An Abundance of Blessings Read online

  It took him awhile to get used to the utter silence out here in the countryside. Back in San Diego, there was always noise. Cars. Fire trucks. Airplanes. People.

  But here, his ears could hurt from the quiet.

  Could he move back? If he and Emily found their father, like they’d been trying to, could they up and leave? And what would their life be like with their dad? Where would they live?

  He blinked as, for a moment, he felt his world shift. He wasn’t sure what he really wanted anymore.

  Pete returned with the last bale on the forks of the tractor, the noise chasing away his twisted thoughts.

  “You going to stay up there all day staring at the sky?” Pete called out over the noise of the engine. “Or you gonna come down and help me put this in the other feeder? The sooner we get done, the sooner you can head out with your friends.”

  Sam saluted, carefully pushed the already eating cows away from the feeder so he could get down, then ambled over to the other feeder to help his uncle.

  He didn’t have to think such heavy thoughts. For now he had friends whom he was going to spend time with. He thought of the plans they made, and the confusing thoughts that had bugged him previously were chased away.

  He felt pretty good about life by the time he got to the house. Whistling a light tune, he jogged upstairs to pack. Jake’s dad was coming for him in an hour and he wanted to make sure he was ready.

  He double-checked the things he had packed and then frowned. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to have an extra pair of pants.

  He was about to head downstairs.

  “… I’m just not sure about him going. I don’t know if it’s a good idea …”

  He stopped still, his heart picking up. Grandpa.

  He waited to see what Grandma would say.

  “I have my concerns too.”

  He shoved his hand through his hair in frustration. Didn’t they trust him?

  Should they?

  A small voice pushed itself into his head, reminding him of the ways he’d messed up since he came here.

  “I’d feel better if he stayed home,” Grandpa said.

  “He’s been doing his chores regularly, going to school, doing his schoolwork.” Grandma was quiet a moment and Sam leaned against the wall at the top of the stairs. When he was little, his mother prayed with him, Emily, and Christopher. He hadn’t prayed since he was ten and when they all moved here, the only time he talked to God was when he was mad at Him. For taking away his mother.

  But for a moment he wondered if praying would help.

  Because he really, really wanted—no, he needed—to get together with these guys who were finally including him in their circle. Ever since his trip to San Diego had been canceled, he felt as if he had to settle in here. As if he had to make friends and find his own place.

  He went back to his room just as he heard Grandma coming up the stairs. She came into his room carrying a laundry basket and knocked on the door.

  “I brought you some extra socks,” she said, setting the basket down in the hallway.

  That was one cool thing about both his grandparents. They never just came barging into his room. They always waited until they were invited in.

  “Come on in,” he said. “I’ve got lots of socks.”

  “When you’re playing outside, you can’t have enough,” Grandma said, handing them to him.

  He thought of the conversation downstairs and took the socks, stuffing them into an empty space in his backpack. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a careful smile. “I hope you have fun.”

  Sam returned her smile. “I think I will. Besides, if Ashley is coming over, then I’d just as soon be gone. I think she has a crush on me.” Then, on impulse, he leaned over and dropped a quick kiss on her forehead. “See ya, Grandma. Thanks for letting me go.”

  “So we’ll see you on Sunday then? At church?”

  Her question made him squirm. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do about that. He didn’t ever hear Jake talking about church.

  “We do go to church in this family, you know,” she added.

  He gave her a quick smile, then ducked his head, fiddling with the zipper. “Sure. I’ll be there.”

  And how is that going to happen?

  That annoying voice again. Sam pushed it aside. He didn’t want to think about that. He was heading out with his friends and he was going to have a blast.

  Toby started barking, which probably meant Jake’s dad was here.

  “Well, I better go.” Sam finished packing then slung his backpack over his shoulder. Grandpa was letting Jake’s dad into the house as Sam came round the bottom of the stairs, the sounds of the hockey game filling the room.

