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November 04, 2006
Chapter Four
Saturday morning came bright with a chill in the air that promised a wonderful if not somewhat warm day for the fall festival. The entire family was excited as they sat around the breakfast table filling themselves with bacon and pumpkin pancakes from Etta’s secret recipe. Cane syrup flowed easily and the children laughed and chattered about what would happen during the day as the platter of pancakes disappeared far quicker than Etta could replenish it.
“Momma, Shane plans on catching that greasy pig Mr. Jones is bringing to the festival,” Isaac spoke as he helped his younger brother with his pancakes.
“Thow am!,” the happy little boy replied with a full lisp as he tried to talk with two missing front teeth.
Isaac sat near the head of the table with Shane by his side. At sixteen he was quick to help with the younger children especially Shane. The genuine love her children had for one another made Etta’s chest pang with emotion as watched the older boy help his five year old younger brother pour syrup over yet another pancake.
“Yuck. He will come home stinking like that old pig.” Beth grimanced from her perch on the bench along side them both.
“Why are you yucking?” Sarah tucked a large syrup sogged pancake into her mouth.
“Because I am the one who has to helped bath the children and wash clothes until Heppie and Hank get back from their trip to Georgia, that’s why,” Beth’s words sounded like complaining but it really wasn’t. She took pride in her help in caring for the family.
“When are they coming back?” a little voice further down the table asked.
“Heppie said they would be back two weeks before Thanksgiving,” Granny Beatrice helped the child beside her to wipe her mouth.
“If today is Hallowe’en how long then before Heppie comes home?” Isaac asked the question to the three children on the other side of Sarah.
“Not another math problem, “ Caleb seemed to try and disappear in his spot at the table. He hated those questions from Issac.
Etta stood were she was at the stove, spatula in hand ready to flip the next round of pancakes when the little bubbles began to rise. Her eyes caressed the faces of her children. Elizabeth and Sarah each was approaching womanhood and meeting the challenge head on in their own way. Beth had just turned fifteen this spring and the young men were beginning to call. She was a beauty of a girl but with plenty of sense in her head. She guided Sarah, a year younger than she, attempting to keep her in line as a young lady should be -proper and neat. Sarah had other ideas. Most often those ideas included a cast off pair of dungarees from her brothers and a fishing pole fashioned out of an old cane. She loved the outdoors and did not give a wit about dresses and boys coming to call.
“Come on, it is an easy one,” Jacob took a long drink of his milk. Setting the glass on the table his used the back of his hand to remove his milk moustache. Immediately his eye went huge and round and he scrubbed at his face with his napkin.
“If it is so easy then you answer it,” Caleb looked at Jacob in a challenging way that little boys do as if to say I dare you.
Next to Sarah on the long kitchen bench sat Jacob, Caleb and Jackson, three little tow headed boys like doorsteps. Ages eleven, ten and nine the three could have passed for triplets. The boys had similar interests, worked and played well together. They also tended to be mischevious and kept her on her toes. Across the table sat fourteen year old Christopher sandwiched between Granny Jenkins and Grandma Beatrice who each had a small girl tucked under their wings making sure they too had their fair share of the pancakes. At three years old Abegail had learned to speak up so as not to get lost in the crowd. Four year old Mary however tended to be a quiet child and one always had to look behind to make sure she was holding someone’s hand and moving forward with the pack of children.
“Two weeks,” Jackson spoke up never taking his eyes off his pancakes. “Heppie is coming home in two weeks.”
The conversation carried on around the table amongst the children with buzz and drone spiked with laughter with some voices louder than others but with each heard above the rising din.
“Smarty pants,” Caleb mumbled to his brother.
Dark haired and blond haired, blue eyed and brown eyed, all the children held a remarkable resemblance to one another and unless asked specifically no one would have ever known they were not blood related. Love made them a family in ways that blood never could.
Etta flipped the pancakes onto the platter and sat it in the middle of the table. Smothering a yawn she reached for the coffee pot and refilled her cup for the third time that morning.
“How late did you work last night, Momma?” Beth noticed her mother trying to hide a yawn.
“Too late, “ she replied nursing her coffee. “It had to be after midnight when I slid our picnic supper into the oven.
“What are we having?” Christopher spoke up as he pulled his legs from underneath the table and practically crawled from the bend. “I am always hungry for supper.”
“Tell us something we don’t know,” Etta smiled at her son. “You are going to have to wait and find out about the supper menu because I haven’t figured it all out myself yet.”
Out of habit, practicality and necessity as the children finished with their plates each one scraped their scraps into the bucket for the pigs neatly stacking their plates in the sink and placed their silverware into the dishpan there. Glasses were lined up on the nearby countertop. Eleven children and three adults, five if you include Heppie and Hank, left a great many dishes to wash several times in a day. Every little bit each person did helped to keep the work load lighter for her and the two older women.
She too would be happy when their domestic helpers and friends returned from their long visit to Georgia. Heppie had received word a few weeks before that her aging and elderly parents had come down with a fever and the outcome did not look good. It had been many years since she had seen her parents. This likely being if she could get there in time the last time she might ever seen them on this earth. With no other thought, Etta had instructed the couple to pack and ready their things, she would see to it they got there safely and timely.
Taking to her writing desk she set about written instructions for her banker. She had sent Isaac to deliver the letter to withdraw funds from her accounts and to purchase train tickets to and from their destination in Georgia. By the afternoon of the next day they waved goodbye to their dearest friends on earth, wishing them godspeed and safe journey for their return. They did not yet know if Heppie had made it home in time to see her parents. She could only hope that she had.
Having stack their plates and dishes the children hurried through their morning chores. Granny Jenkins took the older girls upstairs and supervised the making of beds. Beth and Sarah worked together and could make beds neat and fast. Making eleven beds every day was indeed a chore but they made quick work of it. Each child was responsible for pulling up their bed covers and tidying their rooms but the boys didn’t do a great job of it at best and the younger children were just learning. On days like today the children hopping out of bed like a flash for something special the beds had been in worse shape than normal. This she knew without having to look. Less than a half hour later the girls were back from tending the bedrooms. The boys had taken out the scrap bucket and rinsed it out. The barn yard animals having to be tended and turned out to the pasture while stalls had to be cleaned would take a might bit longer. The girls took over her place at the sink rinsing dishes. In a matter of no time all the chores where finished, the children dressed with faces washed and hair combed, the Grandmothers at her side they set out on foot to the festival in their village.
Posted by Angie at November 4, 2006 10:41 AM