Esther laid down her pencil. She knew her letter was one long grumble, but she couldn’t help it. The last few days had been so terribly hot, it was hard to sleep at night, so everyone was cranky. Even Pa, who hardly ever scolded, snapped at Walter for singing at breakfast. But Esther suspected it was more than the heat that was making Pa edgy.
“The crops need rain,” she’d heard him tell Ma two days ago.
“The rain will come. Do not worry,” Ma had soothed him. But the weather had continued to be hot and sunny. There weren’t even any clouds in the sky.
Esther had thought their worries would be over once they moved to the farm. Pa had a job that no one could take away from him. But in the city, if he worked, he got paid. Farmers could work and work and still not earn any money if the weather wasn’t right.
In the city, Pa wasn’t constantly watching the sky and he didn’t worry so much about signs. Just yesterday he’d come to lunch frowning nervously. “Anna, what does it mean when you see six crows on a fence but then two more land beside them?”
Ma had stopped halfway to the table as Pa spoke. But then she came the rest of the way wearing a look of relief. “You start over again, and two is luck,” she said.
Pa sagged in his chair and grinned. “Thank goodness.”
“Crows?” Esther asked.
Ma nodded and began to chant:
“One is bad,
Two is luck,
Three is health,
Four is wealth,
Five is sickness,
Six is death.”
Death! No wonder Pa had looked so nervous. If the last two crows hadn’t landed beside the others . . . ! Esther felt a chill even though the day was so hot.
But good luck hadn’t arrived yet that Esther could see. Just more heat and dust and a weary slump to Pa’s shoulders. Esther didn’t want to worry about the crops. It just made her crankier. If only there was something fun to do. She’d played with Margaret for most of the morning. And she’d tried to play with Mickey. But his tongue hung out and he panted like a tired old train, huffing and puffing. She finally sent him to his shady nest under the porch and came back into the house.
Esther eyed the two books she owned—Little Women and Heidi—stacked neatly on top of the dresser. They were last year’s Christmas gifts from Kate and Julia. She’d already read them twice, but she could read one of them a third time, she supposed. She sighed. If only there were a library in town! With new books to read, she wouldn’t miss school so much. And if Bethany lived nearer, so they could see each other sometimes, she wouldn’t be so lonely. She thought of how easy it had been to visit Shirley in Chicago. It was very different in the country.
Esther looked out the window. Pa was walking back from the oat field. Every day he checked the oats, the corn, the wheat, and the potatoes. Every day he drove milk and eggs to town to sell. Every day he hauled and chopped wood to build the woodpile high before winter. And he made repairs around the house and barn.
But all the while Esther could tell he was really waiting. Waiting for rain. Waiting for the crops to grow. Waiting for the harvest.
The screen door banged and Esther heard Pa shout over the jingle of the fairy bells, “Everyone get ready! We are going on a picnic!”
Esther let out a whoop. She raced down the stairs. “A picnic! Where?”
“We will go to the lake and cool off for a while,” Pa was telling Ma. “Maybe I will catch some fish for supper.”
Ma’s flushed face broke into a smile. She’d just come in from weeding the vegetable garden. It was hot, hard work. “I will make sandwiches,” she said. “Girls, come help.”
Violet sprang up from the sewing machine and hurried into the kitchen. Esther was right behind her. A picnic at the lake! And here she’d just been thinking there was nothing fun to do in the country.
Esther had heard about the little lake east of town, but she’d never seen it. “Ohhh,” she breathed when Pa drove into the clearing an hour later. Blue water glittered silver under the sun. “It’s beautiful!” Other wagons and buggies were parked among the trees. She heard shrieks of laughter. Then she spotted Bethany hopping up and down and waving.
“I knew you’d come!” Bethany cried when Esther jumped down from the buggy. “Just about everybody does on the Fourth.” Bethany hauled Esther around blankets and baskets and small, toddling children. At the shore of the lake she tossed off her shoes and socks. “Come on!”
Laughing, Esther threw off her own shoes and socks and plunged into the chilly water after Bethany. Many of their schoolmates were already splashing and chasing one another. Esther and Bethany quickly joined in the fun. When they waded back to shore a while later, Esther had forgotten all her grumpy feelings of the morning.
