Tender Love. Irene Brand

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СКАЧАТЬ boy,” Kristin cried. “We’ll like that, won’t we, Eddie?”

      He nodded happily and tugged on Alice’s hand. She knelt beside him and smoothed back his wet hair, and he threw his arms around her and kissed her. The caress had a strange effect on Alice, for it lighted an ember in her heart that had never been touched—she had the first glimmering of what a mother’s love entailed. Her voice quavered when she spoke.

      “While the muffins bake, let’s play a game my sister and I used to enjoy. We’ll sit here at the table.” On the table, Alice laid a sheet of paper she’d brought from her room. “We’re going to draw creatures. I’ll start first.”

      “But Eddie can’t draw,” Kristin said.

      “Sure, he can. I’m going to draw the head of a dog, then you, Kristin, can add the body, and Eddie will draw the legs and feet of the dog.”

      “That won’t be hard to do,” Kristin agreed. “I make good grades in art.”

      “Ah, but there’s a catch to it,” Alice said. “Neither of you can look while I’m drawing the head, and I’ll fold over the top of the paper before I hand it to you. Eddie can’t watch while you’re shaping the body, and you’ll fold over what you’ve done before he draws the feet and legs.”

      Kristin frowned. “I don’t know if I can do that.”

      “Let’s try it anyway. Each of us will mark where the next part of the animal is supposed to be drawn. Cover your eyes.”

      Alice quickly sketched an outline of what purported to be a poodle, although art wasn’t one of her strong points. She folded the paper so that only the edge of the neck was showing.

      “Okay, Kristin, you can look now, but Eddie keeps his eyes covered.”

      Kristin screwed up her eyes in concentration as she carefully drew the body of a dalmatian. Watching her, Alice deduced that she did have some artistic talent. When Eddie’s turn came, with his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth, he outlined four legs that could belong on no other dog except a dachshund.

      As she watched Eddie’s tiny fingers painstakingly creating the legs and feet, Kristin smiled broadly, and when he finished and Alice unfolded the paper, Kristin laughed, shouting, “That’s the funniest looking dog I’ve ever seen.”

      The head of an aristocratic poodle attached to the spotted, thin body of a dalmatian, supported by four short, sturdy legs was amusing.

      Eddie giggled, saying, “But I did make nice legs, didn’t I, Alice?” He jumped up and down on the chair. “I want to draw a bird. Let me draw first this time.”

      They’d made three more creatures by the time the muffins were ready, and the two children were more animated than Alice had seen them. She removed the muffins from the pan.

      “Do you want to eat a muffin now or wait until they’ve cooled?”

      “They smell so good, let’s have one now,” Kristin said, “and maybe we can have some more when Daddy comes home.”

      “We need to share with Gran. Eddie, will you take her a muffin while I pour the milk?”

      He jumped out of his chair. “I want to show her our pictures, too.” He tucked the images they’d drawn under his arm and took the muffin Alice placed in a plastic bowl. She watched him a bit anxiously for she hadn’t seen Eddie go up or down the stairs by himself, but neither he nor Kristin seemed to realize that his behavior was unusual. She waited with bated breath until he returned to the kitchen, and although his color was heightened and his breathing accelerated, soon after he sat down and started eating his muffin, his complexion and breathing were normal.

      “I want to show Daddy the pictures, too,” he said.

      “Fine. Help me rinse our glasses and plates, and we can leave them in the sink. We might have another snack with your father when he comes home, if it isn’t too late.”

      “But you said we could wait up for him,” he said.

      “Well, I didn’t exactly say that, but if you do get sleepy, I’ll stay upstairs with you until he’s home.”

      When they went into the family room, before they turned on the television, Kristin said, “What’s another game you and your sister played?”

      “We used to tell progressive stories. One of us would think of a subject and we’d make up a story about it. The first one would talk for a few minutes, then the other one would add on ideas. We’d switch back and forth, changing the story content to fit what the one before had said until we thought the story was finished. They were make-believe stories. Think you could do that?”

      “I can do it,” Eddie said, “if Kristin can.”

      “I want to start the story,” Kristin insisted.

      They settled on the couch with Alice between the two children.

      “Natasha was a little girl, and she was afraid of spiders,” Kristin started.

      “I don’t like that name—I can’t say it,” Eddie protested.

      “Make him listen, Alice,” Kristin said, and turning a stern eye on her brother, she said, “You’re not supposed to say anything until I’ve finished.”

      Alice put her arm around Eddie, and he snuggled close. “If you can’t pronounce Natasha, maybe you can say, Tasha.”

      “Tasha,” he said experimentally. “I’m going to call her Tasha. Hurry up, Kristin, so I can talk.”

      Two stories and an hour later, Alice had learned a lot about her companions. They were both afraid of spiders, they were terrified of the dark, they couldn’t understand why their mother had to die, and they were worried about the future—especially what would happen to them if their father should also die. These revelations disturbed Alice, especially when she knew that Kristin was going to camp tomorrow where she would probably encounter lots of darkness and spiders.

      When the second story ended, Eddie said, “Okay—what’re we going to play now?”

      Smothering a yawn, Alice said, “How about the ‘take a nap’ game?”

      “Hey, Alice, that’s sneaky,” Kristin said. “I bet there isn’t any such game.”

      “No, but I’m sleepy. Let’s find a show on television that you like, and you can watch while I take a nap.”

      Kristin looked at the clock. “It’s ten o’clock, and we usually aren’t awake this late, so we don’t know what to watch.” Her face twitched nervously as she added, “It’s awful late, I wonder if Daddy is all right.”

      “I’m sure he is.” What could she say to calm the fears of these children? “Shall I tell you a story before I take my nap?”

      “Is it the kind where we talk, too?” Kristin asked.

      “No, this is a Jesus story? You know who Jesus is, don’t you?”

      They solemnly СКАЧАТЬ