At Home on Ladybug Farm - Donna Ball [107]
She smiled as she touched the frame, and let her fingers linger. Then her eyes began to wander over the rest of the collection.
“They’re things we found in the house,” Lindsay explained. “It kind of tells a story.”
Mandy stopped before the child’s drawing that Lindsay had found in the woodbin, and she tilted her head a little, studying it. “That’s odd,” she said. “That drawing. My grandma had a quilt with something just like it right in the center. She used to wrap me up in it when I spent the night with her, and it smelled so nice. Like home.” She smiled reminiscently. “I haven’t thought about that quilt in years.”
Ida Mae, who had been passing on her way to the porch to gather up the coffee things, stopped and looked at Mandy. She didn’t just look. She stared. And then she said, in a very odd voice, “Child, who was your granny?”
“She was a Hodge,” Mandy replied, though her expression was a bit puzzled. “Marilee Hodge.”
Ida Mae’s expression softened. “Well, I’ll be,” she said. And her gaze traveled to the window, but no one could see what had caught her attention there. She looked back at Mandy and repeated, “I’ll be.”
Then she walked back to the kitchen, and she forgot the coffee tray.
The women walked with Mandy to the car, and then Lindsay said suddenly, “Wait.”
She ran across the yard to the studio, and returned in a moment with a thin square package wrapped in brown paper. She handed it to Mandy. “It’s a painting I did of Noah,” she said simply. “It belongs with you.”
Mandy hesitated, and then took it carefully. She gazed upon the paper wrapping as though she could see through it, and gentle wonder touched her face. “I—thank you.” She looked up at Lindsay, and repeated, “Thank you.”
And Lindsay replied quietly, “Thank you.”
She looked at the other two, and seemed to want to say more. But in the end she simply got into Carrie’s car, and they drove away.
21
Mother’s Day
Two dozen baby chicks were finally transferred from their cozy quarters in the sunroom to the spacious accommodation of a brand-new chicken coop. On one of her increasingly frequent trips to the library, Lori had found plans for a regulation-size henhouse, complete with box nests and a door tall enough to allow for egg collection. Using scrap lumber and a roof made of tin, which they salvaged from the barn fire, it took the five of them less than two days to erect the structure and fence in the chicken yard.
Ida Mae, however, spent almost a week sanitizing the sunroom and fussing over the mess they had made.
Cici contracted with Deke Sanders, of Sanders Grading, Hauling, and Septic Repair, for a half day’s dozer work. Since he had worked most of the previous summer on their septic system and was a fellow member of the Methodist church, he was willing to wait for his payment. He pulled down the remains of the barn in a matter of a few hours, leaving the stone foundation ready for rebuilding.
Noah passed his tenth-grade placement test with a score that impressed even Lindsay. As a reward, and because he seemed so determined to do it, they all agreed to allow Noah to start his part-time job with Jonesie on Saturdays only. Lori, surprisingly enough, agreed to drive him back and forth. He talked a lot about Melanie, Jonesie’s fourteen-year-old daughter, who sometimes ran the cash register on Saturdays, and whenever he did, worry lines appeared between Lindsay’s brows. With his first paycheck he bought nails and hinges for the new barn.
Lori spent every spare moment either at the library or working on her computer with complicated graphics and spreadsheet programs. To Bridget’s delight she began to accumulate quite a collection of actual books, but whenever anyone tried to look at them she quickly hid the titles. Her research was not Lori’s only secret. Although it was obvious she was making considerable progress with the pool and fountain project, for the last couple of weeks she had erected an elaborate screen of beanpole stakes and old blankets around