Trygve and Samuel were tossing the ball to each other by the well house. The baseball game would start as soon as the food disappeared. A thought ripped through her heart. When she went to Chicago—if she went to Chicago—she’d miss all this. Let alone if she went to Africa. Please, she pleaded, I don’t want to go to Africa.Stop that, she reminded herself. Remember, God let young Mr. Baxter die. Why would He listen to you bellyache about not going to Africa?Besides, if you are mad at Him, how can you ask for anything? That would take some thinking on. Pastor Solberg and the reverend Schuman had appropriated the rocking chairs on the back porch and seemed deep in discussion. She caught a word or two as she went by. Was he trying to talk Pastor Solberg into going to Africa? Slowing down, she caught a few more words. It sounded more like a plea for support. The Blessing Lutheran Church had always sent money for missionaries as part of their tithe. She could remember putting her pennies into a can marked Missionaries. She and all the rest of the Sunday school contributed, and some of the quilts the women made went overseas too.
“But we have a mission field a lot closer,” she heard Pastor Solberg say. “The Indians on the reservation need far more help than we give them.”
“There’s never a lack of the poor to be helped,” the other man added. “Jesus said the poor would always be with us, and He wasn’t making up a story.”
Astrid felt a glimmer of light reach into her heart. Maybe it wasn’t the place but the service she had responded to.
As soon as the food was all set out, Ingeborg held Inga up to ring the triangle. The little girl held the straight bar with both hands and swung it around. When she dropped it, it missed her grandmother’s toe only because of some fancy stepping.
“Sorry, Gamma. It fell.”
Astrid had to turn away so she wouldn’t laugh. Leave it to Inga. She grabbed the little girl. “You come sit with me.”
“Good.” She leaned close to whisper, one that could be heard clear to the barn. “Can we have chocolate cake first?”
“No, sorry.”
She’d just filled their plates and sat down when Mr. Landsverk took the seat beside her.
“Care if I join you?”
Astrid smiled. “Not at all.”
“My pa sitting there.” Inga glared at him.
“Sorry, kitten, this man is company. You be nice to him.”
Inga put on a very fake smile. “You can sit over there.” She pointed to an empty place on the bench on the other side of the table.
Thorliff scooped up his daughter. “You come sit with Ma and me, Miss Queen Bee.”
“But, Pa . . .”
“Too bad.” He set her plate on the table. “You can sit on my knee.”
Astrid looked to the man beside her. “So goes life in Blessing. Miss Queen Bee, as her father calls her, would rule her kingdom with a golden scepter.”
“She’s a pretty smart little girl. I heard her tell the little boy with the broken arm that when he gets big she might marry him.”
“That’s her cousin Carl. If she’d not talked him into climbing the ladder to see the kittens in the haymow, he would not have a broken arm.”
“Who are the two boys who were playing catch?”
“The older is Trygve and Samuel the younger. They are Grace and Sophie’s brothers.”
“I’m surprised Sophie, or rather Mrs. Wiste, isn’t here.”
“You can call her Sophie. She’ll be along. She makes sure everything is done properly at the boardinghouse before she leaves on Sunday because that is Miss Christopherson’s day off. Once they get here, Inga will have older cousins to play with. That always makes her happy.”
“All right if I sit here?” Penny Bjorklund asked as she sat down on Astrid’s other side.
“Of course. You and I never get a chance to talk. You remember Mr. Landsverk?”
“Very well. Good to have you back in town.”
“I’ve heard the best thing that has happened lately is that you and your family have returned. From Bismarck, is that right?”
“Yes, and grateful every minute for coming home. Bismarck is a great place, just not a good one for this family. I saw you talking with Hjelmer. Did he talk to you about the windmills?”
Joshua nodded. “I guess I start tomorrow. He said there are three wells to be dug and four windmills needed.”
So he was going to stay. Astrid felt a wave of joy run down her back to her toes.
