She wished to highest heaven the dear boy could write his own thoughts in a letter. And while she’d purposed in her heart to keep the phone call mum, at breakfast that morning Lena decided to tell Mimi about her conversation with Chris early that month. His emotional response had been troubling.
Mimi frowned and looked startled at the news, there in her seat to the right of the head chair, vacant today because of Harley’s determination to be successful this hunting trip. “Guess things must be different in Michigan. Our church ordinance doesn’t allow phone calls for any reason ’cept an emergency.”
“Honestly, I thought it was an emergency,” Lena said. “Chris and I are very close. . . . I helped Mamma raise him from when he was a toddler, ya know. He’s been having a real hard time with the distance between us.” Then, softening her tone, Lena told Mimi about the undertow of concern she’d sensed in Mammi Schwartz’s letters, as well as direct comments from Emma. “That’s the only reason I went ahead and did it.”
Mimi was very quiet for a moment, her hazel eyes serious. “Still doesn’t seem wise to me. I hope he wasn’t all the more homesick, just hearin’ your voice.”
Lena recalled how Chris had given the phone to Emma. “I’m afraid he was,” she admitted.
“Well, bless his heart.” Mimi looked sad.
“I never wanted to upset him.” Lena sighed. “It’s partly my fault for doting on him too much. And the rest of my siblings are old enough to cope much better than Chris.” Lena’s voice broke so that she had to stop talking.
“Ach, dear. Your parents’ passing is heavy on your heart. I’m sorry you’ve had to endure so much at your age.”
“Nothin’ is gained by feeling sorry for myself, though.”
“ ’Tis true, but give yourself ample time to grieve.” Mimi then began to recount the sudden loss of her grandmother when Mimi was only eleven. “I loved her dearly . . . stayed several summers with her and my Dawdi, helpin’ pick raspberries as big as your eyes. And when snap and snow peas came on, we’d sit and shell peas on the porch together for hours. We talked a lot ’bout love and life in general.” She sighed. “I’ll never forget my shock when Mamm told me she was gone. Just didn’t seem possible.”
Lena blinked away tears as she listened, touched by Mimi’s story.
Mimi’s round shoulders rose and fell. “I know only a fraction of what you must be goin’ through, Lena Rose. But I do care that you’re grieving so.”
Looking at her just then—the gentle smile crinkling the corners of Mimi’s eyes—Lena could see love and earnest caring. Somewhere during the past two months, dear Mimi had become her friend.
Harley arrived back from hunting in the Welsh Mountains with a few hours to spare before suppertime. He’d had the foresight to line up extra help for the afternoon milking, since he hadn’t known just when he and Eli and Arden Mast, Eli’s friend, might return. But now that he was home earlier than planned, Harley had time to clean the turkey he’d shot. Arden had gotten one, as well, with Eli determined to get one on the next hunting trip.
Harley stopped to give Blackie a good neck scratching, then hurried across the side yard and into the house to announce to Mimi that they would have fresh wild turkey for their noontime dinner tomorrow. She smiled near like an angel and dropped everything then and there to set two large pots on the black wood stove to boil the water for dipping the turkeys in before plucking their feathers.
Harley got a few split logs for her from the bin and slid them into the belly of the stove. “Was starting to think I’d lost my aim,” he remarked, referring to having missed getting a deer back in September and to the unsuccessful trip last week, too. “Guess I’m a better shot with a gun than a bow.”
“You’re a fine shot, dear.” Mimi chuckled, bright-eyed. “Should I set extra places for supper? I’m makin’ plenty of meatball stew and corn bread, just in case.”
“Sounds wunnerbaar-gut.”
She smiled over her shoulder at him. “Maybe your uncle Solomon would like to eat with us, too.”
“I’m guessin’ so,” Harley said. “Soon as we dress the birds, I’ll get washed up.”
We’ll have us a real nice Thanksgiving, Harley thought, grateful to have Lena Rose around to enjoy the holiday with them. Truth is, Mimi and I are both more content with Lena Rose here, he thought. Their lives had fallen into a mundane rut after Tessa up and moved away with her husband, and Lena had a way of bringing life and a sort of hopefulness back into this house even though she was in mourning for her parents. Such a change from Tessa’s final months here.
Yet Harley much preferred to count his blessings. It was one way to keep from thinking too much about how son-in-law Manny Beiler had made it clear at an auction last week that he and Tessa and their infant son would be celebrating Thanksgiving with Manny’s parents this year. Second year in a row.
Like her older sister Ada, Tessa had always been close to Mimi. But Tessa’s quick courtship with Manny—and his being from another church district—had been a concern to Harley and Mimi, and this had put a strain on their relationship with her. In the end, Tessa had been more anxious to leave home than either he or Mimi had expected, leaving Mimi high and dry with work when Tessa accepted Manny’s proposal after a whirlwind courtship. And since their
