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“I’m Bernadine, and Ezra told me that you and I might have some things to talk about.” Bernadine smiled, completely at home in what Alaska assumed was a strange house. She was an older lady, maybe in her seventies, the same as Nelda, and she seemed spry and energetic. “I brought some groceries, because today I was planning on making a meal for my friend Agathe. I thought you could help me with it.”
“I’d love to,” Alaska said immediately. “But I might have to quit and take care of my children. Neither one of them are awake right now.”
Normally Eugene didn’t sleep as long as he had already that morning, but Alaska had to admit that it had been a few months since she had taken care of Eugene on a regular basis. The thought made her sad, and she had to turn her mind away from that. She had decided to go down a different trail, and she would not look back.
“I heard you had two little ones. A baby and a toddler?”
“That’s right. A little girl, Alice, and Eugene is two.”
“Wow. You have your hands full. Those ages are fun, but they’re a lot of work too.” While there was compassion in Bernadine’s voice, she was also a very no-nonsense type of lady, as she walked through the living room and into the kitchen, setting two bags of groceries on the counter.
“Yeah.” Alaska realized she felt a little overwhelmed. Bernadine was like a force of nature.
“All right. I have everything we need to make my delicious spinach and sun-dried tomato orzo bake. My friend Agathe istaking care of her husband who’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. I don’t know what else to do for her, so I just make food.”
There was some pain hidden in her words, and Alaska didn’t have any trouble picking up on that immediately.
“I thought you and I can talk while we cook, and then maybe Agathe will have some time to talk to us at some point. If there’s anyone who knows how to be a good wife, it’s her. It’s...hard right now, especially since she and Jim were always so much in love.”
“I bet that would be hard.” Alaska didn’t want to think about the end of her life. She’d barely gotten started on the beginning. Although, that might be something she faced. She hadn’t realized that Ezra was so much older than she was. He was thirty-eight. That seemed...really old.
But it didn’t change the fact that she would still marry him. And she supposed, surely he thought that her age was really young.
She didn’t have any time to continue that train of thought because Bernadine was talking again.
“Go ahead and get a casserole dish out. This is super easy to make. We’re going to put the ingredients right in the dish.”
“That sounds easy all right,” Alaska said, and then she figured she might as well add, “This is my second day in this kitchen. I probably don’t have any more idea of where the pans are than you do. So, I’m just going to be hunting for them. I wanted to warn you.”
“Well, don’t be shy. If you’re going to be a good wife, you have to just jump in and start swimming. You might not know how to swim, but you’re not gonna learn if you just stand around. You have to get in the water at least.”
Alaska couldn’t argue with that, and she went about opening drawers and doors until she found the pan.
Pulling one out, she held it up. “Will this work?”
“That’s perfect,” Bernadine said, setting the paper bag that she’d emptied on the chair. “We’ll use that as our garbage can. Now, set that on the counter here.”
She started to talk about how she was going to make the food, and she gave Alaska a package of orzo to open.
“Men are pretty simple. They want us to feed them, they want you to respect them, and they want...” Bernadine lifted her brow. “I think you’re probably okay in that regard.”
For the second time in two days, Alaska felt her cheeks heating. She wouldn’t have thought she could get embarrassed, but she found out that she was wrong.
“It’s definitely the other things I’m looking for advice on,” she said quickly, trying to pretend she wasn’t embarrassed. “I just never saw a good relationship. I don’t know a single couple that’s happy together, even if they’re still together. Certainly my parents weren’t a good example.” She didn’t even want to go there. “And I’ve never had a relationship that lasted very long or felt...good.”
“Well, you hit the jackpot with Ezra. I really don’t think you need to do too much, and he’s going to treat you well anyway. But he’s probably going to be a typical man too, and by that, I mean he might have to learn that you don’t want advice, you just want him to commiserate.”
“But I do like advice,” Alaska said immediately.
“Well then, he’ll probably be better at that. Sometimes men want to fix our problems instead of just listening to them.”
“I’d rather have someone tell me how to fix it than just listen to me complain,” Alaska said, and she meant it. She knew that there were some women who just wanted people to agree with them. That wasn’t her.
“You’ll have to tell him that. Maybe he’s learned from his sisters that females prefer to have someone pat them on the back and make tsking sounds. I know I’ve had my share of men who were so hardheaded, they didn’t even care. At least it felt like they didn’t. You tell them how terrible your life was, and they’d be like, ‘that’s great, is supper ready yet?’” She rolled her eyes.
Alaska laughed. That did sound likea typical man.
“Here. I think I hear one of your little ones crying. You stir this, and I’ll go get them.”
