A Heart for Home

by Lauraine Snelling

  Astrid leaned over and picked her up, then turned back to the window, the kitten purring under her chin. Was there anything more comforting than a purring cat and a man getting well in the lightening of the day? Thank you, Father, for performing your loving miracles in this house again. This could have been so horrible. Thank you for the vaccines, for Dr. Morganstein, who knew just what to do, for those here who had already been vaccinated and could help. For bringing Mr. Jeffers and his mother to Blessing. For your great mercy on us all.

  She sat down in the rocking chair and leaned her head back, the cat settling into her lap. Closing her eyes, she continued her prayers of thanksgiving as she rocked gently, the song of the chair now joined by the tentative notes of a song sparrow welcoming the dawn. Thoughts of Mr. Jeffers made her smile. She was going to ask him about his own family, but surely had there been a wife or a fiancée in his past he would have mentioned it. To Thorliff, if not to her. But what did it matter? After the fiasco with Mr. Landsverk, she wasn’t about to consider another man. Even one as nice as Mr. Jeffers.

  20

  “I’m starting to think we should go ahead and have a girl party, and then have another one after Grace gets home,” Sophie said, clamping her hands on her widening hips.

  “Sophie, not right now,” Astrid pleaded.

  “Yes, right now. The whole town has been so subdued with the typhoid quarantine. I just feel like we need to have a little fun.”

  “I don’t think community events are a good idea right now. It could be asking for trouble.” Astrid studied her cousin over her stepson’s head. “And besides, three stitches in one’s forehead makes for a headache and a cranky child. You don’t need everyone at your house right now.” She placed a bandage over Grant’s stitches and tipped up his chin to check his eyes again.

  “It still hurts, huh?”

  He nodded, then flinched. “Sorry.”

  “Me too. You go home and lie down for a while. When you wake up again, you should feel better.” She transferred her attention to Sophie. “When you change the bandage, spread some honey on the wound. Honey promotes faster healing.”

  “I like honey.” Grant almost smiled.

  “Then maybe your mother should give you a honeyed spoon to suck on too, don’t you think?”

  He nodded again and touched the white bandage on his head. “It was Nathan’s fault. He tripped me.”

  “He didn’t mean to.”

  “I know, but you said – ”

  “Forget what I said. No more running in the house. How many times have we talked about that?”

  “Can’t count that high?”

  Sophie rolled her eyes. “No. I probably can’t either, but now you know why I say such things.” She stood and took Grant’s hand. “Thank you, Dr. Bjorklund. Stop over at the boardinghouse for coffee sometime.”

  “I’ll do that. Bye.”

  Sophie sailed out of the room, as only Sophie could sail in spite of her pregnancy, poor Grant dragging along behind.

  Rather than bringing the second ill man over to the surgery, they were taking care of him at the schoolhouse to help contain the spread of typhoid. The first man was still recovering but now living at the schoolhouse too. All the men had been vaccinated at the same time as those of the town who had been exposed to the disease.

  Since there were no further patients, Astrid shut the door and turned the Open sign over to Closed. If someone needed her, they would know what to do. A knock at the door was all it took to summon the doctor. She put away the supplies she’d used, placed the things that needed sterilizing in the tray, and closed the door behind her. The two bedrooms were all cleaned and made up again, and she knew Thelma had finished the laundry earlier in the morning. Strolling into the kitchen and withdrawing the pitcher from the icebox, she poured herself a drink of something pink. Pitcher back and cooling glass in hand, Astrid made her way out to the back porch, fully expecting to see Elizabeth working on the supply lists for the hospital.

  No Elizabeth and no Thelma either.

  Hmm. Astrid sat down in the well-cushioned wicker chair and put her feet up on the hassock she pulled over. The sound of children laughing and squealing carried over the empty lots. Hammers pounding, wood being sawed, a man shouting instructions were all the normal sounds of the building going on in town. She knew the immigrant workers were digging cellars. Joshua’s house stood a story and a half high, with men on ladders hammering on the siding. She checked to see if thoughts of Joshua bothered her, but all she could sense was a feeling of peace and gratitude that he was getting at least part of his dream – a house.

