An Abundance of Blessings Read online

  Emily had to smile at the little girl dwarfed by the big, flouncy dress. “You look like a fairy queen.”

  She didn’t mind Jennifer. Her youngest cousin was a good sport and liked to goof around.

  Madison, well, that was another story.

  “What do I look like?” Christopher demanded. He had tossed on a denim jacket with wide sleeves and shoulder pads.

  “Actually, kind of cool.”

  “What are these?” Jennifer pulled a pair of neon pink tubes out of the box and pulled them over her arm. “They don’t have hands in them.”

  Emily had no clue.

  “There’s a matching band.” Jennifer pulled that out as well. “I think it goes on your head.”

  She pulled it on over her hair and, picking up the yards of material, walked around the dresser to have a look in the speckled mirror.

  “Wait, I know. I think those are leg warmers.” Emily remembered seeing something on a workout video her mother had stored away.

  “They don’t have feet,” Madison said, shaking her head as if trying to understand this particular fashion item.

  “This is fun,” Emily said, grinning at her little brother, who was trying to button up the oversize denim jacket.

  Christopher managed to get the buttons done and Emily laughed. The coat hung almost down to his knees and the long sleeves hung well past his hands.

  “Okay, coat, where are you going with that boy?” Emily dropped onto the floor and tugged the heavy-soled boots on. A tag on the side said “Dr. Martens.” Interesting. They’d look great with her black leggings and gray-striped dress.

  Jennifer returned, rifling through the clothes strewn about. “I am going to ask Grandma if I can take this home.”

  “Your mom won’t like it.” Emily held up her hand as if in warning.

  Jennifer wrinkled her nose. “Probably not,” she agreed. “It’s pretty big.” She pulled off the dress and tossed it aside.

  Emily tugged the boots off. The next item of clothing she pulled out of the box was an large shirt.

  Double cool. If she wore this over a tank top, with her leggings and those black boots, she’d have an awesome outfit.

  She grew more excited the more she dug through the boxes. The only clothing store in Bedford was run by some weird lady who wore too much makeup and who seemed to think there was no such thing as too much lace.

  Emily shuddered, thinking of the few visits she’d made there with Grandma. The store needed a major fashion upgrade, as far as she was concerned.

  The bottom of the box revealed a pile of plain white T-shirts in various sizes. What was that all about?

  “I’m going to ask Grandma if I can wear this to church,” Jennifer said, bunching the material of the skirt in her hands.

  “I don’t want to wear this to church,” Christopher said, shrugging off the jacket. “It’s too big.”

  He tossed the jacket in the corner and turned toward the stairs.

  “Where are you going?” Emily asked him.

  “I need to do some schoolwork.” He hesitated a moment, and Emily thought maybe he was going to ask for help.

  She hoped he didn’t. She was so glad to have no homework this weekend, she didn’t really want to do anything associated with schoolwork. Even it if wasn’t hers.

  “I’m going to be busy here for a while,” Emily said, hoping Christopher got the hint.

  He nodded, then trudged off. Obviously he did. For a moment, Emily felt guilty. Then she saw another box and ripped it open, hoping she would find something else.

  Emily sorted through the clothes she had picked out, very excited about her finds. She was always trying to dress differently. To express herself through her clothes. Since moving here from San Diego, it had been harder. First because she didn’t make much money working on the farm, and second because there weren’t any decent stores around here.

  This would be awesome, she thought as she folded the clothes up. There was no way anyone in Bedford would be dressed the same as she was.

  “THAT’S A PRETTY DRESS,” Charlotte said, watching Jennifer pirouette around the kitchen for the fourth time. The girl had been hanging around here for the last hour, modeling the clothes they’d found in the attic. Emily and Christopher seemed to be content to stay upstairs.

  “Emily said I wouldn’t be able to wear it to church.”

  Charlotte smiled. Emily was right. “It’s a bit big for you, honey.”

  Jennifer draped herself over a kitchen chair, fiddling with the quilted table runner Charlotte had put on the kitchen table. “I’m bored. I want Christopher to come with me to the attic.”

