Diana and the Three Behrs

by Fleeta Cunningham

  “I think Papa has been taking a little more time getting you home in the afternoons,” Adler said as they rounded the corner beside the bank. “I hope that’s a good sign.”

  She smiled, catching an optimistic tone in his voice. “Elizabeth loves wagging Katja around, and the old cat doesn’t seem to mind. While she’s playing with the cat, your papa’s been enjoying a mug of Frau Hepple’s home brew in the cool shade of the afternoon porch. They seem to be getting on easier footing. Mostly they talk in German; I can’t be sure how things are, but it sounds amiable. Elizabeth loves to come to the house, and I think that’s a good thing for all of them.”

  “I choose to believe it is. I don’t say anything to Papa for fear of halting any progress. He’d swell up like a turkey if he thought anyone suspected he was backing down from an old argument. Pride and a reluctance to concede he might have been wrong could still get in the way.”

  They walked on past a few shops. The drug store, with its soda fountain sign, reminded her of something she’d meant to ask him. “Adler, I don’t know what the local law says, but I know my landlady isn’t making root beer out in that still room at the back of the garden. Does this part of the state just ignore Prohibition, or could she get into trouble?”

  Adler laughed, that warm, enveloping chuckle that seemed to make the world around him brighter. “No, we’re fairly law-abiding, we Germans. Folks around here have been making their own beer and wine for a couple of generations, and they aren’t likely to stop. They don’t sell it, and they don’t advertise it, but if there’s a guest, he’ll probably be offered a libation from the household supply. If there’s a wedding or a party, you can pretty much rely on the host to supply some refreshment of the alcoholic type. To buy something along that line, to find anything like a bar or saloon, you’d have to be on good terms, or know somebody who is, with Daltus in the back room over at Bindler’s. I’m told, though I don’t know officially, that spirits as well as the homemade product can be found there at an only slightly inflated price, if you know the right person to ask.”

  “I see. Even little Pfeiffer has some version of Tommy Gunn’s place, though probably much less sinister.”

  “Much less. You’d be hard pressed to find a heated argument there, much less anything more ominous.” He pointed toward the small shop at the end of the row. “I think we might find our birthday girl her doll right here.”

  A number of baby dolls in ruffled caps and lace-trimmed gowns filled the display window. In the shadows beyond the glass, Diana could see toys of all sorts, wagons, toy horses, and on a shelf, a variety of other dolls.

  “It looks like any little girl could find the toys of her dreams here.” She followed him into the shop, but stopped short, captivated by the elaborate doll house just inside the entry, a house fully furnished down to the pots and pans in the gleaming kitchen. “This is adorable. I can imagine any little girl would love spending days arranging all the things in the rooms. Look at the tiny, perfect curtains at the windows.”

  “It’s a fine piece of work.” He pointed to the petite baskets of blooms on the railed porch. “Even the landscaping and masonry are perfect.”

  Diana at last drew herself away from the miniature world and back to the need for finding the right doll. She followed Adler to the interior of the shop and eyed the shelves filled with beautifully molded dolls of every sort.

  “Do you think she’d like a baby doll?” Adler indicated the pink-and-white bundle in a basket at one end.

  “She said she wanted one she could take to bed and sing to. Maybe that was what she was thinking of.” Diana gave the doll a closer look. “Doesn’t that one look like she’s about to start crying? I don’t think she’d like it so much.”

  They discussed the various babies in christening gowns and blankets, but none seemed quite right. Then Diana’s attention was drawn to a toddler doll, one with long white-blonde braids and a pink party dress.

  “That one, Adler. That’s the one. She even looks like Elizabeth, a little bit.”

  The clerk, apparently sensing a sale, hurried over. “The finest doll Effanbee has offered in a couple of years, sir. Fully jointed, go-to-sleep eyes, and the wig is human hair. We could order her for you with hair in another color, but that would take several weeks. This is the only one we received.” He lifted the doll down. “Notice she’s fashionably dressed and a full sixteen inches tall.”

  Diana touched the composition face and the delicate hands, so perfectly molded she almost expected the tiny fingers to feel warm to the touch. The voile dress was trimmed to the last inch in lace and ribbons. Beautiful as it was, she could imagine how quickly it would soil or tear with daily play.

