For Keeps (Aggie's Inheritance)

by Havig, Chautona

  Once she had everyone seated in the library, Aggie was sure things would go much smoother. She handed Kenzie, Cari, and Lorna pictures to color, and told the others to read Proverbs twenty-nine. Confident that everyone was occupied, Aggie went over Vannie’s assignments with her. In the middle of the “meeting,” Aggie’s cell phone buzzed in her pocket, but she ignored it.

  “Aunt Aggie, why don’t you answer the phone?”

  “We’re discussing your lessons. I can’t stop every time the phone rings.”

  “But what if it’s Gramma Millie or Aunt Tina?”

  “They’ll leave a message.” Aggie knew better than to let herself become sidetracked. “Ok, so take my laptop upstairs and if you have questions, come get me.”

  With Vannie dispatched, Aggie moved to help Laird, but found Kenzie done coloring the picture and Cari and Lorna building log houses out of the crayons. “Ok, Cari and Lorna. Why don’t you go find your dolls or your Duplos or something?”

  The girls dashed upstairs, making a racket sure to elicit a cry of protest from Vannie, but all was silent. For a moment, Aggie considered checking in on them, certain something must be wrong if Vannie wasn’t demanding the girls hush, but Kenzie started doodling on her paper, obviously lost in her own world. Aggie pulled the math workbook she’d purchased from the shelf and a pencil from the holder on the desk. “Ok, so you have three pages of math to do. It should be easy enough, since it’s review of the work you brought home last year. I checked to make sure.”

  A sense of satisfaction washed over her as she saw Laird, Ellie, and Tavish reading their Bibles and Kenzie bent over the workbook, a look of intense concentration on the child’s face. Laird looked up first, closing his Bible as he did. “Is Bible part of our school work?”

  “Well, for now, you’ll be reading a chapter a day. I wanted to start small. Let’s go over your math.” As she explained the day’s and week’s lessons, Aggie had a surreal sense of realizing that this is what she would have been doing all along had she continued with her career in education. Everything seemed to flow together so beautifully that it seemed almost too good to be true.

  Ellie and Tavish accepted their math books without much concern and opened them to the appropriate pages. She gave them assignments, and asked if they had any questions before realizing that Lorna and Cari hadn’t returned. “Someone keep an eye on Ian. I’ll be right back.”

  Aggie dashed upstairs, but didn’t find the girls in their room. She popped her head in Vannie’s room to ask if the girl had seen them and saw Vannie flush with embarrassment and move her hands over the touch pad on the laptop. “Vannie? Is something wrong?”

  “No, I--”

  It was obvious that she was trying to close something out, but being flustered, she had difficulty controlling the unfamiliar touch pad. Aggie took one glance at the screen, and her face fell. “I’m disappointed in you.”

  “I’m sorry, Aunt Aggie. It was open when I opened the laptop and I read the little bit that showed before I realized it.” The girl hung her head. “I scrolled up to read the beginning and then realized what I was doing. I was going to close it out, honest, but then I saw wife and thought maybe you explained why you didn’t want to marry Mr. Markenson.”

  “I didn’t realize that I hadn’t told you that, but regardless, it’s wrong to read other people’s messages. It’s no different than opening someone’s mail without permission.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.” Vannie did look truly miserable.

  “Don’t let it happen again, Vannie. I need to be able to trust you.” Eager to change the subject, Aggie pointed out the door. “Have you seen Cari and Lorna?”

  “I heard them come up a little bit ago, but then they went away again.” She hesitated and then added, “Did Luke ask you to marry him too?”

  “No, Vannie, he didn’t.” She hadn’t intended to elaborate, but the girl’s disappointed face tugged at her conscience. “However, as soon as he thinks I care for him, I believe he will.”

  “But you don’t love him?”

  Aggie shook her head. “Not like he loves me, no.”

  “Two men in one week. I bet that doesn’t happen often.”

  “Well,” Aggie said, deciding to enlighten the girl just a little, “William suggested we marry so that you guys would have a father-type figure around here. He didn’t want to marry me for me. It was chivalrous in a way, but it wasn’t romantic in the least. I actually felt a little insulted.”

