Forever Yours

by Ruth Ann Nordin

  Tom released the brake, and the wagon moved forward. The girls ended up doing most of the talking on the way to Dave’s parents’ farm. Patricia and Erin were talking about what they were learning to sew and cook. Daisy piped in once in a while to mention the things she liked to play with, to which Patricia and Erin would whisper that she was still a baby so she still liked toys. Nelly and Tom were lost in a world of their own as they discussed the harvest coming up in a couple of months.

  Dave and Isaac stayed quiet for the most part. Neither knew the first thing about the things Patricia and Erin were telling them, and, though Dave would never come out and say it, he had no desire to learn them, either. He was grateful Mary did them without giving him the details.

  Once Patricia and Erin were done talking about sewing and cooking, they went on to discuss how they all liked to style their hair. After that, they rambled on about how cute, ugly, or silly the boys at their school looked. During these topics, Tom and Nelly joined in, with Tom encouraging them to be very selective when picking a future husband.

  Dave breathed a sigh of relief when Tom pulled the wagon to a stop in front of his parents’ home. He had no idea his two nieces could talk so much. He rubbed his temples as they got out of the wagon.

  “I should have sat with Uncle Tom and Nelly,” Isaac muttered. “At least, they had something interesting to talk about.”

  Isaac stood up and climbed out of the wagon. As soon as his feet landed on the grass, Daisy was waiting for him.

  “You want to play this now?” Daisy asked, showing him the sticks in her hand.

  “Why not?” Isaac replied then followed her into the house.

  Tom went around to the back of the wagon. “Are you ready to get out, Dave?”

  Dave retrieved his crutch and nodded. “How do you do it, Tom?” he asked as he scooted over to his brother. “How do you put up with a house full of girls?”

  Tom laughed. “I love it. They’ll come up and tell you anything, and they’re always encouraging.”

  Dave put his arm around Tom’s shoulders and let him help him down. He supposed having grown up with Joel always picking on him, Tom benefited from having a group of children who adored him. There was no doubt they enjoyed being around their father.

  Dave tucked the crutch under his arm. Now he understood why Tom allowed his wagon to be painted pink. It reminded him of how much his girls loved him.

  Dave glanced around the yard and saw that Sally and her family, Jenny and her family, and Joel and his family had already arrived. Joel had even talked his twenty-year-old brother-in-law, Sep, into coming. At the moment, Sep was playing fetch with the dog. The only ones missing were Richard and his family.

  “Are Richard and Amanda coming today?” Dave asked.

  “I think so,” Tom replied. “Jessica said something about a newspaper article about him.”

  “Richard’s in the paper?”

  “I haven’t seen anything,” Tom began, “but Jessica said when she talked with Margaret last week, it sounded like her husband, Joseph, was adding an article about Richard in an upcoming edition. Joseph recently got promoted to be the editor of the entire paper. Jessica went over to celebrate with Margaret about it.”

  “What’s the article about?”

  Tom shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  No one in the family had ever been in the newspaper before. “Well, if they were celebrating, then it’s something good, right?”

  “Of course. Jessica was all smiles about it. Besides, since when has Richard ever done anything bad?”

  That was a good point. Dave turned his attention to Mary as she approached him with Adam still in her arms. Rachel had already left to play with Emma and Laura.

  “Did you hear anything about Richard being in the newspaper?” Dave asked.

  “Jessica mentioned it on the way here.” She put her free arm around his waist and helped him over to the porch. “She thinks Amanda might bring it out today.”

  “What is it about?”

  “The article is about how he started with nothing when he came to Omaha and made something of himself. Jessica said she even ran into Maureen and Connie while she was in town, and they found the story very inspiring.”

  “They did?” Dave asked.

  “As you know, they’re starting a business with the food they’re cooking.”

  He briefly remembered Mary mentioning something about that. She set Adam down and then helped Dave up the porch steps.

