by Em Pitts
My curiosity cost me with a red hand that was sore from Granny's attention. During one of my wandering moments, I caught the guys situated near the back. They looked just as bored as me and I stared long enough that Nick caught my attention on him. He gave me a wink before I felt another pinch and was facing forward again.
I couldn't tell you what was said during my time in the meetinghouse. I only caught certain snippets of the minister's speech, but I tried to pay attention when 'Brother Snelling' spoke. He was raising a point about children abductions and being careful. That caused a ripple of alarm through the people. Then for some reason, we went straight into less important town business and ignored the larger problem.
When I heard my name, I was startled and looked forward after having looked around the room again. Granny pinched hard on my hand, but I didn't know what to do. She pushed underneath my arm raising it up and I went to raise my hand before she started pushing my side upward as well. I stood awkwardly under everyone's attention and focused on Pastor Winters.
"Ms. Tessa Woods has testimony from your brethren Mr. Oliverus Thornburn, Mr. Raynor Ford, Mr. Isaake James, and Mr. Nickolas Ford. Please welcome her into the village for as long as she wishes to join us. We hope you find a home within our town." There was a collective welcome.
I looked back towards the guys seeing them standing and offering me encouraging smiles or head nods. When I saw them sitting, I quickly did the same. I looked at Granny to see a pinched expression on her face. I couldn't ask her about it, so I faced forward again trying to pay more attention to prevent another episode of ignorance on my part.
When it was over, I was more than ready to hide out and let people believe I was worshipping. Judging by the look on Granny's face she was too. I caught myself looking for the guys as we waddled in the masses to get outside. The men were nowhere to be found and I gave up as Granny dragged me to the tavern.
I survived my first Sabbath day relatively unscathed. The back of my bruised hand was sore, which I felt as I knocked on the Teague's door the next morning. I was hoping I would be working with Ellyne or Willoughby today. For good reasons, I was not looking forward to working with Jayne, but a job was a job. Luckily, the brown-haired woman was the one answering the door and greeted me with a large smile causing me to smile back relieved.
"Come on in. I'll introduce you to the children." Ellyne ushered me inside.
I looked around a little more this time as compared to the first time I was here. The home was lived in and clean and tidy. I'm not sure if that was more due to it being this time period that everyone cleans so damn much or if it had to do with childproofing the home. Either way, it was not overly full of extravagance nor bare of necessities. It was cute.
The little girl smiled politely at me when I entered the living area as the youngest boy pulled on her bonnet strings. Both children were sitting on the couch, the girl was holding the youngest boy sideways in her lap. If it were not for Hector speaking of his children so much during our night trip, I would have thought the youngest child was a girl as I did the first time meeting him. He was clothed in a dress with two long strings hanging off the back.
"Hope, Samson, meet Tessa." Ellyne directed at me. Do I shake their hands or something?
I waved awkwardly and chirped out, "Hi guys!" I probably should hang out with kids more to know how to act with them.
"She will be helping you with your studies today. Be polite." She sternly warned. Aw, Ellyne was a cute mom. She had the mom voice down.
"Are you not going to be with us?" I asked wondering if she was going to get some cleaning done.
"No, I'll be right in the kitchen if you need me. Thank you for the help. I haven't been able to cook meals without worrying for the children unless Willoughby is home. Hector got some cod from Salem Town too, so I'm going to make him a large meal for dinner." She was so excited about cooking. I didn't see the appeal, but I guess some people liked doing it.
"Are the others not here?" I questioned.
"No. Willoughby is helping deliver a child for the Blacks. Hector is out busy somewhere." She waved around generally with a laugh. I noticed she didn't mention Jayne.
"Okay. Well, get to it." I shooed her off chuckling.
I turned to Hope who was still sitting politely waiting. Wow, these kids were well behaved. I figured children would be running around everywhere, especially at their age. Hope is four years old and Samson is only one year old. I also know that they have an older brother named Brant who is in school. Hector was proud every time he mentioned them. And it was easy to see his love of being a father.
"What are we going to get up to?" I asked Hope.
"We have to study. Then I need to clean." She told me. Huh, they seem a bit young for studying and cleaning, but what do I know?
"Okay, what are we studying?" I asked with a clap. I have no idea why I just clapped other than it would be something that Ellyne would do.
"Here." I jumped at the new voice behind me.
There stood a blonde woman who I saw the first time I was here with her hair in waves across her shoulders. She held a paddle out towards me. I immediately stepped back. Why the fuck do I need a paddle to help the children learn? The blonde, who I assumed was Jayne, took offense to my stepping away from her paddle.
"I got this hornbook from the minister himself." She sneered and thrust the paddle towards me again.
I reached for the paddle, or hornbook I guess is what they called it, fully planning to hide the thing out back under the dirt so no one can find it. The writing caught my eye and made me look closer at the hornbook. I relaxed when I realized it was for the children to study.
There was the alphabet written across it as well as a paragraph below the letters. The Lord’s Prayer, I recognized as I read it. I looked back at Jayne to see her smiling smugly at my inspection of the hornbook. Was I supposed to be impressed?
