No Distance Too Far

by Lauraine Snelling

  A slight breeze tiptoed through the hallway, blowing away the last of the winter doldrums with a breath of spring. Mrs. Wiste wasn’t behind the desk, so perhaps she had gone home for something. Sophie generally spent the morning over her bookwork behind the chest-high partition. Joshua pushed open the swinging half doors into the dining room, where bright sun from the long windows nearly blinded the eyes, reflecting off the white tablecloths.

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Landsverk,” Miss Christopherson called in greeting. “You sound mighty chipper.”

  He smiled as he took off his hat and hung it on the coat-tree by the door. Her greeting never failed to lift his spirits. “How so?”

  “I heard you whistling down the street. What a pleasant sound.” She set the basket of fresh rolls on his table. Not that it had his name on it, but it was where he always sat.

  “Thank you.” He inhaled with a grin. “Something sure smells mighty tasty. But then it always smells good in here.” He pulled out his chair and sat down, glancing around the room as he did. “Not too many here for dinner today, eh?”

  “No, the train is late, and that large family must be waiting over at the station. They checked out earlier. I’ll bring your dinner right out.”

  “Thanks.” Joshua snagged one of the rolls from the basket and held it to his nose for a moment. There was something about the smell of fresh-baked bread that always reminded him of home and his mother’s kitchen. She had loved to bake bread. Her love of cooking was legendary, but she said there was something healing about baking bread, perhaps because the good Lord referred so often to the bread of life. Still warm. He took a bite before even buttering it.

  A shriek at the same moment as a crashing of metal to floor jerked his attention to the kitchen. The “Oh no!” brought him to his feet and leaping for the doorway.

  “What happened?” As the words left his mouth, he saw the pot sideways on the floor, a puddle spread out around Lily Mae, who was holding her hand and weeping, the front of her dress and apron soaked as well. “How bad is it?” He crossed the room in two strides. Mrs. Sam was ripping off the apron, holding the garments away from her daughter’s body so she wouldn’t burn further.

  “You want me to go for Dr. Elizabeth?” he asked.

  “No, no. Nothin’ like dat.” Mrs. Sam glanced at him over her shoulder. “We put her hand in ice water. Cools it off.” She nodded toward the dining room. “You dinner be out in a minute.”

  Joshua watched the young weeping woman as her brother, Lemuel, picked up the kettle, set it on the table, and went for a mop. “You’re sure?”

  Miss Christopherson took his arm. “Thank you, but she’ll be taken care of. Your dinner is getting cold.” She picked up a plate with one hand and the coffeepot with the other and preceded him out the door.

  Thorliff and Hjelmer entered the dining room as Joshua obediently sat down.

  “Better bring on two more plates,” Hjelmer said. They stopped beside Joshua’s table. “You mind if we sit here? Got some discussing to do.”

  “No, not at all.” He motioned for them to sit.

  “What happened in the kitchen?” Thorliff asked.

  “A pot of hot water slipped or something and burned Lily Mae’s hand. Hopefully her clothes kept the rest of her from being burned. I wanted to go for Dr. Bjorklund, but Mrs. Sam said no in a way I didn’t figure I should argue. They put her hand in ice water.”

  Miss Christopherson sailed through the door with two filled plates and set them in front of the men. “Coffee will be right out. Oh, you need more rolls.” She quickly grabbed silver and napkins from a nearby table.

  “How is Lily Mae?” Thorliff asked.

  “She’ll be all right. At least the kettle wasn’t boiling yet. And thank God it was water and not grease.” She headed back for the kitchen.

  Thorliff looked relieved.

  “Is Elizabeth feeling better today?” Hjelmer asked quietly.

  Thorliff nodded. “Had her close early, though, to rest in case there are any emergencies Mor can’t handle.”

  As the three men dug into the baked chicken and rice, Joshua kept his questions to himself.

  “You got the paint?”