“Sounds about right. He’s got some repairing to do on the machinery first. I do hope you’re a good mechanic.”
“Well, I’ve repaired plenty of machinery on my father’s place.”
“Not much different I am sure. Astrid, when do you leave for Chicago?” Penny asked.
“If I leave for Chicago, you mean.”
“Oh, I thought . . . I mean . . .”
“Depends on who you talk to: me or Dr. Elizabeth.” Astrid looked up from studying her plate. “I’m just not sure I want or need more formal training.”
“And what does Tante Ingeborg say?”
“You know what she says. ‘Ask God and He will tell you what He wants you to do.’ I remember when you were so frustrated about leaving Blessing. She said the same to you.”
Penny nodded. “And I am still wondering if we didn’t hear correctly or if God really did want us in Bismarck. And if He did, why?”
“Maybe it was so you would appreciate home more.” Kaaren laid a hand on Penny’s shoulder as she leaned over to fill the coffee cups.
“How come you’re doing that? Let me help.” Astrid started to stand.
Kaaren pressed down on Astrid’s shoulder. “Finish your dinner first. This way I get to find out what’s going on around here. Like overhearing bits of conversation here and there. Delightful.”
“You mean you are eavesdropping?” Astrid made a horrified face. “After all those years of telling Sophie and I—”
“And me.”
Astrid rolled her eyes. Once a schoolteacher, always a schoolteacher. “After all those years of telling Sophie and me that eavesdropping is not polite.” Astrid faced Joshua. “Back in the early years of Blessing, Tante Kaaren and Mor started the school, and Tante Kaaren was the teacher. She’s the one who taught all of us to sign so that Grace would have people to talk with. Eventually it led to the school for the deaf.”
“And I can’t wait until Grace comes back here permanently to teach. What a thrill that will be.” Kaaren moved on up the table, filling coffee cups and chatting with everyone as she went.
“Someday I want to be like her,” Penny said with a sigh.
“She and Mor always seem to know what to do.”
“I know.”
“What if I hear wrong? About what God wants me to do?”
“Like perhaps us with Bismarck?” Penny paused, staring unseeing at Astrid. “I guess God figures out a way to make it all right again. I think Hjelmer is far more content now with Blessing, now that he had a taste of living in a city somewhere else, working for someone else. And if it took our moving there to help him learn that, it was worth every minute and every tear.”
Astrid blew out a sigh and gave Penny a hug. “I hate to make mistakes.”
“Don’t we all?”
Samuel stopped behind them. “Mr. Landsverk?”
Joshua turned to answer. “Yes.”
“Would you like to join our baseball game? We play out in the pasture as soon as everyone is finished eating. Most all the men and boys play.”
“And the girls cheer,” Astrid added.
“Will you be cheering?” He smiled down at her as gently as he had when she’d cried all over his shirt.
At the look in his eyes, she could feel her cheeks growing warm. “Yes. I’ll be there.” After I have a talk with Reverend Schuman, she suddenly decided.
8
Interesting to feel pulled two ways. One part of him wanted to go with Astrid whether she had invited him or not. The other was pleased he’d been invited to play ball, a
nd he headed for the field with the Knutson boy, whichever one he was, Trygve or Samuel? Joshua definitely had trouble telling them apart. He stared after Astrid, striding purposefully across the yard. Not strolling but pounding the grass with her heels. Was she angry?
“Have you ever played baseball?” Thorliff asked as he stopped beside him.
Joshua nodded. “The town near my pa’s farm has two teams. I usually played first base or pitched.”
“Good. You can be on our team.”
“How are the teams chosen?”
“Used to be the men against the boys, but now we just choose up sides. It’s more fun if we are fairly evenly matched.”
Joshua shot one more look after Astrid and walked with Thorliff to the game. The diamond was marked with gunnysacks filled with sawdust on the bases and a worn holey rug for home plate.
“What do you use for a backstop?”
