Interview for a Wife by Ruth Ann Nordin

Chapter Nine

The next morning right after Deanne helped Bill put on his pants and get into his wheelchair, she went to wake the children. After she got Vernon dressed, Amber came up to her with a hairbrush.

“Can you make my hair look like my ma’s?” Amber asked her.

Deanne’s gaze went to the black and white picture of a girl who wasn’t even twenty yet. “That was your mother?” she asked Amber.

Amber nodded. “She was pretty, wasn’t she?”

“Yes, she was.” Though the girl in the picture wouldn’t be marrying for another couple of years, Deanne could see why Bill had been attracted to her. Forcing aside the thought, she brought out the wooden chair in the corner of the room and encouraged Amber to sit in it. “I haven’t fixed anyone’s hair in a long time. I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise I can get it to look exactly like your mother’s hair.”

Since Amber seemed content with the promise, Deanne collected the pins and a couple of ribbons from the little box on the dresser. “Would you like a certain color?”

Amber studied the ribbons. “The orange one is pretty.”

“We’ll do the orange one then.” Deanne didn’t think she would need a second ribbon but kept the assortment out, just in case.

Vernon picked up his blanket and ran out of the room with it.

“Someday, he won’t need the blanket anymore,” Amber said.

“Did you once have a blanket you liked to take around the house with you?” Deanne asked as she brushed the girl’s hair.

“I did when I was a baby, but I’m a big girl now.”

Deanne didn’t think a seven-year-old was that old, but what did she know? Maybe in child years, seven was old. After a long moment of silence, she asked, “Do you remember very much about your mother?”

“I have three memories of her.”

When the girl didn’t continue, Deanne asked, “Do you want to tell me about them, or would you rather keep them to yourself?” If the girl didn’t want to tell her what the memories were, Deanne didn’t know what else they could talk about, and the room was going to be filled with an awkward silence.

Thankfully, Deanne’s sudden burst of panic was for nothing because Amber said, “I’ll tell you. One was when Ma took me to the chicken coop to gather eggs. I got to put them in the basket for her.” Judging by the way Amber grinned, Deanne got the impression that this was a big deal for a child. “I like that memory best. I got to carry the basket into the house, and I didn’t drop it. Ma was happy.”

Deanne smiled as she put the brush down and retrieved some pins. “That’s a good memory. I can see why you like it.”

“I think about that memory a lot. Then I have a memory about kittens being born. Cats are good for getting mice, so you want them on a farm.”

“Your pa said something about that on the day I married him.”

“I helped Pa take food out to them after Ma died. You want to feed them enough to keep them around, but you can’t feed them too much or they won’t eat the mice.”

Deanne nodded and started pinning the sides of the girl’s hair up.

“Not all kittens make it,” Amber said. “One time when I was helping Ma when kittens were being born, one died as I was holding it. Ma said it was too little and that made it weaker than the others. That is a sad memory.”

“I’m sorry you lost the kitten.”

“I am, too, but losing Ma hurt more.”

Deanne didn’t know what words she might have to offer that would help with a hurt so deep, so she did the only thing she could think of: she put her hand on the girl’s shoulder and offered her a sympathetic smile.

To her surprise, the girl returned her smile, assuring her that she had given her a good response. Feeling better, Deanne returned to pinning her hair up.

“The last memory is when Ma was holding Vernon. He was so tiny he couldn’t even sit or walk,” Amber said. “I was afraid she’d stop loving me because he was smaller and cuter than me.”

“There’s no way she could ever stop loving you,” Deanne said. Even if she didn’t have children of her own, she couldn’t imagine a single mother who could stop loving her child.

“She didn’t stop loving me. I know that because she took me out to the chicken coop soon after that.”

Oh, so that further explained why Amber’s favorite memory involved bringing in the eggs. “I’m glad your mother let you carry those eggs.”

“I am, too. It was fun.”

Deanne finished with the last pin and picked up the orange ribbon to weave into her hair, careful to do it as close to the picture as she could. When she was done, she encouraged the girl to look at the mirror. “Is there anything you’d like me to change?”

Amber inspected her reflection with surprising scrutiny, and Deanne was beginning to think she was going to have to redo the girl’s hair when Amber said, “It’s perfect! How did you get it to look just like Ma’s picture?”

Deanne shrugged. “I did my best.”

