A Hope for Hannah (Hannah's Heart 2)

by Jerry S. Eicher

A thirty-minute walk up the slight grade brought them in sight of the man’s cabin, two stories high and made of little more than boards nailed upright with mismatched tin on the roof. Some of the edges even stood higher than the others.

  Behind the cabin and farther up the slight slope was the barn, its structure in even worse shape than the house.

  “For all its looks, the house is well-insulated,” Jake said because obviously something needed to be said in Mr. Brunson’s favor.

  “And clean,” Hannah added, remembering her brief look inside the house.

  “He’s a real nice gentleman,” Jake said as he led the party up to the front door and knocked. Mr. Brunson, clean shaven as usual and with a smile on his face, opened the door almost at once.

  “Well, what have we here?” he asked, obviously pleased to see them.

  “Hannah’s parents,” Jake said. “Roy and Kathy Miller, this is Mr. Brunson.”

  “Glad to meet you,” Mr. Brunson said, extending his hand.

  Roy stepped right up and shook Mr. Brunson’s hand readily, but Kathy stepped forward a little more cautiously, smiling and politely nodding her greeting.

  “The women have us out walking,” Roy said in a teasing voice. “They just won’t let a man on vacation take it easy!”

  “Now, that’s not true,” Kathy retorted. “You slept real late. You can’t spend your whole vacation in bed.”

  “And they wouldn’t feed us either,” Roy continued. “Why, they turned us right out on our own.”

  “Sounds like you have some tough women there,” Mr. Brunson said.

  Jake laughed. “He likes to stretch things a little.”

  “Well, you want to come on inside?” Mr. Brunson said as he held the door open.

  “Oh, we were just out walking,” Kathy told him quickly. “Thanks anyway. Hannah says you’re coming for supper tonight.”

  “She was kind enough to invite me,” Mr. Brunson said. “I hope I’m not a bother.”

  “Certainly not,” Kathy assured him. “We’re just guests too.”

  “I’ll look forward to it, then. Sure you folks don’t want to come in? Don’t have much, but it works for me.”

  “I’m sure it does,” Kathy said. “We have a walk ahead of us, though. We’ll be anxious to see you again this evening for supper.”

  “If your cooking tastes as good as your daughter’s, supper will really be something,” Mr. Brunson told her.

  “We train them that way,” Roy said with a chuckle. “That is—until they quit like this morning.”

  “Don’t pay attention to him,” Kathy said. “Does he look underfed to you?”

  “Not in the least,” Mr. Brunson assured her with a straight face.

  “We’d like to walk farther up if that’s okay with you,” Jake said. “You have a good view of the mountains up there.”

  “Most certainly,” Mr. Brunson said. “It’s not that far. Of course there are better places, but those would be quite a climb.”

  “Thanks,” Roy and Kathy said almost together.

  Jake led the way higher up the slope. Hannah looked back and noticed that Mr. Brunson waited until they were on their way before he shut his door. Apparently he was in no hurry to be rid of their company, which bode well for supper that evening.

  When Jake found the spot he wanted, he stopped and motioned toward the Cabinet Mountains. From here they could see the full range and even farther to the north and south. The majestic view took Hannah’s breath away.

  “I can see why someone would want to live here,” Kathy said, her voice full of awe.

  Roy nodded momentarily and then muttered, “There’s always the thing of a job.”

  “Oh, Jake can hunt and fish in the winter,” Hannah said. “That’s the good part—even if you don’t have work.” Hannah hoped Jake appreciated that she stuck up for him even if she wanted to move back to Indiana.

  “Well, I’ve seen enough of it,” Roy pronounced. “Let’s get ourselves back to the house. It’s time for an old man’s nap.”

  “And eating?” Kathy added.

  “Of course,” Roy replied, laughing. “That skimpy breakfast is long gone after this walk.”

  “Uh-huh,” Kathy said sarcastically.

  “Well then, we’d better get back before they die of hunger,” Hannah said, matching her mother’s tone. “It’s been such a long journey—such heat, famine, and thirst.”