  “I have an idea, Adler. This doll is perfect, but Elizabeth is going to want to play with her new baby and not worry about spoiling the pretty party dress. Why don’t you get her the doll and I’ll talk to Frau Hepple about making some clothes for it that will hold up to a child’s normal daily activity. Frau Hepple makes beautiful quilts and does the most amazing embroidery. I’ll bet she could turn out a few doll dresses in time for the party.”

  Adler chuckled. “Giving her a specific reason to come to that same party? Excellent idea.” He nodded to the clerk. “Yes, we’ll take this one. Don’t wrap it as a gift. Just a little brown paper and twine, if you will. Frau Hepple will need to have the model at hand, won’t she?”

  “She will. For Elizabeth, I know she’ll create a complete wardrobe, even a nightgown and underthings, if you like.”

  Adler paid for the doll, and though the price was exorbitant at $4.95, he didn’t object. As they waited for the package, he leaned on the counter and nodded toward the shop across the street. “Papa is getting Elizabeth a dirndl, the traditional costume the women wear here for our festivals.” He gestured to the mannequin in the window opposite. “He thought she’d want to look like everyone else for the harvest festival in the fall.”

  Diana could see how delightful the fair-haired little girl would be in the puffed-sleeve blouse, full skirt, and embroidered apron of the costume. “She’ll look like a doll herself.”

  “Do you think the good frau would be amenable to making a similar one for the doll? Would Elizabeth like that?” His gray eyes twinkled as brightly as Papa Behr’s. “Don’t you think that would be a little bit of a bridge between Papa and his Lotte? She’d be helping Greta’s girl to feel more at home with her own people here.”

  “And have reason to talk to Papa Behr, perhaps suggest she could help entertain Elizabeth at the festival? I think you’re far more devious than I ever gave you credit for, Adler Behr. I highly approve the plan.”

  As Diana predicted, Frau Hepple was enthusiastic about the doll and excited to be included in the strategy for Elizabeth’s birthday. She immediately went to her little workroom off the kitchen and came back with a box of neatly bundled bits of fabric.

  “I make too many quilts over the years. Five younger sisters I had, and every one of them had a wedding quilt before she married. Then their daughters, too, had one.” She tumbled the small rolls of fabric out of the box. “I have here everything a doll could need. It will take no time at all to put it together.” She held up a small length of white lawn. “Here is the nightgown just waiting to be cut and stitched.” A smaller box, covered in red flowered print, slipped out of the bottom of the collection. She pulled the lid off. “See, buttons and bits of lace and braid. All right here.”

  “Papa is giving Elizabeth a festival dress, a green and yellow drindl. Could you make one for the doll, too?”

  “The little girl’s new friend will have a costume for the festival, too?” Her pink cheeks grew brighter. “I will do that first. Then if I get a little rushed, that one will be ready. I can make another dress or two later on, to give Elizabeth a little surprise now and then.”

  “You’re coming to the party, too,” Adler insisted. “You have to be there when she opens her packages. You’ll want to watch what happens when she sees wha
t you’ve made. I know you and Trinka put out a cold supper for your guests on Saturday evening, so you won’t have to be here in the kitchen for them.”

  Frau Hepple seemed to hesitate. “I…hadn’t thought to come.” Then she nodded, her blue eyes brighter. “Ja, I’m coming. I’ll bring the little girl things for her doll and see how she likes them.”

  “Papa is having Bindler’s make her a cake, pink peppermint, with candy roses. You must stay and try it.”

  Frau Hepple drew a sharp breath that in a less dignified personage might have been mistaken for a snort of disapproval. “Old fool, he could have asked me to make it. I make the best peppermint cake in Pfeiffer. Cousin Bindler learned to make his the same place I learned it—from my mama. He never puts quite enough peppermint in his.”

  “If you were making the birthday cake, then you might not have enough time to dress the doll for Elizabeth,” Diana suggested. “No one else could do that for her.”

  “Well, there’s truth in that.” Frau Hepple went back to sorting the parcels of fabric. “I will have a busy time getting everything finished. Such a nice change from quilts for me.”

