by Zoe Matthews
Anna breathed out a harsh sigh when she heard these words and sat back hard against her seat. She felt so nervous. Her entire future was going to be decided in the next few hours, and she was starting to feel terrified. She had found out that the Carvers were hoping that all the orphans would be taken in by families in this specific town. What if no one wanted her? What if Serena and Katrina found homes and she didn’t? What if someone who was mean took her? She had heard that if there were children that were not placed, they would be taken back to the orphanage. What if that happened to her?
She faintly noticed Serena and Katrina gathering their things and then taking some younger children on their laps. Serena had a little girl who had a crippled leg near her named Grace, and Katrina was holding a small baby girl. Anna shook her head to clear it and then checked to make sure the girl she had been helping with was ready to get off the train. The little girl, Mary, softly whimpered and she leaned against Anna for comfort. Anna slipped her arm around her.
It had been a very long trip. There were 18 children and they had been traveling for over a week. They slept on the train in their seats and only got off the train when it stopped in stations where it would stay for a few hours. When this happened, all the children would get off and walk around to stretch their legs, while one of the adults would try to purchase food. Anna knew that it was hard to find enough food to feed them all and that was inexpensive enough to purchase. There was a few times when they were able to buy vegetables from local farmers, along with some milk, and once they even were able to have some cheese, but they mostly ate bread and butter sandwiches.
Anna felt the train slow down and then stop. Mr. Carver ordered all the children to stay seated until the other passengers had left the train. Then Mrs. Carver led the children off the train and had them stand in a group on the platform of the train station. Mr. Carver counted heads and then instructed all the children to follow him, as he was going to take them to a hotel to wait until it was time to go to Maple Grove’s town hall.
She looked around the town as she walked, holding Mary’s hand. Maple Grove was a lot smaller than New York. If she looked down the street past all the buildings, she could see the end of it, and then there were just fields. She was amazed at all the space. In New York where she had lived in the orphanage, all she could ever see were buildings and more buildings.
“Are you as scared as I am?” Katrina asked Anna as she walked beside her with Serena just behind them.
“Probably,” Anna confessed. “I sure hope this works out.”
“It will,” Serena said confidently. She still was very excited for her new family. It was all she talked about the entire trip.
****
A few hours later, Mr. Carver led the children into the town hall. Anna noticed that chairs had been placed in rows for people to sit in. She followed everyone to a stage and all the children sat down on chairs that had been placed on the stage.
After everyone sat down, a man stood up and introduced Mr. Carver. Then Mr. Carver stood up and made a long speech, but Anna stopped listening after the first few sentences. She looked around at all the people sitting in the chairs. Did everyone here want to adopt one of them? There were so many people. She saw one woman point to one of the children and whisper to the man beside her. She watched as some people came in the room late and sat in the back. She noticed a woman with a fancy hat fanning herself as if she were very hot. Anna tried not to laugh when she saw a blue bird in the woman’s hat nestled with colorful flowers and large feathers around the bird. The woman nodded and started to whisper to another woman who was sitting next to her and her hat bobbed up and down as she moved.
Anna felt a hand slip into her own and saw that it was Serena’s. Maybe Serena was not as confident as she acted. Anna squeezed her hand in reassurance.
Suddenly names started to be called and people came up on the stage. A teenage boy immediately walked up on the stage and bent down to talk to Mary. Another woman took the toddler that was on Katrina’s lap. A well-dressed man and woman talked to Serena, and then moved on to talk to Katrina.
“Young lady, what is your name?” Anna heard a question and looked up. She saw the woman with the bird on her hat standing in front of her.
“Anna,” she whispered, looking down her lap. She then stood up when she remembered the instructions Mrs. Carver gave them about standing when an adult talked to them.
“Anna, do you have a last name?” the woman asked with a no-nonsense tone of voice.
She nodded. “Blake. My name is Anna Blake,” she said louder, trying to sound confident.
“And your age?”
“I’m 12 years old, ma’am.”
Anna kept looking down, hoping the woman would talk to another child. The woman continued to stand there, studying her very intently, looking her up and down as she did so.
“Well, child, I am prepared to offer you a home. My name is Mrs. Estelle Davis and that is my husband over there, Mr. Charles Davis.” She waved her hand towards a man standing behind her. “We own a general store, and we will expect you to work in it, but you will be able to go to school and church. Is that acceptable to you?”
Anna hesitated. Did she really want to find a family who wanted her to work? It probably didn’t matter where she lived. She had been working all her life and she was not afraid of hard work. If she refused this offer, it might be her only one.
She looked to see if Serena and Katrina were still nearby and she saw that both of them had left the stage with their new families.
“Well, answer me,” Mrs. Davis demanded. “Do you want to come with us or not?”
