The Village Squire, 1981-08, Page 24Mom was a nurse. Barbara thought it
was dumb that Mom was a nurse and
went to work at the hospital when Papa
got laid off. Ladies stay home, she said.
After the gladiola were all cut Papa was
called back to the plant and Mom stayed
home. Regina was glad.
Barbara's dad was on the night shift
and he cut wood behind their house with
a chain saw. It made a terrible noise all
afternoon and Mom got a headache. Then
the high buzzing stopped and Regina
could hear her mother sigh with relief in
the quiet. When the phone rang it was
loud and sharp. Mom answered and her
voice was fast when she answered, "Put
his leg up. I'll be right there." She took
Regina's hand and they ran across the
yard to Barbara's house. They didn't
knock but walked right into the kitchen.
Barbara's dad was sitting with his leg
on a chair. His pant leg was ripped off
and there was blood on his white leg and
on the floor. Regina looked at Barbara.
She was standing against the wall and her
face was white. Mom tok a towel and
wiped the leg. The blood came off and the
towel was red. Mom took his belt off and
wrapped it around the leg and said, "Call
Mr. Walter. He will drive us to the
hospital and 1 will hold the tourniquet
on."
Barbara's mother rushed to the phone.
"Thank God you're a nurse," she said.
Regina named her new doll Bep after
Tante Bep who had sent her the doll. She
had a blue dress that Oma knitted and her
eyes opened and closed. Barbara said
that Bep was a dumb name. "Don't
care." said Regina.
Regina and John were sent to Piper's
for a day in the fall. Mom and Papa were
going for a trip to look at a farm. Mr.
Piper was cutting corn and the boys
followed him all day but Regina stayed in
the kitchen with Mrs. Piper. She smelled
the different smell of this house and
wondered what a new house would be
like. if it would be warm and clean like
the house they lived in now, or like eggs
and milk and bread baking like Mrs.
Piper's kitchen. or dusty like Barbara's'
house. Mrs. Piper let Regina pound the
bread after it rose to a big mound. but she
had a strange feeling all day and she
didn't know what it was.
She was glad when Mom and Papa
came to pick them up. Their voices were
excited when they told the Piper's about
the farm. It was a small dairy farm, a
good price, a hundred acres. poor
machinery. They put the children's coats
on them while they talked.
"Did you buy a farm Papa?" asked
Regina.
"Not yet, Myske, but we will see."
Mom woke her up in the midle of the
night and carried her to the car. John
was asleep on a mattress on the back seat
and she lay down beside him. Papa drove
and he and Mom talked quietly. Regina
saw the black night and the white lights
of cars going by. There was a truck
behind them and its lights followed them.
She slept for awhile but woke up when
the car stopped. Mom and Papa went into
a cafe for coffee and Regina went with
them while John slept in the back of the
car. The man came out of the truck and
came into the cafe with them and Regina
saw that it ws Flip Groeneveld who drove
the garbage truck. They drank coffee and
Regina had a piece of pie. She said,
"What's in your garbage truck?" and
Mr. Groeneveld laughed.
Papa said, "That's our furniture,
Myske."
They drove for a long time in the dark
and the truck's light followed them.
When she woke up in the morning,
Regina was lying on a mattress on the
floor of a strange room. She walked
between piles of cardboard boxes and
down a flight of stairs to find Mom and
Papa. She found them in the kitchen, and
they looked funny sitting on chairs in a
kitchen that had no table. Seeing the bare
faceless rooms of this new house Regina
suddenly felt lonely for the old house, the
shed with the pigs in it, and Barbara.
Worst of all, Myske's china head was
broken. The doll's ears had broken off in
the moving and her pink cheeks were
scratched.
All morning Mom kept her busy
opening boxes. They found the blue
flowered sugar pot with the church
tower spoon and put it with the tea pot on
the empty shelves. Later they walked
with Papa and John through the barn and
saw the thirteen cows and the black cat
with kittens. There was an apple orchard
too and a white picket fence around the
garden. There was a tractor in a red
building behind the barn. To Regina it
was all wonderful but she didn't know if it
would ever be like their little old house
with the gladiola.
Papa took Regina to the town with him
and he made her sit close to him on the
front seat while he sang songs and
whistled. They came home with a new
kitchen table and Regina was glad that
Mom liked their choice. She madC tea and
set the earless sugar pot in the middle of
the new yellow table.
There was a trembling feeling inside
Regina that was both happiness and fear.
Looking at the cheerful table she felt
empty so she took Myske and climbed up
to the room she had slept in. Resting
her chin on the windowsill. she sat on one
of the cardboard boxes and looked down
on the farm. There was Papa's barn and
(cont. on page 32)
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VILLAGE SQUIRE/ AUGUST 1981 PG. 23