“Your nose is pink,” she teased Bethany.
Bethany laughed. “So’s yours.” She wrung water from her skirt.
“Let’s go get something to eat,” Esther suggested. “I’m starving.”
Bethany smacked her lips. “Mama brought raspberry cobbler.”
Esther’s mouth watered. “Ma brought sugar cookies,” she said. She laughed. “She baked them after we went to bed last night for a Fourth of July surprise. But even she didn’t know about the picnic. That was Pa’s surprise! And it was the best one of all.”
Ma was under a maple tree not far from the Heggersmiths. She had spread an old quilt on the grass. On it was a plate of sandwiches wrapped in waxed paper, a bowl of hard-boiled eggs, and a tin that Esther knew held two dozen perfect sugar cookies. There was also a small dish of plump red raspberries.
Esther reached down and plucked a berry from the dish. “Mmmm,” she said, savoring its sweet juiciness. “Where’d we get the raspberries from, Ma?”
“From Mrs. Neilson. It was kind of her. She says they have more than they can eat.” Ma, always generous to guests, nodded at Bethany. “Take some. They are good.”
But Bethany smiled and shook her head. “No, thank you, Mrs. Vogel. We have heaps of raspberries at home right now, too. Save them for your family.”
“Where are they, anyway?” Esther asked, looking around.
“Pa and Walter are fishing. Violet is with friends,” Ma said. She looked unusually content, fanning herself gently with Pa’s straw hat. She raised her eyebrows at Esther’s and Bethany’s dripping skirts. “You two look cool enough.”
Esther laughed. “The water feels so good, Ma. You should go in.”
Ma smiled. “Playing in water is for children.”
“Mama went in last summer, Mrs. Vogel,” Bethany confided. “Of course, no one was here but us. She said it was delightfully refreshing.” Bethany grinned and pulled wet hair back from her face.
“Maybe you could do that, too, sometime, Ma!” Esther cried.
Ma was smiling. She was almost laughing. She opened her mouth to reply. Then, suddenly, she stiffened. Her laugh died. Her smile vanished.
She sat up straight and dropped the straw hat. A frown creased her forehead. “You should go to your family now,” she said abruptly to Bethany. Then she turned to Esther. “Go find Pa and Violet. Tell them it is time to eat.”
Esther stared. What was wrong with Ma? She had practically told Bethany to go away!
“You heard me, Esther,” Ma said sharply. “Go find Pa.”
Bethany looked as bewildered as Esther felt. “I guess I’ve got to eat now,” Esther told her friend. “But I’ll see you after lunch.”
“We are not staying,” Ma cut in firmly. “Now, do as I tell you.”
Confused and upset, Esther went. What had happened to Ma? She’d been so happy one minute, and almost angry the next. It didn’t make any sense. Tears blurred Esther’s eyes and she stumbled more than once as she searched for Pa. Surely Ma hadn’t meant it when she said they weren’t staying. They couldn’t leave yet. They’d just arrived!
Pa’s forehead wrinkled. “So soon?”
“All of a sudden she’s in a big hurry to eat and go home,” Esther said miserably.
“I don’t want to go!” Walter cried. He dangled a worm up for Pa to see. “Look, Pa, I got another one!”
“Very good, Walter. Put it in the can with the others and come. It is lunchtime.” Pa pulled his line from the water and picked up two fish from the grassy bank. He patted Esther’s shoulder. “I will talk to Ma.”
But Pa could not change Ma’s mind. Neither could the Heggersmiths and Nielsons. “I have a bad headache,” she told them. Esther blinked in surprise. She hadn’t known Ma wasn’t feeling well.
“It’s not fair,” Violet said as she and Esther shook crumbs from the quilt after lunch. “Peter asked me to be his partner in the three-legged race.”
“Games?” Esther wailed. “There are going to be games?”
“And fireworks,” Violet added bitterly. “Mr. Heggersmith sets some off every year.”
Esther wanted to sit on the ground and howl.
