The Second Half (27 page)

Ken looked dumbfounded. Honestly, wasn't he the one who had insisted all along that Mona could not juggle all this? Why was he surprised?

“We really like some of the ideas you brought to the table. Are you certain?”

“Thank you, but I believe this is for the best. I know the reputation of the other firm you've engaged. I'm confident they can handle the whole job, and they will do good work for you. Thank you again, but no, postponing the decision until later just doesn't seem right. You need someone who is fully available and fully able to concentrate.”

“I'm very sorry to hear this, but I'm glad you are backing out right at the beginning and not when the project is rolling.”

Mona said her good-byes and clicked off the call. “Ken, I had such big dreams. I just hope I am doing the best thing—for all of us.”

Ken sat down beside her, holding the balloon strings in one hand and taking her hand with the other. “Dreams are the most fragile things of all. I see to some extent how hard this was for you. I'm proud of you. We pray for the best.”

“That's what I told Mellie a couple of minutes ago. I think we need to say things like that to the kids more often. Right now she is feeling lost.”

The nurse beckoned them from the doorway. “You can see him now.”

They followed down a new hall and stopped at the door outside the ICU. “You will need to push this and identify yourself every time you want to go in. Mr. Sorenson, since you've got the balloons, how would you like to come first?”

Mona sat down in the chair by the wall. “Please don't stay too long, I want to see him, too.”

“I know.”

He returned a few minutes later sporting a wide grin. “He is tickled with the balloons. And asking for you.”

When the nurse showed her the room, Mona paused in the doorway. Jake still had all the tubes as before. But he grinned when he saw her.
Thank you, Lord, You brought him safely through.
She crossed to the bed and kissed his forehead. “I love you, Jakey boy.”

“Grampy brought me balloons.” He spoke in a whisper, obviously with a sore throat from the intubation.

“I know. You sure look better than the last time I saw you.”

He nodded, his eyelids already drifting closed. But he jerked them open again. “Don't leave me.”

“Grampy and I will take turns.”

“Mellie?” His whisper faded.

“She's at Aunty Marit's house.”

He sort-of nodded and was asleep.

The nurse stopped beside her. “He'll probably sleep for a couple of hours now. He's doing well.”

“Thank you.” Mona rolled her lips together and sniffed. “Ken and I need to figure out how to do this.”

“We have a sheet at the desk with information. I'll get it for you. That way you can stay close by, and we will call you if there are any changes. I know you live quite far away.”

“I was hoping…”

“Once he is in a regular room, you or your husband can stay with him. We have chairs that fold out into beds.”

“Thank you. We need to make some decisions. I'll be back later.”

The nurse laid a hand on her shoulder. “Never forget you have to take care of yourself, too.”

Right.
She nodded, and after taking the offered paper, she headed for the exit. Life changed in an instant sometimes, and she was fast learning she didn't have control over it.

No control at all.

Mellie read the letter again and stared at her family. “He wrote to me. He read my letter.”

“Let me see.” Jake reached for the paper. His eyes grew even more round. “Look how—how important.” He pointed to the army emblem and seal.

Jake had been home from the hospital for a week and was feeling better every day. He was still under restrictions, as in no running, climbing, swimming, lifting, and half the other things he wanted to do.

“I am in shock,” Mona said. “To think Major Paget really answered Mellie's letter. He is the one who brought us the news about Steig. What a compassionate man.”

“I'm glad I'm not in his position. Mine at the university was hard enough.”

“Grampy, are we going to go to Chicago?” Jake reached for another pancake. Mona had been cooking some of his favorite things to tempt him to eat, but not his real favorite, peanut butter on top of the syrup.

“I don't know. You have another appointment with the doctor next week, and pretty soon, you need to get ready for school to start.”

“What's get ready?”

“Registered, school clothes, school supplies.” Mona ticked all the things off on her fingers.

His lower lip came out. “I don't wanna go shopping. They can go shopping.” He pointed at Mellie and Mona.

“Sorry, Jakey boy, but you need to try the shoes on at least and maybe the clothes.” Ken poured himself another cup of coffee and warmed up Mona's.

“Can I have coffee, too?” Jake held up his empty cup of hot chocolate.