"Our children will be the brightest in the village when they enter school. They will know more than any others." She stated smugly.
Jayne looked at the kids not in a proud way, but in a prized way. She sounded like she was more worried about them being better than others, rather than them being educated. I truly hope none of Hector's children grow up to be like her.
My quiet must have not been what Jayne was expecting because she huffed out at me before storming off. I was not impressed by her pettiness and had no intention of fixing whatever her problem was, so I gladly smiled at her retreat and turned back towards Hope and Samson.
"So, you know the alphabet already?" I asked impressed. "I didn't know the alphabet when I was your age. You must work hard to be that smart, huh?" I found myself kneeling instinctively to be eye level with Hope. Samson reached towards my bonnet strings. "May I?" I asked with my arms out towards Samson.
With a nod, the baby boy was passed towards me and I plopped my butt on the floor. Hope jumped up and offered me the couch. I waved her off.
"How about you show me all your hard work with the alphabet?" I couldn't help but smile as Samson started trying to pull my bonnet off.
Hope started reciting the alphabet trying not to look at the hornbook but was mixing all the letters up. I let her continue regardless and was impressed that she could remember the letters even if they weren't in order.
Deciding to let Samson down, I watched him clumsily wander around. I kept listening to Hope and realized I had no idea if she was saying all the letters with them being out of order. When Hope stopped reciting letters I smiled her way.
"That was pretty awesome. How about we try with the hornbook and see if we can get them in order?"
That was how we spent the next half hour. Only it was not working. Every time Hope would frown harder at the hornbook and recite the letters while seeing them, only to get tripped up when she could not see them in order.
When there was a knock at the door, I waited on Jayne to get it since it was her house. The second knock had me standing, but Ellyne walked behind me to
answer the door. I was surprised when Ollie walked in with his sister. He raised his eyebrows at my presence. I waved towards him and received one from him in return. We didn't talk as I put my attention back towards Hope.
I was getting bored, so I know she could not have been having fun and her little face was scrunched up enough to make me feel stressed too. How did I learn the alphabet while I was in school? I had an inspiring thought.
Ellyne appeared before I could ask Hope to try my new idea. "I'm so sorry." She rushed from the kitchen with Ollie beside her. "I need to run and grab my husband to fix the water."
"Anything I can help with?" I questioned.
"No, the water is not coming out of the well. I'm not sure if the level is too low, or something happened." She seemed frustrated. "I need Hector's Water gift to fix it."
"Hector has a Water gift? Like Nick?" I questioned.
"Yes and no. Nickolas's gift is stronger than Hector's. Hector can move the water, but he can't purify it as Nick does." She admitted. She seemed to shift on her feet at the door in indecision.
"Go." I waved her off. "We will be fine." I ensured her.
She was out the door in the next moment. I turned back to the children assuming Ollie would follow her out. I looked back at Hope and the hornbook.
"How about we try something different?" I gently grabbed the hornbook away from her. "Want to learn the way I did?" I smiled brightly before cupping my hand around my mouth as if to tell her a secret. "It's the fun way," I whispered.
She relaxed and let out a small giggle with a head nod. I grabbed Samson up before he could try to climb up on the table beside me so my attention would not be so divided. Then I told Hope my new plan.
"We are going to sing it," I stated proudly. "I hope you can sing well because I really can't," I stated seriously and got another giggle. I could definitely do this babysitting thing while I was here.
And so, we sang the alphabet phonics song that I learned from the beginning of school. I was terribly off key and Hope had such a high-pitched voice that I'm sure we made quite the scene. Luckily, we were alone. Samson was trying to sing along with us, and I couldn't help but laugh when he would try to be louder than me. He succeeded too.
It was an angry voice that jerked my attention behind me. Ollie was leaned up against the wall looking amused, but the screeching banshee noise was coming from Jayne who just came from the hallway.
"Enough!" Ollie's expression morphed to a blank face quickly and I focused on Jayne who clearly slept on a pea which pissed the princess off. "Learn the right way or not at all!" She snapped. "And learning time is not play time!" She finished in a huff.
I saw Ollie shifting from my peripheral vision as Jayne tried to storm off. Fuck. That. I placed Samson on his sister's lap.
"Watch them," I demanded of Ollie as I chased down Jayne. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" I snapped at her when I caught up.
It was a struggle not to yell at her, but I didn't think the kids needed to hear that. It was all for naught though, as Jayne yelled back regardless.
"What do you think you're doing?" She poked a finger at my chest. "Coming in MY home." Another poke. "Teaching MY children your nonsense." Harder poke. "Not taking their studying seriously." I grabbed that damn finger before she bruised me with another poke. She gasped indignantly.
"If you don't like the way I'm teaching them, then you get off your lazy ass and teach YOUR children." Her mouth dropped as if she had never heard anyone speak to her in such a way. She probably hadn't. "And do it because you want them to learn. Not because you want them to be better than someone else. Try caring about YOUR children, why don't you?" I scoffed.
"How dare you! I do—" I cut off her words rudely knowing that she had nothing but excuses coming.
