Anna All Year Round (9 page)

"Ach, Lizzie," Aunt May laments, "what do you expect?
Anna ist ein kluges Mädchen.
You've told me so yourself."

Winking at Mother, Aunt May begins to talk to Anna in German. She speaks so fast the words run together, long words, hard words. To Anna's dismay, she cannot understand a thing her aunt says.

Aunt May kisses Anna and smiles at Mother. "There, you see, Lizzie? Our secrets are still safe—for now, that is. But with such a clever girl in the house, we must be careful what we say, or Anna will learn all our secrets."

Mother shakes her head and sighs, but Father chuckles. Turning to Anna, he says, "Do you smell what I smell, Anna?"

Anna breathes in the sweet aroma of fresh-baked pastry drifting up the hill from Leidig's bakery. "Ladyfingers," she says. "I can almost taste them."

Father takes Anna's hand. "Come, let's walk down to the corner and treat ourselves."

"Bring something back for Lizzie and me, Ira," Aunt May calls. "
Bitte?
"

"Don't forget me," Uncle Henry shouts from the doorway.

Anna skips ahead of Father and arrives at the bakery long before he does.

"Well, well, Anna,
mein Liebling,
" Mr. Leidig says. "What will you have this evening?"

Anna closes her eyes for a moment and breathes in the sugar-sweet smell of the bakery. Then she opens her eyes and studies the pretty pink and yellow icing on the cookies, the brown sugar melting on the strudel, the cinnamon swirling on the apple dumplings, the chocolate oozing out of the éclairs, the custard bursting out of the ladyfingers. How can Anna choose? She wishes she could have two or three of everything.

But if she ate that much, she'd soon be as fat as Mr. Leidig. Father says it's a baker's duty to taste all his cakes and cookies to make sure they taste good. It must be true because Mr. Leidig looks like a gigantic gingerbread man, his round face frosted pink, his eyes little dots no bigger than raisins, his hair as white as spun sugar.

When Father arrives, Anna picks a ladyfinger. Father orders half a dozen. Anna watches Mr. Leidig put the ladyfingers in a white box and tie it shut with string. In her head she's counting—one for Father, one for Mother, one for Aunt May, one for Uncle Henry, and one for Anna. That's five. Who is number six for?

"You bought one too many," Anna tells Father.

"My goodness." Father stops at the bakery door. "Shall I return it to Mr. Leidig and ask for a refund?"

"No, no," Anna says hastily. "I'm sure someone will eat it."

"Who do you think that will be?" Father asks.

Anna seizes Father's hand. "Maybe it will be me?"

Father laughs. "That's just who I bought it for."

While Anna watches, Father opens the box and hands her a ladyfinger. "This will give you the energy to climb back up the hill to our house," he says.

When they are halfway home, Anna and Father meet the lamplighter coming slowly down the street. He lights one gas lamp after another, leaving behind him a trail of shining glass globes.

Father and Anna pause to watch the old man light the lamp on the corner. "Soon Baltimore will be electrified," Father says, "and the streetlights will come on all by themselves."

Anna smiles. She thinks Father is joking.

"Mark my word, Anna," Father says. "By the time you're my age, the world will be very different."

Anna realizes Father is serious. He works for the newspaper, so she guesses he knows more than most people about everything. "Will the world be better?" she asks.

"It will be different," Father repeats. "Some things will be better, others will be worse."

"Which will be better?" Anna asks, clinging to his hand. "Which will be worse?"

Father shakes his head. "I don't know, Anna."

Anna holds Father's hand tighter. She cannot imagine anything changing. It frightens her to think of streetlights coming on by themselves. What will the old man do if he has no lamps to light?

"There will be more motorcars," Father says. "And fewer horses."

Even though Anna loves riding in Uncle Henry's boss's big limousine, she isn't ready to give up horses.

"Why can't we have both motorcars and horses?" she asks Father.

He pats her hand. "The world isn't big enough for both," he says softly. "Automobiles go faster than horses. They are new and shiny. People like your uncle want them."

"If I had to choose, I'd pick a horse," Anna says. "You can't be friends with a motorcar."