  When she looked over her shoulder, she could see Thelma out picking beans in the garden. Where was Elizabeth? Inga was out at her grandma’s house, another reason why the house was so quiet. The sound of boots on the sidewalk preceded Thorliff’s strolling around the corner of the house. He had papers in his hand and glanced over them when he saw Astrid.

  “So where is everyone?”

  “I was wondering the same.” She held up her glass. “You want some?”

  “I’ll get it. Thelma is picking beans and weeding at the same time.” The door slammed behind him.

  Astrid tipped back her head to watch two sparrows arguing on the branch of the box elder tree growing at the corner of the porch. It sounded like the female was scolding the male. Perhaps he’d neglected to feed the children. The thought made her smile. One of the kittens jumped up in her lap. They looked so alike with their dense gray fur that she couldn’t tell them apart. Inga could. One was for Emmy when she returned from her summer with her tribe.

  “Watch it!” The shout echoed through the sudden silence. A board clattered to the ground.

  “That was close.”

  Feeling like she was eavesdropping, Astrid stroked the cat’s back. “Don’t get too comfortable. I won’t be here long.”

  “You’re never anywhere very long.” Thorliff let the door slam behind him and sat down in the chair next to her.

  “I should be working on the hospital planning.”

  “I saw Grant sporting a white bandage on his forehead, and he had blood on his shirt.”

  “Head wounds bleed a lot. He split the skin tripping over Nathan. I stitched it up.”

  “He’ll be the envy of the younger set.”

  “What are you working on?”

  “Articles for the paper. I interviewed Pastor Solberg about his time with the Indian tribe. Do you have any comments to make?”

  “Other than to thank the people of Blessing for sending supplies, no.”

  “What about the two Indian women who are in nurses training?”

  “Along with Deborah. You ought to interview Mor and Tante Kaaren for that. They’re the ones doing the training, along with Mrs. Jeffers.”

  “You know, you should have put a notice of the class in the newspaper. There might be others from the outlying areas who would be interested.”

  “True. I never thought of that. We weren’t really prepared to start an official class. I just thought these two women could be more help to Dr. Red Hawk if they had some training.”

  Thorliff scratched some notes with his pencil, then tucked it behind his ear again. “Think I’ll go on out there. Tell Elizabeth where I went, will you?”

  “Of course.” Astrid watched him stride off, thinking she should be up and doing something else. Finishing her drink, she set the glass in the kitchen sink, trod softly on the stairs in case Elizabeth was indeed sleeping, which she was, and decided to go get the mail. The train had been through some time earlier.

  She stopped in front of the mirror in the hall and pinned on the widebrimmed straw hat she kept there. Going without a hat would indeed not be proper. If she were really proper, she would carry a parasol too, but even the thought of it made her frown. The thought brought back memories of Mrs. Moore down on the Rosebud Reservation. Was there any chance she had taken her advice so she could have a healthy baby?

  Since the men were no
w digging cellars in the blocks between the surgery and the post office, she didn’t cut across but instead walked up to Main and stepped up onto the boardwalk, which was so valuable when the rain caused puddles and mud. Right now they needed a good rain, but rain would be bad for the wheat harvest. There were no easy answers, if ever there had been.

  “Hey there, Dr. Bjorklund!”

  She looked up to wave at Toby, who was one of the carpenters on Joshua’s, or rather Mr. Landsverk’s, roof. “That sure went up in a hurry.”

  “I know. Wonderful, isn’t it? At the rate we’re going, we’ll have them all weatherproofed by fall.”

  “What about the hospital?”

  “That’s on hold for another week.” He waved again and went back to hammering.

  Astrid continued past the boardinghouse on the other side of the street and crossed the side street to climb the stairs to the post office. She could see Gerald at the switchboard in the office across the hall.

