A Harvest of Hope (19 page)

And your wife is pregnant,
dangerously so
. “I know. Oh, how I know.” Tears didn't leak, they spurted and, like the rain drenching the windows, soaked her cheeks.

He looked stricken. “Mor, I am so sorry.”

“Don't be. We need to talk of these things, and my tears cannot be a deterrent. I cry and they dry up. We ask God our questions, and we are surrounded by His love. He never lets us go. I was not ready for Haakan to die yet, but no one can ever be ready. Death is part of life, but our lives do not end here. We have a heavenly home, and in that heavenly home, Haakan is waiting for me. Jesus is waiting for us. He is here, all around us.
I do not understand how, but I believe His Word.” She mopped and blew. Elizabeth and Thelma did the same, and finally so did Thorliff and Trygve. “And if I know nothing else, I know our Father loves us, far more than we can think or imagine.”

Thelma stood up and shook her head. “I left Scooter on the porch. I just realized he is crying.” When she left the room, Trygve looked outside. “It has quit raining, at least for now. Shall we make a run for home, Tante Ingeborg?”

“Of course.” She gathered up her things. “Were those poor horses out in all this?”

“Of course not, Mor. I put them in the barn, although if they'd been home, they would have most likely stayed right out in it.” Thorliff pushed to his feet too.

Thelma returned, the little dog grinning up at her. She picked up the conversation. “Right, and gone to stand under a tree and been struck by lightning.” She gathered up the trays and dinner things.

Elizabeth walked with them out to the kitchen and hugged Ingeborg good-bye. “Thank you for coming. You have no idea how low I was feeling.”

“I think God gave a gift to both of us. As you saw, the tears sure well up easy, so often triggered by the slightest thought.” She inhaled a deep breath. “So I thank you and God too.”
And Thorliff, whom I will thank later
.

The rain drifted back in as Trygve drove her home. “Your mail is in the bag there.”

“Takk. Uh-oh. Manny planned on mailing his letter after school. He took it with him.”

“I'll go pick up all the kids after school. They can tent under the tarp in the wagon. We can go by the post office too.”

“Trygve, you are so good to us. What would I do without you?”

He grinned at her. “You might invite Miriam out to your house for a meal someday. And me, of course.”

“I will gladly have you both. You go ahead and invite her, and just let me know which day she can come.”

“Thank you, Tante Ingeborg.”

“Oh, and I wonder if she'd like to come out early and do some sewing with me. Why don't you ask her about that too. And is there anything special you'd like me to fix?”

“An apple pie?”

“Good idea.”

At last, something positive to do.

I
will
keep
this
meeting
on
track
.
Thorliff repeated his order to himself.

Anner glowered from the front row to his left. He had brought the report to Thorliff late the day before, and Thorliff got it set and printed, finally making it to bed by midnight.

He stood waiting for the hubbub to settle down. When quiet almost reigned, he raised his voice. “The meeting will please come to order.” He waited before repeating it a bit louder. When he had their attention, he continued. “Reverend Solberg will open our meeting with prayer.” He nodded to the pastor sitting in the front row with his wife, Mary Martha, on one side of him, Thomas Devlin on the other.

That Father Devlin was there caught him by surprise. Since these were all bank patrons, the father had to have opened an account at the bank too. Thorliff stared around the room. More of the recent additions to Blessing were there than he had expected. But all anyone had to do was open an account. He wasn't sure if there was a minimum deposit or not.

Reverend Solberg stood. “Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great love and tender mercies. We thank you that you care about every part of our lives, that you promise to give us wisdom
whenever and however we need it. Lord, you have made us a community, a family. We count on you to resolve any issues that we have, to take care of all our people, your people, that you have brought us. No one is here by accident. And now we ask you to bless our meeting and bring us to agreement and understanding, always keeping in mind your instructions to love one another, to forgive one another, and to always seek your will. Give us ears to hear and eyes to see. In the mighty name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.”

John sat down and Thorliff pushed himself to his feet.

“Anner Valders, I ask you to present your report of the Community Bank of Blessing, North Dakota.”
Lord God, help us
. He nodded to Anner and moved away from the podium, sitting in the front row beside his mor.

Anner settled his papers on the podium, which was really a wooden music stand. “Good evening. Do you all have a copy of the report? If not, raise your hand.” Several people raised their hands, and Hjelmer brought them the ten-page report.

“Thank you all for coming. It is good to see new faces here. You, who have chosen to become part of our little town.”

Thorliff turned to see that Ingeborg appeared as shocked as he felt. “His words and eyes don't match.” Ingeborg nodded.

Thorliff clenched his jaw. Anything to keep the peace.

“Not so little anymore.” The comment made a flutter of laughter pass through the room.

“That is so true. As many of you know, our annual meeting in January is when we have looked at the bank report in the past, but this
emergency
meeting was called, which apparently is the way we do business now, so here we are.”

