Summer's Promise

by Irene Brand

The fighting stopped immediately when David stalked into the room. Summer backed away and leaned against the kitchen sink. David’s eyes were angry. “What do you kids think you’re doing?”

  “Timmy was watching television before he took a bath. He knows better,” Nicole said.

  “She took my blanket,” Timmy accused petulantly.

  “He’s nothing but a baby.”

  “That’s enough!” David said. “Nicole, you know he can’t take a shower by himself. Timmy, go to the bathroom. I’ll be in to help you in a few minutes. Both of you have had a long day, and you’re going to bed. Hike!”

  Seeing how David had taken control, Summer knew she’d failed her first test. She ran outside, and in the dim light, she made her way to the bench overlooking the mountain vista, sat down and clenched her hands to stop the trembling. Why had she ever agreed to take on this responsibility? Timmy and Nicole needed someone who understood children. Someone to love them. Momentarily, Summer wondered if she loved anyone. She respected her parents, she admired her sisters, but love? She didn’t know. If she didn’t have any natural maternal instincts, perhaps she didn’t have the capacity to love.

  Summer shivered and wrapped her arms around her body. The lightweight shirt and slacks she’d worn all day were too thin now, but in her agitation, when she left the cabin, she hadn’t thought about bringing a coat.

  She was surrounded by darkness, and stars appeared in the sky—little white lights at first, but as they increased in number, the stars seemed to illuminate the distant hills.

  She glanced back at the cabin. There was a light in the children’s bedroom, so perhaps David was putting them to bed. She couldn’t sit out here all night, but she dreaded going back to face David and the children.

  She heard a step behind her, and sensing it was David, she didn’t turn. He draped a blanket around her shoulders, then he sat beside her. Reaching for her hands, still clenched in her lap, he tenderly disentangled the tense fingers. He moved close to her and spread the blanket over both of them. Warmth from his body and the blanket soon enveloped Summer.

  Things didn’t seem quite so bad when David was beside her, but she said, “I knew I couldn’t do it. I should never have come.”

  “This was a bad day for you and the kids. They’d gotten used to me, but you’re still a stranger to them. When they walked in the cabin without their parents, it must have hit them for the first time that Spring and Bert weren’t coming back.”

  “No, you’re wrong. Timmy ran around the cabin calling for Spring. Nicole told him their parents had gone to Bolivia, but they’d be home in a few months.”

  David stared at her, speechless for a few minutes. “How are we going to convince them otherwise?”

  “I have no idea. Maybe Edna will talk to them.”

  “Tomorrow will be better.”

  “I hope so. I don’t see how it can be any worse. Are they in bed?”

  “Yes, and I think they’ve settled down, but we can’t stay out here long, in case they should start fighting again.”

  “Too bad you can’t be around all the time.”

  “Under the circumstances, I can’t stay here at night, but there is one solution. You and I could get married and all be one happy family.”

  Summer’s heartbeat sped up at the suggestion, which surprised her, but she knew David was joking as he often did.

  “I think we can manage better than that. I’ll try it for a few weeks, and if it doesn’t work out, maybe they can go back to Ohio until they adjust to their parents’ death.”

  She stood up, and in the darkness, she didn’t see the stupefied look on David’s face. He was surprised at himself. What would he have done if she’d taken him up on his offer? He was getting along just fine alone, and with the two kids to look after and a school to supervise, he had about all the responsibility he wanted. He hadn’t considered taking a wife since he’d had a crush on the girl next door when he was sixteen years old. Still, there was something different about his feelings for Summer. The past few weeks since they’d been together so much, he couldn’t get her out of his mind. And coming from Ohio, he constantly caught himself speeding until he set the cruise control. He knew he wasn’t that eager to arrive at The Crossroads and face his duties here. No, it was obvious, he was in a hurry to see Summer again.

  “Let me check on the kids,” he said, as they walked up on the porch, “before I go back to the dorm.”

  “Please do,” she said, and waited in the living room until he returned.