  Jake led the way back past Mr. Brunson’s and down the slope toward the log cabin. Once they arrived, Roy ate plenty for lunch and then excused himself to the spare room for a nap. Jake too was tempted to take a nap but resisted the urge. He read the Family Life instead.

  With her mother’s help, Hannah made the full dinner she had planned—meat, potatoes, gravy, salad with the last of the fresh vegetables, and two cherry pies. For filling she cheated by using store-bought. At least it felt like cheating to her. She had always seen her mother make her pie filling from scratch with cherries from the grocery store. Kathy didn’t mention the difference, and Hannah pushed the guilt aside. It was a time to enjoy family, she decided, not think about unimportant things like pie filling.

  Mr. Brunson showed up well before the appointed supper time and was welcomed in. He took the seat offered him in the living room with Roy and Jake. While Kathy and Hannah worked in the kitchen, he made himself comfortable and easily joined in the men’s conversation.

  Hannah let Jake know when everything was ready, and Jake led the two men to the kitchen where Hannah instructed them all where to sit. Jake, of course, was at the head with Mr. Brunson and Roy on either side of him. Kathy sat beside Roy, and Hannah took the table’s end across from Jake.

  When she settled into her seat, Hannah gave Jake a look that signaled him to begin.

  “Would you please ask the blessing?” Jake asked Roy.

  Roy bowed his head immediately. The others followed, and he began to pray. Hannah stole a quick look at Mr. Brunson, who still looked quite comfortable, as if the German prayer didn’t bother him at all.

  “Do you have family around here?” Kathy asked Mr. Brunson as the food was passed around the table.

  “No,” he said, “no one.”

  “How long have you lived here?” Kathy asked. “Hannah said you were here when they moved in.”

  Mr. Brunson wrinkled his brow. “Most of nine years, now.”

  “So you must like living in the mountains by yourself?” Roy joined in the conversation. “Nice country, I must say.”

  “Oh, I have a son out East,” Mr. Brunson said, and a shadow crossed his face. Hannah wondered why Mr. Brunson had never mentioned his son before. Maybe she and Jake hadn’t asked the right questions.

  “Does he ever visit?” Kathy asked, passing the bread.

  “No,” Mr. Brunson said, “never has.”

  “Then you must go back East to see him on Christmas and holidays?” Roy asked.

  “No,” Mr. Brunson said with what seemed like a sad chuckle.

  Roy and Kathy fell silent, and Hannah wondered whether their questions had been a bit much. Mr. Brunson must have noticed too because he chuckled again.

  “I guess we’re not as big on family as you folks are. It’s nice you invited me, though.”

  That relaxed everyone, and the conversation flowed again.

  As he downed his last bite of cherry pie, Roy thumped his stomach and pronounced himself satisfied. Hannah considered that he must not have noticed the store-bought filling. At the price of groceries, store filling ought to be as good as homemade, she thought ruefully.

  When the men were back in the living room, Hannah and Kathy did the dishes and then joined the men. After an appropriate amount of time, Mr. Brunson soon excused himself, thanking both Hannah and Jake for the invitation. He then drove away in his truck, the headlights bouncing up the lane toward the mountain.

  “He’s nice enough,” Kathy said to no one in particular.

  “Yes,” Roy managed to say as he reached for Th
e Budget to read now that Mr. Brunson was gone. Just like he always does at home, Hannah thought. She had forgotten how much she missed it all.

  “You have to feel sorry for people without families,” Kathy said vaguely in Hannah’s direction, “whether it’s by choice or not.”

  “I wonder if Mr. Brunson had a falling-out with his son.” Hannah said, remembering the man’s sad chuckle at the table.

  “You never know nowadays,” Kathy mused, “with the world as it is.”

  “What about his wife? He must have had one—and other children,” Hannah said.

  “Maybe he only had the one child. It’s possible,” Kathy said. “I’m glad you invited him, though. That was right thoughtful of you.”

  Hannah sighed with relief, thankful for her mother’s approval.

  Roy yawned soon after that and announced it was his bedtime.

  “You had a nap,” Kathy said

  “I’m getting old,” he answered back.

