by Alison Hart
“You don’t have to be so pushy,” Eloise retorted. Then she smiled and said, “It’s a board game.”
“A game?” Karl repeated. “Probably a stupid girl game.”
“Called the Mansion of Happiness,” Eloise said, ignoring him.
Twitters of excitement arose from the girls.
Hattie clapped her hands. “Oh, I’ve heard it’s such fun!”
“Open it, Eloise. Please do!” Carolina begged.
With great care, Eloise removed the lid. Slowly she pulled out a flat board and unfolded it. Anna leaned closer. The light from the stove spilled across a spiral of colorful pictures and shapes painted on the board. In the center was a picture of a fashionably dressed family. Anna blinked in amazement. So this was a board game. She’d never seen anything like it before!
Eloise began explaining the game rules. “You spin this wooden top to see how many spaces you can move. You try to be the first player to reach the center of the board. That’s Eternal Happiness. That means happiness forever.”
“Forever,” Carolina repeated breathlessly.
“Eternal happiness?” jeered Karl. “I’d much rather play marbles.”
“Be quiet,” said Carolina. “Let Eloise finish.”
“The only trouble is that not everyone can play at one time.” Eloise’s gaze went pointedly to Anna.
With a jolt, Anna sat back on her heels. “Oh, that’s all right. I’ll stand out this game,” she offered.
She stood up and strode over to Top, blinking back her tears. “Who cares about Eloise’s old game,” she muttered angrily, burying her face in the pony’s mane. “Surely not me. I’d rather be tending my sheep.” She thought about her small flock. Were they trapped in the drifting snow, shivering in the wind? “Oh, Top,” she snuffled. “I hope Mama thought to get them in.”
A tug on her sleeve made Anna turn around. It was Sally Lil. She clutched Anna’s jacket around her bony shoulders. No one, not even Anna, would lend her a cap. Lice were too pesky to get rid of.
Anna wiped her eyes, glad it was dark. She didn’t want Sally Lil to see her tears.
“Will you let me sit on Top?” the little girl asked. “I ain’t never ridden a pony.”
“Why sure. But don’t you want to play the game?” Anna looked toward the others. They sat in the circle of warmth, huddled around the board.
Sally Lil shrugged. “Naw. I don’t want happiness forever. Just a ride on your pony.”
“We can’t go far.”
Sally Lil’s eyes gleamed in the stove light. “Far enough for me!”
Anna boosted her on Top. Since there was no bridle or rope, she twined her fingers in the pony’s fuzzy mane. Clucking, she led him along the back wall. A gust of wind rattled the door when they passed by.
Anna shuddered. “I’m glad I ain’t out there. It’s cold enough in here.”
Sally Lil was grinning too hard to reply.
George waddled over wearing his thick coat. “Hey,” he said, “I want a ride too!” His wool cap almost covered his eyes, and he tilted back his head to stare up at Sally Lil.
“No, George. You go on back to playing the game,” Sally Lil said stubbornly.
“Naw. Eloise is too bossy for me.”
“You can have a ride when Sally is done. There’re turns for all,” Anna said. “Walking will keep us warm.”
When they reached the coat corner, Anna turned the pony slowly. Still, he knocked over several lunch pails. She halted him at the water bucket. Making a fist, she broke through the crust of ice.
“Don’t tell,” she whispered to Sally Lil when Top dipped his head for a drink.
They started off again. George clomped beside Anna in his big boots. Sally Lil’s skinny legs wrapped tightly around the pony’s fat sides. “Oh, this is joyous!” she exclaimed.
They started past the door, which strained at its latch. Cre-e-eak. The rusty hinges screeched. Like haunts trying to get in, Anna thought with a shudder.
Clucking to Top, Anna hurried him past the door. She tripped over a log and stumbled into George.
Crash! A thunderous bang echoed through the room.
Anna spun around in time to see the door fly inward. For an instant it flapped wildly. Then it tore from its hinges and fell on the floor with a whump. Before Anna could react, a swirl of wind caught the door, lifted it, and carried it through the doorway where it disappeared into the storm.
Anna stared, shocked by the gaping hole. The wind had blown the door away like it was a sheet of paper!