  “Black. Three gallons. I’ll see if I can make it go far enough.” He buttered another roll and took a bite. “Mr. Sam is making sure the drilling machinery is all tuned up. We could leave day after tomorrow if it is dry enough.”

  “Most likely the supplies won’t be here for another few days anyway.” The two men exchanged a look, and Hjelmer nodded. “I think you could tell something’s been in the works.”

  Joshua nodded and set his fork down to pick up his coffee cup. He watched Hjelmer over the edge of his cup, now cradled in both hands.

  “You remember young Daniel Jeffers was here last month?” Hjel-mer asked.

  “Sure, he told me about his missing father.”

  “Well, back then we talked a bit about his father’s invention and the possibility of going into a partnership with him producing the improved seed drill.”

  “Here in Blessing?”

  Both men nodded.

  “But where, and who would you get to work for you?” Joshua asked. “There aren’t enough able-bodied men around here to do the work that already needs doing. We need another man on our crew, as it is.”

  “I know that. On top of it, we most likely will have a hospital to build come summer too.”

  “And I want to build a house. I know I’m not the only one.”

  Thorliff and Hjelmer both nodded. “Not a bad place to be in, wouldn’t you say?”

  “True, but—”

  “We decided we need to delegate some of the responsibilities. So starting today, you will be in charge of the windmill and well drilling portion of the business. I’ll show you how to do the ordering and keep some simple record books. You will have Trygve working for you, and I think Gilbert too. They don’t really need him on the farm, and he is a good worker. Being single, he won’t have to worry about leaving a family either.”

  “Trygve won’t be going with the threshing crew or help with haying?”

  “Nope. He now works for us full time. You’ll need to keep track of their hours too, and Penny will issue paychecks first of the month and midmonth.”

  “Who’s going to get out and sell the new accounts?”

  “I’m thinking word of mouth will most likely do that for us. I have a stack of letters and some orders people have phoned in to me. Might be enough to take us through the summer. I’ll give them all to you to follow up on.”

  Joshua leaned back in his chair, slightly shaking his head. He could hear his mother reminding him not to rock the chair back on the legs unless he wanted to fix the chair himself. He kept the feet on the ground. Why wasn’t he more excited about this?

  “You look some doubtful.”

  “You have to admit that’s a healthy dose of news over dinner.”

  Miss Christopherson stopped at their table. “Can I get you seconds, gentlemen?”

  All three nodded.

  “We have dried-apple spice cake with caramel frosting for dessert.”

  “Maybe I’ll skip that second plate, then.” Hjelmer paused. “And maybe not.” He turned slightly in his chair to look at Joshua full on. “We will double your wages for now and see how it all goes. I know it is a lot of responsibility, but you are more than capable of handling it all.”

  His heart skipped a beat at the compliment, but then he heard the old disdain of his father and hesitated again. “I’m not a salesman.”

  “But you know how to produce good service, and windmills will become more and more popular. We are at the edge of a boom.

  Let your work be your sales pitch. You can answer questions. That’s what’s important.”

  He glanced up to thank Miss Christopherson, then pushed his meat around with his fork. Double his wages and paid twice a month. He wouldn’t need to pay for his room here while out with the crew, so that would be more money g
oing into his savings and to pay off his lot. That would go a long way to paying off his debt. But he most likely wouldn’t be here when Astrid returned. If she returned. But he could get his house sooner. And they still could write.

  He looked from Hjelmer to Thorliff and back. “You’re going to have to teach me how to keep the books.”

  Hjelmer slapped him on the shoulder, a grin creasing his face. “I knew we could count on you. I can guarantee you’ll be pleased with this entire proposal.” They shook hands, and Joshua inhaled, letting his breath out on a sigh.

  “That’s just the beginning,” Thorliff said with a nod. “We’re putting Toby Valders in charge of the building arm of the company, running the projects. We’re going to add on to the old granary and set up shop in there for the manufacturing arm. Jeffers will be in charge of that. We’re looking for someone with experience in steel manufacturing. I’m getting ready to send out advertisements to some of the regional newspapers, including those in Minneapolis and St. Paul.”