  “Anyway,” Mary continued, “I’m happy for Richard and Amanda. I think it’s wonderful he got mentioned in the paper. I asked Jessica for a copy.”

  Once they reached the nearest chair, Mary took the crutch and he sat down.

  “Do you want me to bring you anything to drink?” she asked him as she picked Adam back up into her arms.

  “I’d like that, thanks,” he replied.

  After a few seconds of silence, Joel ran over to him. “How’s the leg doing?”

  “It doesn’t look that much different than it did before.”

  “It takes bones time to settle back into place and heal.” Joel pulled up a chair across from him. “While I’m here, I might as well check it.”

  Dave wasn’t sure he wanted Joel to remove the splint and bandages while everyone else was around. “Can’t we do this later?”

  “There’s no better time than when we’re already together.” Joel gently propped the leg up in the chair then began removing the splint. “I might be busy with another patient in a couple of days when I’m due to check on you.”

  Dave glanced at the others in the yard. So far, no one seemed to notice him. “Alright, but make it quick. I don’t want others to start gathering around to see what a broken leg looks like.”

  “Why not? It would be educational.”

  “I don’t want to be the reason they get educated.”

  Joel rolled his eyes. “Everyone here is a part of the family. It’s not like I’m showing this in front of a bunch of strangers. I’ve done that with one of my other patients.”

  “You showed one of your patient’s injuries to a group of strangers?”

  “I was asked to be a part of a medical convention, and one of my patients who lost two fingers in an accident was willing to show them how well he had healed. The person next to him during the harvest got too close to him with a reaper.”

  Dave tried not to shiver, but he did anyway.

  “Exactly,” Joel said. “All you have is a broken leg that is in the process of healing. That poor man will never get those two fingers back. You should be grateful.”

  “I am grateful. I just don’t see why we have to do this here.”

  But there was no point in arguing. Joel already had the splint off and was removing the bandages.

  “I want to see! I want to see!” came Erin’s voice.

  Dave groaned as Erin ran up to the porch, followed by most of the other children. “Great,” he muttered. “Are you happy?”

  Joel shook his head. “Don’t be such a baby. It’s only your leg they’re going to see.”

  Dave crossed his arms and watched as almost every child, who’d been playing only moments ago, was trying to get a glimpse of his leg.

  Joel removed the last of the bandages and smiled. “I have good news. You’re healing nicely. You just might get to walk on your leg in two weeks.”

  Forgetting the others around them, Dave asked, “Two weeks?”

  “Don’t get too excited,” Joel replied. “You’ll have to take it easy. Your leg will be weak. You can’t go running around the property right away. You’ll need to take it slow. Maybe use a cane for a while so that you don’t put too much pressure on it. Only walk to the barn once a day. Your body will let you know if you need to rest. If you get tired or start to hurt, sit down.”

  “His leg doesn’t look bad,” Erin commented in disappointment.

  “You didn’t see it when Dave broke it,” Joel told her. “You could actuall
y see the bone poking against his skin at an odd angle.”

  Patricia gasped and leaned forward in interest. “You could?”

  Joel nodded. “It was gross. When the bone broke, it snapped like a large tree branch.” Joel put his hands together and then separated them as he made a large snapping sound. “Only a part of it was still intact. The other part was pressing right up against the skin like a person’s head when they’re trying to get a blanket off of them.”

  “Was there blood everywhere?” Patricia asked.

  “No, but there was some bruising. See?” He gestured to the bruises still on Dave’s leg. “They’re yellow now. Yellow is good. It means he’s on the mend. However,” he added after a pause, “now that I think about it, there was some blood from where his leg skidded along the ground. You can see the scabs along here.” He pointed to the superficial wounds on Dave’s leg. “Your uncle must have rolled a few times after he fell.”

  “Well, I was on an incline,” Dave spoke up.

  “That’s why he had the blood,” Joel told Patricia. “Trust me, it’s good you weren’t there to see it. You would have had nightmares for weeks. I’m just glad the bone wasn’t actually poking out of his skin. That would have been way worse.”