“The catcher just better not miss. Makes for a sure home run if he does. We’ve been talking about putting in a real field over at the school, backstop and all. Somehow building houses seems more important than a backstop.”
“You’re on our team,” Trygve called from the pitcher’s dirt mound.
“Nope, sorry. We got him,” Thorliff answered.
“But I asked him first.”
“Too bad. I brought him over.” Thorliff glanced at the man beside him, a couple of inches taller than his own six feet. “With arms as long as yours, you ought to be able to catch about anything. You say you can pitch?”
“Not the best but adequate.”
“Good. We flip a coin to see which team is up first.”
With the arrival of two Geddick boys, the teams were full. Thorliff and Trygve joined the others at home base to flip the coin. Trygve called heads. Tails came up and he groaned.
“Thorliff, you always win.”
“Only when Hjelmer is on my team.” He looked around at the players. “You all know Joshua Landsverk?” When the Geddicks shook their heads, he introduced Joshua, and the others said their names. “Okay, let’s play ball.” He assigned the batting order, and the rest of them went to sit in the shade of the barn to wait their turn. “You have to watch out for cow pies,” Thorliff told Joshua, “though we try to clear them away from the playing field. A bit sloppy if you slide into a base through one.”
And me in my best clothes. Do most people go home to change after church? He looked around. Seems like they did or brought work jeans along.
Haakan sat down beside him. “Glad to see we have a new player.”
“You don’t play?”
“Used to but had a bit of a medical problem this winter, and my docs say I have to take it easy. I could do outfield fine, I think.” He tipped his head to the side. “I take it you’ve played before?”
Joshua told him what he’d told Thorliff. “Who is that playing second base?”
“That’s Gerald Valders. He was on duty at the telephone exchange, so he couldn’t come to the dance last night. His brother, Toby, is playing for us.”
“Telephones, eh? They have ’em in town at home, but Pa drew the line there. Said he didn’t need any such newfangled machines to eat up what little he makes.”
“Plenty of folks feel that way until there is an emergency. Then they realize telephones can save lives.”
The crack of bat on ball grabbed their attention. With a line drive right over second base, Hjelmer charged toward first base, rounded it, and headed for second.
“Here, here!” Samuel leaped for the throw and missed tagging Hjelmer by mere inches.
“I’m safe!” Hjelmer yelled, getting up and dusting off his hands. “Good try there, young man.”
Samuel glared at him. “I’d a had you if you’d stood up.”
“That’s why I slid.” His reply made the others laugh.
“What brought you back to Blessing?” Haakan asked Joshua.
I can’t tell him I couldn’t get his daughter out of my head. “I got tired of farming.” He paused, wishing he could tell the whole story, but now was neither the time nor place. “I remembered liking it here until the grasshoppers ate my harvest and the blizzard near to froze me to death. So I came back, hoping there might be other work here besides farming.”
“That was a hard year for many folks.”
Can’t tell him I was going back to see if I could talk Fiona into changing her mind either. Needless to say, she hadn’t, but that might have been because she was married to someone else by then. Romance hadn’t been easy for him.
“So you’re going to work for Hjelmer putting up windmills, eh?”
“Looks that way.” Joshua picked a blade of grass and tossed it away. “I’ve always liked putting things together.” He watched one of the Geddick young men take a stance with the bat over his shoulder.
“There’s plenty of work around here for any enterprising man. Blessing is growing far more than we ever dreamed.” He raised his voice. “Come on, Geddick, hit that ball.”
Joshua reminded himself that no matter how much he wanted to see how Astrid was doing, he needed to stay here with the game. After all, if he wanted to live here, he needed a job and friends. Or there would be no possibility of getting to know Astrid.
“Strike one,” yelled the catcher when Geddick stood there and took the pitch.
“Come on, that looks—”
“Strike two.”
“Come on, Heinz, you can do it. Don’t let him buffalo you,” Hjelmer yelled, leading off second.