  “They’re sound asleep as far as I can tell, but I don’t know much about kids, either.”

  “You knew enough to settle the fight and get them in bed. Thanks, David.”

  “Glad to be helpful,” he said lightly. She looked so forlorn standing in the middle of the room, he hated to leave her, but he gave her a thumbs-up and left.

  Moving quietly so she wouldn’t waken the children, Summer changed into pajamas and slipped beneath the heavy blanket on the bed. It felt good to stretch out on the smooth sheets. Her body was tired, but her mind was still active, and she hesitated to turn out the light. Last night she’d kept the hall light on, but she wouldn’t do that tonight, for Nicole and Timmy might be used to sleeping in the dark.

  Although she’d acted nonchalant when David had made the comment about marriage, Summer wasn’t as unaffected as she’d seemed. It surprised her to realize that the idea wasn’t as disagreeable to her as it would have been a few months ago.

  “That’s only because we’ve had to be together to work out the terms of Bert and Spring’s last requests.” Summer told herself. “If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t need his company.”

  Summer picked up the Bible lying on the bedside table. Had Spring been in the habit of reading the Bible before she went to sleep at night? Would the Bible provide any answers for these unsettling thoughts about David?

  She opened the Bible where a bookmark was placed. The page looked worn as if Spring or Bert had turned to it often. A few verses were underlined, and Summer read them aloud, “‘On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I stay close to you. Your right hand upholds me.”’

  Could she depend on God to keep her through the night? It was an astonishing thought. Without knowing what it could really mean to trust God completely, Summer was able to put aside her fears of the future, and she turned out the light.

  Chapter Nine

  Summer bolted upright in bed, her heart pounding, her body shaking. A chill black silence surrounded her. Groggily, she threw back the blanket and swung her bare feet to the cold floor. What had awakened her?

  “Mommy! Mommy!” Timmy screamed over and over, his voice echoing through the stillness of the cabin.

  Summer turned on the light beside her bed, put on her robe and scurried across the hall. She had no idea what she could do to help Timmy, but she had to try. She paused on the threshold of his room. What if he rebuffed her again?

  In the dim light from her bedroom, Summer saw Nicole sitting upright. Timmy writhed on his bed, still calling for his mother. Summer knelt beside him, and when she laid a gentle hand on his shoulder, he quieted.

  “Timmy, wake up,” she said. “You’re having a bad dream.”

  “Mommy,” he said again, but she thought he was still asleep.

  “I’m Aunt Summer. Are you sick? What can I do to help?”

  He started moaning, and Nicole said, “He has bad dreams lots of time when he’s upset. Mommy always gave him a drink of water and got in bed with him until he settled down.”

  “Okay. I’ll try that,” Summer said. On wobbly legs, she brought a glass of water from the kitchen, sat on the bed and supported Timmy’s back. A cold knot was where her stomach should have been.

  “Here’s a drink, Timmy.” He took several deep swallows. She set the glass on the floor, moved Timmy over in the bed and lay beside him, her own body as stiff as a board.
She tried to relax as she rubbed his back. Remembering a lullaby Clara had often sung to her when, as a child, she couldn’t go to sleep, Summer sang quietly in her pleasing contralto voice, “Sleep on, my child, I’m always near, ready and waiting to calm your fears.”

  Timmy sighed and cuddled beside Summer. Did her voice sound enough like Spring’s that he felt his mother was with him? Spring and Summer had been a lot alike, so perhaps that was the reason Spring had wanted her to be the children’s guardian.

  “Mommy used to sing that song to us,” Nicole whispered. “Is he all right now?” Summer had forgotten about her.

  “He seems to be sleeping. I’ll stay here a while. You go back to sleep.”

  Nicole settled into bed, and Summer continued to hum the nursery rhyme until she lulled herself to sleep. The next thing she knew daylight was seeping into the small bedroom. She still lay on Timmy’s bed, and a small hand was tapping her on the shoulder.

  “I’m hungry,” Timmy said. Did he remember what had happened last night? If not, he must wonder why she was in his bed.