He's been catered to for too long,
Mona thought. Funny how quickly kids adapted to being waited on. Of course, perhaps it wasn't just kids.

“I think we could go up to the lake for a few days, get all the preparations for school done and run away from home.” Ken glanced at Mona. “What do you think?”

“I think by then Jake will be able to go in the water. What about the garden? Beans should be ready for canning and freezing.”

“We could offer them to Marit. Her garden is pathetic.”

“What's pathetic?” Jake asked.

“Sad. Not in real good shape.”

“I don't want to miss another riding lesson.” Mellie looked at Mona. “Only five more until school starts.”

“We'll leave the day after a lesson.” Mona returned Mellie's high five.

“Can Brit and the boys come?” Mellie asked.

“Let me think about it.”

“That means no.” Jake's pouty lip appeared again.

Ken stared at him. “Why do you say that?”

“Mommy always—”

“Jakey!” Mellie glared at him.

“Enough,” Ken barked. “Remember, we talk about things here. Your mommy was part of your life, and we can't pretend it didn't happen. So Mellie, let it be. Jake, here in our house, ‘Let me think about it' means just that. It probably means Grammy and Grampy need to talk about the idea before making a decision. That's how we try to do things here.”

Mona nodded slightly, along with a lip rolling. She knew how hard the
try
was at times. Dreams of her own business still appeared, not only at night. But right now she appreciated not having extra pressure. How come a getting-well child took up so much time, for both her and Ken?

Ken got up and started clearing the table with Mellie helping—without being asked. “Your lesson is at three?”

She nodded, her eyes sparkling. “And Grammy is going to ride, too.”

“And Grammy is really excited, too, huh?” Ken sent her a teasing look. All because she'd mentioned she was more than a bit uptight about it.

Mellie studied her. “Grammy can do anything.”

Mona reached for her with a big hug. “Thank you, honey. You make me feel mighty good. How about right after we clean up the kitchen, we go through your clothes to see what you need most for school. Jake, you after.”

“I got lots of clothes.” He slumped in his chair. “I don't wanna.”

“We're just making lists today.”

“I hate lists, too.” He peeped from under his lashes and whispered, “Let's go ride bikes, Grampy.”

“Not until the doctor says that's okay. Now get rid of that pouty lip, and after we finish here, we'll go down to the woodshop.”

Mona patted him on the head after she stood. “I'll get the sun tea started.”

Upstairs in Mellie's room, they laid all her clothes out on the bed and began sorting. School keepers, play keepers, summer, winter. Most of her pants were too short, as were the sleeves on shirts and sweaters. They tossed her winter jacket on the giveaway pile with the comment, “You need warmer gear here. We get lots of snow and cold.”

When Mellie's lists were done, they attacked Jake's room and did the same, then called him up to try a few things on. He did so with a grump and charged back down the stairs.

Mona had listed all the sizes, too.

“I never did it like this before.” Mellie motioned around the room, then picked up a blue sweater. “Daddy really likes this one. He called me Princess sometimes.” She smoothed the sweater down her front. “I know this is small, but can I keep it?”

“Of course you may.” Mona tipped up Mellie's chin with one finger and looked directly into her eyes. “You keep whatever you want that reminds you of him, okay?” They both looked at the framed picture of Steig in his dress uniform that sat on her chest of drawers, along with one of the three of them. Mona felt the sting of tears and heard a sniff from the girl at her side. “We're going to get through this, honey, we are.”

Together they put back the keeper things and took their lists downstairs to tack on the cork message board on the door to the garage, right next to the calendar.

Mona studied the calendar. “Since we are riding today, how about we go shopping tomorrow? Get this done quick. What do you think?”

“The next day is the doctor. Do I have to go?”

“Nope. And I suggest that we swing by the library on our way home from riding. Sorry we didn't get to that before.”

Being on a horse felt far better than Mona ever dreamed it would, not that she'd dreamed of riding. She leaned forward and stroked the golden neck of Bruna, the only Fjord horse she had ever ridden.

“Okay?” Miss Dixie asked.

“I most certainly am. This saddle…” She shook her head. “When I was a child, we sometimes rode the horses at my uncle's farm. We would pretend we were in horse shows, and I used to want to ride English, but Uncle Frazier didn't have an English saddle. So thank you.” She squirmed around to settle deeper into this English hunt seat.