The ride home was a silent one. No one but Ma had wanted to leave. Now they just wanted the ride home to be over. Pa tried to whistle once, but the song trailed off before he’d gotten out more than a few notes. His heart plainly wasn’t in it.
Esther could understand that easily enough. Her own misery was so keen, her chest actually hurt with the strain of holding sobs inside. She was only thankful that she had managed to slip away long enough to say good-bye to Bethany. “I’m sorry about the way Ma acted,” she had apologized. “She’s got a bad headache.”
Good-natured Bethany waved off Esther’s apology. “It’s all right. But listen to the great idea I had—and Mama says it’s fine with her. You can come for lunch, and after, we can pick raspberries. Our bushes are loaded.” Bethany was dancing from foot to foot in excitement. “Wouldn’t it be fun to have a whole afternoon together?”
Esther’s spirits had risen considerably. “Yes! I’ll come for sure if Ma will let me.”
“Mama said to come Wednesday at noon if you can,” Bethany told her.
So the plan was made. And thinking of it was all that kept Esther from crying on the hot ride home. When they got to the farmhouse, she stopped on the porch to greet Mickey. But Ma called, “Esther, come here.”
Ma’s voice sounded funny. Was she angry at Esther? Esther hurried inside. “Yes, Ma?”
Ma was unpacking the picnic leftovers. She barely glanced at Esther. “You will stay away from the Klause girl from now on,” she said.
She said it quite plainly, so Esther knew she hadn’t misunderstood. But she could not believe Ma would say such a thing.
Pa walked in carrying the two fish he had caught. Esther looked to him for help. But he shook his head. He would not go against Ma.
“B-but why, Ma?” Esther finally managed. “Why do you want me to stay away from Bethany?”
“Because she is marked,” Ma said. “It is dangerous to be near her.”
“Marked? Dangerous?” Esther echoed in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Ma wasn’t used to being questioned. “Nu! The mark on her face,” she said impatiently. “It is a sign.”
Suddenly Esther understood. “You mean the mole on her cheek?”
“Yes!” Ma nodded vigorously.
“But I have a mole on my shoulder,” Esther said. “Am I marked, too?” Her heart was beating very fast.
“No,” Ma said quickly. “No. Yours is small and hidden. But hers is large and on her face for all to see and be warned.”
“But marked by who, Ma?” Esther asked.
“By angry fairies.” Ma walked to the doorway and swung the screen door open and closed twice to ring the fairy bells. She looked back at Esther. “It is important to keep the fairies happy.”
“But why, Ma? Why would fairies do that to a little baby?”
Ma shrugged. “Who knows? As a punishment to her parents, probably.”
“B-but that’s not fair!” Esther cried.
“I don’t know about fair,” Ma said. “I only know how dangerous it is to ignore fairies. And I know that the child is cursed. To be near her is dangerous.”
Esther shivered. “B-but Bethany is my f-friend.”
Ma shook her head so hard, a hairpin flew from her bun and pinged onto the floor. She stooped to pick it up, and when she stood and looked at Esther, her face had closed like a curtain. “Not anymore,” she said firmly. Then she turned and walked away. The conversation was over.
Stunned, hardly knowing what she was doing, Esther climbed the stairs to her bedroom. Her head was whirling. Bethany dangerous? How could that be? She was good and kind. But Ma was so sure. And Ma knew things other people didn’t. She knew all about signs.
Esther paced around the tiny room. Couldn’t Ma be mistaken, like she was about the Tatiana dream she’d had the night before they moved? Esther picked up the letter to Julia she had started that morning. She wrote furiously with her pencil:
We just came back from a picnic at the lake. It was so much fun. But Ma made us come home early. She saw the mole on Bethany’s face. She says it is the mark of angry fairies. She says it’s a warning that Bethany is dangerous, and she won’t let me play with her anymore. Do you think Ma could be wrong just this once? Bethany is so nice. Can she really be dangerous like Ma says? I am so sad.
I wish you were here.
Love,
Esther
8 Disobeying Ma
JUST AS THEY WERE CLIMBING INTO THE buggy on Sunday morning, Walter clutched his stomach and moaned, “I feel sick, Ma.”
