him, she wouldn"t be here. She didn"t know her parents
were coming early, so she didn"t stay to appease them. She
stayed because she decided to fight for our marriage.
I went to her room and lightly knocked on her door. I
wanted to talk to her and smooth things over. When she
didn"t answer, I turned the knob. She was asleep. I wanted
to go in bed with her and just hold her, but I knew she was
as tired as I was and needed sleep. I smiled and shut the
door. I would talk to her tomorrow. At least, I knew she
would still be here to talk to.
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Ann’s Point of View
I woke up past dawn. I looked over at the empty
spot next to me. I hadn"t noticed how large my bed seemed
until Todd had been in it. I was disappointed when he didn"t
come to my bedroom last night. I laid in bed and stared at
the ceiling for a good hour before I finally fell asleep.
I got up and looked outside. The snow sparkled
under the intense glare of the sunlight. There wasn"t a cloud
in the sky. I wondered how deep the snow was. I got
dressed and brushed my hair. As I ran down the steps, I
was surprised to find Todd and my parents eating breakfast.
“Would you like some cornbread?” Todd offered.
“Why didn"t someone wake me? I would have made
a hot meal.”
“We thought you could use some rest, so we didn"t
disturb you.”
“Thank you.” I sat next to him at the table. I was
grateful that he seemed more like his usual self.
“We measured the snow and we got three inches
yesterday. I found a sleigh under some old blankets in the
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barn, so we can still hook up the horses to get to town.
There is a large snow drift blocking the large door of the
barn. It will take some time to shovel but once the path is
clear, we can get the horses and sleigh out.”
“I"d like to help,” my father offered.
Todd accepted.
“I am eager to see the town,” my mother said. “We
didn"t get a chance to take a good look at it yesterday.”
“I would like to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Coley,”
I replied. “They own the mercantile. Of course, you"l have
to meet Barbara and John Russel . They"re good friends of
ours.”
It felt strange to say “ours” since I wasn"t sure what
would become of me and Todd, but I was hopeful from his
friendly demeanor.
After breakfast, my mother helped me wash dishes.
“I"m glad you and father are here. Thank you for
being nice to Todd.”
“My dear, we have always welcomed him. I think
your father is relieved you married well. We had worried
you might pick the wrong person.”
“I almost did. I almost married Kent.”
I put the dirty dishes in a bucket of water and added
soap. The clean bucket of water was in the other sink.
“The important thing is you didn"t,” she said. She
picked up a towel and dried the plate I handed her. “You"l
never guess who is studying to become a minister.”
“Who?”
“Alex Dawson.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “Todd"s friend?”
“The same. That boy did nothing but play practical
jokes all his life. Then he goes off to college and gets
serious. Isn"t that amazing?”
“Quite. I can"t believe it.”
“Miracles happen. It will be interesting to see how he
behaves when he visits for Christmas. His parents are
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happy. They worried he might be a troublemaker for his
entire life. He has an aunt and uncle out in Fargo, North
Dakota who often visited his family. I wonder if they had an
influence on Todd wanting to come out here.”
“Yes.” And for the first time, I was actual y glad that
Todd knew Alex, for I loved it here.
Two hours later, my mother took me to the guest
bedroom so she could give me a photo album and my
jewelry box fil ed with rings, necklaces and bracelets. “I
thought you might like these personal mementos of your
past,” she said.
I took the items and left her so she could take a nap.
I went to my bedroom and set the jewelry box on my
dresser. I sat on my bed, opened the photo album, and
flipped through the pictures. I was surprised to see pictures
of Todd with his family. I knew my parents were good
friends of his parents. I chuckled at the picture of Agnes
making a face at the camera. She hated sitting still for the
photographer.
Sitting there, with the pictures in front of me brought
back memories from my childhood. My earliest memory
was when I was four.
My parents took me over to the Brothers" house so
we could see their fourth child who was two days old. While
one year old Abigail slept, Todd, Agnes and I were in the toy
room. A servant watched in amusement as we fought over
what game to play.
“Agnes and I want to play dol s,” I said, my hands on
my hips.
“Dolls is boring,” he protested, rolling his eyes. “Let"s
play with the blocks.”
“No. We build towers but you knock them down.”
“That"s fun!”
“It is not fun. It is rude.”
“Fine then. Want to see my new train set?”
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Agnes and I looked at each other and nodded.
He took his trains and tracks out of his toy box and
we helped him set it up. Agnes couldn"t get most of the
pieces to fit, so we had to finally tell her to wait until we were
done. Then he set up the trains and small wooden people.
I grinned at the display.
“It"s pretty,” I commented.
He gagged. “It"s not pretty.”
“Here"s a Mommy and Daddy and their baby,” Agnes
said. She was took the people and went to the corner to
play with them by herself.
“She"s a baby,” he replied. “We don"t need those
people anyway.”
He moved his train down one of the tracks and I
moved my train down another one. We played quietly for a
few minutes. Then, to my horror, he rammed his train into
mine.
“Bam!”
I shot him a dirty look. “Don"t do that.”
“It"s fun!”
“No, it"s not. I"m playing.”