  She was happily matching pieces and putting colors together as Diana and Adler left her in the parlor.

  “I have another idea for keeping the good frau and my papa together after the party,” he said as Diana walked him down the steps.

  “What is that? You’ll ask him to take her home?”

  “Oh, one day, but not this time. Perhaps later on I may, if she can be lured to come by from time to time. Right now, I think this will be a better way to start.” He stopped on the bottom step and faced her. “I told you on weekends everybody comes into town for shopping and church and the dance at the town square. You haven’t been anywhere but the bank and your boarding house since you came. After the birthday party, why don’t you and I go to the dance? I’ll remind Papa that you’ve been working so hard you’ve not had much fun while you’ve been here; it would be good for you to get out. He’ll be worn out from Elizabeth’s party, and Elizabeth, by that time, will probably be happy to play with her new doll and whatever else the birthday brings. They won’t want to go. Frau Hepple could get Elizabeth a simple supper and help get her to bed. It’s always a hurdle to get her convinced it’s bedtime. If dear Lotte can stay with Elizabeth and Papa for a while, then when we come back from the dance, I’ll run the two of you home. No sense in making two trips to the same location. Papa will see the logic in that, and I think with a little encouragement he and Lotte Hepple will find they have a lot to talk about.”

  Go to a dance with Adler? In my wildest dream, I never thought of that. “You do have a circuitous mind.” She felt a slight flush heat her cheeks. “I’d be most pleased to attend the Saturday dance with you, Mr. Behr. And see, at least in one case, if we really can successfully lead horses to the pond.”

  ****

  The day of the birthday party, Diana found herself in a quandary. What should she wear to the event when she would be going to the dance in the evening with Adler? Going to the dance with Adler? The idea made her tingle. She looked over the dresses spread across the bed. She’d never had the active social life her sister did. Now Pam, she told herself, wouldn’t have this problem. Pam would have exactly the right frock, shoes, and bag for any occasion. Diana’s wardrobe, in keeping with her days spent teaching young women to be office clerks and secretaries, was more modest, running to demure overblouses and tailored skirts. Still, she had four light summer dresses and a crepe de Chine two-piece suit. Any one of them would be fine for a child’s birthday party, but they hardly looked like something for dancing. Not an evening spent dancing with Adler. He would dance with her, wouldn’t he?

  The only true evening dress she had was the frivolous green silk Pam had given her. That’s not appropriate for Elizabeth’s party, and it’s probably not right for a country dance, either. It’s going to have to be the rose georgette. It’s sheer, and it won’t be too warm. The embroidery on the top makes it dressy, and the circular skirt is good for dancing, if Adler actually does dance. It’s not fresh from Paris, but it should do for an evening in Pfeiffer.

  “Don’t you look just like a summer posy?” Frau Hepple was tying up the box of doll clothes with a red ribbon as Diana came down the stairs.

  “You look very nice, too,” Diana said, but privately wished her chubby landlady could be enticed to wear something more of the twentieth century than the blue gingham shirtwaist and ankle-length skirt she had chosen for the party.

  “Ah, I’m neat and my hair’s tidy. That’s about all I concern myself with these days.” She finished the bow on the present. “Are you ready? I want to get there early so I can see everyone come in. The little ones will be combed and shined for the party, but once the games begin, they won’t stay that way.”

  “I’m ready.” Diana paused in front of the mirror by the door to take another look at her lacy hat. In spite of all her efforts, it tilted just a bit to one side, the result of cutting her hair, she supposed. She jabbed the hatpin in again and decided it was all she could do. To walk to the Behr’s house on a late July afternoon, she’d either have to wear a hat or risk a serious sunburn.

  She followed Frau Hepple out the door and waited while her landlady locked up. “It’s good that I only have two other guests tonight and both of them are having dinner out. No mess to tidy when I come back. Trinka’s head is too full of her young man to be thinking of dishes and such on a summer night.”