Ma felt Walter’s forehead. “You are cool. Probably you had too much bacon,” she said with a meaningful look.
Esther could not help grinning as Walter blinked at Ma in surprise. He had taken extra bacon from the platter when Ma had not been looking. Still she had known.
“Esther, you will stay home with your brother,” Ma decided.
“Can’t Violet stay instead?” Esther begged. She had to see Bethany and tell her she couldn’t come to her house on Wednesday.
“No,” Ma said. “Violet missed school when I hurt my ankle. Now it is your turn.”
Esther sighed and went back inside. She put Walter to bed and changed out of her good dress. Then she told Walter a story—a made-up story—all about a brave prince who lost his kingdom. He had to fight lots of battles to win it back. He fought an evil knight. He outwitted a wicked witch. And he battled a ferocious, fire-breathing dragon. By the end of the story, Walter’s eyes were closing. Esther tiptoed out of his room.
Downstairs, Esther sat at the table with her chin in her palm. What should she do? Bethany would be expecting her on Wednesday. She’d wait and wait. Too late, Esther realized she should have asked Violet to tell Bethany. But things had happened so quickly! If only Walter hadn’t gotten sick. Then, during their Sunday school class, when they were away from the grown-ups, Esther could have told Bethany she couldn’t come. Of course, then she would’ve also had to tell her why.
Esther groaned. How could she tell Bethany Ma said she was marked by evil fairies and dangerous? Bethany would be so hurt!
But Esther had to tell her something. Maybe she should go on Wednesday after all. Then she and Bethany could have one last special day together. And when it was time to leave, she could explain everything to her. But going would mean disobeying Ma.
All day Esther wrestled with the problem, but she came no closer to finding an answer. First she’d decide she would go see her friend. Then she’d remind herself that would mean disobeying Ma, and she’d resolve to stay home. Then she’d think of how Bethany would be expecting her, and she’d deci
de to go all over again. Back and forth. Back and forth. She wished she had someone to ask for advice. But Julia was too far away. And Esther already knew that Violet would tell her to stay home.
Violet had been very sympathetic when Esther told her Ma wouldn’t let her play with Bethany anymore. “You mean that’s why we had to come home early from the lake?” She had rolled her eyes. “You’ve been around Bethany for weeks and nothing awful has happened.” But Violet’s sympathy was one thing. Expecting her to approve of Esther sneaking off to see her friend was another thing entirely.
• • •
Late in the afternoon, Esther was playing on the porch with Mickey. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her foot. “Ouch!” she yelped. She hobbled into the house. “Ma, I’ve got a sliver.”
Ma was at the stove stirring a pot of stew. She looked at Esther and raised her eyebrows. “I told you not to go barefoot.”
Esther ducked her head. “I’m sorry. But it’s so hot, and I was just on the porch.”
Ma set down her spoon and took the first aid basket from the cupboard. She slid a chair over to Esther. “Sit,” she said. Then Ma knelt on the floor in front of the chair. She lifted Esther’s foot to the light from the window. “Ah,” she murmured.
“Is it bad?” Esther asked anxiously.
Ma shook her head. “Not so bad. I can get it. Just be still.”
Esther gripped the sides of the chair tightly. She held her breath as Ma squeezed on either side of the splinter to push it out as far as it would go. o-ooh! Esther bit her lip to keep from crying out. Then Ma said, “There!” and the pain was gone.
“It’s out?” Esther asked.
Ma held up her tweezers so Esther could see the tiny shaft of wood.
Esther sagged in relief. She knew she had been lucky. If the splinter had been buried deep, Ma would have had to pick it out with a needle. That would have hurt a lot more. But either way, getting the splinter out hurt less than leaving it in. “Thanks, Ma,” she said.
But Ma wasn’t finished yet. First she swabbed the wound thoroughly with peroxide. That stung a bit, but Esther liked watching the bubbles it made. When the peroxide stopped making bubbles, Ma patted Esther’s foot dry, put a small bandage on it, and stood up. “Next time, do as you are told,” Ma said. “Then you will not get hurt.”
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