  With his dessert now before him, Joshua almost wished he’d not ordered it. But one bite put that idea to rest. He’d better enjoy the good food now, because once they were on the road, the cooking would be up to them if the farmers didn’t invite them for meals. He sure hoped that either Trygve or Gilbert knew more about cooking than he did. Or at least one of them better be asking for some lessons over the next few days. He thought of one other difficulty. Gilbert spoke little English—he’d arrived from Norway less than a year ago—and Joshua spoke no Norwegian.

  12

  I certainly hope the garden can be plowed, now that we’ve scattered the straw on it,” Ingeborg commented after she ate her last bite of cake.

  Ingeborg had spent the afternoons, after seeing patients at the surgery, pitching the straw and manure banking from around the house into the wheelbarrow and spreading it across the garden. With Emmy and Freda helping, the job had gone quickly. “I know you need every moment out on the fields that are dry enough to work, but the garden needs to get in too.”

  Andrew glanced to his pa, who blew a smoke ring into the air to make Emmy giggle. Maybe her delight in smoke rings came from something she’d learned about them from her years in the tribe.

  “More,” she pleaded.

  Haakan shook his head. “Your grandma says we got to get out there and plow the garden. Means I can’t spend all afternoon playing with smoke rings.” He tweaked the little girl’s braid of dark hair that had grown out quickly since they cut it off to get rid of the lice.

  “What is plow?”

  “A machine that the horses pull to turn over the soil.” Andrew nodded at her puzzled look. “You can come ride the horses while we plow the garden.”

  “Horses.” Her eyes sparkled. She nodded, hard enough to set her braids to bobbing. “I ride.”

  “You better help clear the table then, while we go harness up.” Haakan stood and, walking to the stove, lifted a lid with the coil-handled lid lifter and tapped the remains from his pipe into the fire. After setting the pipe and tobacco container back on the shelf, he headed for the back door. “At least we don’t have to wear winter jackets any longer.” He settled his fedora on his head and followed Andrew out the door.

  Emmy carried the empty plates over to the stove and set them in the dishpan waiting on the cooler part of the stove. “I wash?”

  “No, I’ll wash. You dry.” Freda set the coffee cups in the soapy water and dug down for the dishcloth. “You brush the crumbs off the table into the scrap bucket. Those leftover bits of bread go in the same.”

  Emmy hurried through her tasks, keeping an ear cocked for the jingle of the harness that signaled the arrival of the horses.

  One day Ingeborg had gone down to the barn for oats from the grain bin, and she turned around to find Emmy in the horse stalls, talking to the work horses and rubbing their noses. She loved the horses, singing to them in the language that Ingeborg hadn’t heard since Metiz died. At least now she knew which tribe Emmy came from.

  “Here they come,” Ingeborg told her now. “You better put a sweater on.”

  The little girl grabbed a sweater off one of the low pegs that Haakan had put on the wall for the grandchildren and slipped out the door, her eyes sparkling in delight.

  “Between her and Inga, what a pair,” Freda said. “How come you didn’t bring Inga back out with you?”

  “She was over playing with Benny. Rebecca had asked if she could come since it is Saturday and no school.”

  “And how was Elizabeth today?”

  “Restless, which means she is feeling better. At least I hope that is what it means. She got a letter from Dr. Morganstein asking when the men from the hospital board might come out on the train to talk with her and those of the community most interested in building the hospital. They don’t understand how we work together as a co-op here in Blessing, that everyone who wants to can come to the meeting and have their say. Might be a bit of a surprise to them.”

  “When you consider that half the businesses in Blessing are owned and managed by women, well, that might be another shock for them.”