  “We’ll see what we can do about that,” she said, stretching and trying to get the kinks out of her back. Timmy’s bed wasn’t made for two people. “What do you eat for breakfast?”

  “Cereal.”

  Summer had forgotten to remove her watch the night before, and she checked on the time. It was seven o’clock. Nicole turned over in bed when Summer started toward the hallway.

  “What time do you go to school, Nicole?”

  “After we eat breakfast.”

  “What about Timmy? Does he go to school?”

  “He’s in kindergarten. He’s not old enough to be there, but Miss Edna lets him come because Daddy and Mommy had to work.”

  “Will you help Timmy wash his hands and get ready for breakfast? Do you want cereal, too?”

  “Yeah.”

  Summer had bought a gallon of milk in Asheville, for she figured Spring’s children would be fond of milk. The Weaver sisters had drunk lots of it, so she poured three glasses of milk and small glasses of apple juice. By the time Timmy and Nicole came to the kitchen, she’d placed several boxes of crunchy, sweetened cereal on the table, along with two bowls decorated with biblical characters.

  “That’s mine,” Timmy said, seating himself at the table and grabbing the bowl featuring Noah and an ark full of animals. Nicole sat opposite him and took the other bowl.

  “That’s Mommy’s chair,” Nicole said, pointing to the chair at her left. Summer hesitated, not knowing whether to consider the statement an invitation to sit in Spring’s chair or a warning not to. She perched on the chair, and when there was no protest, she poured a bowl of cereal for herself from a box of unsweetened wheat mix.

  The two children hadn’t started eating, and they stared at her intently. She glanced around the table. “Have I forgotten something?”

  “We haven’t said grace yet,” Nicole said, and Summer’s face flushed. Frantically trying to think of a way out of this predicament, she said, “Okay, which one of you wants to pray?”

  “I do,” Timmy said. He bowed his head as did Nicole, and in his childish voice said, “God is great, and God is good, and we thank Him for this food. Amen.”

  “Uncle David didn’t listen to our prayers last night,” Nicole said. “We can’t forget tonight.”

  So that was another hurdle she had to face! She feared this was only the beginning of the marathon before her.

  “Now that our Mommy has gone to Heaven, Uncle David says you’re going to be our mother,” Timmy said. His wide blue eyes were bright, reminding Summer of her sister.

  Part of the time they must accept that their parents were dead!

  “Did Uncle David tell you that’s what your parents asked us to do?”

  “Grandpa had already told us before he got to the farm,” Nicole said.

  “Then you know that your mother and daddy wanted to be sure you had someone to look after you if they should go to Heaven before you were old enough to take care of yourselves.”

  The kids nodded, their eyes serious.

  “I’m going to be honest with you. I don’t know anything about taking care of kids. Spring was a good mother because she’d had six years of practice, but you’ll have to be patient with me. If I make mistakes, I hope you’ll forgive me and let me try over.”

  “We’ll help you,” Timmy promised solemnly.

  She motioned to the sofa. “When I came here a few days ago, the squirrels had chewed holes in the sofa and chair and the padding was scattered around the floor. I thought I was doing you a favor to buy new furniture, but if you’re that unhappy about it, we can bring the old things back in.”

  Timmy left the table and climbed up into the chair. He wiggled around as if trying it on for size.

  “It’s okay,” he said.

  “Nicole?”

  “We were sad last night,” she answered. “You can keep the furniture.”

  “And there are lots of other things I don’t know. Do you need help to put your clothes on? What time do you get up in the morning? What time do you go to bed? Do you come home for lunch, or do you eat at school?”

  “I can dress myself,” Nicole said, reeling off the answers one by one, “except maybe buttons in the back and help with my hair. Timmy needs help taking a shower and cleaning his teeth, and he still has trouble getting on his shoes and socks. He’ll wear dirty clothes if you don’t watch him. Uncle David dressed him in the motel yesterday morning. We get up about seven and go to bed at nine o’clock.”

  “Sometimes we got to stay up later than that,” Timmy protested.

