Believing the Dream (41 page)

“Guess I better get back on out there. I’ll probably never live this one down.”

“Maybe in a year or two.”

“Yeah, sure, or ten or never.” He patted her on the head. “Thanks for the good dinner.”

“You’re welcome.”

Thorliff stood at the door to greet their guests that evening. “Good to see you, sir.” He returned the handshake of the man who’d made so much of his education possible and become both mentor and friend.

“Ah, Thorliff, sorely have I missed you. School just is not the same without you there. I’ve had to work twice as hard since my assistant is in Northfield.” His chuckle and a clap on Thorliff ’s shoulder said all the rest that his eyes added.

“Thorliff, you’ve grown up—er—out—er . . .” Mary Martha gave him a hug. “I’m so glad to hear you are doing well.”

“Better by the end of the year, but . . .” Now it was Thorliff ’s turn to shake his head.

“Not easy, eh?”

“Ma.” A towheaded boy tugged at her coat.

She pushed him forward. “Thorliff, this is Johnny; he is four now, Thomas here is three, and Deborah is holding Emily.”

“They sure look alike.” Thorliff grinned at Deborah, who smiled shyly back. “Except for you. And how come you went and grew up while I was gone?”

“She sure is a big help. I reckon I’d be right lost without her.” Mary Martha reached for the baby. “You go on and play with Astrid, darlin’. I know that’s what you all want to do.” In spite of her years in Blessing, Mary Martha still had a trace of her Missouri accent and didn’t try to hide it.

“So have you heard again from the Montana people?”

“Oh my, yes. In fact just the other day. I’ll let you read the letter soon as I put this one down.” She grinned up at him and thrust the baby into his arms. “You hold her for a minute while I take out the letter.”

“I’ll take her.” Ingeborg reached for the baby, but Thorliff took a step back and shook his head. “I can manage.” He looked down to see two dark eyes staring up at him, as if memorizing his face. Then a smile stretched her rosy cheeks, showing off two glistening white teeth above her lower lip. Emily reached for his face with a chubby hand and gurgled something. When he didn’t respond, she put her finger on his lip and repeated the sounds. “Sorry, little one, I don’t talk your language.”

At the sound of his voice, she grinned wider and began kicking her feet, telling him something that he only wished he understood.

“She’s beautiful.” Thorliff looked to Mary Martha. “And so smart.”

“Thank you.” She handed him the letter and took back her daughter. “She’s going to be a busy one, already rarely still for a moment and crawling after her brothers. I had to warn them to make sure the screen door was latched, or she’d have crawled right out the door.”

Thorliff turned to see his mother watching him with a faint smile on her face. He raised an eyebrow at her. “Don’t go dreaming about grandbabies yet, Mor. I have three more years of college, remember?”

“Oh, you.” She shook her head. “Get on in there and talk with the men.”

Thorliff found Johnny on Haakan’s lap and Thomas on his father’s, but they slid down and ran back to the kitchen when he sat down. “What am I, the scary man or something?”

John Solberg laughed. “Not to me, that’s for sure. Tell me, what do you like best about school?”

“Well, I’ve learned not to ask Professor Schwartzhause about the contradiction of the God of the Old Testament and the God we see in the New.”

“Oh, not open-minded about questioning students, eh?”

“No. My English teacher, Mr. Ingermanson, does not give top grades without suffering you through lower ones first. He did ask me to be on the staff for the
Manitou Messenger
, the monthly school magazine, but I had to turn it down for now. The city newspaper takes up a lot of time, but with the new Linotype machine and printing press, I might be able to do both this next year.”

“You certainly are having a lot of experiences. Amazing how God has put you in that place in such times as we are living through. Your stories of the strikes and riots make one feel like they are right there. And your novel . . .” Solberg shook his head. “So much for such a young man. What a gift.”

“Ja, we might set him to selling cheese in Northfield this year. We got another order in the mail.” Haakan set his chair to rocking. “Sometimes I think we ought to grow only enough grain to feed our cattle and turn the rest into hay, so we can go into all dairy for the cheese making.”

“Really?” Thorliff stared at his father.

“Something to think about.” Haakan tamped down the tobacco in his pipe and sucked it without lighting.

When Haakan and Solberg started talking about something regarding the church, Thorliff fought to keep his eyes open. He covered a yawn with his hand and shook his head. He could hear the women fixing the dessert in the kitchen and the girls upstairs chattering. Andrew sat with his carving knives from Christmas and a block of wood that at this point looked only to be a source for the shavings dropping on the floor. And here he’d thought to spend some time on his chapter this evening.