The man standing behind her, Mr. Davis, stepped up to stand beside his wife. “We have children, but they are all on their own now, raising their own families. It would be nice to have a child in the home again.”
Anna looked into the man’s eyes and saw that they were kind. She instantly knew she had an ally in Mr. Davis.
“We would like you to help in our store, but I promise we won’t work you too hard,” Mr. Davis explained.
“My… my friends are being adopted by those people,” Anna stammered as she pointed to them standing by Mrs. Carver’s table while their new families signed papers. “Can I still be friends with them and spend time with them?”
Mrs. Davis started to respond, but her husband interrupted. “Of course. You probably will go to school together and will see each other at church. They are being taken in by fine families.”
Anna looked at Mr. Davis square in the eyes. “Then I will come live with you and I will do my best to help you in your store.”
Mr. Davis nodded his pleasure and Mrs. Davis grunted. “Well, let’s get the papers signed. We need to get back to the store. We had to close it to come get you.”
Anna followed Mr. and Mrs. Davis off the stage and waited while they signed the paperwork. Mrs. Carver made sure Anna felt good about going with Mr. and Mrs. Davis and then let them know a representative from the orphanage would be checking on the children a few times in the next year to make sure everything was going well.
After the papers were signed, Anna followed her new family out of the town hall and down the street. Both Mr. and Mrs. Davis walked very quickly and Anna had to practically run to keep up with them. She felt a little disappointed she couldn’t see more of the new town she was going to be living in, but she reminded herself that she could explore later.
Very quickly, the older couple stopped in front of a gray weathered building and unlocked the door. Mrs. Davis swept inside. Mr. Davis held the door open for Anna to go through before following. Anna heard Mr. Davis tell his wife that he needed to check on the horses in the barn and would be in the store later. He quickly left, but not before smiling at Anna with what she interpreted as encouragement.
Mrs. Davis walked to the back of the store into a small room that looked to be an office, and Anna followed, although she wanted to look around the store. She had been in stores before in New York,
although this one was different. From what she could tell, there were all sorts of things for sell. There were different types of food, fresh and canned, bolts of fabric, sewing supplies, farm equipment, and many other things.
“I will show you where you are going to sleep later. Just put your belongings there on that chair,” Mrs. Davis ordered, and Anna obeyed.
“I am sure we are going to get customers soon, so I will have to show you what to do later. For now, you can dust some shelves.”
Mrs. Davis picked up a few rags and gave them to her. Anna stood there, not sure what she was supposed to do, and Mrs. Davis sighed.
“I am going to have to show you everything, aren’t I? I guess you didn’t learn how to dust in the orphanage.”
Anna in fact had dusted, but she didn’t dare say what she wanted to say. She was sure dusting shelves in this store would be different than dusting the few empty shelves they had at the orphanage. She watched closely while Mrs. Davis quickly showed her how to remove some of the items on a shelf, dust the area and the items, and then replace them.
A bell rang and Mrs. Davis looked up as a woman and her little girl walked into the store. “I need to help Mrs. Anderson. You just keep dusting.”
Anna sighed silently to herself and started on her new chore, trying not to let the tears fall. Having a family was sure different from what she thought it would be. But at least she was living in the same town as Katrina and Serena. She would be able to see them at school and church and that thought made her feel a little better about her new situation.
CHAPTER 3
8 Years Later
Anna was in the General Store working, as usual. She had learned not to mind the work so much. It was definitely a good place to keep track of what was going on around Maple Grove. Mrs. Davis was considered the town gossip and she made sure Anna knew everything that she found out about everyone else. In Mrs. Davis’ mind, if there wasn’t something to say about a person, that person wasn’t worth knowing.
Living with Mr. and Mrs. Davis had not been awful, but it hadn’t turned out like she had wished either. Mr. Davis was always kind to her, but he never interfered with the way Mrs. Davis raised her. He felt that since she was a girl, Mrs. Davis knew more about such things than he did. The few times he did step in were when Anna wanted to meet with Serena and Katrina. School had ended for them a few years ago, so the three of them tried to spend every Sunday afternoon together after the church service. Sometimes Mrs. Davis would try to stop her, saying she needed some extra help in the store, but Mr. Davis would step in and allow Anna to go. She felt grateful that Mr. Davis understood how important it was that she stayed in touch with her friends.
All three of the girls ended up living in very different homes than what they expected. Katrina was taken in by the mayor of Maple Grove and his wife. They had never had children before and Katrina was given everything she ever wanted. She sometimes would share her new things with Anna and Serena when she could get away with it. Katrina had been sent away to receive her teaching certificate after she graduated from the town school and she had been gone for two years, but she was back now. She had received a teaching position at the town school with the younger children.