  Pushing open the screen door, she stepped inside, where a bit of a breeze entered at one door and crossed the floor to the other.

  “Well, well, if it isn’t Dr. Bjorklund.” Mrs. Valders smiled from behind the counter. “We never seem to see your face much.”

  “No. That typhoid scare kept us pretty busy.”

  Mrs. Valders rubbed her arm. “That vaccination must have took real good on me. Still a bit tender.” She reached down and fetched a couple of magazines and a package and set them on the counter. “Your regular mail is in the box.”

  Astrid unlatched the door and pulled several letters out, flipping through to see if any were for her. “Is the newspaper mail still here too?”

  “Sure enough. Let me put all this in a satchel for you. I think those ads Thorliff has run are paying off.” She bundled a bunch into a cloth bag. “Bring the bag back the next time you come in.”

  Astrid nodded. “You want me to look at that vaccination?”

  Mrs. Valders rolled up her sleeve. “If you don’t mind, but it looks to be healing.”

  Astrid inspected the still slightly red and crusty spot. “Do you have any menthol cream?”

  “I think so.”

  “Rub that in. It will soften up the scab.”

  “Thank you. You doctors sure took good care of this town. We mighta lost lots of our people had you not gotten the vaccine. Benny was so brave about it. The way he calls you “My Doc” just tickles me pink.”

  “He is one special little boy. I fell in love with him when he came out of the anesthetic after the surgery and realized he’d lost his legs. He glared at me as if I were responsible, and just one tear rolled down his cheek. He’s a brave one, all right.”

  “He’s looking forward to school. His pa is putting better wheels on his scooter so he can navigate the path when it gets bumpy. He doesn’t want anyone pulling him in the wagon anymore.”

  “Maybe we should find him a big dog to pull the wagon. Then he’d be the most popular one around. Everyone would want to ride in it.”

  “My Benny – all the children love him.”

  Astrid patted Mrs. Valders’ hand where it lay on the counter. The woman could hardly talk about her grandson without tearing up. “Amazing how God works, isn’t it? Here was a little boy who needed a decent home when he had legs, but when we brought him here, he charmed the town and gave us all a good example of courage.”

  “I thank God for him every day. Now with the baby coming and all, Rebecca is going to be mighty busy.”

  “You know, I was thinking that maybe we ought to put out the word that we, as a town, would be willing to have some female immigrants come here to work too. What do you think?”

  “They’d have to be God-fearing proper women or girls,” Mrs. Valders said, nodding her head while she spoke. “It would be good if they were Norwegian or Swede, but German would be fine.” She looked at Astrid. “We are going to be needing more help, that’s for sure. I’ll ask Mr. Valders what he thinks.”

  Astrid knew that was a total agreement. Sometimes she wondered if the two really did discuss the news of the town. Those were always Hildegunn’s last words. “I’ll talk with Mr. Valders about it.”

  “I better get back and go through this mail. Thank you.” Instead of going out the west door and over to Rebecca’s for a soda, which sounded like a wonderful way to finish her day, she returned the way she came. Back at the surgery, as everyone called Thorliff’s house, Astrid set the mail for the newspaper on the kitchen table and that for the doctors on the dining room table.

  “That you, Astrid?” Elizabeth called from above.

  “I got the mail. I have a letter from Red Hawk.”

  “Anything else?”

  “One from Dr. Morganstein. You want me to bring it up?”

  “No. I’ll come down in a while.”

  Astrid slit open the letter from Red Hawk. She would recognize his handwriting anywhere. Bold, half printing, half cursive. He must have driven his teachers mad when they tried to force him to write correctly.

  Dear Dr. Bjorklund,

  I have received news from the reservation, and all of the reports are singing your praises to the sky. I am not sure if you realized the precariousness of your visit there. I know that there could have been trouble, but you won their gratitude for keeping so many of my people alive. Especially He Who Walks Tall. He is young to take over as chief, but with the death of Dark Cloud, he was a good choice. I know that had I been there, I would have been forced into the role of chief. Had I lived through the epidemic, of course.

