The first thing he was going to do when he got the thing off was scratch every inch of his leg. Joel had warned him he would start to itch once the healing was almost done, but Dave hadn’t expected it to itch this much. He had trouble sleeping or sitting still. It was hard to concentrate on anything these days. He only had one more week to go. One more week, and he could finally take the thing off for good.
“Well, I have to say you did a great job of keeping that thing on,” his pa said. “I know it wasn’t easy for you to sit around all day. Even if you didn’t run all over the place like Tom and Joel did, you liked to keep busy.”
“Yes, it hasn’t been easy to do nothing. I don’t know how some people do it.”
“Not many people do. Even in New York, people worked from sunup to sundown in the factory. I’d rather be out here than back there. Moving to Omaha was the best decision I ever made.” After a moment, he asked, “Do you miss New York?”
“No. I like it here. I can’t imagine doing anything but farming.” From the moment his family arrived on the homestead, Dave knew he was going to own his own farm someday. It might not have been something Richard, Sally, Jenny, or Joel wanted, but it was something he and Tom enjoyed.
Isaac came running up to the porch and went over to them. His hands were cupped around something. “Guess what I found?”
“A frog?” Dave guessed since that was mostly what Isaac caught.
“No. A bird.” He opened his hands to a wounded bird that chirped.
Dave’s father put the fan down and held out his hands. “Let me see him.”
Isaac gently placed the bird in his hands, and he inspected him. “It looks like he broke his wing.”
“Can you heal him?” Isaac asked.
“I’m sure there’s something I can do.” He stood up. “Dave, you got anything to support a little wing?”
“Check the barn,” Dave replied. “I might have something on the shelf above the barrels.”
“Alright. Let’s go, Isaac.” Dave’s pa headed down the porch steps.
“Be careful with Richie,” Isaac called out after him. “I don’t want him to get any more hurt than he is.”
“Richie?” Dave asked in surprise.
Isaac turned back to Dave. “Sure. I named him after Uncle Richard. He’s going to make something of himself just like Uncle Richard did.”
Before Dave could respond, Isaac was running off for the barn with his grandpa. Dave watched after him in disbelief. Just how long was Isaac going to go on and on about Richard? Ever since the newspaper came out, it seemed that all Isaac wanted to do was talk about his uncle, and now he was naming birds after him.
“Pa, do you want water?”
Dave turned his attention to the front door where Rachel was standing with a glass of water.
“Yes, that would be nice, Rachel.”
She went over to him, her steps careful. She looked very pleased with herself when she didn’t spill any of the water out of the glass. “Here you go.”
“Thank you.” Dave smiled and then asked, “Why don’t you ask me to read you that article about Uncle Richard?”
“You read it to me already.”
“But don’t you want to hear it again?”
She shrugged. “No. I remember it.”
Well, at least he had one child who wasn’t so excited about Richard that she couldn’t stop talking about him, let alone naming birds after him. He had no idea if Adam would be as impressed with Richard as Isaac was since Adam was too young to understand what was going on.
“You want a cookie?” Rachel asked. “I helped Ma make them.”
“Sure. I’d love one of your cookies.”
To his surprise, she bolted into the house so fast that he didn’t even have time to blink. Again, he became aware of the itching sensation in his leg and had to resist the urge to scratch it. He gritted his teeth. One week. He only had one week to go. Then the splint would come off, and he could scratch his leg any time he wanted.
Rachel returned with a cookie that had an odd shape to it. “I made this one.”
Dave chuckled and took it from her. “Yes, I can tell.”
“How?”
Deciding not to answer the question, he bit into it. Even if the cookie was an odd shape, it was perfect for eating. “It’s good.”
“Just like Ma’s?”
He thought it over for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, it does taste just like your ma’s cookies.”
Beaming, Rachel hurried back into the house.
Dave wasn’t sure what that was all about, but he finished the cookie and washed it down with the water.
Rachel soon returned with a bowl full of oddly shaped cookies. “These are for you!”
She gave him the bowl and watched him as if she expected him to eat all of them right then and there. He counted the cookies. There were fourteen of them.
“Rachel, if I eat all of these, I won’t have an appetite for supper,” he said.
“That’s fine. I made them. Ma won’t mind.”
He was sure Mary would most definitely mind if he ruined his appetite, even if he did it to please their daughter. After a moment, he said, “I have an idea. Why don’t I take three of them, and you give the others to Grandpa and Isaac? They’re in the barn taking care of a bird, and I bet they’re getting hungry out there. You need to let them know that you can bake cookies as well as Ma can.”
Her face lit up. “That’s a good idea!” She took the bowl before he could take three cookies out of