“We are playing. Now you crash into me!”
I took his train and threw it across the room.
“What did you do that for?” he demanded, his face
red.
“It"s fun.” I stuck my tongue at him.
“This is my train set. Go play with Agnes.”
I grabbed a train and ran to Agnes.
“That"s mine! Give it back!” He ran after me.
I giggled as I dodged him. Finally, he knocked me
down and grabbed the train out of my hand. I screamed as
loud as I could so the world would know the injustice of it all.
The servant calmly took the train from Todd and put
all the toys back, except for the people Agnes was quietly
playing with. “Todd, go to that corner and face it. Ann, you
do the same in the other corner.”
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“Yes, ma"am,” we replied, realizing we would get a
spanking if we didn"t obey.
I chuckled and looked at more pictures in the photo
album. Poor Todd grew up surrounded by girls. He wanted
a baby brother so badly but never got one. I used to tell him
he should be grateful to have any siblings at all since I was
often lonely as an only child. But Alex seemed to be the
brother he never had. I shook my head as I recalled the first
time I stood up Alex.
We were ten and I worked on my assignment in
class when a pebble hit my head. Startled, I looked back to
see who had thrown it at me. My eyes narrowed. I should
have known. It was Todd and Alex again. They took an
irrational pleasure in throwing things into girls" hair. Our
teacher wasn"t in the room at the moment, which explained
why Todd was involved. He didn"t dare do anything wrong
when the teacher was in sight. I gave them a “stop it” look
and turned back to my work. Of course, they didn"t stop. I
tried to ignore them as pebbles flew in my hair, past my
shoulders and onto my work.
Finally, I lost my temper. I glanced at the door and
noticed that the teacher was still talking to a parent.
Ignoring Todd"s and Alex"s snickers, I stood up and walked
to the jar of sand by the window. It was part of our science
lesson, but I found a better use for it. By now, our entire
class was watching me. No one alerted the teacher. They
wanted to see what I would do. Since Alex and Todd sat
next to each other, it was easy to get both of them at once. I
took the lid off the jar and dumped the sand on their heads.
They jumped up and screamed. The rest of the
class laughed at the hysterical scene.
“Ann!”
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I looked up in time to see the teacher rushing to me.
“What are you doing?” She shook her head in disbelief.
“What got into you?”
“They keep throwing pebbles in my hair,” I replied,
my voice shaking. I wasn"t used to getting in trouble.
Todd and Alex were frantically trying to shake the
sand off of their bodies.
“Todd and Alex, you may go outside. Ann, you are
going to clean this mess and then put the dunce cap on at
the front of the room until I tell you to take it off.”
“Yes, Miss Hampton.”
Even though I got in trouble, it was worth it. They
never threw anything else in my hair again. In fact, they
stopped throwing pebbles in the other girls" hair too. I was a
hero to those girls that year.
Alex also liked to dare Todd to do disgusting things.
I recalled a time during lunch hour when we were twelve.
Alex challenged Todd to eat a plate of bugs. As appalling
as it was, I joined the other students. There was something
mesmerizing about someone eating insects.
Todd seemed hesitant. “You eat them,” he said as
he pushed the plate to Alex.
“I challenged you first. You can"t back out now,” Alex
replied. He wore that satisfied smirk that drove me crazy.
“You don"t have to do it,” I argued. “Alex is a
coward. That"s why he won"t do it. Just tell him no.”
Alex nodded. “Yes, you could do that.”
I frowned. I didn"t like the tone in his voice. He was
up to something.
“Or, you could kiss Ann.” He grinned. “Apparently,
you need your mommy to take care of you.”
A couple of girls giggled and some boys told Todd to
eat the bugs.
Todd took a deep breath. “I"l eat the bugs.”
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The boys cheered. The girls, including me, just
commented on how gross it was. I was secretly relieved to
get the focus off of me, and another part of me was
fascinated that Todd could sit there so calmly while he ate
those bugs. Where did he get the strength? Though he
didn"t complain about a stomach ache, I felt nauseous for
the rest of the day.
Todd wasn"t always following Alex"s instructions.
There were times when he was a model student. It helped
when his other friends, Jack and Simon, were around.
When we were thirteen, a snake got into the classroom.
Our teacher, an elderly woman, was terrified. Even Alex
wouldn"t get out of his chair. Todd, Jack and Simon
volunteered to corner the snake. Jack took an empty bag
while Todd and Simon chased the snake until it slithered
into the bag. Jack immediately ran outside to dump it out of
the bag. We cheered for the brave three boys when Jack
returned.
Breaking out of my thoughts, I saw another picture of
the class Todd and I were in. It was taken last year right
before Christmas. I was standing next to Jennifer and
Debbie. I looked happy in my pile of seven petticoats and
restricting corset. I shook my head. I didn"t miss that part of
wearing a dress. My dress in the picture was gorgeous, but
it would never last on the farm. Todd stood at the end of the
line. He was attractive in his dark suit. It was hard for me
to think of him in a suit anymore. He wore a suit when he
worked at the bank, but as soon as he got fired, he started
wearing denim pants and cotton shirts. No one would have