  “But Mr. Markenson is so handsome and he’s an officer!”

  “Well, obviously you like men in uniform, but I don’t consider a job and a handsome face to be the best qualifiers for a man.” Her eyes softened at the disappointed look on Vannie’s face. “Besides, Luke isn’t exactly unattractive!” She glanced at the door. “I need to find those girls. Are you doing ok in here?”

  “Yeah.” Vannie swallowed. “I really am sorry, Aunt Aggie.”

  “I understand. That must have been awfully difficult to ignore.”

  With a wave, Aggie went on a twin hunt, searching through all the rooms, the downstairs, and even out into the yard. A giggle from above sent her feet flying through the house and up to her room. There, in her bathroom, her nieces were painting each other with the calamine lotion. “Is this dolls or Duplos?”

  Cari, in a rare moment of penitence, shook her head, tears springing to her eyes. “No. I’s sowwy, Aunt Aggie.”

  “Into the tub. Do not turn on the water, but get undressed and get into the tub. I’ll be right back with clothes.”

  Vannie stuck her head out the door when Aggie thundered down the stairs to retrieve clean clothes. “Do you need some help?”

  “They just decided to finger paint with calamine lotion--all over themselves.”

  “I could give them a bath…”

  For a moment, Aggie almost accepted the offer. Kenzie was probably already done with her work and waiting for her next assignment. Remembering the large amount of work Vannie had ahead of her, Aggie shook her head. “That’s ok. I’m going to give them a quick rinse bath--won’t even fill the tub. You get to work on your assignments.”

  Clothes in arms, Aggie hurried back up the stairs and then down again. “Actually, can you go make sure they’re still watching Ian? Maybe bring him up to play on your floor until I get done? It’ll just be a couple of minutes.”

  “Sure!”

  Aggie hated herself for doing it, but she went back upstairs with her mind unconcerned knowing that Vannie was watching the little guy. She rinsed off the girls, soaped them up, rinsed again, and then examined their hair. It seemed as if it had managed to miss the infusion of calamine, so she shut off the water and wrapped the girls in towels. “Ok, let’s get you dressed and downstairs.”

  She stopped on the second floor to grab Ian, thank Vannie, and supervise the procuring of toys before leading them all to the library. The moment she brought them in, pandemonium erupted. Kenzie dropped her pencil, Ian grabbed it and tried to run, making Aggie lunge to avoid a fall-induced pencil puncture. Cari and Lorna tried to set up their Duplos on the table next to Ellie and Tavish earning them a snarl of protest.

  “Whoa! Ok. This isn’t going to work. Why don’t you guys go work at the dining room table, and I’ll take the little guys into the kitchen?”

  After a shift of possessions from one room to the next, Aggie was sure the work would run smoothly, but when she went to check Kenzie’s progress, she found a blank page. “Why haven’t you done your problems?”

  “You didn’t show me a sample problem. Mrs. Tompkins always showed us a sample problem. We weren’t allowed to do anything until she showed us the sample problem. I was waiting for you and waiting for you.”

  “I told you to do the problems, Kenzie. That means no sample problem.”

  “How am I supposed to know that? All I know is that we’re supposed to wait. That’s what Mrs. Tompkins did!” The child’s voice sounded angry, but Aggie recognized the frustration behind it.<
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  “I’m sorry, Kenzie, but how am I supposed to know how one teacher in one school that I’ve never attended told you something like that? If you’d gone to the school in Brunswick, the teacher there might not have shown you a sample problem on review work either.” Aggie worked one problem with the girl and said, “Now finish the page and next time if I say to do something, you do it how I say to do it, not how you did it before.”

  Ellie grabbed Aggie’s sleeve as she passed and asked for help. Aggie took one look at the girl’s book and nearly snapped at the child. “Ellie, why do you only have five problems done?”

  “I can’t remember how to do these. It says to simplify six plus twenty minus two.”

  “Do you know how to do the fractions on the next box?”