Thorliff felt the barb, the inflection on
emergency
, but he ignored that too.

“My big concern is that you all realize there has been no wrongful activity in our bank. We were robbed in June, as you know, and we retrieved all but fifty-five dollars of the stolen
money. Three of the four robbers were apprehended and properly tried, and are now confined to prison in Kentucky.”

Thorliff gritted his teeth. Ingeborg laid a hand on his arm, and he covered it with his other.

“Mr. Valders? Sir?” The voice came from the rear of the room.

Thorliff shot a look at his mother. “What is . . . ?”

She squeezed his arm.

Thorliff twisted to see Manny on his cane come thumping toward the front along the wall. Trygve followed behind him and stopped off to the side.

Manny handed a dusty old valise to Anner. “This, sir, is the money my brothers took. We found it—Trygve and me—out at the farm where my brothers was hiding out. It belongs to the bank, so I wanted to give it back to you, even though Trygve and Gram—I mean Miz Ingeborg—said I needn't.”

Anner's mouth dropped open. He just stood there and stared. Thorliff closed his own mouth, which had dropped open as well.

And then Anner exploded. “You little wretch! You knew where it was all along! You figured you would just—”

But Astrid leaped to her feet. “Anner Valders! When Manny's brothers escaped, he was lying on the ground, and they never saw one another again. He couldn't have known anything!”

“They told him when they came to kidnap him at the hospital! You know that! You were there! You heard them. So you've known where it was all along!”

Astrid continued. “I know exactly what happened that day because I was witness to it. Manny was completely doped with morphine, hearing nothing, and his brothers mentioned nothing about money. Don't you tell me what happened in that room, Anner Valders, when you have no idea what took place!”

Anner roared, “You are mocking me! Trying to embarrass me! You're all in this together! You, Thorliff, all these yellow-bellied bleeding hearts who think it's quite fine to coddle a bank robber just because—”

But he didn't get to end his sentence. Trygve had stepped up behind him. He grabbed Anner by both ears, holding them tight like a teacher would discipline a rowdy child. He moved Anner sideways and plunked him in a chair.

Then he let go and leaned over, facing Anner nose to nose. “You will never, and I mean
never
, speak to a woman in that tone of voice again.” He stood erect and backed away.

John Solberg was on his feet too, but it was Thomas Devlin who stepped between Trygve and Anner. Very quietly, very soothingly, he said, “Peace be unto ye, Trygve. Peace be within ye.” And he marked a little cross with his thumb on Trygve's forehead. He wheeled around to Anner. “And peace be unto ye also, Anner. May it settle in yer poor sore heart and give ye rest.”

He reached out toward Anner, but Anner snapped to his feet so fast, he dumped the chair backwards on the floor. “You're a charlatan! You're not a true man of God!” He looked about wildly. “You've all been taken in by this mountebank! And by a bank robber! You are fools! All of you! What is the matter with all of you?” He stormed down the narrow aisle and out the door. Even his flaming ears shot off sparks.

No one moved or spoke. Silence. Astrid sat down.

Thorliff was chairing this meeting. Now what? He got up and walked over to the music stand.

Manny was saying to Trygve, “I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You were right. I was wrong. I shouldn'ta tried to give him his money back.” He started to walk away, but Trygve stopped him, holding on to his arm.

Trygve looked around the room. “I don't know how many of you knew Manny here when he first arrived. Those of you who did, you know he was a sullen, scowling, obnoxious pain. And look at him now. Here is a young man brave enough to step forward and try to do the right thing. Try to do the honest thing. Thorliff, Astrid, Elizabeth, Tante Ingeborg, we all see his value. That is why we took him in. He is an honest, caring young man.”

Thorliff asked, “Manny, what shall we do with this money you found, since Anner doesn't seem to want it?”

Manny shrugged. He looked so sad. And frightened.

Reverend Solberg suggested, “Finders keepers. Let him open his own account with it. The first step toward a responsible adulthood, a good citizen of Blessing.”

A voice called out, “I so move.” It sounded like Mr. Sam.

Another said, “I second.”

Thorliff nodded and looked around. “It's been moved and seconded. Discussion?”

Manny was about to become fifty-five dollars richer. Instead of happy, he looked near tears.

Trygve asked, “What would you prefer, Manny?”

“I don' know. But it ain't mine. Never was. I don' want it if'n it ain't mine.” He was studying Trygve, looking intently at him. “Can Blessing buy something with it? Does the town need something? The town all paid my debt. Maybe they can think of something.”

Thorliff looked at his mor. She was beaming with pride. He looked at all these many people, shareholders in a struggling bank. “We can all think of something, that's for sure. The town needs everything. Anyone have suggestions?”