  Charlotte was cleaning up her kitchen pantry, a job she had put off for too long.

  “I thought he was still in the attic.”

  “No. He’s in his bedroom. Madison, will you come up to the attic with me?”

  Madison shook her head, her tongue poking out one corner of her mouth as she colored in her coloring book.

  Jennifer sighed, pleating the table runner and then smoothing it out again. “Where is Sam?”

  “Grandpa brought him to town. He had to work today,” Charlotte said, washing her hands.

  “Where does he work?”

  “At the AA Tractor Supply.”

  This netted Charlotte another sigh. “I’m really, really bored,” Jennifer said.

  Charlotte could see this. And the dear little girl was keeping her from her own work.

  Charlotte wiped her hands on a towel. “Why don’t you stay here a minute while I go talk to Christopher.” She was curious why he was holed up in his room when she really could use his help to entertain the girls.

  Christopher was sprawled on his bed, a notebook open in front of him as he stared off into space.

  “Honey, is something wrong?” Charlotte asked, sitting on the edge of his bed.

  Christopher rubbed his hand over his blond, short-cropped hair. “I’m just thinking.”

  “Jennifer was asking where you were. I think she’s a little bored.”

  Christopher nodded. “I have to do my homework. Then I can play with her.”

  Charlotte felt a niggle of disappointment. She was hoping the three of them could keep each other entertained today so she could get done what she could before next week, when she had the girls all day.

  “What do you have to do?”

  “A project. Something about the farm. I wanted to talk to Uncle Pete about the horses, but he’s gone.”

  “When is it due?”

  “Two weeks.”

  She smiled at him. “Well, then, you’ve got lots of time to work on it, don’t you?”

  He nodded. “I guess so.”

  “I can help you with it when Madison and Jennifer are gone,” she offered. She’d have more free time then. “For now, I was really hoping you could help me keep Madison and Jennifer entertained.”

  He sighed, then pushed himself off the bed. “Okay. I’ll play with my cousins.”

  “Thanks, Christopher. That’s great.” She gave him a quick pat on the head, then followed him out of his room.

  “But what can we do?” Christopher asked as he trudged down the stairs. “I don’t want to go to the attic again.”

  “Why don’t you and the girls play outside? I think the snow is sticky enough to make a snow fort.”

  Christopher nodded and seemed to brighten at the idea.

  When they came downstairs, she pried Madison away from her coloring book and convinced Jennifer to shed the dress she’d been modeling.

  “Let’s get your coats on,” she said as she herded them into the porch. “And make sure you have your hats and mittens on as well.”

  She kept her voice perky, injecting the note of enthusiasm that was evidently lacking in the kids. She wished Emily wanted to join in, but for now Christopher could keep the girls entertained.

  Charlotte tucked Madison’s curls under the stocking cap and touched her nose with her finger. “You look cute as a butt
on.”

  “Mommy says that hats make my hair go flat,” Madison said, wrinkling her nose.

  “Probably, but today we don’t have to worry about how we look. We’re going to have fun.”

  “Are you coming out?” Madison asked, her expression perking up.

  “Are you, Grandma?” Jennifer asked excitedly. “That would be so cool. You could show us how to build a fort. And how to have a snowball fight.”

  “Please, Grandma?” Christopher asked.

  Charlotte felt the weight of the work she’d been putting off pulling at her. Then she looked at her grandchildren and thought of the regrets she carried around over how she raised her own children. The myriad of second thoughts and “should haves.”

  Maybe she should have played with them more. Maybe things would have been different.

  “Sure. I’ll come out with you.”

  The sun was bright, the sky blue and, as Charlotte promised, the snow stuck to their boots.

  “What do we do now?” Christopher asked.

  “I remember one time Uncle Pete made a snow fort with me,” Madison said with a hopeful note in her voice as she pushed the snow with one booted foot.

