Page 42 of My Heart Will Find You

Noise and laughter and a slamming door interrupted him.

“They’re back.” Reluctantly, Etta started to get up, but when Max stayed where he was, she lay back down beside him, and they listened.

They heard female voices through the closed door. Freida’s was lower and had a suggestion of something naughty in it, while Alice’s laugh was higher, innocent. Sally sang a few notes.

Etta looked at Max. His eyes were closed, and he was smiling. “I haven’t heard her laugh in a long time,” he said softly.

As they lay there, side by side, the air filled with Sally’s beautiful voice in song, “Listen to the Mocking Bird.” Freddy and Alice joined her. It was a trio of female voices, and it was lovely.

On the bed, Max reached out and took Etta’s hand in his and held it.

When they began to sing the mournful “Rock Me to Sleep, Mother,” he tightened his grip on her hand. Even Etta, with her limited knowledge of history, knew that old song was associated with a young, dying soldier in the War Between the States. She didn’t know Max’s age, but he may have fought in that horrible war.

When the song finished, they lay there, not moving, just holding hands.

It was Alice who threw the door open. “Max! I can’t find Etta. Oh,” she said when she saw them. “Oh.”

Behind her, a laughing Freida pulled the door shut. Max got off the bed, then reached out to help Etta up.

She took his hand and let him pull her up. “It’s hard to move when there are planks of wood strapped to the middle of me.”

“I could help you remove that,” he said so solemnly that she was startled. Was he making a sex remark?

He gave no hint one way or the other before he left the bedroom.

When Etta followed him, she realized she was on the second floor. She hadn’t seen this part of the house. Besides Max’s bedroom, there were two closed doors. She opened one and saw it was full of wooden boxes, old saddles, half a dozen trunks. Storage. She wondered if her trunk, the one that sat at the foot of Ben’s bed, had been put in there. Didsheput her lace wedding jacket in there? The idea gave her a bit of the creeps. She closed the door.

The third door was locked.More junk?she wondered.

For a moment she fantasized that it contained a bathroom: tub, shower, two sinks, a toilet that flushed. Turn on a faucet and hot water came out.

Etta, she thought,you are old. You’ve got a drop-dead gorgeous husband yet you fantasize about a hot water heater.

Laughing at herself, she went down the stairs, and found everything was quiet. No more singing, no laughter, just silence.

She found Alice in the kitchen, staring at canvas bags and a big basket of freshly picked vegetables.

“Where is everyone?”

“Freddy...” She paused. “She said that only her father ever called her that, and she wonders how you know.”

“It just seemed natural,” Etta said. She was searching for an apron. There was zucchini, yellow squash, new potatoes, early peas. Not the variety of later in the season, but good for April. “Tell me what you did today.”

“It’s been wonderful,” Alice said dreamily. “Freddy told me all about herself.”

Of course she did,Etta thought. “Tell me everything.” She gave Alice some potatoes to peel, but she was so slow and awkward that Etta took them back.

Etta chopped and cooked while Alice told Freddy’s story. Her mother died giving birth to her third daughter, then her father died when Freddy was fourteen.

Alice lowered her voice to a whisper. “She sold her body to feed her two younger sisters. But after they grew up and got married, they wanted nothing to do with a harlot. That wasn’t fair, was it?”

Etta smiled in pride. “Not fair at all.”

“Max is going to be angry at me. I hired Freddy. She’s going to make a real garden here. We’re going to grow food like this. Esmeralda’s cousin can help us. She was crying.”

“Esmeralda?”

“No. The cousin. We saw her today. She’s had two marriage offers. One man is good for her, but the other one, well, she craves him. I told her...” Alice looked at Etta in embarrassment.

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