For Keeps (Aggie's Inheritance)

by Havig, Chautona

  “I prayed. Mrs. Sullivan read us from the Bible about praying, and it says if you believe you will receive. Well, I believe so I got. I’m well.”

  “That’s not what that means. God isn’t Santa Claus--”

  “No, He’s better ‘cause He’s real.”

  Several times, Aggie tried again, but each time, Kenzie refused to accept the idea that she hadn’t been healed of the pox that was upon her. At last, Aggie tried a different approach. “Ok, you know what? It is possible that you are well--”

  “Good. Then I’m going to go play with the puppies.”

  “Nope. That you aren’t going to do.”

  “Why not! I’m well, so I should get to go outside like the other well kids.”

  Turning the girl toward the library, Aggie pointed to the room. “You will go color, do a puzzle, read a book, or watch a movie.”

  “Why!”

  “Because I said so.”

  “But I’m well!”

  “It doesn’t matter if you’re well or not. I said you’ll stay in there for now, so you will.”

  “That’s not fair!”

  “I won’t argue with you, Kenzie. It’s in there, or bed. Take your choice.”

  “No! I never get to play with the puppies, and I’m well now, so I am going!” The child moved as if to go outside, but Aggie caught her arm.

  She didn’t move, she didn’t argue, she didn’t yield in any way, she just stood there as Kenzie fought, half-heartedly, to get free. “Let me go!”

  “Kenzie, hush. You won’t talk to me like that.”

  “You’re not being fair!”

  “I’m not going to argue about it. Go upstairs.”

  “But I don’t want to,” the child protested.

  “You’re acting like you want to. Little girls who disobey do not get what they want. You know the rules. Go to your room and lay down.”

  “I just got up!”

  “Little girls who throw temper tantrums obviously need a nap. Go lay down.”

  With dramatic wails that gave Cari a run for her theatrical money, Kenzie marched up the steps, stomping on each one as hard as she could, and slammed her door shut. Aggie groaned. She could not let that display of temper go, even if the child was ill. Kenzie, in particular, took every minor victory as proof that she could win if she fought hard enough. With p-mails flying faster than she could count them, Aggie followed her niece up the stairs, opened the door, and beckoned the girl to follow. Elated that her protest worked, Kenzie skipped to her Aunt’s side and followed her down the steps.

  “Ok, now, walk back up those stairs the way you’re supposed to, and do not close your door at all.”

  The child’s stunned face was almost comical. “What? I--”

  “Don’t argue, Kenzie. Walk nicely up those stairs and go back to bed.”

  With an expression that implied the desire to do serious bodily harm, Kenzie walked quietly up the steps, entered her room, and sat on the bed with arms crossed. Aggie took a deep breath, and squared her shoulders, beckoning the girl to follow her again. Shock registered and then resignation. She followed Aggie back down the stairs and walked back up again, her face a study in apathy.

  “Ok, that’s better, but now do it without looking depressed. It’s not that terrible, so I want you to try to look… nice.” Even as she spoke, Aggie knew she sounded unsure of herself--the one thing certain to make Kenzie dig in her heels further. “What I mean is that right now you look like you ate something nasty. I want you to look like you are about to do something nice.”

  “I don’t understand. I did it. I didn’t stomp.”

  “But you were sulking and trying to look like you didn’t care when both of us know you did.” Aggie’s hand cupped the child’s chin. “That’s lying, Kenzie. It’s lying with your face and your attitude instead of words, but it’s still lying.”

  “If I pretend I’m happy, I’ll still be lying.”

  The child had a point, but Aggie knew something about it wasn’t quite right. “Well, that’s partly true. What I am telling you to do is practice having the right attitude even when you don’t feel it. You’re not lying; you’re practicing.”

  For some reason that Aggie couldn’t fathom, Kenzie took to that idea cheerfully. She skipped up and down the steps as if rehearsing a play until Aggie told her she could stay on her bed. “When the clock says eleven-thirty, then you can come down and play in the library if you like.”