  “Evening, Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson,” Jake’s dad said. “I’m Dwight Perkins.” He was taller than Jake. Skinnier. He pulled his hat off his head as he held his hand out to Grandma, who had come up behind him, then to Grandpa.

  “Nice to meet you,” Grandma said as she shook his hand. “Sam is very excited to spend the weekend with you.”

  “We’re glad to have him. I keep hearing good things from my boy about him.” Mr. Perkins glanced at Sam. “Are you ready to go?”

  Sam nodded, glad that Jake’s dad had come to the house. Then he said a quick good-bye to his grandparents, opened the door, and followed Mr. Perkins to the car, where Jake was waiting.

  As he got in the car, he glanced over to the house again. Grandma and Grandpa stood on the step, watching him, and he felt a surge of love. His mother used to do the same thing when he went anywhere. Stand and wave.

  Kinda cool, he thought as he waved back, then got into the car.

  Chapter Fourteen

  But this doesn’t look anything like that top I showed you.” Emily slouched back in her chair, frowning at the pattern.

  The early-morning sun slanted into the kitchen, teasing out the golden highlights in her hair.

  “You’re going to get a crooked back if you sit like that,” Madison offered. She sat primly in her chair, content to look at the pattern envelopes covering the table. Next to her on the floor, Jennifer entertained herself by playing with Lightning.

  Charlotte held back her reprimand. She knew Emily was disappointed that Charlotte hadn’t made it to Harding to buy the patterns yesterday. All week the girl had talked about the clothes they were going to make and how awesome they would look. She had created a heightened expectation that only a New York designer could fulfill.

  Charlotte pushed back a beat of panic as she turned away from the schoolbooks she had set aside to make room for the sewing machine. Too many obligations and too many emotions.

  “This one could work, couldn’t it?” Ashley held up another pattern and showed it to Charlotte.

  “The basic style is there,” Charlotte agreed. “All we need to do is add the pleats to the body and tailor the yoke.” Charlotte was so thankful she’d invited Ashley to come. If anyone could pull Emily out of her funk, it was Ashley.

  “That sounds like a lot of work,” Emily grumbled.

  “Oh, c’mon, Em,” Ashley teased. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

  Charlotte put the pattern on the table and lifted a bag off the floor. “I picked up this material from Aunt Rosemary’s shop.”

  “Please don’t tell me you got daisies or sunflowers,” Emily pleaded.

  “No. I stuck with plain.” Charlotte took the cotton material out and laid it on the table. “Now I know it doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a place to start.” Charlotte glanced from Ashley to Emily, who were looking at each other. Ashley recovered the quickest.

  “I guess, like my mom says, we need to learn to walk before we can run,” Ashley encouraged.

  “The purple has potential,” Emily said.

  Charlotte sensed their disappointment, but at the same time she was thankful that Emily was at least trying.

  “I thought we’d start with the white cotton and see how it goes. So the first thing
we’re going to do is plan out how we’re going to cut this,” Charlotte said pushing on. “Once we get the hang of it, I’m sure we can find more complicated patterns to work with. Patterns that are more like the clothes you girls really want.”

  “Sure. I guess.” Emily’s tone held a forced heartiness that was almost harder to listen to than her honest grumpiness. “So, what do we do first?”

  “Do you want to make the same top?”

  “Yeah. That way we can be twins,” Ashley said with a quick smile.

  “So we’ll double the fabric and save time.” Charlotte pulled out the pattern pieces they would need. Then she had the girls pin the tissue to the material, showing them how to make sure the line on the pattern pieces exactly followed the grain of the material.

  Madison handed them the pins, vitally interested in what was going on.

  “We’ll do this one step at a time,” Charlotte informed the girls as she took out her cutting shears. “Each of you will take turns sewing the same piece. That way you can watch each other.”

  Twenty minutes later, all the pattern pieces were cut, the darts were marked, and Emily was seated at the sewing machine. Charlotte had them both practice on the leftover scraps of material so they could learn how to handle the machine.