“Gee whilliky crickets!” George gasped.
“What happened, what happened?” Miss Simmons hurried from the front of the room. Her cheeks were flushed as if she had a fever. She clasped her shawl tightly around her throat.
“The door just up and flew away,” Anna said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Oh my.” Miss Simmons pressed one hand to her cheek. “Oh my.”
By then the others had left the game to see what was going on. Everybody stared at the snow pouring through the open doorway like flour tossed from a bucket.
“What’ll we do?” Karl asked.
“Ain’t nothing we can do,” John Jacob replied. “Door’s gone.”
“There must be something we can use to block the doorway,” Ida said. “How about the blackboard?”
“Absolutely not. That blackboard cost the town a pretty penny,” Eloise said, sounding like her father.
“Shut up, Eloise,” Ida said crossly. “It’s either the blackboard or freezing to death.”
Eloise set her hands on her hips. “Who wants to keep playing?” she asked as she marched back to the game board. Hattie, Ruth, Carolina, and William followed her.
“Ida, your suggestion was excellent, but the blackboard took three grown men to hang,” Miss Simmons said quietly. “And without hammer and nails to secure it, I’m afraid the wind will blow it away, too.”
Despair shone in Ida’s eyes. “We can’t sit here and freeze to death!”
Miss Simmons slid one arm around Ida’s shoulder. In silence, the group watched the snowflakes rushing toward them.
“We best move to the front of the room,” Anna said. “Let the snow fill up the doorway. Maybe it’ll keep the wind out and the heat in. Like an igloo.”
“Why, Anna, I’m glad you remembered that lesson.” Miss Simmons said.
“That’s how my grandpa survived one winter in the war,” Karl said. “He dug a home in the snow.”
“Let’s get everything to the front then,” John Jacob said, reaching for the handle of the water bucket.
“Come on, Sally Lil. Top will move you.” Anna led the pony alongside the outer wall. John Jacob followed behind with the bucket and dipper. The other boys carried lunch pails filled with snow to melt for drinking water. Ida and Miss Simmons gathered every stray mitten, rag, cap, and boot.
“Whoa, Top.” Anna halted the pony in a far corner. Top didn’t need to be close to the stove. As long as he was out of the wind, his fluffy coat would keep him warm.
“Slide off, Sally Lil,” Anna said.
“Nope.” She stretched out on his neck. “I’m staying here forever. He’s my fur blanket.”
Anna grinned. “I reckon he can be your bed for the night.”
She hurried back to the coat corner and retrieved Top’s bridle and the long rope they’d used for John Jacob. She put them on the floor beside the pony so they wouldn’t get buried in the snow. Then she went to help John Jacob move the other benches. She heard arguing coming from the Mansion of Happiness.
“You took two turns, Carolina,” Eloise was saying.
“Did not.”
“Did too.”
“Did too,” William chimed in.
Eloise jumped up. “I’m quitting and when Papa comes, I’m taking my game home with me.”
Carolina began to cry. “I want to go home, too.”
“Even if the snow stops, it’ll be too dark to go home,” John Jacob told h
er. “With no lantern, we’d get lost for sure.”
Carolina’s wail grew louder.
Miss Simmons rubbed her temples. “Children, please.”
“Ida, why don’t we get everyone to play Button Button?” Anna suggested. The older girl was sitting on the bench on the other side of the stove. Her lap was filled with caps and mittens, and she was staring into the fire.
“Ida?” Anna repeated.
When Ida didn’t reply, Anna sat beside her. “Are you all right?”
Ida plucked listlessly at the caps and scarves. Her lips and cheeks were pale.
“I reckon you’re cold.” Picking up one of the scarves, Anna wrapped it around Ida’s shoulders. “Better?”
She barely nodded.
“Ida, you must stay strong,” Anna said, growing worried. “We need to be brave for the littler ones. Or soon they’ll all be whining to go home.”
“I’m trying,” Ida whispered, tears welling in her eyes. “But sometimes this godforsaken place beats me down, Anna.”
Anna’s mouth fell open. She was used to Mama saying such things, not Ida.