  Charlotte bent over and picked up a handful of snow, packing it tightly. The snowball stuck to the wool of her mittened hands, and as she lobbed it into the air toward Christopher she smiled.

  “Okay. Let’s make a snow fort.”

  “You have to show us how because I forget,” Madison said, dropping to her knees.

  Charlotte got down as well, thankful that she had put on her snow pants. “First we need to make a ball with our hands,” she demonstrated. “Then we need to lay it on some fresh snow and start rolling. Now be careful not to trample the fresh snow,” she warned as she laid the ball on the snow.

  They started pushing and rolling, and with each roll of the ball, more snow stuck. “See how it’s starting to look like a round hay bale?” Charlotte said. “Now we have to turn it on end so it will get round the other way.” She heaved the ball, now about a foot in diameter, around again. “Madison and Christopher, you two keep rolling that ball until it’s about two feet across. Jennifer, you can help me make another one.”

  The kids pushed and rolled, and once in a while Christopher would make a small snowball and toss it toward one of the girls.

  But for the most part they were children on a mission. Half an hour later they had the first layer of the fort laid out and were adding to the second row. The once pristine snow had wavy lines where the snowballs had been rolled and footprints everywhere.

  “Maybe we can have hot chocolate in the snow fort when it’s done,” Christopher said with a hopeful note as he helped Charlotte heave another ball onto the wall. His cheeks were pink and his eyes bright.

  Madison’s hat was askew, and her face was flushed. Jennifer had lost her hat ten minutes ago.

  “This is fun,” Jennifer exclaimed, dropping to her knees to make another ball.

  Charlotte looked from one happy face to the other, taking a mental snapshot of the moment. Sure she was falling behind on her work, but time spent with grandchildren was an investment in happiness.

  The work could wait. For now.

  Chapter Six

  Why I can’t wear this to church?” Jennifer performed one more twirl in the oversized dress, then dropped onto the bed of the spare bedroom.

  Sunday morning and the clock was ticking.

  “It’s way too big for you, honey,” Charlotte said, looking for the outfits that, according to Anna’s enclosed packing list, she had chosen for the girls to wear to church their first Sunday here. “You would trip all over the place.”

  Jennifer lifted her shoulders and dropped them in an exaggerated sigh. “Emily said that too. But she found some cool clothes.”

  Charlotte could only wonder what Emily could have found in the boxes of clothing she had stashed away up in the attic. Most of them contained clothes she had, at one time, planned to either donate to a thrift store in Bedford or find a way to rework into a memory quilt.

  “Your mom packed this lovely dress for you to wear to church today,” Charlotte said, pulling out a blue-velvet confection from the closet.

  But Jennifer wrinkled her nose. “It looks like a party dress.”

  It did, indeed, and it was typical of Anna’s taste. However, Charlotte wasn’t going to go against her daughterin-law on this.

  “And you know what? Going to church is like going to a party. We go to celebrate that God loved us so much He sent Jesus to the world to die for our sins.” Charlotte slipped the dress over Jennifer’s head and zipped up the back.

  “I thought that was at Easter,” Madison said as she pulled on her boots.

  “That’s what we celebrate at Easter too, in a bigger way, but each Sunday we come to church to worship God and to show Him how thankful we are for His salvation.”

  “My mommy says when we go to church we have to look nice because people are always watching us because Dad is the mayor.” Jennifer tugged the dress straight, then tied the ribbon at the dropped waist.

  Charlotte wasn’t sure what to say. Anna could have an exaggerated sense of the importance of her son’s position.

  “I’m sure people are watching you, but it’s more important, when we are in church, to remember that we’re there to worship God.”

  “Can you do my hair, Grandma?” Madison asked. “I can’t get my ponytail in good enough.”

  Beyond the door of the spare bedroom, Charlotte heard the buzz of Emily’s blow-dryer. Once she was done, Sam would claim his time in front of the mirror. She could never remember Denise, Bill, or Pete spending as much time in the bathroom as her two oldest grandchildren did.