  “Ok, Aunt Aggie. I want to draw a picture.” Three steps back up the stairs and the child turned. “Can we bring the puppies inside for a little while after lunch maybe?”

  Part of her felt duped, but Aggie realized it was a valid request. “I think that can be arranged. See you in a bit.”

  A trail of toilet paper showed Aggie where Ian had been while she’d been involved with Kenzie. She still had a dangerous habit of getting too focused on one task, and with most of the children sequestered in various parts of the house and yard, her usual spare pairs of eyes were absent. With children in school, she’d have to become more self-disciplined to keep at least one eye on him all the time.

  That was another negative on the home-school front. If she was busy teaching several grade levels at once, how could she take care of the youngest twins and Ian? She knew there must be a way, according to what she’d seen, many larger families home-schooled, but she had no idea how to accomplish it. Maybe the idea would be better after Ian was potty trained and a little more accustomed to staying where she put him.

  As those thoughts bombarded her brain, William’s cruiser drove up the driveway and parked. For a moment, Aggie was tempted to meet him at the door to keep him from coming inside and seeing the mess that awaited him. “What’s the use,” she muttered to herself. “He already thinks I’m incompetent, why not prove him right?”

  “Come in.”

  William entered to find Aggie following a trail of toilet paper, winding it around her hand until she reached the end near the kitchen trashcan. “Well, that’s convenient.”

  She gave him a glance. “Ya think?”

  “Has he been a handful while he’s sick?”

  “You could say that.” She didn’t feel like listening to her failures in alphabetical or chronological order, and knew that any encouragement at all would just reinforce the idea that her life was too much for anyone, much less someone as inexperienced as she.

  “I thought Sullivan’s mom was hanging around and helping.”

  “I was trying to give her a day off. She does too much already.”

  “Where’s Tina? Should you really be here alone with all these sick kids?”

  She’d been agitated before he arrived, but William’s apparent lack of any confidence in her put Aggie on the defensive. “It’s my job, William. I know that you think I’m completely incompetent, but the fact is, I can handle a lot more than you give me credit for. If you can’t be supportive, just leave me alone.”

  “Whoa! I was being supportive. I think you’re way overtired. Why--”

  “Did you need something specific?”

  “I just came to make sure you hadn’t heard from Douglas Stuart.”

  “The phone works.” Aggie knew she was being rude, but it seemed as if she was unable to help herself.

  “Hey! What’s eating you?”

  For a moment, she almost unleashed a tirade of every critical comment and every perceived slight that she thought had ever crossed his mind. However, after one look at the hurt and confusion in his eyes, she couldn’t do it. “I’m sorry, William. I know you don’t mean to, but do you realize how often you tell me that I can’t do what I am doing every day?”

  The man’s shoulders drooped, just for a second, before he straightened, erect, and met her gaze. “No, I didn’t. I wonder if you hear what I say or what you expect me to say. I remember telling you what a good job you’re doing with the kids. I remember acknowledging that you’d never hurt them. Did you remember those things too, or are you just fix
ated on me being the bad guy?”

  He turned, ignoring her attempt to get him to stay and talk, and left the house. His shoes thudded on the steps and the crunch of the gravel had never sounded louder to her ears. “Oh, Lord, now what have I done?”

  After staring down the drive for a few minutes, she turned, set Ian down, and began singing as she picked up stray articles of clothing, toys, and books that littered the living and dining rooms. Soon, she had a laundry basket full of things that needed to be put away and was singing to soothe her heart. “… are lightly spoken, bitt’rest thoughts are rashly stirred. Brightest links of life are broken by a single angry word…”

  Her eyes traveled heavenward. “Lord, I apologized. You’d think he’d understand at a time like this…”

  Tuesday, September 9th

  Luke had to wait for an inspection on his income property, so he chose to spend Tuesday working on the basement. The flooring was nearly ready to install now that the drywall had been completely painted. The be-spotted children were all feeling the effects of cabin fever, so Aggie called the healthy children indoors to bake cookies in the kitchen, while the rest had an hour of sunshine and freedom to run. None of the children with the pox were quite as energetic as usual, but soon squeals and giggles erupted in the front yard.