  The afternoon was warm but not unbearably hot under the numerous trees lining the street. Diana enjoyed the walk to the Behrs, listening to Frau Hepple’s discussion of who lived in each house and what the families were doing. She’d not had the chance to meet many of the neighbors since she’d been in Pfeiffer, but the few she’d had contact with seemed welcoming and pleasant. Now that she knew about the Sunday houses, she’d begun to look for the families that migrated back to the small town for the weekend events. Blocks that were sedate and quiet through the week suddenly erupted with traffic and children and conviviality by noon on Saturday.

  “Looks like we won’t be the first at the party,” Frau Hepple observed as they turned the corner of the Behr’s street. A white pony cart with a brown-and-white Shetland stood in front of the house, a line of children already waiting for a ride.

  “The festivities have begun.” Diana caught sight of Papa Behr’s tall form bobbing among the swarm of smaller ones.

  “Erlich is just one of the kinder, or so he thinks, the old fool.” Frau Hepple’s rosebud mouth thinned. “Needs someone to take care of him before he gives himself a heart attack. Eating three meals a day at Bindler’s, chasing after Greta’s little girl like he was a boy Adler’s age, and paying no mind to his own health. He’ll give himself gout, if nothing else.”

  Diana kept her thoughts to herself but smiled at the reference to Adler as “a boy” when he had to be close to thirty-five years old. The good lady obviously thought she could manage affairs better for the elder Behr than he was doing for himself. Diana hoped she had the chance. Lotte Hepple and Erlich Behr would be wonderful grandparents to Elizabeth.

  The two women joined the party gathering on the porch and spreading across the lawn of the comfortable red brick house. Adler welcomed them as they made their way through the mass of children and up the steps. Frau Hepple handed him the beribboned package.

  “I did the dirndl and three dresses and a nightshift.” Her hand seemed almost reluctant to release the box. “I thought, come cooler weather, I could knit a few things and make a coat and bonnet.”

  “Elizabeth would like that.” He deposited the gift on the table beside the candy pink cake and led them to the back porch, where the adults had gathered with coffee and lemonade, away from the noise of rambunctious children.

  The party, filled with ring games and the laughter of children, finally slowed down enough for everyone to have a slice of cake. Elizabeth opened her gifts, mostly simple things like a jum
p rope or a bright ball, giggling and clapping her small hands over each one. Papa Behr’s pretty dirndl with its bright yellow apron embroidered in daisies delighted her, but Adler’s doll was the crowning touch. Diana could see even the older girls were casting envious glances at it as Elizabeth introduced everyone to “Mary Ann,” her newest friend.

  “There’s one more package, Elizabeth.” Adler held up the box with the red ribbons. “It’s something from a special friend of yours.” He passed the package to her and helped her slip the ties off. Elizabeth lifted the top and one by one drew out the cunning garments Lotte Hepple had fashioned. Each one met with little gasps of pleasure until she came to the dirndl with its ruffled blouse and apron adorned with a splash of roses.

  “It’s like mine, just like the one Papa got me!” She held up the garments. “One for me and one for Mary Ann!”

  “Frau Hepple thought she’d want to go to the festival, too, so she made the dolly a dress to match yours.” Adler stepped back so the lady could see Elizabeth’s pleasure. “She spent a lot of time making those things for you and…Mary Ann. Could you tell her how much you like them?”

  Elizabeth slid down from her chair and ran to Frau Hepple’s side. She threw both arms around the good woman’s neck. “They’re pretty. Pretty. Mary Ann just loves to dress up. I know she does. And we’ll come to see you. All the time. Mary Ann and me. And wear our dresses alike!”

  “Ach, I’ll be glad to have you. And Mary Ann. Katje will be glad of the company, too.”

  The party began to taper down, the children sitting on the grass playing quieter games once the pony cart had gone. The sun dipped lower, and people began to depart, gathering their children and saying goodbye to the Behrs. As the sun touched the horizon, Adler sat back in the glider watching Elizabeth again examine each of the new doll dresses, talking to Mary Ann about them.

  “Papa, I don’t believe there’s a clean plate or spoon left in the house.” He waved a hand at the remains of the party table and the general disarray of the yard. “I was planning to take Diana to the dance in town tonight. She’s had precious little time to enjoy herself since she got here, but I can’t leave you to clear up after the party.”