  In spite of the plain fabric and the simple cut of the pattern, Emily was excited when Charlotte showed her how to sew together the first two parts of the shirt she was going to make.

  “This is kinda cool,” Emily said as she sat down at the machine. She set the presser foot, took a deep breath and said, “Here we go.”

  Emily’s first few seams were crooked, but she got better as she went on.

  “Grandma, I’m bored.” Jennifer pushed herself up from the floor where she and Lightning had been playing with the thread that fell from the sewing machine.

  “Why don’t you go read some of Christopher’s books?” Charlotte suggested. She wanted to stay with Emily and Ashley. Madison and Jennifer had taken up so much of her time this week, she felt that she had neglected the grandchildren who lived with her every day.

  “I don’t like his books and I’m tired of reading.” Jennifer laid her arms on the table and rested her chin on top then released a long sigh.

  “I don’t like reading either,” Madison put in, looking up from the bits of material she’d gathered together.

  “I can let you watch a movie,” Charlotte suggested, feeling a stab of guilt. When her children were young, she seldom, if ever, let them watch television in the middle of a Saturday. But this was different, she reasoned as she got up from the table.

  “Which one?” Jennifer said, perking up.

  “Let’s go find one.”

  They rummaged through the DVD collection together and managed to find a movie that both girls wanted to watch and, more importantly, one that Anna would approve of.

  When the opening credits flashed on the screen, Charlotte left. They would be entertained for an hour or more.

  “This doesn’t look like much yet,” Emily said, frowning as she held up the bodice of the shirt.

  “It will, trust me,” Charlotte assured her. “I remember when I taught your mother to sew. She didn’t like it very much at first. She could never visualize the finished project either.”

  “Did my mom use this same machine?” Emily asked with a sudden wistful tone.

  “The exact same one.”

  Emily smiled, and bent over her work once more.

  But half an hour later, when the curved yoke was finally in place on and sewn down, Charlotte could see from the forced smile on Emily’s face that the top was not what she’d hoped it would be.

  “Once it’s pressed, it will look better,” Charlotte said, wishing she could sound more enthusiastic.

  But Emily didn’t seem convinced.

  “I’m sure if we put it over a printed T-shirt it could pump it up a bit,” Ashley said with an unconvincing, rueful little smile.

  Charlotte felt a little flare of irritation. She’d put off other work to pick up the patterns and material, she’d done her best with what was available, and it still wasn’t good enough. “Well, you can’t expect perfection,” she said, wishing she could project more heartiness and optimism into her voice. “It’s your first project, after all.”

  “Knock, knock,” a voice called out from the porch.

  Charlotte walked over to the porch in time to see Rosemary shrugging off her heavy woolen coat, her cheeks rosy from the cold.

  “My goodness it’s cold out there,” she said. “Hope you don’t mind that I came without letting you know.”

  “No. Not at all. I’m glad you came. Let me take that,” Charlotte said as she took her coat, hat and scarf.

  Rosemary bent over and picked up a small bag. She held it up. “I also brought a few things along that might help with the sewing projects.”

  Mystified, Charlotte followed Rosemary into the kitchen.

  “Hello, girls,” Rosemary said, glancing from Emily to Ashley. She spied one of the tops lying on the table. “Well, look at that. You’re done.”

  “Sort of,” Emily said.

  Rosemary held up the top. The curved yoke was attached to the pleated bodice at the front and back, leaving an opening for the arms where it curved up and over the shoulders. “This looks very good. You girls did a great job for your first project.”

  “Thanks, Aunt Rosemary,” Emily said politely.

  “There are a few mistakes,” Ashley said. “I think I messed up on the pleats.”

  Rosemary put the top back on the table. “Mistakes are part of learning. And I sincerely doubt anyone else would even notice them.” She opened the plastic bag she had with her, shooting an apologetic glance at Charlotte as she did so.

