Heaven's Gate Bridge twenty-seven

Heaven’s Gate Bridge twenty-seven

The evening’s hours at the Miller house seemed a little hectic. Mrs. Noonan discussed with Mrs. Miller the routine of housekeeping. Eventually the conversation came down to the children. Each child was identified by personalities and likes and dislikes. The two ladies certainly made this conversation become one that two good friends were having. Mrs. Noonan referred to her children on certain points.

Mrs. Miller did start to feel a little better but just wanted to move around when there was someone there to help her. She did feel that she might have been over-doing her caution, but she thought that since she was sick that extra caution might permit the pregnancy to proceed normally.

William and Timothy were not sure how to handle having Billy’s mother as housekeeper. They did not know if there was going to be any additional problems with her knowing what was happening in their house and then telling her family at home. They were sure of one thing, that if Billy was absent again, like he was today, they could get the truth out of his mother.

“Mrs. Noonan, we appreciate the nice way you are helping our mother. We would like to know if Billy is sick. He was not at school today. “ said William with Buddy’s empty food plate.

“Oh he should be back tomorrow. He had a stomach ache and I always like to watch over my boy in case he has digestive problems. You know how the food you buy from the store is not always fresh like they claim. A bad fish or vegetable can may you want to throw up all you ate for dinner.” she replied as checked her reflection in the hall mirror before she left.

“Well we did a lot in class and the teacher says that too many absences and he might not have enough time to get everything done and study for the end of the year’s tests. We just have a few more weeks.” Timothy added.

“I will tell him what you said. I do appreciate your thoughtfulness. Timothy?”

“Yes mam.”

Mrs. Noonan walked out the door and down the steps.

The daylight was beginning to fade and a lovely sunset was seen through the window. On this night the moon would be sailing through a cloudless sky. These were an excellent night that the boys enjoyed getting out of bed and just watching what happened out of their window. Most of the time there were cats fighting or chasing a little rabbit. Sometimes they saw a beautiful owl swoop down and catch an unsuspecting rat. The best thing that they saw was the two owls hopping around on the ground in what their teacher explained could have been a courtship dance. There were hops and hoots that the boys wrote about in their next day’s journal at school.

In Catherine and Harriet’s room, the girls were talking about what Harriet missed. Catherine and Harriet seemed to have little problems communicating since they could almost finish each other’s sentences since they were little girls. Catherine and Harriet were sad that Penny would miss some of the school time and possibly the spelling bee. Penny was an excellent speller. Catherine all the time said that Penny would be a great teacher if not a writer of books. Penny had a fairly good imagination and could embellish a story with details that made the story very funny or very sad. Penny had the best journal entries and let her good friends read them. Catherine and Harriet were first to see the entry.

The whole family sat down to a relatively quiet dinner. The girls washed the dishes and the boys dried them and put them away. They took Buddy outside for a few minutes to run and play. Before Harriet settled in the family room to help her parents do the jigsaw puzzle that they were working on, she explained to them what she thought she saw today when she was outside with Buddy.

“Can you imagine? Mrs. Noonan said that he was at home with a stomach ache. Should we tell father that she lied?” Timothy asked William.

“You know she was here most of the afternoon. He might have slipped out of the house after she left. We don’t know for sure. And mother seems to really like her here. I liked the nice way she fixed the beans we had.” he said as he scratched his head. “ I think we should wait and see if Billy comes to school tomorrow and ask him.” responded William with a stick that he was going to toss to Buddy.

“Okay. And Harriet, please don’t tell mother or father until we find out.”

“Okay but I am still going to tell Catherine. She might need to know.” Harriet said softly.

“All right. I don’t like keeping secrets.” Timothy added.

“Well I don’t either. We’ll tell father everything tomorrow.”

Harriet returned to the house to see how the parent’s were doing on the jigsaw puzzle. The had the picture of some men in a forest about one half finished. After that, their parents usually did separate activities. Their father, read the newspaper and their mother wrote letters. Sometimes they had the new Sears catalog that they would look through the pictures and dream about things they could buy. The sound of the clock filled the room. They heard the door close as the two boys came in with Buddy. They had done their homework after they got home. The boys were lucky tonight because they did not have much work to do.

Catherine was at the table finishing her work that she had missed during the days she was sick. She saved the arithmetic for last because that was her least favorite subject. Sometimes she would even try to do it quickly and put it away, but her parents insisted on looking on her work. If they saw too many mistakes, then they would go over it slowly. This Catherine did not like.

Mrs. Miller decided that she wanted to go upstairs to go to bed early. She went to the kitchen to get a drink of water and make sure that the boys had fastened the back door securely. She felt the movement of her stomach and put her hand there as if to tell the unborn child that he or she was perfectly safe. The movement settled down and Frances returned to the family room to tell everyone good night. If the next few months were as nice as today, then when the baby was born, she could relax and be a normal mother again.