  “You know, I never think much about that.” Ingeborg set the last of the clean dishes on the shelf. “Speaking of businesses, how are things in the cheese house? I’ve been so busy, I’m afraid I’ve let you do all the hard work.”

  “That’s one of the reasons I left Norway, remember? To help you.”

  “Helping is one thing. Being forced to take over is quite another.”

  Freda tsked, muttered something, and shook her head. “Will dinner be here after church tomorrow?”

  “No. Remember, we are having a church meeting, so everyone will be bringing food with them to church.”

  “How could I forget? You’d think that gathering things for the Indian reservation like Astrid asked was of world importance. I just don’t understand this. Haven’t you been donating to a different reservation for years?”

  “Yes. I don’t understand it either. But maybe it’s because we are asking for more than a barrel of castoffs and a couple of quilts.”

  “Andrew said you’ve sent a beef up there before.”

  “We just did what we thought God wanted us to do. And now He’s asked through a different source, and I wonder if that is part of it.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning that Astrid wrote and asked for help because she has made friends with an Indian man who is in training at her hospital. That caused a bit of a hullabaloo. Then Emmy showed up here— another Indian, albeit a child. And what can anyone really say about a little one in need?”

  “They can say plenty. I remember at home when a family of Sami came down from the north. With their dark hair and dark skin one would think they came from way south.” While Freda tried hard to speak only English, every so often a Norwegian word slipped in. When she got excited, she spoke only Norwegian, which made Ingeborg laugh. “Their language was different; everything about them was different, so people refused to welcome them. They finally moved on from Valdres.”

  “Some of the women were not accepting of my friend Metiz, who helped us so much those first years, showing me what was edible in the wild and many natural medicines. She taught me how to tan rabbit skins for those wonderful mittens and vests she made. When we first came, she spent more time with her relatives further north, but in the last years she gave up traveling back and forth, and Haakan built her a cabin on the river, where she said her husband, a Frenchman, had owned land. Of course there was no record of title, so when we homesteaded the land, we just made room for her too. She and Agnes Baard, besides Kaaren, were my best friends.” Ingeborg let her mind wander back and then heaved a sigh. “But life goes on.”

  “I wish I could have come earlier.”

  “I gave up wishing to change the past a long time ago. Kaaren reminded me of that often after Roald died. She kept quoting Bible verses Paul wrote, about letting go of the past and the things that bind and pushing forward for the prize. Som
e of the time I wanted to shut her mouth for her.” Ingeborg raised her eyebrows and smiled slightly, her head tipped a bit to the side. “Which would have been a shame, since I had fought so hard to keep her alive and not let her follow her husband and the two little girls who died that winter. Those were some terrible times. I would not wish them on anyone.”

  “Someday maybe you’ll tell me the whole story.”

  “Someday maybe I will. I’m going out to check on the plowing.” Ingeborg stopped on the top step and raised her face to the sun. Sun that felt warm again, not just a purveyor of light. God, I thank you for the sunshine, for the growing grass and the drying ground.You have brought us through another winter, kept us well and safe. She stepped down the stairs, thinking they needed to be painted again. The entire porch needed painting. Amazing how one noticed those things when the snow melted away and exposed the wood and the ground again.

  Stooping down, she checked the canes of the rosebush to see if the sprouts were showing—not yet. Another week of warm weather and life would burst forth from the ground, the trees, and the bushes. She strolled around the house until she could see Andrew turning a corner, trying to plow as close to the fence as possible. No one liked hand-digging the corner pieces, where she usually planted the pumpkins and squash.

  Emmy saw her and waved from the back of one of their oldest team. Haakan figured they were about due for retirement, but the sad way they acted when the other horses were harnessed and headed out to the fields reminded him to give them the easy jobs. They would turn over the potato patch and the corn patch too. He often used them to pull the wagons to town or the buggy on Sunday.

  His concern for the animals made her love him even more. While Thorliff and Hjelmer talked about horses being a dying way of farming, Haakan didn’t plan on selling his teams off.