  “Oh, sure! Those are easy.” Ellie beamed. “I just can’t remember if I do twenty six minus two is twenty four or if I do eighteen plus six is twenty-four.”

  “Since the answer is the same, on that problem it doesn’t matter. But usually, you work from left to right. Start with six add the twenty, then subtract the two.” As Ellie picked up her pencil, Aggie stopped her. “Next time, don’t just wait for help. Go on and do what you do know, and when I’m available, I’ll help you.”

  Laird’s work was slow, but appeared to be steady. He’d worked through about eight problems in the half hour she’d been distracted which seemed reasonable considering Ian might have kept him occupied. Tavish was nearly done with his assignment making Aggie wonder if she’d assigned enough work. The number of missed problems might give her insight into the speed. If he missed too many, she’d have to slow him down. He was probably trying to hurry up so he could finish his book. That thought sent her digging through her pocket for her phone.

  Two text messages greeted her. One was from Tina reminding her that the printouts from online were still in the printer unless Aggie had moved them. The other was from Luke letting her know he was praying for her and offering to bring a treat around three o’clock. She sent Tina a message of thanks and started to send one to Luke but stopped. She’d planned to call her father about the L’Amour books, but changed her mind and dialed Luke’s number.

  “Hey, got your message. That’s really nice of you.”

  “I’d be happy to do it.” Luke’s voice soothed the frazzled nerves she’d developed during the events of the morning. “How’s it going?”

  “So far, Murphy has the upper hand.”

  “The lawmaker or the neighbor?”

  “Lawmaker. Right now, the neighbor would be a welcome distraction.” She rubbed her temple, wondering if it was too soon to resort to aspirin. “I was wondering what you know about Louis L’Amour.”

  “Westerns by ‘America’s Storyteller?’”

  “That’s the one. Too mature for Tavish?”

  “I doubt it. There might be a rogue word or two, but they’re clean in the smutual sense.”

  Aggie giggled. “Smutual?”

  “One of Mom’s words. Is L’Amour on the list for Tavish’s schoolwork? Seems a bit advanced for fourth grade.”

  “I found him reading it this morning,” Aggie explained. “I just didn’t know what was in it. Westerns seem like something that can be a little racy, so I wondered. I’ll just tell him to bring it to me if he thinks there’s anything inappropriate for him to read.”

  Luke laughed. “He’ll probably be bringing you a few damnations without the ‘ations.’”

  “Ah, well, I can handle that.” She glanced into the dining room and saw Ian trying to climb into a chair and Tavish waiting for her. “Looks like I’m needed. I’ll see you later then.”

  “Chin up, Mibs.”

  ~*~*~*~

  Luke found her in the back yard playing Mother, May I? with the children. Ian, always trying to join in the children’s fun, copied each of the older children’s steps, clapping his little hands after they told him he did well. Lorna saw Luke first and ran to him squealing. The child threw her arms around his legs and cried, “I missed you, Luke!”

  A lump filled his throat as he knelt down to meet the child’s eyes. “I missed you too.”

  “You didn’t come for days and days and days. It’s been a month!”

  “Not even a week, but thank you.” Luke winked at Aggie from across the yard. “There are cupcakes on the counter! Winner picks first.”

  The players redoubled their efforts to eke out as much space in each “step” as possible. Vannie teased Luke from the swing, protesting that she couldn’t possibly win if she wasn’t playing. “I think you’re playing favorites!”

  Lorna refused to leave Luke’s side. “I’ll pick last.”

  He picked up the girl and brought her to the swing, smiling at Vannie as he sat down. “How’d your first day go?”

  “I have homework. Isn’t that weird? Homework when all the work is at home.”

  “How does that work?”

  “I didn’t get everything done, so Aunt Aggie said I could have until four o’clock, and then I had to go back and finish.”

  “That makes sense,” he agreed. “So, why didn’t you get it done? Was it too difficult?”

  “I just had to get used to watching the DVD, taking notes, stopping, reading the book. It’s just different. I had a hard time concentrating. It’s easy to get distracted when you don’t have a teacher waiting to give you detention for not paying attention in class.”