“And when I’m beaten down I can’t muster even a speck of brave.” Arms hugging her sides, Ida rocked on the bench. “Then I grow afraid. Afraid of the dark, the wind, the snow, the cold. I try to be brave.” The tears spilled from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. “But I’m not. Oh, Anna, I want to go home, too!”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
For a moment, Anna was too surprised to reply. Ida always acted so strong and true. She cared for her brothers and sisters when Mrs. Friesen was bedridden with a newborn baby. She milked the cows and chopped wood when Mr. Friesen worked in town for extra money. Never had Anna seen John Jacob’s older sister so glum. Not even when she’d lost the district spelling bee!
“Ida, it’s all right if you’re not always brave,” she said, patting her shoulder clumsily. “Why, you care for your family. You read a book a day. You cipher long division. And you know all the presidents.”
“Scant help in the middle of a snowstorm,” Ida choked out as she dabbed her eyes with a mitten.
Anna frowned, not sure how to make Ida feel better. She glanced around. A drift now partially blocked the doorway, but snow still blew in from the top, dusting the floor and walls. In the front of the room, Miss Simmons sat at her desk, comforting Carolina.
“I bet the storm will be over soon.” Anna said, turning back to Ida. “Then we can all go home. John Jacob said it’ll be too dark, but we can make torches with pieces of firewood. Until then, you must try to stop crying. If the littler ones hear you, they’ll be crying, too.”
Ida pressed the mitten to her mouth.
“Maybe there’s more hot tea.” Anna went over to the kettle. The rest of the children were slumped on a bench angled beside the stove. Hattie and Ruth leaned against each other, sniffing sadly. The boys sat stooped over, their elbows on their knees. Eloise twirled a stray lock of hair, the closed game box on her lap.
“What a lot of gloomy faces!” Anna exclaimed. “I thought everyone would be excited about playing Button Button.”
“I’m too cold to play,” Hattie said.
“I’m too hungry.”
“I’m too tired.”
“What’s this I hear? No one wants to play?” Ida came up beside Anna, a button nestled in the palm of her mitten. There was no trace of her tears. “And here I found a button.”
Anna gave Ida’s arm a quick squeeze.
“Oh, who wants to play with a dirty button,” Eloise grumbled.
“Me.” Sally Lil appeared out of the shadows. “I love Button Button.”
Karl snorted. “You love every old thing.”
“I’ll play if I can be ‘It’ first,” Eloise said, setting the game box on the floor.
“That’s fine. Now everyone sit in a row on the bench. Carolina?” Ida called into the dark. “Why don’t you come join us?”
Carolina ran over and squeezed in between Hattie and Ruth. Everyone took off their gloves and mittens and held their hands out, palms together. Eloise stood in front, the button between her two palms.
Slowly she walked in front of the bench, passing her hands between each player’s outstretched hands. When it was her turn, Anna held her hands lightly together. Eloise passed her palms between Anna’s, and Anna felt the button slip into her hands. She caught her breath. Eloise had given the button to her first!
When Eloise reached the end of the bench, she chanted, “Button, button, who’s got the button?” Everyone took a turn guessing.
“John Jacob,” Karl said.
John Jacob shook his head.
“Ida!” Hattie shouted.
“No, it’s Ruth!” Anna held back a giggle.
Soon all the names had been called except Anna’s.
Eloise grinned smugly. “Ha, ha, I fooled you all. Anna has the button. I knew no one would guess her. That means I get a second time to be ‘It’.”
Anna’s joy faded. And here she thought Eloise had picked her special. She gave Eloise the button, but the game didn’t seem fun anymore. Not even when John Jacob passed her the button on his turn.
Beside Anna, Sally Lil yawned loudly. Her head slumped to Anna’s shoulder. Soon the whole line of children was yawning. Miss Simmons came over. The teacher had been so quiet that Anna was startled to see her.
“I see some sleepyheads,” Miss Simmons said. “Who’s ready for bed?” She gestured behind her. Under the blackboard, she’d spread newspapers and rags on the rug. “It’s not a feather mattress,” she apologized. “But the papers and rags should ward off the damp. If we pile together, we can keep warm.”
Cheering and hooting, the children hopped off the bench. They scrambled for a place on the rug.
