.

“I missed two.”

“Only two? On your spelling?”

“Yep. I got a hundred on my arithmetic.” He grinned at Ingeborg. “Mr. Devlin said I come a long way in a short time. He is helping me with reading. Today I read to the little kids.”

“He did really good too. Inga said so.” Emmy looked to Clara. “Can you read?”

Clara drooped, her head shaking.

“I couldn’t read either when I came, but I learned.” He grinned at Ingeborg. “Grandma even teached me to read in her Bible.”

“Taught,” Emmy said softly.

Manny rolled his eyes. “All right,
taught
. But I learnt it.”

Emmy giggled. Ingeborg and Freda chuckled. Manny grinned. And Clara? Was that twitching in her cheeks the beginning of a smile? She reached for the last bit of her bread and cheese and washed it down with more tea.

Ingeborg felt like shouting from the rooftops. There was hope after all.

When Emmy came back down from changing her clothes, she stopped at Clara’s chair. “Would you like me to help you back to your bed? You look pretty tired.”

Clara nodded and, grasping the table, steadied herself as she stood. Emmy took her hand and together they walked back into the parlor and over to the cot. Clara sat down and slid off her slippers, then almost fell into the bed. Emmy pulled up the covers that had been folded at the bottom and tucked them around Clara’s shoulders. “You sleep now, and then we’ll have supper.”

Ingeborg watched from the doorway. It made sense, really. Emmy was small and therefore not so threatening. Also, the two called her
Grandma
, and that seemed to be a relief. Did Clara know what
grandma
meant? Did she understand some English? Was it possible to teach her both English and sign at the same time? How old was Clara? When would the baby be due? Where had she come from and who had treated her so horribly? Other questions filled her mind. Right now the job was to get her strong enough to be up and around and helping to grow a healthy baby. Would that baby have a chance after not having enough food for so long?

But as she had learned, the growing baby always took what it needed before the rest of the mother’s body was nourished. Now it was up to them all to make up for this.

Time passed quickly, and it was finally evident that spring was there to stay. The mud dried back to the rich earth with seeds of all kinds bursting forth. A robin trilled his song one morning, announcing his return home. One morning Ingeborg brought Clara and Freda out on the porch to listen to the robin and watch him as he listened carefully, head cocked to the side, then drove his beak into the soil and came up with a curly fat worm. The worm disappeared in three gulps, and Ingeborg sighed in delight. Clara leaned her elbows on the porch rail and turned to look up toward another bird singing in the cottonwood tree that was just greening out, its leaves still only suggestions. Ingeborg followed her gaze.

“That’s a goldfinch. They are some of the first birds to return. Manny tells me that further south, they stay around all winter. Soon we’ll be hearing the meadowlarks heralding us from the fields.” She closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. “I do so love the springtime.” She glanced over to see Clara doing what she had done. The horrible black circles were fading from around her eyes, and surely her cheeks had filled out a slight bit. She now walked without assistance, and every day her naps were shorter. Once Ingeborg showed her how to card the last of their wool, the slap and brush sounds of the carding paddles came from the back porch on fine days, and the parlor or kitchen on others. Two lessons on the spinning wheel, and she left off sewing on the machine in the evenings and spun the carded wool into yarn instead.
She had walked out to the garden with Ingeborg, and when Manny brought his horse, Joker, to the house, Clara wore a real smile. When Joker nuzzled her cheek, she shot Manny the biggest grin, wrapped her arms around the horse’s neck, and leaned into his chest.

“You’ll get all dirty,” Manny said.

Clara shrugged and reached up to rub Joker’s ears.

“He likes that. Wait till you see him when the carrots are ready. He’d run a country mile for carrots. Did you ever ride a horse?”

Clara nodded.

“In Norway?”

She nodded again.

“Clara, we got to get you signin’ so’s we can talk.” He glanced up at the sun. “I better put him out in the pasture. It’s about time to get to milkin’.” Taking up the reins, he swung aboard and waved down at her. “’Bye.”

She stepped back and waved too.

Ingeborg watched them from the porch, wishing she could have heard all of their conversation. Manny had no idea how much he had helped Clara already, mostly by being the gentle boy they had found under all that tough exterior he’d arrived with. And to see her delight in Joker. Clara had known horses in Norway, so she must have grown up on a farm. She knew her way around a kitchen, filling the woodbox, sweeping the floor, and washing the dishes, all jobs she had taken over.

Tonight they would start the sign-language learning.

After supper, when Emmy and Manny had finished their homework, the dishes were done, and Freda’s sourdough was rising for pancakes in the morning, they gathered by Ingeborg’s
chair in the parlor. She pulled out a chart of the alphabet with the signs beside each letter. “This is what we will start with. Emmy, you form the signs when I say the letter.
A
.” Emmy formed the sign. “Now, Clara, you make the sign also.
A
.”

She handed Manny the book they were reading. “You read tonight while we work on the letters. We are on chapter thirty-nine.” So while Manny read, asking for help when he couldn’t figure out a word, the others worked on the letters. Freda sat next to the other lamp, mending socks with the wooden sock egg inside and her darning needle weaving a patch to fill in the hole.