Chapter Seven
Spending Thursday andFriday with Bertie and cooking supper for Belle and Everett was an eye-opener for Sally. She’d always fantasized about the perfect life being staying at home, keeping house, and taking care of babies.
For the first hour after Belle and Maggie left on Thursday, it did seem perfect.She washed the dishes while Bertie slept contentedly.When the dishes were done, she looked around for something else to do.She spotted the dirty diaper pail and decided to take care of the laundry to surprise her friend.
But the diapers were rather disgusting.She did them with a smile, but she couldn’t imagine how hard it was to wash them every day, as she knew Belle usually did.
Then the baby woke as she was hanging the laundry on the line.She went inside to find him upset, and when she picked him up, he seemed content for just a moment before he began wailing again.
She paced back and forth across the cabin, but still the baby cried.She tried swaddling him.She tried putting a finger in his mouth for him to suck on.Nothing worked.
When she finally got him back to sleep, Sally hurried to finish hanging the diapers and start supper.There wasn’t much time to get supper ready, and she was feeling frazzled.No wonder Belle and Maggie had wanted to take turns with the baby.It was a long, mostly boring afternoon with little to do but tend to Bertie.She couldn’t imagine having to spend all her time with a tiny human who did nothing but scream all day.Perhaps she hadn’t thought about her future enough if she’d thought many children were a good idea.
She was relieved when Belle returned, but her friend seemed to have found new life in being outdoors.She had a smile that had been missing since Sally’s arrival.Was it possible Belle was unhappy to be tied down?
“Supper is on the stove.I made a big pot of soup for you.”Sally got to her feet, ready to get away from the house of screams.
“Thank you so much!”Belle said, putting the bow and arrow she’d hunted with away.“I was able to bring down a stag.We’ll all be eating well.How was Bertie?”
“He was fussy while he was awake.”
Belle sighed.“I believe he’s cutting his first teeth.I know what a handful he can be.”
Sally nodded.“It was fine.I managed to wash the diapers, so you don’t have to do that tomorrow.”
“Oh, you shouldn’t have!Washing diapers is the worst part of motherhood,” Belle said with a smile.
“Now that I’ve washed diapers, I would have to agree with you.”Sally wanted out, but she knew she needed to stay and be pleasant for a little while more.
Belle laughed.“I thank you for spending time with my Bertie.”She peered down at her son in the drawer where he slept.“He looks like such an angel when he’s sleeping!Wouldn’t you agree?”
“He does!Well, I need to head home.Tom is going to want his supper.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Belle said.“Thanks again for watching him.”
As Sally walked home, she wondered where the magic was in being a mother, something she’d always looked forward to.It had been a very long afternoon!
As soon as Sally walked in the door, she started the fire in the stove so she could cook supper.What she really wanted to do was take a bath after washing all those dirty diapers, but she wasn’t about to let Tom go hungry for a moment longer than necessary.
She glanced out at her beautiful garden as she chopped Eskimo potatoes to go with the venison steak she was preparing.Nothing was sprouting yet, but the fence was built, and the garden was ready for the seeds she would plant in two weeks.She couldn’t wait to work more on her garden.But first, she had to spend her time with the baby.
While they ate their supper, Tom talked to Sally about his plans for the pig pen.He wasn’t going to put the door on the building until it was cold enough to be required.He planned to give them a large area to roam around in, and he would build a trough for feeding and one for watering.
“I can’t wait until the piglets are here,” she said.“They are so much fun and so affectionate.You’ll see when they arrive.”
“I think you’ll be the one to spend the most time with them.I wish I could help more around here, but my job makes what we’re doing here possible.”
“We won’t be spending on food, thankfully,” Sally said.“With the way the other ladies and I have set things up, most everything we need from the store will be free to us.”
“Are you going to cook for the store at all?”
She shrugged.“I will can the vegetables we grow.I’ll sell some of the pork to the store, but I don’t know if I’ll ever do the baking Maggie and Belle do.If I’m in the mood to bake, I may make extra for the store, but I don’t really see a need.”
“Will you make jam and jelly from the foraged berries?”
“Yes, of course.I probably won’t make enough for the whole town though.”
Tom nodded.“You have a lot going on for as short a time as you’ve been in town.Do you realize it’s only been a week and you’ve put in a huge garden and gone into business with your two friends?”