  “Did you ever see a bone poking out of someone’s skin?” Erin asked.

  “A couple of times. Once was when a man broke his arm as he was lassoing a cow. He misjudged where the cow was running and lassoed the fence post instead. It sent him off the horse and rammed him right into the post.”

  “Wow,” Erin said, her eyes wide with shock.

  “How could he miss the cow?” Nelly asked.

  Joel wrapped the bandages around Dave’s leg. “His vision wasn’t doing him any favors. He needed glasses. Thankfully, he finally got a pair.” He paused and turned his attention to the children. “If you ever start to see things that are blurry, tell your parents to take you to Mr. Hardwick. He knows how to get a person’s vision just right.”

  “Can I touch Uncle Dave’s leg?” Jeremy, who’d been quiet up to now, asked.

  “No,” Dave answered for Joel. Like he wanted the group of kids around them to start touching his leg as if it was some kind of pet.

  Joel offered the boy a sympathetic smile. “His leg is still mending. I’m sure it’s still sore.”

  “I don’t see what’s so great about it,” Greg finally said. “It looks like any other leg.”

  “That’s how it’s supposed to look now that Uncle Joel is fixing it,” Erin told him with her hands on her hips. “He does a good job of healing people.”

  “Yeah,” Nora added. “My pa can fix anybody.”

  The dog started barking, so Dave peered around the nearest kid. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the carriage. “Richard and Amanda are here with Tony, Mark, and Annabelle. Why don’t you tell them all about my leg?”

  As he hoped, the children ran for the carriage.

  Joel shook his head. “Sometimes you’re so grumpy.”

  “I’m not grumpy,” Dave said. “I just don’t want everyone hovering around me like I’m a novelty.”

  “Children are curious. You can’t blame them for that.” Joel finished with the bandages and started putting the splint on. “You were a child once. Don’t you remember being curious about the world and how everything worked?”

  “When I was a child, I didn’t need to see a broken leg to be impressed.”

  “Work is good for you, Dave. You’re grumpy when all you do is sit around the house all day.”

  Mary came back out with a glass of lemonade and gave it to Dave.

  Joel finished with the splint and stood up. “I have good news for you, Mary. Your grumpy husband will stop loafing around the farm in two weeks. His leg is almost as good as new.”

  “Joel, you need to check this out!” April called out from where she stood next to Amanda who was handing out copies of the newspaper.

  Joel headed on down the porch, and Mary sat by Dave.

  “You can take off the splint in two weeks?” Mary asked.

  Glad she chose not to dwell on the fact that Joel had called him grumpy, Dave nodded. “Yep, and I’m looking forward to it. I’m tired of sitting around all the time.”

  She rubbed his shoulder as he took a drink of the lemonade. “I know it hasn’t been easy for you to stay on the porch for the past month, but your patience has paid off. You don’t have to wait a full other month before you can take the splint off.”

  He set the glass in his lap. “I am looking forward to that, but apparently, I have to take it easy. I can’t do all of the chores right away. He said I should start with one trip to the barn and see how it goes from there.”

  “It makes sense that you can’t get back up as if nothing happened. When I had the children, I wasn’t able to run around the house like I normally do.”

  When she put it like that, he didn’t feel quite so frustrated. The truth was, he had hoped he could get right back into his work. He was so sick and tired of doing nothing all day. Going to the barn once a day was better than what he was currently doing.

  Mary kissed his cheek. “It’ll be alright. Just be glad you didn’t break your neck when you fell off of Jack. Things could have been a lot worse.”

  “That’s true.”

  “I’d rather have you here with us.” She gave him another kiss. “Do you want to stay out here? I told your mother I’d go in and help with supper.”

  “I’ll stay out here.” Now that everyone was no longer interested in his leg, he didn’t feel awkward.

  She pulled up the small table to the chair. “When you’re done with the lemonade, I’ll get the glass.”

  He thanked her and then took another drink of the lemonade as she went back into the house.

