A Land to Call Home (14 page)

“Come inside. Kaaren is frantic with worry, I can tell.”

“What is it? What’s wrong?” The babies started to cry at Kaaren’s agitation that made her try to sit up.

“No! Lie still!” Metiz ordered. She removed the sling from around Kaaren’s shoulder and gently swung the babies until they settled down again. “You make worse.”

“I’m sorry, but what is going on?” Kaaren’s hands fluttered like moths around a lamp.

“It’s Solveig. She’s been in a train wreck. That is why she hasn’t gotten here yet.”

“Is she . . . is she dead?”

Lars shook his head. “Now lie back and I will read this to all of us. Haakan will be here in a moment, and I thought to wait for him.”

“No, tell me now.” Kaaren shielded her eyes with the back of her hand.

Lars moved closer to the lamp that flickered in the breeze from the open door.

With Andrew on his shoulders, Haakan ducked through the door, setting the little boy down in one smooth motion.

“Mor, horse go fast.” Andrew flung himself at his mother’s skirt,
his grubby face one huge grin. “Far ride me.”

“Ja, Mor’s good boy.”

“Hungry.”

Ingeborg listened out both sides of her head, both to Lars comforting Kaaren and to Andrew demanding her attention. She picked him up and handed him a slice of potato.

“The captain brought this telegram from Fargo. Said it came in yesterday. It reads: ‘To Mrs. Lars Knutson, stop.’ ” He looked up. “They write that at the end of each sentence.” He returned to his reading, tipping the paper to get better light. “ ‘Solveig Hjelmson injured, train wreck. Stop. Can travel, needs assistance. Stop. Come immediately. Stop. Dr. Louis Amundson. Stop. Reply requested. Stop.’ ” Lars looked up from the square yellow paper. “That and the address is all we know.”

“Thanks be to God, she is alive.” Ingeborg clasped Andrew to her until he began to squirm.

“Hungry, Mor.” He patted her shoulder to get her attention.

Kaaren’s lips moved in silent prayer. She sighed when she opened her eyes. “What will we do? Who will go?”

“The captain said he’d pick up the one we send on his way back upriver in the morning.” Lars sank down on the nearest chair. Metiz continued to sway the sling, comforting the little ones. Haakan took Andrew from Ingeborg and set him on the box tied to a chair at the table.

“Mor will have supper ready soon. You be good and wait.”

At the tone of his voice, Andrew nodded solemnly.

Ingeborg released all the air she’d been unconsciously holding and rubbed the back of her neck. “Supper will be ready in a few minutes.” Scooping bacon grease out of the crock on the warming shelf and dotting it in the cast-iron frying pan, she dumped in the chopped onions and sliced potatoes. If her hands kept busy, her mind could think better. Amid the clattering of pans and sizzling grease, she waited for someone to say something.

“I stay, care for Kaaren.” Metiz broke the silence.

“I can’t leave you and the babies.” Lars scrubbed his fingers through his dark hair, standing it on end. “But I can take care of the chores. Haakan, you could go.”

“She will need a woman to help her.” Haakan turned to look at Ingeborg. “You know her.”

Ingeborg nodded. “Since she was little.” She turned the slabs of elk meat over and shook the pan of potatoes. The screech of pan
against stove made her shiver. Or was that the news about Solveig that really sent frissons of fear skittering up and down her back?

“You must go, Ingeborg. We could ask Penny to come help Metiz and me. Haakan, you will go with?”

He looked from Ingeborg to Lars and back again. “There is so much work to do. Could you go by yourself?”

Ingeborg swallowed hard. Taking the boat to Grand Forks wasn’t a problem. She’d done that before. She could board the train there for St. Paul. But all alone? Changing trains and finding the hospital? How much help did Solveig need? How badly was she hurt? Remembering the terror of being lost in New York made her hands shake as she set plates and silverware on the table. Could she read English well enough to read street signs now? To tell a buggy driver where to go?

Haakan took the long knife from her clenched hand and set about slicing the bread. “I will eat quickly so I can help the boys with the chores.”

“Maybe Solveig will need someone stronger if she cannot walk.” Ingeborg kept her voice low, for Haakan’s ears alone.

“Ja, I thought of that too.” His chest swelled with the breath he took in. “If it would make you and Kaaren feel easier, I will go with you. The barn will just have to wait.”

“And if the snow comes?”

“Then we will build on the good days. It will all work out, Inge, but the most important part is keeping Kaaren calm and the babies alive. If my staying here would make that more possible . . .” He shrugged. “I just don’t know.”

Lars left Kaaren’s bedside and came to join them. “I will send Thorliff over to the Baards’ first light. He can bring Penny back, and knowing Agnes, she will be here as soon as she can hitch up the wagon.”

“But she shouldn’t be driving the wagon now.” Visions of Agnes’s feet swelling out over the moccasins Metiz had made for her when her shoes became too tight made Ingeborg shake her head. “Nei, she must stay home and take care of herself. Perhaps Petar could come to help with the field work for a few days.”

Lars nodded. “Ja, he will. You know Joseph. He will have the whole neighborhood here, putting up the barn, adding the lean-to on your house, and sending the others out into the field to break sod.” Lars shook his head. “You know Baard.”

“Come talk over here so I can hear too.” Kaaren’s voice held a
note of command that was unusual for her.

Ingeborg turned from checking the potatoes and saw Metiz laying one of the twins at her mother’s breast. The other whimpered, mewling like a week-old kitten. How would Kaaren ever have enough milk for the two of them?

The discussion continued around the table, but Ingeborg could tell it was all decided. She and Haakan would be rowing out to catch the boat in the morning.