“We'll get your leg grip strengthened as we go. She responds well to legs. She is also voice trained. Remember to hold the reins separately, not like you were used to.” Miss Dixie adjusted the reins slightly. “Sit up straight, and keep your weight on your heels. You will need to buy boots with a heel if you decide to keep this up. We can switch Mellie to English, too, if you'd like.”

“We'll see.”

With a young man working with Mellie in another round pen, Mona and her teacher worked in a larger corral. By the end of her lesson when she dismounted, her legs were shaking.

“I thought I was in pretty good shape after all we walk and bike ride.”

“This uses your muscles in a different way. So how do you feel about it?”

“Pure delight. Any suggestions on where to buy boots and helmets?”

Miss Dixie gave her the business card of a store in Madison. “They'll take good care of you and not try to sell you the store. For Mellie, we might have some boots in the office that will fit her. We have a boot swap for families—well, actually, other gear, too, but this is what you need right now.”

On the way home, they stopped at the library and got Mellie a card of her own. They left an hour later with both of them carrying books. Mona had found one titled
Riding English
. Mellie had one on caring for a horse and several other horse stories.

“Thanks, Grammy.” She hugged the books to her chest. “Maybe tonight we can do a lesson on drawing?”

“I'm sure we can.”

“Can I come with you to the doctor?” Mellie asked when Mona tucked her into bed that night.

“Certainly, if you want, but you said you didn't want to.”

“I changed my mind. I can read and draw all the way there and in the waiting room and back.” She sucked in a deep breath and let it out with a smile. “That might make Jake feel good, too.” She closed her eyes and clasped her hands. “Dear Jesus, thank You for Grammy and Grampy and riding and drawing and reading and Jakey and my cousins. Most of all, please take care of my daddy and bring him home safe. And soon. Amen.”

“Amen, indeed,” Mona whispered.
And thank You for these children.

School shopping took Mona back in time, making her realize she'd missed this part of family life. Even though she'd gone sometimes with Marit and the kids, this was different. She'd printed out the shopping lists and gave one to Mellie, too.

“I'm glad Jakey didn't come. He really can be a pain.”

Mona smiled at her granddaughter. “Boys can be like that at times. He will have to try on the shoes, though, but not until we get back from the cabin.”

“Good thing.”

Jake was easy to shop for, all but the shoes. While they got most of the school supplies and his clothes at Target, they'd combed three stores to find cute things for Mellie. Mona had forgotten that a ten-year-old girl might have a hard time making decisions, especially when she would be going to a new school and didn't know anyone there—yet. She and Jake would be attending a different school than their cousins because of where they lived. At least the kids were registered. Ken had taken care of that while she stayed at the hospital with Jake.

They chose a sandwich shop in the mall and were seated by the window. Sitting. What a joy plain old sitting could be.

“Daddy hates shopping about as much as Jake.” Mellie twirled her straw in her milk shake.

“Maybe that's where Jake got it from.” Mona felt like she'd been run over by a Mack truck. How could shopping be so exhausting? She didn't remember being this tired.
You were younger then. And depression does that to you for months. You should know that by now.
That nagging voice inside didn't help. And she usually hadn't tried to cram all the activity into one day.

“Are we really going to buy riding boots?”

“Not today.”

Mellie giggled. “I know that. Did you know that Brit found a summer horse camp on the Internet?”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh, actually Aunt Marit found it when Brit asked if she could go looking. They don't let her search the Internet for stuff, either.”

Steig had asked them to keep the kids off the Internet without supervision and they totally concurred. She was glad Marit and Magnus felt the same.

The waitress set their hamburgers on the table. “Anything else I can get you?”

“Not now, thanks.” She turned back to Mellie. “Let's say grace and have at it.”

“I'm starved.” She shut her eyes. “Thank you, Lord, for good food and nice clothes and for making Jake better again, amen.”

“Good girl.”

Eating out with her granddaughter promised to be a good memory. After she recovered.

“Wouldn't it be perfect if when we got home, the officer had called to say Daddy was on his way home?”

“That it would be.” The comment caught Mona by surprise. Did Mellie think about her daddy all the time?