  “Aaah. That sounds like a learning curve. Is the work difficult?”

  Vannie shook her head. “Not really. I might even like it once I get used to it. Right now, I just miss what was familiar.”

  A squeal erupted from the yard as Kenzie dashed to Luke’s side. “I won! Can I go pick?”

  “Go ahead.”

  Aggie dragged herself up to them looking completely worn to a frazzle. “Vannie, why don’t you go in and get your cupcake and then check and see if you’ll need help on your grammar?”

  The moment the girl rounded the corner, Aggie dropped her head in her hands, clearly willing herself not to cry. “I think William was right.”

  “Oh, Mibs no.” Luke struggled with the desire to comfort her and knowing he didn’t have that right--yet. The hope of a yet kept him from feeling utterly defeated. “It’s the first day. I bet if you talk to most teachers in any school, they’ll tell you their first day, or maybe even week, was frustrating.”

  “Is it horrible that I want to get in my little Beetle convertible, drive home, crawl up onto the couch next to mom, put my head in her lap, and let her stroke my hair and tell me everything will look better tomorrow?”

  “What happened?”

  “Well, no one wanted to get up. They seemed to think life is just one big summer vacation, and school was something they could do when they felt like it. Ian was always into everyone’s stuff, Cari and Lorna decided to finger paint with the calamine lotion, Kenzie can’t fathom school any way but the way ‘Mrs. Tompkins’ did it, and Laird is easily distracted. It took him two and a half hours to do about thirty review problems. Vannie over-thinks every instruction, rewatches each DVD half a dozen times, oh, and she read our conversation from the other night. I think we have some ‘splainin to do Lukey.”

  “Lukey?” He wrinkled his nose in distaste.

  “It’s close to Lucy…”

  He took a deep breath. “What’s for dinner?”

  “What?”

  “What’s for dinner?”

  Aggie stared at him as if he’d lost the little sense he was born with and shrugged. “I don’t know. I was so prepared for breakfast and lunch, but even though I spent most of the day in the kitchen--”

  “Why the kitchen?”

  “I had to move everyone to the dining room so I could put Ian, Cari, and Lorna in the kitchen and living room. Otherwise it was chaos.”

  Luke nodded. “Come with me.”

  He led her downstairs to the basement and glanced around the room. “Ok, what if we rethink the layout. I can shrink the storage room, but
it’d add a lot of work for very little gain. I’m thinking that we move the swings inward a bit so we can add a half wall here as a visual boundary…” Luke outlined a study area between the family room and play area. “This way you have a comfortable spot to help the kids, the little ones have lots to do, and there’s plenty of room to work.” He settled his hands on his hips and waited for her verdict.

  Aggie glanced around the room taking in his suggestions and then nodded. “How long? How long will this take?”

  Luke glanced around him. The floors were done, the walls were done, and he’d have to build the half wall. The play equipment hadn’t been purchased, and he was still working on the built-ins, but it was a lot closer to finished than he thought she expected. “If we get the play equipment tomorrow, I might get it done by the end of the week if I can come early and stay late.”

  “How does that affect your work schedule?” She shook her head. “What am I thinking? I can’t do that to you. We’ll make the dining room work.”

  “I’ll do it, Mibs, but I’m confused.”

  “About what?”

  “Why do you have to use the dining room? Why can’t Laird work in his room where there are no distractions, Ellie and Tavish can work in the library, and you can move Kenzie with you wherever you need to go? If the little ones want to play outside, she can bring her work to the picnic table.”

  That idea had obviously never occurred to her. “Do you think it’s ok to leave them on their own so much?”

  “It’s not like you’re forbidding them from coming to you for help. But if Laird needs no distractions, then put him where there are none.” When he saw Aggie’s uncertain expression, he added, “You could always ask on the email loop Tina found.”

  She glanced around the room again as if assessing the proposed changes once more. “Well, I can also try it while you finish this. I wish I could help, but--”

  “But you can’t. Let me do this for you, Mibs. You have no idea how much it means when I have a chance to do something for you.”