Haakan left, and in a few minutes the boys came in, each carrying a full bucket of milk.

“You want we should put these in the springhouse?”

“No, set them there out of the way and come and eat.” Ingeborg cleared Haakan’s plate away and set two for the boys. “Go wash first.”

“How much more is to be done?” Lars asked as the boys slid into their chairs.

“Far went to milk at our house. We fed all the rest of the animals, let the horses and oxen out in the center field to graze. The horses weren’t hot or nothing.”

“Forgot the eggs.” Baptiste paused in lifting a forkful of meat to his mouth. He started to rise. “I go do that.”

“After you eat.” Ingeborg laid a hand on his arm. “You boys have done a fine job. Mange takk.”

After the kitchen was cleaned up and dishes all put away, Ingeborg turned to Metiz. “I will stay. You go home and sleep.”

“I sleep here.” Metiz pointed to a pallet she’d arranged on the floor.

“No. You sleep in the other bed, and I will take the floor.” Lars looked up from smoothing back the hair from Kaaren’s forehead.

Metiz shook her head.

Ingeborg hid a smile behind her hand. None of them had ever succeeded in getting Metiz to do something she was set against. She just acted as if she didn’t hear you, like now as she lay down facing the wall and pulling the cover over her shoulder.

“Inge!”

“Don’t look at me.” She raised her hands in the air, palms upward. “I’m going home to bed.” She picked up Andrew, who had curled up on an old coat in his special place behind the stove and was sound asleep. With him nestled into her shoulder, she turned back. “You call me if there is any problem.”

Kaaren nodded. “Mange takk, so many times over.” She waved
one hand. “Thank you again for my life.” Her voice choked on the last word.

Ingeborg strode along the grooves cut into the sod by the many passes of teams, wagons, and machinery. Soon they’d have to string the rope between the houses again, this time before a blizzard caught them. As Haakan said, there was so much to do.

The cold moonlight glimmered on the dew frosting the stacks of lumber set back from the barn. Paws greeted her, tail wagging and tongue lolling. Lamplight spilled from the window, losing the battle with the bright moon for a square of the earth. Ingeborg shivered, and while it was cold, she knew it wasn’t from that.

“What will tomorrow bring, dear Lord?” She raised her gaze to the heavens, the blackness stapled in place by the myriad of stars. “Take care of Solveig and Kaaren and the babes. Father, I leave them in your hands, for mine are far too small and weak. You are God, and I thank you.” She sniffed. Must be the cold that made her nose run.

As soon as she put Andrew to bed, she got down on her knees and dug way back under the bed for the carpetbag they had brought from Norway. She dusted it off and removed the carded wool all ready for spinning she’d stuffed inside. One more thing to do as soon as she could no longer work in the fields. She stroked the fine strands saved from the prime pelt of the merino sheep she’d paid such a high price for. This wool felt like the inner down of the goose compared to the wool from the other sheep. Her lambs, while crossbred, were showing the same length of strand. One of them, the male, she would keep for breeding.

Thinking of the dyes she would use on this fine wool, she stuffed it into a pillow slip and shook any remaining strands out of the bag. One corner looked as if a mouse had chewed it but had given up before getting through.

“Uff da.” She got to her feet and set the bag on the table. What should they take? How long would they be gone? Questions continued to ripple through her mind like a field of wheat bending before the breeze.

It was a good thing she had just washed clothes a couple of days earlier. She folded underthings, a shirtwaister for her, a clean shirt for Haakan, and packed them in the bag. Her hairbrush and other things would go in in the morning. She rubbed the corner of her mouth.

“Mor?” Thorliff and Baptiste let the door slam behind them.

“Shhh, Andrew is sleeping.”

“Sorry. Far said he’ll be in pretty quick. Can we have some bread and sugar?”

Ingeborg nodded. Surely there was something she was forgetting. Towels, washcloths, and soap. She would pack a hamper of food in the morning. Even later in bed, her mind refused to quiet down and go to sleep. How badly was Solveig hurt? Instead of being a help, she would need care.
Uff da
. Ingeborg turned over for the third time.

“Cannot sleep?”

“Nei. What if we don’t find the hospital? Chicago is a big place.”

“The doctor gave us the name, and we will ask for directions.” He turned to face her. “You are worried. That is not like you.”

“I know. I just hate to leave Kaaren right now. If something happens to those babies . . .”

“You will not blame yourself. We believe God knows best, and He alone can give life or keep it. If He wants the babies with Him, there is nothing we can do about it. Nor blame ourselves.”

“I know, but they are so small and helpless. Just keeping them warm enough—”

“Metiz is there. Penny will help, and the boys will do all they can.”

Ingeborg reached over and laid her hand on his stubbled cheek. “You are so good to me, Mr. Bjorklund, calming me instead of sleeping like you need.”

He turned his face and kissed the palm of her hand. “I thank God every day for you.”

Ingeborg felt the tears sting her eyes. His words and actions again caught her off guard. What was she doing worrying when she was so blessed?

She laid her head on his chest and, with a sigh of contentment, fell into the peace of sleep.

After a flurry of chores, messages back and forth between the soddies, and final packing of food and necessaries, they made it to the rowboat in time for the second whistle. The captain had tooted the horn two miles or so downriver so they could get there in time.

Ingeborg made her way up the swaying ladder to the deck. Boarding from a dock was definitely easier. When Haakan swung
over the railing, she waved good-bye to Lars in the boat and to the boys on the bank. Thorliff and Baptiste waved one last time and then ran back into the trees.

Haakan took her hand in his. No matter what lay ahead, they would meet it together.