Serena had been taken in by a family who owned a bakery. They had had three young girls at the time and took her in for extra help with the girls while the wife helped her husband in their store. Two more children had been added to the family and Serena was essentially the nanny.
Anna started cleaning a small round table that was set up by a wood stove. Elderly men would sometimes come in and sit next to the stove for warmth and to play checkers. She noticed some newspapers scattered on one of the chairs and started to straighten them and put them on the round table where they belonged, checking the dates to make sure they were the most current ones.
Maple Grove had a small newspaper that was published weekly, but they also received larger newspapers from cities and towns nearby. These newspapers were usually a week old by the time they got them, but the people who read them did not mind. They just wanted to stay as current as they could in the events that went on around the country.
As Anna straightened a newspaper called “The Stargazer,” she noticed an ad. It was from a company called The Maid Order Bride Association. Under those words were printed, “Men in Western United States Looking for Women Who Would Like To Share Their Life.”
Anna gasped in amazement. She looked around quickly to see where Mrs. Davis was and she saw that the older woman had left the room and was in the back office. Anna quickly ripped out the ad from the paper and put it in her apron pocket to read later.
While she worked that day, her mind was on the ad in her pocket. Why would a man want to advertise for a wife? Were there men in the United States who lived in a place like she did, where there weren’t many prospects? There were a few young men her age that lived in Maple Grove, but most of the boys she went to school with had left the town for education or for jobs in the larger cities. When she was 16, she had a crush on the preacher’s son, but he had left for school to become a preacher himself a few years ago. Anna had learned from Mrs. Davis that he had decided to accept a church in a small town in Ohio. This boy had not even known Anna had secretly liked him.
Anna wished she could find some time to look at the ad, but did not dare to bring it out while she was working in the store. Her curiosity would have to wait until she was in her small room above the store for the night.
****
A few days later, Anna sat on a park bench after church with Serena and Katrina. Every week, after church, the three girls went to a nearby city park when weather permitted to catch up on each other’s lives. It was now early March and was a little cool, but getting warmer. Anna couldn’t wait to tell her friends about the ad, but she waited until the three of them told each other about the past week.
“Look what I found in one of the newspapers in the store the other day,” Anna finally said as she pulled the ad out of her dress pocket and smoothed the paper as best she could. She had read it so many times the last few days, it was getting worn at the creases.
Serena took the paper and started to read it, with Katrina looking over her shoulder. “Mail order bride?” Serena questioned. “What is that?”
“Evidently, there are men who live in the west who want a wife, but there aren’t many available women where they live, so they send ads to papers like The Stargazer. This ad has been placed through an official company that helps match men with women.”
“Sounds fishy to me,” Katrina stated. “Why would a woman want to marry a man she had never met?”
“I guess there are some women who are willing,” Anna responded and took a deep breath for her next words. “I want to send in a response to this ad.”
“Are you crazy?” Katrina almost yelled. “What if you end up with an old man? Someone with gray hair and no teeth?”
“I doubt that would happen, Katrina,” Anna answered her friend dryly. “I am sure the agency screens the men who advertise, and anyway, I can request exactly what kind of man I want to marry.”
“What if you marry the man, and then he is abusive to you?” Serena asked quietly. “You really won’t know the man until after you are married.”
“The ad says that I can write letters to the man as long as I need to. I can also change my mind, even if it is at the last minute.”
“How will you pay to get out to where the man lives?” Katrina asked.
“The man pays for everything. I won’t need to pay for anything. They send money for the train fare, food and sometimes even a little money for traveling clothes.”
“Anna, why do you want to do this?” Katrina asked. “We have tried so hard to stay together. Now you want to leave us behind?”
“Are things not very good with Mr. and Mrs. Davis? Is it getting worse?” Serena asked her.
“Not any more than usual,” Anna responded. “I just know I don’t want to work at the store for the re
st of my life and it is looking like that is what could happen. Mrs. Davis even resents my time meeting you both on Sundays. I appreciate them taking me in. I am glad I was able to get out of the orphanage. I just want a different life than I have. I’m afraid if I don’t take this opportunity, it might pass me by, and I will be stuck working in the store forever.”
Serena squeezed Anna’s hand in sympathy. She understood even more than Katrina about having a life where she just worked for others and not having a life of her own.
“I have already written a reply letter to the ad,” Anna explained and pulled out a sealed letter. “I was wondering if you could mail it for me, Serena, and I could use your address instead of mine. I am not going to tell Mr. and Mrs. Davis what I am doing. If Mrs. Davis knew, she would do everything she could to stop me. And who knows? I might not like any of the men who are looking for wives through this agency, anyway.” But even as she said the words, she hoped deep down this would not be the case.