Father laughs. "Have another ladyfinger, Anna. And then wipe your mouth. Mother doesn't like to see you with a dirty face."

By the time Anna comes home, she has eaten her second ladyfinger and cleaned her face with Father's handkerchief. She watches Mother and Aunt May divide up the four remaining ladyfingers.

"Why, Anna," Aunt May says. "Where is your ladyfinger?"

Anna pats her tummy. "I ate mine coming home."

"Oh, Ira," Mother says. "For shame. Only common girls eat in the street. Anna must learn her manners if she expects to get along in this world."

Luckily for Anna, Charlie chooses that moment to call her. Before Mother can say more, Anna runs across the street to play tag with her friends. It's dark now. Charlie, Rosa, Beatrice, Patrick, Wally, and Anna chase each other in and out of the shadows cast by the gas lamps. They play until their parents call them home, one by one.

When everyone is gone but Charlie, Anna tells him what Father told her. Charlie thinks it will be exciting to live in a world where streetlights come on like magic and the roads are crowded with motorcars.

"Do you know what I hope?" Anna asks him.

"What?"

"I hope manners go out of fashion," Anna says.

"No manners." Charlie laughs. "What a wonderful world that would be, Anna!"

Anna smiles. She likes to make Charlie laugh. Maybe she should have given the extra ladyfinger to him instead of eating it herself. Next time Father takes her to the bakery, that's what she'll do.

She tips her head back and gazes at the sky. The stars aren't as bright as they are on winter nights. The hot summer air hangs between the city and the sky, blurring everything, even the moon and the stars.
Der Mond und die Sterne,
as Mother might say.

Across the street, Aunt May laughs. Fritzi barks. In Charlie's house, a baby cries. Madame Wehman plays her piano. Down on North Avenue, a streetcar bell clangs.

No matter what Father says, Anna cannot imagine anything being different from the way it is right now. It's true that when school starts, Anna will be in fourth grade and her teacher will be Miss Osborne, not Miss Levine. But Charlie will still live across the street, the lamplighter will come every night, Mr. Leidig will bake his ladyfingers, and bit by bit, word by word, Anna will learn Mother's German secrets. As Aunt May says,
Anna ist ein kluges Mädchen—
a clever girl.

WHEN MY MOTHER WAS EIGHTY YEARS OLD, SHE
wrote a reminiscence of her Baltimore childhood, intending it for her grandchildren. She wanted them to know what the world was like when she was a little girl in 1913.

After reading Mom's account, I asked her if she'd mind sharing her memories with other children. Although she thought no one but her family could possibly be interested in her life, she gave her permission.

I must admit I changed some of the details and made up a few stories of my own, but that's the nice thing about writing fiction—I don't have to stick to the facts.

Mother is now over ninety. Her father was right about the world. In the years that have passed since Anna roller-skated down the hill on Bentalou Street, many things have changed—some for the better and some for the worse. Cars, for instance, have replaced horses. The lamplighter is gone. At dusk, city lights come on automatically. Trolleys are no more (though you can still ride a summer car just like Uncle Nick's at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum). Public School 62 has been replaced by a modern building.

But some things have stayed the same, just as Anna knew they would. Children still roller-skate on city streets. They go to birthday parties. They build towers with Erector sets. And on hot summer nights, they sit on their front steps and stare at the moon and the stars,
der Mond und die Sterne.

C
HAPTER
1
The Language of Secrets

C
HAPTER
5
Christmas Wishes

C
HAPTER
6
Anna's Birthday Surprise

C
HAPTER
8
Fritzi and Duke

C
HAPTER
11
Ladyfingers

Anna Elisabeth Sherwood poses with her father, Ira Plumley Sherwood, and her mother, Elisabeth Mary Reuwer, in 1914. Anna is wearing a dress hand-sewn by her mother and one of her best hair ribbons. When Anna was eighty years old, she wrote a memoir about growing up in Baltimore. Her daughter, Mary Downing Hahn, saw the treasure in those memories and created
Anna All Year Round
based on her mother's stories.

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LARION
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