  Once the cookie sheets were covered in cookies, Aggie carried the bowl down to the basement. “Want some chocolate chip cookie dough before it’s all gone?”

  “Thanks. Just a second.” He finished measuring a section of the floor and made a note of the measurement. As he turned to accept the bowl, a strange look came over his face. “Um, Mibs?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Better check a mirror.”

  Though she knew what his words meant, nothing could have prepared her for the sight she found in the little powder room mirror. “I look like I have acne!”

  “It’s just a few spots. They’ll go away, and unlike acne, they don’t come back.” Luke’s words were anything but helpful.

  “Gee, thanks.” She rubbed the back of her neck, finding more in that unconscious gesture. “No wonder I’m so tired.”

  Luke shooed her upstairs, dialing his mother as they went. “Go take one of Mom’s prescribed baths, use the calamine, and then if you’re still tired, take a nap. I’ll send Tina up with something to drink and snacks.”

  “She’s going to kill us, you know. We assured her we could handle things today.”

  Grinning, Luke pointed to the next flight of stairs. “Go. Besides, she won’t kill us. She’ll just scold. Mothers like to do that.”

  “Not all moms. I personally despise it.”

  A strange look hovered in Luke’s eyes. “I know you do, Mibs. Honestly, no mom likes to scold or reprove her child, but good moms do it because it’s best for the kid.”

  Halfway up the stairs, Aggie called back down, “Well, you’ll have to do the switcheroo. I can’t tell if they’re getting overtired from up here.”

  “Oh, Aggie. Rest, woman!”

  She did an about-face and took the steps back down two at a time. “Why? Why can you see something I’m doing right, and all William can see is how pathetic I am?”

  “Oh, Mibs. I don’t think he thinks you’re pathetic. Inexperienced maybe, but you are. Maybe in his line of work it’s hard to look past that inexperience and see the actual success or something.”

  “He’s mad at me again.”

  A familiar twist to Luke’s lips told her he found that highly amusing. “Well, it wouldn’t be a normal week around here if he wasn’t, now would it? What horrible thing have you done now?”

  She sank to the third step, rested her chin in her hands, and sighed. “He was here wondering why your mom and Tina weren’t here with me, saying that I probably shouldn’t be alone with all these sick kids, and I got snippy. He’s always telling me how everything is too much. I know he doesn’t have a clue how often, but it’s wearying.”

  “I can see that.” In true Luke style, he said nothing else.

  “Well, I snapped at him, he asked what my problem was, and I was ready to let him have it, but…”

  “It’s hard to blast a friend sometimes, isn’t it?”

  “Oh, no, it would have been easy if I hadn’t seen his face. I hurt him. So, I apologized and tried to explain what the problem was.”

  “Well, that was good. This time you got to apologize when he was here. That’s improvement.” Luke sounded like he was grasping at straws.

  “Yeah. I guess. He just reminded me of the two times he had something positive to say as if that should eradicate the dozens of other comments. It hurt more than the first words.”

  She saw something she’d rarely seen in Luke. Anger. The man nearly had steam coming from his flaring nostrils. “That’s just wrong--manipulative, really. I hate that kind of thing.”

  “You don’t think it was a little justified?”

  Luke shook his head. “I do not. You don’t whip a woman with the words you think she should want to hear--particularly when she’s already struggling. I thought better of him.” His jaw worked as Luke struggled to control his irritation. “I suppose he’s probably really busy at work or something”

  “I think he was looking for more information on Douglas Stuart. I don’t think they know anything about him yet. Geraldine probably didn’t bother to tell them when she found him.”

  She stood, shook off her skirt, and turned to go upstairs, but Luke reached out to take her arm and stopped her. “I know William is impressed with all you do and have accomplished. I think--” He swallowed hard. “I think maybe it’s part of his ‘fix it’ mentality.” Aggie tried not to shake him as she waited for his next words. “He wants to solve problems and make ‘traffic flow smoothly’ so to speak.” It was easier to wait once his comforting words had a chance to soak into her soul. “He sees what would overwhelm him and projects that onto you.”

