Isaac was the first one to come out of the house, which wasn’t a surprise since he was the oldest child. “Ma said you’re not feeling well.”
“My leg is bothering me,” he replied. “I have to stay off of it all day.”
“Why?”
“If I don’t, then I won’t be able to do any of the chores tomorrow. It’s bad enough that I can’t do them today.”
“You like to work, don’t you?”
Dave nodded. “It gives me something to do.”
“But you like what you’re doing. Uncle Richard likes his job. You like yours.”
“Yes, we both like our jobs.”
“Uncle Richard said he likes to create houses. He draws them before they’re built. He said he enjoys planning how they’ll look. Why do you like working here?”
“Well,” Dave began, “for one, I’m not good at designing a house. I don’t have much of an imagination for things like that.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have to come up with how the house is going to look before you draw it. Then you have to figure out how big each room should be, where to put the stairs, and how to place each room so it all fits together in a rectangular shape. Then you have to know what you need to make the house.” Now that Dave thought about it, Richard did do a lot of work. “Your uncle was the one who designed this house. Mary told him what she wanted, and, like magic, he created it. I couldn’t do that. The best I ever did was a little sod house with two awkwardly shaped rooms. One was bigger than the other, and once in a while, I had to patch it up. Do you remember that house?”
Isaac nodded. “A little.”
“So you know how much better this one is than what I made. I can see why you admire your uncle.”
“This house is nicer,” Isaac replied. “But I think you do more than Uncle Richard does.”
Surprised, Dave asked, “You do?”
“You get up early, and you spend all day working. Uncle Richard said he goes to work at eight and is home at five. He also doesn’t work on Saturday or Sunday. You work every day. Uncle Richard draws houses and lets other people build them. You take care of animals every day. You fix things when they’re broken. You help Ma with her garden and carry a lot of heavy things. You take me out to the fields when you check on the crops. Sometimes you go outside in the middle of the night or when it’s snowing to take care of an animal. And Ma says you never complain about any of it. You do what needs to be done, even when you don’t get to rest.”
Dave hadn’t thought of what he did that way before. He mostly thought of it in terms of how much money he made compared to Richard. Most people were impressed with how much a person earned. He had assumed Isaac felt the same way. But perhaps he didn’t.
“Your uncle and I are different people,” Dave finally said. “He loves to make houses and buildings. I love to work on the farm. When it all comes down to it, I suppose the main thing is we both enjoy what we’re doing.”
“I want to be like you when I grow up,” Isaac replied. “It’s too bad no one will interview you in a newspaper or magazine.”
Surprised, Dave stared at his son. He’d spent all this time thinking that all of the praise Isaac had been giving Richard meant that he respected Richard more than him, but such hadn’t been the case. While Isaac was proud of Richard and impressed to know someone who’d been featured in major publications, Dave had never once lost his place in his son’s life.
Dave wasn’t prone to tearing up. Mary did that. But he had to blink a couple of tears away before Isaac saw them. He didn’t, however, stop himself from reaching out to Isaac and hugging him.
“Oh gross,” Isaac said, though he didn’t fight him. “Hugging is something mothers do.”
Dave laughed. “Yeah, well, a father can do it once in a while. He just doesn’t do it as much.” He let go of Isaac and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Is that better?”
Isaac rolled his eyes but grinned. “I don’t care if my hair gets messy.”
“You will when you get older. So, what are you going to do today?”
“I’m going to milk the cow with Ma. But first, I wanted to let Jasper out. Then I’ll see what comes up.”
“Sounds like a good plan.”
Isaac bounded down the porch steps, and Dave watched, smiling as the boy opened the fence to a very excited dog who was more than happy to play with him.
Chapter Fourteen
“Maureen, this is silly,” Mary said later that day as the woman sat across from her in the kitchen.
“I know, but would it be wrong to humor an older woman?” Maureen asked, setting her cup of coffee on the table and shooting Mary a pleading look. “I’ve worked very hard on my apple pie recipe. I know you won’t give me the secret to how you can make yours so wonderful. I only want to know if people can tell the difference if they eat mine.”
“There’s nothing wrong with your apple pie.”
“While that’s true, yours is better. If I can get close to what you do, I’ll be very happy.”
Mary let out a sympathetic sigh and shook her head. “What if your apple pie isn’t similar to mine? Are you going to want to go through this again?”
“No. I promise this is the only time I’ll ask you to bring your pie into the shop. I won’t ever