“Keep on your coats and hats,” Miss Simmons went on. “We can use my cloak for a cover. Boots and scarves will have to do for pillows.”
Hattie, Ruth, Eloise, and Carolina snuggled together. Miss Simmons spread the cloak over them. Sally Lil tried to find a spot by them, but they pushed her away.
“Come lie down next to me,” Miss Simmons said. She sat on the floor, her back against the desk, her skirts arranged in a ladylike way. Sally Lil lay her head in the teacher’s lap, and Miss Simmons covered her with the end of her shawl.
After a few minutes of wrestling, even the boys piled raggedly against each other. Only Ida and Anna hung back.
“Anna? Ida? There’s room.” Miss Simmons waved at a sliver of space beside Sally Lil.
“I’m going to sleep with Top,” Anna said.
“I’ll stay up and watch the stove,” Ida said. “We can’t let it go out.”
“Thank you, Ida,” Miss Simmons said. “Wake me when you tire, and we’ll switch places.”
“Yes ma’am.” Ida pulled the desk chair up to the stove. She opened her book. Miss Simmons rested her head against the side of the desk and closed her eyes.
Anna joined her pony in the corner. In the spring, she and Top often stayed out on the prairie with the sheep. When the nights were chilly, they’d curl up together for warmth and companionship.
“Come on, Top,” she whispered. “Time to bed down.” Using two fingers, she tapped behind his front knee. The pony folded his legs and sank to the floor. Anna wriggled between his bent legs. She laid her head on his bulgy stomach. The floor was hard and the chill seeped through her stockings.
“I know this ain’t like sleeping in sweet prairie grass,” she told Top as she drew her legs under her skirt. “But we’ll have to make do.”
She yawned. The pony’s heat flowed through her and her eyelids grew heavy. In the dim glow of the stove, she could see the others on the floor. They were nestled together like puppies in a basket. Then she turned her gaze to Miss Simmons and Ida.
Outside, the blizzard beat angrily on the sod walls. Inside, Ida silently turned the pages of her book. Miss Simmons stroked Sally Lil’s cheek.
Anna hoped that she would grow up to be as smart as Id
a and as kind and pretty as Miss Simmons. And, she decided before falling asleep, I hope to be as brave as they are, too.
*****
A scream woke Anna. She jerked to a sitting position. Snow pelted her bare cheeks. Top scrambled to his feet, and she tipped over, falling clumsily under his belly.
Another shriek sent goose bumps skittering up Anna’s arms. She crawled from underneath Top, grabbed hold of his mane, and pulled herself to her feet. It was so dark, she couldn’t see anything but the snow swirling around her.
Panic muddled her head. How did I get outside in the blizzard?
She heard Sally Lil cry out. “Anna! Anna! Where are you?”
“Sally Lil?” Is she outside, too?
Anna let go of Top and forced her feet to move forward. Her toe stubbed against something hard. She felt around with her gloved fingers. It was the desk.
She reared back, utterly confused. She wasn’t outside. But where then?
“Anna? Over here!”
She glanced in the direction of the voice. A faint light shone through the curtain of snow. She stumbled toward it. Top whickered and clomped behind her.
“Anna!”
When she got closer to the light, she saw John Jacob, Karl, and Ida standing in front of the stove. Anna’s jaw dropped when she realized where she was. She was still inside the school!
“What happened?” she yelled.
“The roof!” Ida pointed overhead. “Part of it caved in!”
“The roof?” Anna tilted back her head. The stovepipe rose into nothingness. The windswept snowflakes stung her eyes. “Where are the others?” she asked.
John Jacob jabbed his thumb toward the back of the school. “On the rug. We need to gather everyone around the stove. The walls might collapse next.”
Anna shuddered at the thought. Sticking close together, the four made their way to the jumble of children on the floor. Most were awake and crying out. Ida bent to help Hattie, Eloise, and Ruth put on their boots. Karl knelt by William and George. John Jacob found the broom and began sweeping snow off the top of the stove.
Miss Simmons was still sitting on the floor by the desk. Sally Lil and Carolina were clinging to her waist, weeping. Anna crouched over them. “With the roof falling in, the school isn’t safe anymore,” she yelled in the teacher’s ear. “We have to find other shelter.”