  “Then you’ll have to head on in by yourself,” she said. “I don’t come to Montana every day.”

  A few minutes later, Roy, fighting sleep, gave up and walked toward the spare bedroom with a grumble that no one took care of him anymore. Jake turned in an hour later, after he had completed his Family Life articles. Hannah and Kathy stayed up well past midnight.

  Something about the late hour, having the chores completed, and the absence of the men loosened their hearts and their tongues. They spoke nonstop about the things women talk about, all the little subtleties and nuances of people’s lives—what aunt Martha said, who was courting whose son or daughter, and who knew what about everyone.

  The torrent finally came to an end as mother and daughter settled into a comfortable silence. Hannah knew their time together would never be as it once was, abundant and available, and in her own way tried to come to peace with the fact. The separation had proven more painful than she had expected, yet she found in their coming together again a new facet of their relationship quite beyond her imagination. They had never been so separate and yet so close.

  “Do you really think you and Jake might move to Indiana?” Kathy asked wistfully.

  “I don’t know. Jake seems so set against it.”

  “Don’t push it, then,” Kathy said, ever the mother.

  Hannah, now sleepy, simply nodded.

  Fifteen

  In the morning, Jake took a sudden notion to hitch up the buggy and drive into Libby with Roy. He wanted to show Roy the hardware store, talk with Mr. Howard again, and maybe pick up some things for Hannah from the grocery store. Hannah knew he made that last offer to mollify any objections she might have.

  Hannah had neither objections nor need of anything from the grocery store, but she didn’t think her father’s presence would make any difference in Jake’s conversation with Mr. Howard. Hannah was glad Jake thought well of her family, but she still hadn’t warmed up to the idea of a hardware store job. Certainly a move back to Indiana would be better than that. The factories paid much better than the Libby hardware store.

  When the men returned just before lunch, Roy expressed himself satisfied with Mr. Howard and the job offer Jake had received. Hannah glanced at Jake, puzzled at her dad’s use of the present tense. She looked at Jake and saw him grinning.

  “He wants me to start Monday, but I said I couldn’t start till Wednesday, after my in-laws leave,” Jake said almost gleefully.

  “I told him to go right ahead and not to wait,” Roy said, “but he wouldn’t listen. Don’t blame me if you starve out of house and home.”

  “He hired you?” Hannah asked, trying to clear things up.

  “Steady work,” Jake assured her. “All winter. We even spoke some more about building log furniture. He showed us the storage room out back.”

  “It might work out fine,” Roy said. “It’s a little small, but it’s heated.”

  Hannah hoped her disappointment didn’t show too much. “That’s great,” she managed, all the while seeing her hope for the Indiana move fly away. Thinking, At least he has a job, and we might make it through the winter, she said, “Does the job pay well?”

  Jake was slow to answer. “Not that much—but it’s work.”

  “It’s fair,” Roy said. “The real money will be in the furniture—if you can find a distributor and market it well.”

  Hannah and Kathy left the men to talk business and went to prepare sandwiches for lunch.

  “Cheer up,” Kathy told Hannah when they were in the kitchen. “It’s not the end of the world.”

  “I don’t look that disappointed, do I?” Hannah asked, hoping it was just her mother’s instincts picking up on her distress.

  “You can get your heart set on something. Then, that may not be God’s will.”

  “But I wanted to move back to Indiana,” Hannah whispered, “even more so since you’ve been here.”

  “Just go with the flow of things. It’s better that way.”

  “Maybe we can move back next spring after the hardware job gives out.”

  Kathy spoke plainly. “It’s best not to plan things like that. Spring is a long way off.”

  “And a cold hard winter is ahead.” Hannah gave a shudder.

  “But you knew about the winters before you moved here,” Kathy reminded her.

  “That’s different from seeing one up close and personal—and a grizzly bear too!”

  Kathy laughed and said, “You’ll make it. We always do.”

  Hannah wasn’t sure about that, but it was good to hear her mother cheer her on.

  After the sandwiches were eaten, no one had any other ideas about what to do, and so they decided to spend the rest of the day and evening around the house. Roy took a long nap again while Jake cleaned out the horse stall. He made several trips to the garden to dump the mixture of straw and horse manure.