  “Why don’t you come downstairs with me, Madison, and I’ll do your hair in our bathroom,” she said, taking the ties and ribbons from Madison. “I can do your hair too,” she said to Jennifer.

  “Do I have to have a ponytail?” she asked. “Can’t I just have it down like Emily?”

  “Sure. I’ll brush it for you and then you’re done.”

  “But Mommy packed your hair ties too,” Madison said with a slightly self-righteous tone.

  Jennifer simply skipped out of the bedroom, ignoring her older sister completely.

  Charlotte opened the door of the downstairs bathroom just as Bob was leaving, adjusting the knot in his tie.

  Charlotte felt as if she had to blink.

  He wore his usual gray suit coat and pants, his shirt a conservative white. So the mustard-yellow tie with its orange blotches of color stood out like an Elvis impersonator at an Amish meeting.

  “Where did you get that tie?” She certainly hadn’t purchased it.

  He patted it and smiled. “Pretty spiffy, huh? Jennifer found it yesterday in a box with some clothes and gave it to me. I thought I would wear it today.”

  “It looks … cheerful.”

  Bob gave her a slow smile. “Sounds like you’re trying to tell me you don’t like it.”

  Charlotte raised her hands. “At least it matches the suit.”

  “I like it.” Bob stepped back, took another look at himself in the mirror, then gave himself a nod of approval. “Makes me look ten years younger.”

  “If you say so,” Charlotte said with a gentle smile as she ushered the girls into the bathroom. They only had a few more minutes before it was time to leave.

  “Hey, cool tie, Grandpa,” Charlotte heard Emily say as she began brushing Madison’s thick, wavy hair.

  “Is that the skirt you found in the box?” Jennifer was asking Emily.

  Charlotte looked up as Emily stopped in the doorway of the bathroom and once again found herself dumbfounded at what her granddaughter wore.

  “Are you sure you want to wear that to church?” Charlotte asked, eyeing Emily’s outfit as she slipped a ponytail tie around Madison’s hair.

  “Why not?” Emily stood in the hallway, looking down at the crocheted vest she was wearing, a hint of dismay in he
r voice. “It’s not too revealing or tight or anything.”

  “It’s fine, honey,” Charlotte hastened to assure her. The vest actually looked cute over her black turtleneck. However she would have preferred not to see the frayed denim skirt and tight black leggings as well as the heavy black boots.

  How in the world had she managed to put together such an eclectic outfit from boxes of old cast-off clothes?

  But for now, Charlotte chose to focus on the positive. “I had a vest much like that when I was a teenager. I made it myself.”

  Emily laughed. “That’s awesome, Grandma. What did you do with it?”

  “I threw it away.”

  “So you don’t have any of your old clothes in those boxes upstairs?”

  “Doubtful.”

  “Where did they come from? I thought for sure they were your old clothes.”

  “You wouldn’t have minded wearing my old clothes?” Charlotte was surprised to hear Emily say that.

  “No. They’re vintage.”

  Okay. Charlotte felt officially old. Or was that vintage?

  “Your skirt needs to be fixed, Emily,” Madison said, glancing sidelong when Charlotte was done with her hair. “It has a bunch of strings coming from the hem.”

  Emily responded with a faint eye-roll.

  Then Sam came clattering down the stairs. The tune he was whistling died on his lips when he came face to face with Emily.

  “Oh, please, Emily. Not that.” Sam groaned. He appealed to Charlotte. “Grandma, can’t you get her to dress normal?”

  “And dress like you?” Emily shot back. “Blue jeans, hoodie, and a T-shirt. You look like a clone of all your skater friends.”

  “At least I look normal.”

  Emily curled her lip up at him, then left.

  “Sam, you should be a little more sensitive toward your sister,” Charlotte gently chided.

  Sam heaved a heavy sigh. “Why does she like wearing such weird clothes? My friends are always bugging me about what my sister looks like.”

  Charlotte understood Sam’s dilemma. Though he had been attending Bedford High School for almost a year now, he was still considered an outsider around kids who had grown up together and known each other since kindergarten, or even longer.