Trygve spun and fired the ball to second base. Samuel caught it and ran after Hjelmer, who was now sprinting for third base.
“Tag him, tag him,” the outfielders shouted.
But Hjelmer slid out from under the tag and stood up safe.
“You cheated!”
“No I didn’t. You just didn’t run fast enough. In this life you gotta be ready for anything.” Hjelmer dusted off his pant leg.
“Ain’t that the truth,” Haakan muttered under his breath.
Joshua turned to look at him. The man now wore deep lines from the sides of his nose to the commas of his mouth. His eyes were more sunken, the robust strength that Joshua remembered no longer there. He seemed to clamp and open his fist as a reflex action. Whatever had happened to him? While he looked older, he still seemed in good health. Joshua nudged Thorliff. “Why don’t you ask your pa to be umpire? You know, call the strikes and foul balls?”
Thorliff stared back at him, then gave a slight nod and leaned around him. “Pa, why don’t you go out there and be the umpire. Then we’ll have a fairer game.” When Haakan ignored him, Thorliff leaned over and poked his father to get his attention. “How about you go out there behind the batter and play umpire?”
Haakan nodded. “Not a bad idea. I think Geddick is getting a bad rap.” He stood and raised his arms. Play stopped. Thorliff stood too. “Pa’s going to play umpire out here, so Trygve, you better be more careful how you pitch.”
“Yeah, don’t hit your old onkel, or you’ll get to milk all the cows tonight.”
Trygve groaned. “One more thing to slow down the game.”
“That’s what you think.” Haakan went to stand behind the batter and snugged his fedora down on his head. “Let’s go.”
Trygve lobbed one in.
“Ball two.”
“Hey, he already has two strikes.”
“Yes, and it should be ball three, but I was giving you the benefit of the doubt.”
Trygve heaved the next one in. Geddick swung, caught it, and the ball sailed out into left field. He ran to first, then second, and Hjelmer ran home.
“You’re up next,” Thorliff said, motioning to Joshua.
Joshua hit it on the first pitch, the ball arcing up and away. The two fielders ran back and still the ball kept on going. Geddick ran toward home plate, with Joshua steamrolling after him.
“Oh, blast.” Lars, who was playing outfield, kicked the ball out of the fairly fresh cow pie and let it roll in the g
rass to get it cleaned up.
“Two more points—we’re three ahead.” Thorliff clapped the two runners on the back. “And it’s still the first inning. Joshua, you can play on my team anytime.”
“That was an accident. I’ve never hit like that before.”
“That’s what being back home where you belong does for you.”
Joshua stared at Thorliff. Was this really home, or was he here only because of Astrid? “I’ll have to think on that.” He sat down next to Hjelmer and watched the game while he wondered where Astrid was. Other women had come out to watch the game but not her.
“Hi there, Astrid,” Pastor Solberg greeted as Astrid mounted the steps to the porch. He turned to his guest. “This is Miss Astrid Bjorklund, our resident doctor-in-training.”
“How do you do, sir.”
“Very well.” The reverend Schuman smiled, yet his eyes seemed tired. Or maybe he was weary in general. He cleared his throat. “I saw you in church.”
She watched him clear his throat for the third time. When she thought about it, he’d been doing that during the service too. “May I ask you a few questions?”
“Of course.” He motioned to the empty chair beside him. “Why don’t you sit down while we talk.”
“I’ll leave you alone, then.” Pastor Solberg started to stand, but the pleading look Astrid sent him settled him back down in the rocker again. “I guess they can play ball without me for a change.” He leaned forward and, resting his elbows on his knees, clasped his hands. “What is bothering you?”
“How do you know something is bothering me?” The question slipped out before she could clamp it off. That didn’t sound very polite.
“Ah, Astrid, how many years have I known you?”
“All my life.”
“Then shouldn’t I be able to sense unrest when I see it?”
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