soon as we entered the house, Emily and I read the two stories until we didn’t miss a word.
The following weekend, Dad dug up an area where Mother wanted to start a garden, and Sis and I helped her plant all kinds of vegetable seeds. Then Dad built some support boards with a rope attached for the huckleberries to grow on.
A few weeks later, our father took the one-mile ferryboat ride to the island where he worked. But this time before catching the ferry home, he heard Mother hollering across the water, “Henry, pick up five pounds of flour and sugar, one gallon of milk, and two pounds of round steak from the grocery store.”
When Dad walked into the house that night carrying the box of groceries, he said, “Eliza, you embarrassed me in front of the logging crew when you hollered across the water. Next time, tell me what you need before I leave for work.”
Mother glared at Dad before she placed three small steaks into the heated frying pan. Nothing more was said that night, and my twin and I fell happily asleep with our dolls tucked under the little quilt in their bed.
On the following morning when we walked into the classroom, Kayla and Zane and several other children were holding their noses and scurrying about. “P.U., something stinks,” red-haired Jamie said, wrinkling his face.
The students watched Miss Overstreet sniff around the room until she followed the odor to her black boot inside the cloak closet. Picking it up, she peered inside and let out a loud scream. Dropping her boot, she yelled, “A dead rat!” before she dashed to the far end of the room.
“I’ll take care of it,” said Jamie, holding his nose. He picked up the smelly boot with the dead rat inside and tossed it out an open window.
“Everyone leave the room and sit at the lunch tables!” Miss Overstreet shouted. “We’re going to stay outside until this awful stench dissipates. And I’m not ever wearing that stinky boot again!” she declared, causing everyone to giggle.
“I tossed it in the burn barrel,” said Zane, smiling.
“Good for you,” replied the teacher. “You did a brave thing, and so did you, Jamie.”
Once everyone was seated at the lunch tables, Miss Overstreet held up her homemade subtraction cards, and the whole class recited the answers together. During our science lesson, we collected fallen leaves and learned how to identify the corresponding trees. We joined Miss Overstreet in singing patriotic songs before she quizzed us on our spelling words. By the end of lunchtime, the odor was barely noticeable, and we returned to our classroom to finish out the day.
“Having class outdoors was fun,” I told Emily on our bus ride home.
That evening, my sister and I went over the next story in our readers. We practiced off and on until the end of the year, when we could read as well as any student in our class.
During the beginning of summer, our parents paid a fare for the four of us to ride on a fifty-passenger ferryboat from Arletta to Tacoma. While on the ferry, Emily and I loved standing where we could feel the cool mist created by the revolving wheel. When we got off the boat in Tacoma, we browsed in the shops and ate lunch at a café before it was time to catch the ferry back home.
As the weeks passed, Dad started sticking around the logging camp after work and coming home past dinnertime. One morning, Mother said, “Henry, I’m cooking a turkey for dinner tonight, so please try to be home by 6 o’clock.” When Dad walked into the house late, Mother wiped her hands on her homemade apron and said, “I was counting on you to be here so we could eat as a family.”
“I know, but I got to talking to the guys and lost track of time,” Dad said, looking for the food.
“We ate an hour ago, and the leftovers are in the icebox,” Mother said with a sigh.
Dad grunted and promised to do better, but he was still late more often than not. On the nights our father showed up after we ate, Emily and I headed for our room or played outside to avoid Mother’s nagging.
A few weeks later, when Dad came home after working all day at the logging camp, Mother said, “Henry, I wish you’d spend some fun weekends with the family like you used to. And I miss taking strolls in the moonlight down by the water and talking together in the front porch rockers after the girls are in bed.”
Dad glanced at Mother and walked past her without saying a word. When he took his plate of food into the living room, Emily and I ate quickly and rushed outside to have some fun away from our parents.
Sometimes Sis and I woke up during the night when we heard Mother and Dad arguing, but we put our pillows over our heads and usually fell back to sleep.
While our parents were preoccupied with their problems, my twin and I were turned loose during the summer to raise ourselves.
On one sunny morning, we wandered down to the harbor nearby and dumped seawater over the boxed pears that were to be loaded onto a ship. We saw people shaking their heads and acting like they felt sorry we weren’t being looked after.
That evening, Mother said to Emily and me, “Go into the living room and wait for me there. I need to talk to both of you.”
Emily rolled her eyes at me before we left our bedroom and headed for the couch. “I bet we’re in trouble for messing up those pears,” she said. “The two ladies we saw staring at us probably told Mother what we did.”
“Shush,” I said. “She’s coming.”
Mother pulled a chair up close to my sister and me and sat down after wiping her eyes with a hanky. “You know that your father and I haven’t been getting along very well for a good while,” she said. “Your daddy and I decided to get a divorce. When it becomes final, we’ll no longer be married. Your father moved out this morning to a place he rented on Bainbridge Island.”
“Do you and Daddy still love us?” I asked, trying hard not to cry.
Mother wiped more tears away while reaching out to hug Emily and me. “Your daddy and I still love both of you the same as before, and you had nothing to do with our problems.”
“Will we ever get to see Daddy again?” Emily asked, between sniffles.
“Yes, of course. An hour ago, your father began bragging over the telephone about making plenty of money from working part time at the logging camp and part time on his new job for his friend, Carl.
“I wish you could live with me. But I need to find work and a hotel room to live in before this house goes back to the bank because I can’t make the loan payments.
“Since school starts tomorrow, I suggested to your father that he take both of you, and he agreed. You need to pack up your things now. He’s coming for you tonight.”
Emily ran for the bedroom, and I followed her before Mother could see my tears. We looked at each other, but we didn’t speak. I wanted to live with both of my parents, and I felt angry.
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