  “I hope you don’t mind, but I thought we could do something with these shirts to spruce them up a bit.”

  “Like what?” Emily asked, leaning forward to see what her aunt had in her bag.

  Rosemary pulled out a couple of containers and set them in a row. “I had a couple of ideas. We could either tie-dye them, or we could put some beads on the yokes.”

  Rosemary set out some bags of beads of various sizes, different dyes and a couple of pictures she had pulled from magazines. “I thought we could try something like this, or this.”

  Emily picked up the pictures, her expression skeptical. Then as she looked down, she smiled.

  “The tie-dyeing is kind of retro. But I’m really stoked about the beading thing.”

  “I’m guessing stoked is good.” Rosemary came to stand beside her. “Here, take a look at the beads and see what you think.”

  Emily’s face brightened. “This will be so cool.”

  “Well, let’s get started.”

  Charlotte got some needles threaded while Rosemary, Ashley and Emily sorted out the beads.

  Rosemary showed the girls how to lay out the beads and how to plan their design. For the most part they followed the pattern in the picture, but as they sewed, Charlotte could see Emily deviating and creating her own designs.

  She has a real eye for this, Charlotte thought.

  As more beads were added to the yokes, Emily and Ashley’s cries of amazement were like music to Charlotte’s ears.

  “This is going to be so awesome,” Ashley said with an almost reverential tone to her voice.

  “No one is going to have a shirt like this,” Emily added. “I love it, love it, love it,” she exclaimed holding the top up in front of her to see what she had done so far. “It’s awesome.”

  Madison and Jennifer came wandering in, intrigued.

  “Can we do some beading?” Madison asked, looking with awe at what the girls were doing.

  Rosemary glanced at Charlotte. “We don’t really have anything you can bead. But maybe you could tie-dye something.”

  “There are T-shirts upstairs,” Jennifer said.

  Jennifer and Madison bolted up to the attic and returned a few minutes later with armfuls of white T-
shirts still in the plastic bags.

  “We took extra in case Ashley and Emily want to do one too,” they said.

  Rosemary unbuttoned the cuffs of her linen shirt and rolled them up. She glanced at the shirts that Madison and Jennifer were wearing. “You might want to find some old T-shirts to cover your clothes. This can get messy.”

  At the word messy, Jennifer’s eyes lit up. “Awesome.”

  “But Mommy didn’t pack old clothes,” Madison said, smoothing her hand over her sweater.”

  “I know where we can find some.” Jennifer caught Madison by the arm. “We’ll get some old shirts from the box upstairs.”

  The two girls ran off again.

  “Tie-dyeing?” Charlotte shot Rosemary a sardonic look. “Are you sure they’re old enough?”

  “It will be messy, but it will be fun.”

  Fun was good. Charlotte rolled up her own sleeves. “Tell me what to do.”

  “We’ll need to cover the table with an old cloth,” Rosemary said, taking the dye packages to the sink. “And we’ll need a few pails or large metal bowls. One for each color.”

  Footsteps clattered down the stairs announcing Jennifer and Madison’s return. Madison wore a large men’s shirt, blue with pink stripes. The sleeves hung well past her hands. “How do I look?” she said, holding up her covered hands.

  “Like you’re ready to do some serious art work,” Charlotte said with a smile as she bent over and rolled up the cuffs.

  “Jennifer has old clothes too,” Madison said, pointing to her sister, who was wearing a dress in a hideous shade of olive.

  “Lovely, lovely,” Rosemary said, clapping. “So let’s get working.” She glanced over at Ashley and Emily, who were still beading while at the same time eyeing what Rosemary was doing with the little girls. “Are you girls okay on your own for a while?”

  “Oh yeah,” Emily said with a grin. “I’m going to be done in a few more minutes.”

  Charlotte mixed up three bowls of dye while Rosemary set out rubber bandson the table. She showed the girls some of the ways they could twist, wrap, or fold the material to create the different patterns.