There was a loud knocking on the front door, and Deanne hurried to go to it. To her shock, the door was partly open, and the older woman was holding the doorknob so that it wouldn’t fling all the way open as she knocked on it. The woman stopped when she noticed Deanne.

“Are you the mother of the children who live here?” the woman asked.

“Oh, um, yes,” Deanne replied, doing her best not to flinch at the woman’s sharp tone. “I’m Mrs. Harvey.”

“Mrs. Harvey? You’re the one who married the owner of the general store?”

Deanne forced a nod. Whatever was coming next wasn’t going to be pleasant. The woman was still speaking sharply to her.

“I suppose I won’t speak to the sheriff since I heard you have no children of your own,” the woman said. “I can’t expect you to know what to do with them so soon after marrying Mr. Harvey.” She straightened up. “You ought to be aware that the boy was peeing out in the yard where everyone could see him.”

“He did what?” Forgetting the woman’s tone, she hurried to the door and went out on the ramp.

Vernon had the blanket wrapped around his shoulders and was running around the yard.

“He’s not doing it now, but I assure you, he was,” the woman said from behind her. “We have outhouses in the back yards for a reason, and there are things like chamber pots he can use.”

Deanne turned her gaze back to her, not knowing what she could say. No one had ever come up to her to complain about a child before.

“Can I help you?” Bill called out.

Deanne looked over at Bill as he wheeled himself over to them.

The woman left Deanne’s side and headed straight for Bill. “You need to mind your son, Mr. Harvey. He was out there acting as if the front yard was an outhouse or a chamber pot. There are little girls outside playing this time of day. They don’t need to see something like that. It’s inappropriate.”

“I haven’t had a chance to talk to Vernon about that yet,” Bill said. “We used to live out in the country, and he’s made it a habit of doing that since no one was around to see him.”

He did? Why hadn’t Deanne noticed? It never occurred to her that children wouldn’t use an outhouse or a chamber pot. She just assumed they knew to do that.

“Being in the country is no excuse,” the woman argued, her hands on her hips. “He should not do that here.”

“I understand,” Bill said. “We only moved in yesterday, and then we were all tired and went to bed. It’s my fault. I’ll talk to him today. It won’t happen again.”

“Make sure that it doesn’t,” the woman replied, still sounding upset.

Deanne blinked. What else did the woman expect Bill to do? It wasn’t like he could turn back time and stop Vernon from going out there. Nor could Bill do anything beyond talking to the boy.

“Next time, I’ll get the sheriff,” the woman said. “This is a respectable community. We need to keep it that way. If you want to stay here, you’ll remember that.”

Deanne noticed the way Bill’s hands clenched the wheels on his wheelchair, but he kept his tone calm as he said, “It won’t happen again. Vernon’s a good boy.”

The woman let out a “humph” then left the house.

Recalling that Vernon was still out there, Deanne hurried to pick Vernon up before the woman could snap at him. Deanne might not have children of her own, but she understood enough to know that they didn’t think things through like adults did. Vernon hadn’t meant to be indecent.

The woman hurried across the street, and Deanne watched to see which house she went to. It was the one to the left of the house directly across from hers. Good. Now that Deanne knew where the woman lived, she’d be sure to avoid that house.

She went back inside and set Vernon down. She was sure it wasn’t her place to tell Vernon what to do, so she decided to tell Bill she’d make breakfast and then hurried to the kitchen.

***

A couple of hours later, Deanne was counting out the change to give to a middle-aged male customer when Bill emerged from the back room. She glanced his way.

“When you have a moment, can I speak with you?” Bill asked her.

She nodded then turned her attention back to the customer.

“You seem to have gotten the hang of running this store pretty fast,” the man said.

She smiled as she finished counting out the change. “I enjoy it. It’s easy to figure things out when you’re enjoying yourself.”

“You’re much better than Archie. I like him and all, but he had a tendency to just want to stand around and talk. Not only did it take longer to get out of here, but half the time, he gave me incorrect change. This,” he added as he pocketed the coins she gave him, “is exactly what I’m owed. Thank you, Mrs. Harvey.”

“Thank you,” she replied, pleased by the compliment he’d just given her.

After the way the morning had gone with that grouchy woman across the street, it was nice to hear something positive. Bill hadn’t said anything about the incident, but she could tell he’d been upset. Unlike her first husband, he hadn’t started yelling or grabbing some whisky to calm down. He hadn’t even blamed Deanne for letting Vernon go out to the front yard. Bill had just explained to Vernon that he couldn’t answer nature’s call on the front lawn. The only indication she got that he was upset was the fact that he’d been quieter than usual during breakfast. By the time they came to the store, he was back to his normal self.