  Chapter Seven

  “I can’t believe we have someone famous in our family,” Tom said during supper.

  “Believe it,” eighteen-year-old Mark replied. “A reporter in Chicago heard about the article in the paper, and he wants to come out here to interview my father and me.”

  Mark’s twin brother, Tony, looked up from the fried chicken he was eating. “The reporter doesn’t want to interview you. He only wants to interview our father.”

  “I’m a part of the business,” Mark replied. “I might not have created it, but I’m helping to construct buildings.”

  Tony rolled his eyes. “You’ve only been working at Larson Construction Company for two months.”

  “Two months is better than no months,” Mark said.

  “Boys, that’s enough,” Richard told them. “It’s just a newspaper article, and the Chicago reporter only wants to do an article in a magazine. You’re making a bigger deal of this than it really is.”

  “You’ve always been humble,” Dave’s father began, “but you should be honored. With the exception of Rick, no one’s been asked about their jobs.”

  Sally, who was sitting next to Rick, took the opportunity to say, “That was a big deal, too. Rick had to preside over a trial where a man was accused of murdering several people. You remember that, don’t you?” she asked Rick.

  Rick chuckled. “I was there during the trial, so I hope I do.”

  Sally gave him a playful swat on the arm. “Oh, you know what I mean. That was five years ago, and you handled the whole thing beautifully. I saved that article. I keep it in my jewelry box. I like to take it out and read it from time to time.”

  “We know,” Joel spoke up. “You tell us this a couple times a year.”

  “Did you read the article about Richard?” Dave’s father asked Dave.

  Dave nodded. “I read it before I came in here to eat.”

  “Jessica told us Maureen Brown and Connie James suggested the idea,” Dave’s father said. “It was that day Mary was in town with Sally and Jenny.”

  “Pa, I’m always in town,” Sally replied. “I live there.”

  “I think he was mostly talking about Mary,” Joel said.

  “M
ary was there when Maureen and Connie talked to us, but I was the one who asked if Jessica would propose the idea to Margaret since Margaret’s married to the editor of the newspaper. The article might not even exist if it hadn’t been for me.”

  Turning to April, Joel said, “See what I mean? No matter what it is, Sally ends up making the topic about her.”

  Sally gasped. “I do not!”

  “Kids, stop fighting,” Dave’s father said. “You’re at the adult table. If you keep it up, I’ll send you to eat with the children.” He looked across the table at Dave’s mother. “You’d think that since they have children of their own, they would behave.”

  “Your pa’s right,” Dave’s mother spoke up. “If you continue, we have a few chores we’ll make you do while you’re here.” She glanced between Sally and Joel. “I seem to remember how much you two hated mucking out stalls.”

  Sally grimaced, but it was Joel who said, “I am a doctor. I save people’s lives for a living. You can’t make me go into the barn and clean out stalls.”

  Dave shook his head. Ever since Joel could speak, it seemed like he didn’t know when to stop. Joel was just asking for trouble.

  As Dave suspected, his father glared at Joel. “When you’re in this house, you live by my rules. I don’t care what you do for a living. You still have to mind your manners around here. After you eat, you’re going to the stalls.”

  “Ha ha, Joel,” Jenny called out. “You always did know how to get into trouble.”

  Dave’s father turned his gaze to her.

  Jenny’s eyes grew wide. “What? I didn’t argue with Sally.”

  “You don’t need to give your brother a hard time,” Dave’s father replied.

  “I’m glad I get to clean stalls with Sep,” Joel said. “It’ll give us a chance to find out what’s new at his farm.”

  Sep, who’d been minding his own business, asked, “Did you just volunteer me to serve your punishment with you?”

  Joel put his hand on his chest. “I’m shocked you would suggest such a thing. April’s been worried about you ever since she and I moved to town. You can tell me everything that’s happening to you while we’re in the barn. Then I can set her mind at ease.” He gestured to April. “You’ll be doing this for her.”