"You do nothing but worry about yourself and your image. Now you are pushing that off on your children. Learn to be a fucking mother." I threw her finger back at her as she gasped like a fish. Ollie was standing at the end of the hallway watching me as I made my way back to the kids. I turned my head and called over my shoulder, "And the nonsense I was teaching your children was working. Hope can sing the alphabet easier than she can recite it from that damn paddle." Another gasp accompanied my words. I ignored her.
Ollie's expression was unreadable when I reached him. I quirked an eyebrow, "I thought I told you to watch the kids," I said with some humor. I needed to break whatever tension was going on. If he started yelling at me too about the way I treat the kids, then I may just be getting fired again.
"Hope can watch Samson. She has to do it a lot more than she should." He said with that blank expression still on his face. "Need me to walk you home?" He asked.
My face fell at the thought of being fired for standing up for the children. I know I'm not from this time and these children are not mine, but it seems universal that what I did was the right thing.
I looked beyond his shoulder to Hope who had Samson on her lap. Her eyes were glued to me. She looked scared. Even Samson was quieter. That was enough of an indicator that what I did was right. She didn't need to be in trouble for someone helping her. She didn't need to think it was normal to be ignored and yelled at by her mom.
I squared my shoulders and told Ollie firmly, "We aren't done with our lesson." Then I smiled brightly at Hope to ease her fear. "Ready to sing again? You can help me figure out new things that begin with each letter."
She looked unsure and I vowed to take that look off her face before I left for the day. Ollie surprised me with a soft smile as he moved for me to pass him. Time to assure Hope was not in trouble and get her to have fun again.
11
I'm not going to lie; it was harder to continue singing knowing that there was company present. I know that Ollie technically heard me before our interruption, but my embarrassment was harder to convince to go away.
It was Hope that brought me out of my shell again. Her uneasiness faded away as I showed her that she was not in trouble and it was okay to have fun. We even included Ollie's name in our alphabet song in place for the "O".
Ellyne came home with Hector after we stopped our antics. Now that study time was over, Hope was trying to tell me what she needed to clean. Hector made himself busy after giving a polite hello to Ollie and myself. Ellyne made her way over to me instead of following her husband.
"Thank you for today. I'm sorry about leaving you in the middle of lessons. Tomorrow will be better." I smiled at the thought of coming back to Hope and Samson tomorrow. "Why don't you go ahead and go back to the tavern since we will be working on figuring out what is wrong with the well for a bit?"
"Sure thing." I agreed easily. I'm sure I can help Granny with something.
"Brother, will you be joining us?" She gave a secretive smile Ollie's way.
"I'm going to escort Tess back first." He replied heading towards the door. She clapped her hands together behind his back and gave a squeal. My eyes rolled upwards as I laughed at her before following Ollie out the door.
"Is she always going to do that?" I asked him.
"Just until you stop encouraging her." He looked at me with humor. I put my hand to my chest in mock outrage.
"I do no such thing." He laughed at me. "Seriously, that was you that time." I pointed out. He ignored that and changed the subject. Before I knew it, we were halfway to the tavern and our conversation had kept flowing easily.
We were walking up a hill when an unexpected breeze caught my hair and had me lifting my head to take a breath, enjoying the feeling. I still had my eyes closed when Ollie asked curiously, "What are you doing?"
"Enjoying the wind, obviously." I cracked an eye open to peek at him. His attention was focused ahead of me though.
"Trying to find her, actually." Raynor's deep voice had me focusing in his direction.
He had come over the hill as I was enjoying the breeze. He dropped his arm where his fingers were dancing as if twirling through the wind. The wind died down right after. Was he
making the breeze? His words caught up with me.
"Why did you need to find me?" I asked curiously. He was coming from the direction of the town. I hope Granny didn't find something to blame on me in my absence.
"Pastor Winters and Judge wanted to speak with you." His words caused a flutter of excitement to zip through me even as a twinge of something heavy pinged against me. I ignored the twinge focusing on the fact that a way home may have finally been found.
"Did they say why?" I asked trying to keep myself grounded so I don't get my hopes up. Raynor shook his head at my question, then looked towards Ollie.
"We should find out," Was Raynor's reply. I looked towards Ollie too and saw his brows furrowed as he scratched his beard. His expression smoothed out as he looked my way.
"Let's find out." He repeated Raynor's idea with a tilt of his head. I needed no further encouragement and picked up my stride. The men easily kept pace with me and walked on each side of me towards town. "Are the others meeting us there?" Ollie asked Raynor over my head.
"I sent word to Nick, I'm sure he will bring Isaake," Raynor stated distractedly. He seemed to have something on his mind as he cracked his knuckles.
There was silence between us as we made our way into town. My mind was running through with possibilities of seeing Abby again. I'm not sure what was on either mind of the men beside me.
I did not notice the rest of the walk and was on autopilot until I saw two more familiar figures standing in front of the meetinghouse. One shoulder-length black haired man who was waving with a smile and a blonde who was as stern looking as ever. Raynor spoke up as we reached Nick and Isaake.
"You could have at least told us you got the message." Raynor chastised the men.
His statement confused me for a moment until I remembered Nick's mind talk. I must have been jumping in place from anticipation because Nick ignored his brother and laughed at me.