“I do.” John Solberg stood up. “For years we have been talking about being prepared for sudden emergencies. What if a prairie fire really got going and threatened the town? What if a drought started wiping out farms and farmers? The river flooded? Tornadoes? Let's consider what we might need in that area.”

Jonathan Gould stood. “And we have no law enforcement. We have to rely on others. But what if they cannot get here when we need them?”

“Manny,” Thorliff asked, “do you think we should spend this money on something like that?”

The boy smiled. “Yes, sir! That'd be right fine.”

“If you wish, sit over there in the chair beside Mrs. Bjorklund—
Ingeborg—and we'll pick a worthy project to use your money on.”

Andrei Belin stood. His English was halting but a lot better than it had been a short while ago. “Perhaps we hire more workers, finish houses sooner. Getting cold.”

Trygve nodded. “We are already hiring every able-bodied man who shows up. Not enough are showing up.”

Daniel stood. “I highly recommend purchasing some fire apparatus. If a house catches fire, we form a bucket brigade. But that isn't going to work well here in town. We need a pumper.”

Andrew stood. “It won't work in this part of the country. There's no barn warm enough in midwinter to keep a fire pumper with any water in it from freezing solid.”

Thomas Devlin stood up. “I happen to know a wee bit about fire apparatus as it be used in St. Louis. I worked there a few years ago. Andrew is right. So ye store the pumper drained in wintertime. In the event of a fire, ye run it down to the river shore, break a hole in the ice if need be, and draft out of the river. Fill yer tank. Douse yer fire. Drain the pumper again before putting it away.”

Joshua Landsverk stood. “In Fargo, I hear, they keep their equipment in a barn that's kept warm in winter, above freezing. And horses that are harnessed and ready to go. Of course, that is a big city. Here, though, we have enough building to do before we'd think about building a firehouse. Draining it in winter would be a good plan.”

Thorliff asked Thomas, “Do you have some idea how much fire equipment fifty-five dollars would buy?”

Thomas stood up. “How many fires do ye have in a year, about?”

“Say two or three. Usually a barn. And it's usually ashes before we get there.”

Thomas turned to face the audience. “Then ye'd not be needing a fancy rig such as a steam engine. Ye'd have to keep a fire
going in it, and that be a lot of wood or coal to burn to put out two or three fires a year. I suggest a hand pumper. It operates as a bilge pump operates aboard a sailing vessel—a seesaw pumped up and down by two men. The pump draws water into a large tin holding tank, which ye then squirt on the fire.”

“Like a handcar on the railroad?” someone asked.

“The very thing. And ye need not buy a new one. When large cities get bigger equipment, they ofttimes sell the old. The older apparatus would work well for our purposes. Fifty-five dollars ought to set ye up in the fire-extinguishing business just fine, including the shipping to get it here.”

Manny was grinning. “I'd be right proud if you bought a fire engine with the money. I truly would!”

Thorliff was grinning too.

Toby Valders was not. He stood up. “It's a waste of money in a town this small. We've been getting along just fine without it. We need a lot of other things before we need fire equipment.”

Jonathan rose. “The town is not small, and it's not going to get any smaller. Blessing is growing. They have quite fancy pumpers back East, as Mr. Devlin described, and he's right about a hand pumper for Blessing. You don't even need horses with a small rig such as the city neighborhoods back East use. The volunteers pull it with a T-shaped shaft. I move we set the money aside and buy a fire pumper for town use. House it in a tent until we can build a firehouse.”

Thorliff shook his head. “We already have a motion on the floor.”

Mr. Sam called, “I withdraw my motion. Can I do that?”

Thorliff frowned. “I don't know.” He looked at Thomas, at John. “Can he?”

They shrugged.

“Anybody have a copy of
Robert's Rules of Order
?”

Apparently no one did.

Thorliff was running this meeting. He'd just have to make
a snap decision. “If the motion is withdrawn, we'd have to withdraw the second as well, and—”

“I withdraw my second.”

“The standing motion and its second have been withdrawn from the floor. Jonathan?”

“I repeat my motion.”

John Solberg nodded. “And I second.”

“It's been moved and seconded that we spend this money on a fire pumper appropriate for the town's use. Discussion?”

“And the tent,” Jonathan added.

“And a tent. Discussion?”

People were nodding.

“In favor?”

Many hands went up.

“Opposed?”

Toby Valders and a couple of others raised their hands.

“Do we need a count?”

Toby frowned but did not request a count.

“Motion passed.” Thorliff licked his lips. “I had one other item on the agenda when we came, the reason I called the meeting, but now there are two. The first is that a loan extension to complete our building projects has been denied. Now we must come up with some other way to keep the workers paid. The second item—new business—is what should we do about the bank manager, if anything. Discussion?”

Mr. Sam rose again. “Who would deny a building loan extension? It's community money for community projects.”