  Mr. Brunson rattled into the driveway, interrupting Jake on his last load. Leaving the wheelbarrow in the yard, Jake walked up to the truck, chatted briefly, and turned toward the house as Mr. Brunson left.

  “He wants to show his elk to Roy and me,” Jake announced when he opened the door. “It sounds like a big one.”

  “What?” Roy asked from the recliner where he had been napping.

  “Mr. Brunson wants to show us his elk,” Jake repeated.

  “How’d he get it?” Roy asked, rubbing his face.

  “Bow and arrow,” Jake said. “He’s good at it.”

  “Interesting.” Roy got to his feet and glanced at the women. “You want to come along?”

  They both shook their heads. Roy shrugged and followed Jake outside.

  “I guess it keeps them entertained,” Kathy said when they were gone, and Hannah agreed.

  The men, though, got the last laugh when they returned an hour later, toting a plastic bag full of fresh elk meat.

  “What are you doing with that stuff?” Kathy asked in genuine horror as she eyed the bag of redness.

  “You’re making it for supper,” Roy announced.

  “No, I’m not. It’s elk meat,” Kathy said, her disgust obvious.

  “It’s the same as deer meat at home,” Roy assured her.

  “How do you know? It might have an awful flavor.” Kathy didn’t seem convinced.

  Certain she had already eaten elk meat at Betty’s place last summer, Hannah jumped into the conversation. “It’s okay, Mom. Betty has cooked it too.”

  “Betty?” Kathy’s horror seemed to only increase.

  “You probably ate some when you visited her last,” Hannah said as calmly as she could. She almost wanted to laugh at her mother’s reluctance.

  “See?” Roy said, his voice triumphant. “That settles it. We’re having elk meat for supper.”

  “Well, I suppose I could try it,” Kathy said, still eying the plastic bag of meat suspiciously.

  “And Mr. Brunson is coming for supper because it’s his meat,” Jake said. “I invited him.”

  “But I hadn’t planned on an ext
ra person for dinner,” Hannah protested, a thousand thoughts of cherry pies, salads, and other fixings running through her mind.

  Kathy rallied first. “It won’t be much, I promise you that.”

  “Just the meat and some gravy,” Roy said, a gleam in his eye. “It has to be tender, though.”

  Kathy glared at him. “That may be all it will be. If it’s tough, don’t say you weren’t warned.”

  When Hannah and Kathy were finished with it, the meat wasn’t tough. They boiled and then fried it on the stove, using the extra wood Jake had split and hauled in that morning.

  Mr. Brunson had nothing but good things to say about the hurriedly thrown-together supper, pronouncing it among the best he had ever eaten.

  “You’re just saying so,” Kathy said. Nonetheless she enjoyed the praise.

  “Certainly not,” he assured her and then started to say something else but stopped abruptly, a sad look crossing his face. Hannah couldn’t tell if anyone else noticed, and the conversation soon continued.

  After supper the men took turns playing checkers in the living room. Mr. Brunson proved to be quite a challenge for Roy, who considered himself an expert. Jake played once in a while “to calm them down,” he said for Kathy and Hannah’s benefit. The real matches were between Mr. Brunson and Roy. The two battled it out, one man taking the lead and then the other. The women watched with amusement.

  Mr. Brunson finally proclaimed it a draw and Roy a worthy adversary. He rose from his chair and extended his hand. “I’ve got to go now, old man. You do know how to play your checkers.”

  “Old man yourself,” Roy said with a great laugh. “You are good. You sure you’ve got to go?” he asked with genuine regret.

  “Yes, I do. Thanks for the meal again,” he said in Kathy and Hannah’s direction.

  “Nice man,” Roy said, “and can he play checkers!”

  “You can be thankful to have such a good neighbor,” Kathy commented. “Anyone want coffee?”

  Roy did and said so with a loud, “Of course.”

  “Well, I knew you did,” Kathy said. “I meant the others.”

  “Just get it brewing, and they’ll join in,” Roy said. “Why would anyone refuse coffee?”