  “Not very often.”

  “We eat lunch at school,” Timmy contributed.

  “That’s enough for me to remember right now,” Summer said.

  “Are you and Uncle David married?” Timmy asked.

  “No,” Summer answered, flustered. “What made you think that?”

  “If you’re going to be our mother, and he’s our daddy, we just thought it ought to be that way,” Nicole said.

  “We’re not supposed to take the place of your parents. We’re still your aunt and uncle like always.”

  “Are you gonna get married?” Timmy persisted.

  “We haven’t talked about it,” Summer answered, wondering why she didn’t make an outright denial.

  “What are we gonna call you?” Nicole asked.

  “What’s wrong with Aunt Summer?”

  “The words are hard to say together,” Timmy said.

  “Auntie might be all right,” Nicole said, her lips pursed, as if it were a weighty decision.

  “That’s fine with me. Right now, you need to get ready for school.”

  Supervising the children as they prepared for school was a revelation to Summer. She’d never been allowed to decide what she would wear until she’d started junior high school, but Nicole insisted that she choose her own garments. That wasn’t much of a decision, for the school code provided that girls should wear a dark skirt and a white blouse. While Nicole dressed, Summer monitored Timmy cleaning his teeth. He ran into the bedroom, and when Summer got there, he’d stripped off his pajamas and stood naked waiting for her to help him dress. She gasped and started to reprimand him, but she quickly realized neither he nor Nicole thought anything about his natural state.

  Swallowing her confusion, she turned to the three-drawer chest at the foot of his bed. Without looking at Timmy, she handed him a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, hoping he’d put them on by himself. When she finally turned with a pair of dark-blue trousers and a white shirt in her hands, Timmy had put on his underwear, but he had the T-shirt on backward. She removed it and pulled it over his head in the proper position.

  Getting his tennis shoes on was no easy task, but the pair she chose closed with Velcro strips, which sped up the chore.

  “I can’t get my hair fixed right,” Nicole complained, and Summer reached for the brush. “I want it brushed high on my head and this barre
tte put on it.”

  That wasn’t hard for Summer because Nicole’s hair was thick and manageable. She’d often helped Spring fix her hair in this fashion when they were teenagers, and it felt right to be performing the same service for Spring’s daughter.

  Summer was startled when David’s voice sounded at the bedroom door. “Looks like everyone is about ready for school.”

  “I’m not sure,” Summer said, looking up at him, laughing. “I’d like a second opinion, if you don’t mind.”

  “Hi, Uncle David,” Timmy said, and rushed to his uncle, who swung him up into his arms.

  “Hi, buddy. Looks like you’re ready to be the star pupil in kindergarten today.”

  Summer snapped the barrette over Nicole’s soft hair. “Does that feel all right?” she asked anxiously.

  Nicole peered in the little mirror by the side of her bed. “Okay, I guess, but Mommy used to fasten it higher.”

  “I’ll remember next time,” Summer said, with a resigned look at David. He reached into the hall closet and handed out two coats. “You’ll need to bundle up this morning,” he said. “It’s frosty outside.”

  “Grandma Weaver gave us these coats before we left the farm,” Nicole told Summer.

  “Do you walk to school alone or should I go with you?”

  “We go by ourselves. Won’t nobody hurt us up here,” Nicole said. “C’mon, Timmy.” She grabbed her brother’s hand and hustled him out of the house.

  “Whew!” Summer said when the door slammed behind the children. She dropped heavily on the new chair.

  “Had a hard morning?” David asked sympathetically as he prepared the coffeemaker.

  “It’s probably a normal morning in a house with two kids, but I’m not used to such turmoil. For the time being, they seemed to have accepted me, so that’s one advantage.”

  She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes, savoring the rich aroma of coffee as the water dripped into the carafe. Summer was still dressed in her pajamas with a pink terry robe wrapped around her, but David’s interested eye noted that even in nightclothes, she looked like a fashion model. She didn’t stir until he tapped her on the shoulder.