It was nice to be with someone who wasn’t given to fits of rage when he was upset. She hadn’t known a man could keep calm despite an unpleasant situation. It was no wonder Jennifer had fallen in love with him.

Since there was no other customer at the moment, Deanne went to the back room to see what Bill wanted.

Bill was waiting for her at the desk with a piece of paper in his hands.

“You wanted to talk to me?” Deanne asked.

He nodded. “Every three months, Ross Henderson likes to come here to get this very long list of things.” He held the paper out to her.

She went over to him to take it and scanned the items. Her eyes grew wide as she went through everything on it.

“I know. It’s a lot,” Bill said. “Archie used to get my uncle’s help. Ross will be by at two. He always comes in at two. He only comes in every three months because he’s got a lot going on at his farm. He has seventeen children.”

“Seventeen children?”

He chuckled. “I know. Even I can’t wrap my mind around that one. It seems that his wife is always having another one. I wouldn’t be surprised if he says she’s expecting the eighteenth one when he’s here.”

“I didn’t know it was possible to have so many.”

“Apparently, it is. I don’t even think they have to be intimate for her to conceive. He can probably just look at her from across the table and it happens.”

She smiled in amusement at his joke. “Or maybe the kids just grow in the fields.”

He chuckled. “Maybe they do. Anyway, that’s why the list is so long. Ross tries not to come to town any more than he has to.”

“I wouldn’t, either, if I was him.” Between Amber and Vernon, she felt that things were busy enough at home. She couldn’t imagine fifteen other children to take care of.

“You should get my uncle to help with that list,” he said. “I don’t expect you to do it all by yourself. Even when I could walk, I had help with large orders like that. My uncle will be at the livery stable. Don’t worry about taking him away from his job. There are others who can fill in for him while he’s gone.”

“Should I put a sign at the door to let people know I’ll return soon?”

“No, I can handle anyone who comes in for the short time you’ll be gone.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she promised then hurried out of the store.

On her way to the livery stable, she was surprised at the number of people who called out a greeting to her. Yes, they had greeted her when she’d been with Bill, but she had assumed they’d only said hello because of him. Very few people had said anything to her in Omaha when she left the apartment by herself. Though, looking back, she hadn’t left the apartment much, and most of the time when she had, she’d been with Terry.

She hadn’t thought about it until now, but Terry had been insistent that she be with him as much as possible when in public. He had said a pretty woman shouldn’t be out on her own, even if she was married. While she supposed he had paid her a compliment, the way he’d treated her hadn’t given her a reason to feel all warm and fuzzy from his words. She’d only felt the same silent frustration she’d experienced in Kentucky where everything was managed for her. If she hadn’t kept the mail-order bride ad a secret from her family, they would never have let her leave.

She had hoped that being married would allow her more freedom, but with Terry, it hadn’t. Perhaps he had worried about her having an affair because that’s what he had done. As far as she could recall, he hadn’t slept with another woman during the first three years of their marriage. It wasn’t until a woman came to her apartment and asked if she was Terry’s sister that she began to suspect Terry wasn’t really at work when he claimed he had to put in some overtime.

She forced away the memories. She was glad she wasn’t in Kentucky. She was glad Terry was dead. It might be a mean thing for a woman to think. She was sure if anyone knew, they would think she was bad. One was supposed to think well of their family and the dead.

But what good would it do to lie to herself? She didn’t have to voice her thoughts aloud, but she had a right to think them, didn’t she? Especially in light of the fact that Bill was giving her freedom to run an errand without telling her how to do it.

Yes, she was glad Terry was gone. She didn’t want to have anything to do with him. She was much happier now. She had no idea that when she answered the ad for the interview, she was going to marry someone much better. She hadn’t even been aware people like Bill even existed.

So what if there was a crotchety woman across the street who made it a habit to tell other people what to do? At least she was in another house. Deanne didn’t have to live with her. She didn’t even have to say hi to her if she happened to see her. She could go into her house and pretend the woman didn’t even exist. If that woman was the worst she had to deal with, she was a very blessed person.

Within minutes, she found the livery stable, and after she found Bill’s uncle, she returned to the store, her steps lighter than they’d been since she could remember.