“Excuse me.” He rose and headed outside to the outhouse. Anything to get some air and wake up again. When he returned, he took his chocolate cake drenched in whipping cream to eat standing at the wall. Later, after all the good-byes were said, he stumbled his way up the stairs and fell on the bed, not even waking when Andrew crawled in a few minutes later.

As they drove up to the church in the wagon the next morning, he searched the crowd for Anji. When he saw Swen with a girl at his side, he wandered over to be introduced. After he met her, he asked, “Where’s Anji?”

“Ah . . .” Swen looked over his shoulder and then kind of shrugged. “She was here a minute ago. Mrs. Sam is staying with Pa for today.” He backed away. “Come on, Dorothy, let’s go on in.”

What’s going on? Thorliff stared after his friend. He acted like . . . like . . .

“Come on, Thorliff.” Astrid came to take his hand. He allowed her to pull him toward the front steps, nodding and greeting people he’d known all his life. When he sat down next to his mother he glanced forward to see Anji already seated. But from the back he had no idea who the man was sitting next to her. When she tipped her head slightly in his direction to hear something he said, Thorliff felt like a giant hammer clobbered him in the middle. They were together. Who was he? What was going on?

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“Why did no one tell me?”

“Thorliff, there is nothing to tell. Mr. Moen has accompanied the Baards to church, whether Anji has been able to attend or not.” Ingeborg kept her gaze steady on her son, a difficult task as he paced the parlor. His tortured face tore at her heart.

“Then why did it seem to me that they were together?”

“I . . . I’m not sure.” As if outside her will, her fingers continued to knit and purl on the vest she was knitting.

“She was invited with the rest of the family to join us all for dinner.”

“Of course, but someone always stays home with Joseph, and it most often is her. She is able to help him the most when his suffering is the worst. Besides, Mrs. Sam needed to get back to help at the boardinghouse. The guests there need to be fed no matter what day it is.”

“And does Mr. Moen eat with them or at the boardinghouse?”

“Son, I cannot answer that. You were with Swen and Knute fishing. Why didn’t you ask them?” She knew when she said that what kind of look she would get. As if young men, or any men, for that matter, would discuss something like this.

“I better get on out to the barn.”

“You need to talk with her.”

“I know, but not while I’m this angry. It was all I could do to be civil after the service. And besides, he’s an old man.”

“Well, I wouldn’t call Mr. Moen old, and from all I’ve seen, he’s a very fine man. We’ve enjoyed visiting with him very much.” She glanced up to see that her caged son had stopped his pacing and was looking at her like she’d gone over to the enemy. “Thorliff, our house is open to everyone, just like it always has been. He has been interviewing immigrants, and we are surely that. He wants to talk with you too, as one of the younger generation and one who is going beyond the borders of the farm.”

“Ja, when Norway sprouts palm trees.” He turned, and she listened to his boots thud across the kitchen floor, the screen door slam, and the silence that seeped in from the corners and gradually filled the room like a shy fawn coming out to play in the meadow.

“Uff da. Lord, what is happening here? I know you see the future, and you know the path you have for our son, but does his heart have to be broken to make it so? Seeing him hurt like this makes my heart ache. You know how I love them both, and I did think Anji was to be part of our family.” She drew in a deep, rather shaky breath. “Forgive my selfish prayer that they would marry and he would come home again and live here. We could build them a house so quickly.” She sighed again. The cat rose from his place under the whatnot table, arching his back, stretching every muscle and sinew, then sitting in front of her, his chirp one of conversation.

“I know you want up in my lap, but I can’t knit with you here.”

He chirped again, staring at her from golden eyes, as if he could will her to pick him up.

Ingeborg pushed the two sides of the vest down on the needles and stuck the needles into the ball of yarn before setting the entire project back in the basket beside her chair. “All right, come here.” She patted her lap, and the cat jumped up, gently bumping her chin with his head, already purring his satisfaction. “If only life were so simple—a good petting, purring, sleep, and stretch. What more could one ask for?” She stroked the cat’s back and under his chin. “If only.”

The morning after they finished cultivating, Haakan leaned back in his chair. “Thorliff, why don’t you take the next couple of days off to work on your story? The rest of us are going over to the Baards’ to help them out.”

I want to go over there too
. But he kept his face noncommittal and nodded. “Thanks, Far. I’ve not been getting very far in the evenings.”

“I know, and sleeping with your head on the table doesn’t give you much rest either.” Haakan smiled around his pipe stem.