  “Should I try to apologize again?”

  “No. You apologized. He was also in the wrong. Pushing him to accept yours will likely make things worse.”

  “Ugh. I need worse like I need more pox on my face.”

  Luke laughed and gave her a gentle shove back up the stairs. “Now that can probably be arranged.”

  ~*~*~*~

  A hand gently shook her from her dreams. “Aggie, c’mon, wake up. There’s a guy here about the kids.”

  “A--what?”

  “A guy. He says that Kenzie, Tavish, and Ellie are all truant.”

  Her head swam. “Ok, let me go to the bathroom, and I’ll be right down.”

  Truant made no sense. She’d kept the children out of school at the decision of the principal. Unable to think clearly, she crept into the bathroom, shook two aspirin from the bottle in the open medicine cabinet, grabbed a handful of water from the tap to chase it down, and then stumbled downstairs without bothering to close the cabinet--again.

  Tina gave her a funny look, but Aggie’s attention was trained on the pleasant faced man sitting in “her” spot on the couch. “Hello, I’m Aggie Milliken, and you are…”

  “Tim Rouse.” The man stood to shake her hand. “Pleased to meet you, but I am sorry to wake you. I’m sure this is just some clerical mix up. It usually is.”

  “I don’t understand. My friend spoke to Principal Beaudine on Tuesday of last week and Monday of this week. Both times he said not to bring the children to school.”

  Mr. Rouse was already dialing a phone number. “Sara, can I have Wes please. It’s Tim.” He listened for a minute. “Um, Stuart.” Several seconds passed as he waited for something on the other end of the line. “That’s why I need to speak to Wes. I have them down as having five consecutive unexcused absences, but the guardian says Wes told them to keep the kids out of the school due to--” he took a second glance at Aggie’s face and choked, “Chicken pox.”

  Her eyes rolled before she could order them to behave in a mature fashion. Tim Rouse’s attempts to control his amusement were strangled at best
. “Hey, Wes. I’m out at the Stuart household in Brant’s Corners. I’m speaking with…” his eyes begged for her name again.

  “Aggie Milliken.”

  “--Aggie Milliken who says you told her to keep the children out of school while they recovered from the chicken pox, but she’s on my list, obviously.”

  Tim’s eyes mimicked Aggie’s roll perfectly. “Wes, you gotta start giving Sara the memo on these things. She can’t do her job if you don’t do yours. All right. Bye.”

  “Sorry ‘bout that. All the principals tend to get busy and forget to let their office managers in on little things like attendance excuses and such, but Wes is the worst. He said to tell you that if it’ll be another week, you need a doctor’s excuse.”

  “I have to take the kids to the doctor to prove they have chicken pox?”

  The man shrugged, signed a paper, and stuffed it in his leather folder. “That’s what he said.”

  “I have to take sick kids into a clinic and expose them to all kinds of other kids, just because some principal thinks he needs a signature from a guy with a boatload of student loans?” Aggie’s voice rose with each word.

  “If you’d rather decline, I suggest calling the office, but I’ll probably end up back out here to tell you that you’re going to have to tell it to a judge if you don’t.” He smiled. “Sorry. I agree it’s ridiculous, but the principal is just doing his job. Two full weeks of unexcused absences really do need to be substantiated or parents could just keep their kids home whenever they didn’t feel like getting up on time in the morning.”

  His words swam in her head as she escorted him to the door, shut it behind her, and sank to the floor, her back to it. “I can’t believe they can do that.”

  “Well, they can’t. Not once you turn in your ‘notice of intent.’ Then their involvement is gone.” Tina stood, hands on hips, and shook her head at Aggie. “You know, that Tim was a nice enough guy, but this whole thing just bothers me.”

  “It’s the kind of thing the GIL would use against me too.”

  Luke came up the stairs wiping his hands on a rag. “Did I hear William?”