  I was surprised that you brought the two women back to Blessing with you. I hope that did not cause dissension in your town. Training them will do exactly as you said – give me assistance when I get there.

  Dr. Morganstein has said that if your hospital is dedicated about the time I am finished here, she wants me to stop there with them for the ceremony. Please keep us advised as to how the building is progressing.

  I heard that you had typhoid there with the immigrant laborers. We borrowed vaccine from all the hospitals around in order to send you the amount you requested. Since you did not ask for more, we assumed this was sufficient. If only there had been a vaccine for the measles for my people.

  Again, I thank you for your help, and I look forward to going back to my people so we can bring them the health care they deserve.

  Your servant, Dr. Red Hawk

  Astrid read the letter a second time and then laid it out for Elizabeth to read, opening the one from Dr. Morganstein. Mrs. Izzy Josephson had died. Astrid paused a moment. Such a fiery little lady and one who was helping fund the hospital. Sad she’d not lived to see the project through. Do not be concerned regarding money for the hospital. She stipulated in her will that funding would continue. With a sigh of relief Astrid laid the letter on the table. “I left the letters here for you,” she called up the stairs.

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m going over to the schoolhouse now, so if someone comes, you will take care of it, or Thelma can just tell them to wait.”

  “That’s fine.” Elizabeth appeared at the top of the stairs. “I didn’t realize I was so tired.” She started down the stairs. “I should be back to normal by now.”

  “Not necessarily. You went through a lot. Are you limping?”

  “My right leg hurts some is all. I banged my knee on the stool in the kitchen. Don’t be such a worrywart.”

  Astrid shrugged. She had to admit she watched Elizabeth very carefully, but she was taking a long time to regain her strength. Maybe Mor could suggest a tonic for the other Dr. Bjorklund.

  Astrid took her black bag with her and went around the building lots the other way to head for the church and the schoolhouse. How she would love to stop and see Pastor Solberg for a good long chat.

  “Come by for coffee after you visit the sick men,” Mary Martha called from her garden. “I’ll put the pot on.”

  “All right.” She found Boris sitting on the steps and carving on a piece of
wood with his pocketknife. “How are you feeling, Mr. Boris?” she asked, speaking slowly.

  He smiled. He had shaved his face and wore clean clothes, so she could tell there was improvement.

  She laid the back of her hand against his forehead. “No fever.”

  “Ja, goot.”

  “Ja, good is right.”

  He said something, then screwed up his face. “Ah . . . work?”

  How could she say part time? “Stop at noon?”

  His frown told her he didn’t comprehend.

  “Work, ja. Till noon.” She pointed toward where the sun would be straight up.

  He nodded, but she had no idea if he understood what she’d said. She’d tell Thorliff to get it across somehow.

  She motioned to the inside, so he stood back to let her pass, then followed her in.

  The man on the pallet was sound asleep. When she patted his shoulder, his eyes fluttered open. “Ja, Doctor?”

  “I came to check on you.” This was easy since he spoke Norwegian. Speaking so often to these patients, she felt more at home in the language again. It had been a long time since they’d spoken Norwegian around town.

  “Better.” His voice was weak, but he no longer looked ashen.

  “Have you been eating?”

  “Ja. Boris, he feeds me and helps me.”

  “Good.” She listened to his lungs. “Any coughing?”

  “Not much. Just so weak.”

  “I left some syrup here for your cough.”

  “I know. I took it.”

  “You look better than you did this morning. Are you eating well?”

  “Better than I have for years.”

  Astrid smiled. She knew Mrs. Sam would make sure the men had plenty to eat.

  “I will see you again in the morning, then. I told Boris he could work for half a day, so he will return at noon. If you need anything, ring the bell.” She pointed to the teacher’s bell she had set near him.