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“How has he managed without Heather?”
“Our mother-in-law is a good woman. Firm and strict, but good. She’s simply too old to raise children again. She was forty-two when George was born, and a woman of seventy does not need to be raising children.”
Jessica wanted to cry that she hadn’t arrived six months before. She would have done all she could to keep the family happy. She wondered how long his letter had been waiting for her at Elizabeth Tandy’s. She knew she had to be the right person to respond to the letter, but she wished she’d done so months sooner.
They drove a short distance and Maynard pulled into a yard, between the house and the barn. The house looked as though it had been built for a much larger family than George had. As Jessica carefully got down from the wagon, she glanced around the yard, hoping to see a kitchen garden somewhere, but there didn’t seem to be one.
The trip had been quick, just two days, so the older children were in school. Maynard put her trunk on his shoulder and carried it to the front porch, which had a nice swing on it. Jessica liked the idea of sitting there to feed the baby.
Maynard opened the door for her and called out, “Ma! If you want a ride home, I’m here!”
As Jessica watched, her new mother-in-law hurried out of the house, handed Jessica a crying baby, and got into her son’s wagon. They were gone before Jessica could even ask when the last time the baby had been fed was. She stood and stared at the dirt stirred up by the wagon, and cradled the baby closer. This one must be Sally.
She walked inside the house to see an absolute disaster. There were dirty clothes all over the floor that had obviously not been mopped since Heather’s death. She looked around for the second child and finally spotted him on the floor quietly building something with blocks.
“Hi, I’m Jessica. What’s your name?”
“Joe.”
“Hi, Joe. Has it been a long time since your sister was last fed?”
Joe shrugged, yawning widely. He was just about as talkative as his father.
“Why don’t you take a nap Joe. Can you show me your bedroom?”
At her request, he stood and led her to a small bedroom on the second floor. The baby was still crying in her arms as she followed the little boy upstairs and tucked him in for a nap. He was obviously tired.
Then she went downstairs with little Sally. She found a bottle that was still warm on the table in the kitchen, so she put the bottle into the baby’s mouth. She had no idea what she was feeding the child, but hopefully someone would tell her before the day was over.
Taking the tiny thing out to the front porch, she held her close, and swung with her, hoping the baby would be put to sleep by the movement. There were obviously a million things that needed to be done that didn’t include the baby in her arms.
She talked to the baby in a soft voice as she moved the swing back and forth, and the baby’s eyes drifted closed. She could feel the baby’s wet diaper, and said a silent prayer the baby would fall asleep, and would not wake as Jessica changed her after her bottle.
Shortly after, she changed the baby and when she didn’t wake, she wanted to do a little dance. Of course, she had no idea where the baby was supposed to sleep. She was just thankful there was a basket with clean diapers she found in the parlor.
Instead of searching for the baby’s room, Jessica put the two pillows on the sofa onto the floor for a bed, and covered the baby with a blanket she found in the basket of diapers.
Leaving the baby to sleep, she went into the kitchen, and smiled when she saw an icebox. Opening the thing, she saw a ham that looked ready to be cooked, but nothing else was there. Looking around the kitchen and in the cupboards, she couldn’t find any other food.
She wanted to jump with joy when she noticed a small ring on the floor. A root cellar. Hopefully, there would be potatoes and other vegetables down there she could make to go with the ham.
Going down into the cellar, she found potatoes and carrots, sitting in baskets, and she happily grabbed some potatoes and some of the carrots, deciding that they would make a wonderful supper with the ham.
There was no time to bake bread, so she would have to make more potatoes in place of the bread. She carried the food upstairs and dumped the potatoes from the skirt of her dress onto the counter of the kitchen. She was still surprised his mother hadn’t at least stayed to help her find her way around the house.
Putting the ham into the oven, she carefully sliced the potatoes into thin slices and boiled them into a pot of water. Glancing at the clock on the wall, she could see that it was almost three-thirty, which meant the older children would be there soon. Hopefully, they were more talkative than Joe and their father.
She had just started boiling potatoes when she heard the front door open and close. Walking out of the kitchen, she watched the children drop their schoolbooks on the floor and kick off their shoes.
“Hello,” she called to them.
The oldest child, Nancy, walked to her. “Are you the woman here to pretend to be our ma?”
“I’m here to take care of you,” Jessica said, seeing immediately that the child wasn’t about to warm up to her soon. What had she gotten herself into?
“Just like our ma did.” The girl shook her head. “I have to share a room with the baby because you’re here.”
“Can you show me where I’m supposed to put my things?” Jessica asked.
