Elnora’s chipper voice surprised her. “Well, there’s my best girl.”
Beanie lay in the cradle next to the bed, curled like a newborn pup.
“Ma, you look so well.” Rebekah couldn’t hide her astonishment. Her mother’s color had returned and, well, she simply beamed. She eased herself down at the foot of the bed. “You had me quite scared last night.”
Despite her forty years, Elnora looked girlish when she smiled. “It’s a miracle that you were able to turn your brother.”
Her mother shifted her gaze to the sleeping baby. He sighed in his sleep.
Rebekah peered into to the cradle. With one finger, she traced his velvety cheek. He suckled without waking. “Ma, does he look a little yellow?”
“All the boys were yellow, each one a little more than the last. Remember?”
She searched back through her memory. There were very few that didn’t contain Joseph in some aspect. Finally, her mind grabbed on to a memory. “Yes, I do remember. We sit them in the window, right?”
Elnora nodded. “In the winter, we put them in the window. Now, we can take him outside. As long as put him into the sunlight often.”
“Yes, ma’am. It has been warm for some time now, so I guess we will go outside.”
“Your father thinks it will be a mild rest of the season, but I don’t think so. I have seen this early warm weather before.” Elnora turned her attention to her daughter. After a brief silence, she rose from her bed. “I saw this weather in Germany. I think a change is coming.”
Rebekah studied the worried creases across her mother’s brow. She had always thought that weather was just that. Weather, plain and simple. They dealt with it accordingly as it came. Cold fingers of fear squeezed her stomach as she watched her mother worry over it so. After all, it was March. Winter was over.
Snapping out of her trance, Elnora gestured to the cradle. “Help your ma push him to the window.”
Carefully so as not to wake him, Rebekah helped Elnora situate Beanie in a growing patch of sunlight. With gentle fingers, Elnora peeled back the tiny quilt swatch Joseph brought her the night before. “My quilt is far from done, but it certainly is serving an amazing purpose now, Ma.”
Elnora covered her daughter’s hand with hers. “It’s perfect, my darling. Now…” She stepped back to her bed. Easing down again, she gestured to the door. It appeared to Rebekah that the words simply weren’t forming as quickly as Elnora would have liked them to. It was the same after every birth.
“Do bring the shears, please.”
Rebekah’s hands flew on their own to her singed mane. She groaned. “Oh, Mother, must we cut it all off?”
Elnora’s eyes sparkled. “I’ll cut it to look just like Joseph’s. After all, isn’t he taking you to the Spring Festival tonight?”
Rebekah’s stomach lurched. “The festival. It’s tonight?”
“It is. Now fetch those shears so we can get you ready.” Her mother’s smile was a tired one. “And we need to introduce Beanie to everyone, don’t you think?”
***
Elnora made short work of Rebekah’s haircut. Actually, she made her hair short. After trimming off the mass of melted mane, that which remained danced about her shoulders, light and free. Still, it felt awkward.
Elnora laid the shears on her bedside table. “I believe your green dress will do for tonight, don’t you agree, Rebekah?”
She hung her head.
“Come child, what’s wrong?” Her mother’s hand was light on Rebekah’s back.
She sniffled as the unwelcome tears wet her cheeks. “Oh, Mother!”
She turned and buried her face in Elnora’s shoulder. “I know I am not supposed to think about how I look, but I can’t help it.”
Her words came in broken sobs. “My hair is the only thing in the whole village that is different from everybody else. I don’t want to look English.”
Elnora ran her fingers through the newly-cut hair. “Oh, sweet Rebekah. The Lord doesn’t want us to obsess over our appearance, for to Him, we are all his beautiful children. Let me tell you a secret.”
Rebekah raised her face and sniffled again. A wisp of blonde fell across her cheek.
“When the Lord made you, he made you beautiful. You’re beautiful because you’re filled with His love. Nothing on the outside will ever change that.” She tucked the stray piece behind Rebekah’s ear. “Just between us, I think your hair looks lovely.”
Finally, an ounce of gladness crept into her mind. “Thank you, Ma. I just felt so…so…” Her search for the proper word was fruitless, so Rebekah simply shrugged. “I wish I didn’t even care about my hair in the first place.”
“It was a shock, darling, that’s all. You’re still my best girl. Now run along so I can get Beanie ready so your father can measure him.” She smiled a sweet smile. “See you downstairs, daughter.”
Everyone was already downstairs by the time Rebekah, dressed in her favorite green dress, joined them. Her throng of brothers alternated between picking at a loaf of bread and fawning over Beanie, who celebrated the grand meeting by sleeping through it.
Elnora glowed as she and Samuel sat on the loveseat and readied themselves for every question the boys were quivering to fling their way.
“Is this what was going on in the hall last night?”
Elnora started to answer, only to be cut off by another boy.
“How long is he?”
“We’re about—” Samuel started, only to be interrupted by yet another boy.
“How will you measure him if he can’t stand up yet?”
Elnora glanced at her husband and opened her mouth.
“I’ll stretch out his legs and you can hold him up.”
“No, I’ll stretch out his legs and you can hold him.”
“How much does he weigh?”
“How much did I weigh?”
Rebekah raised her eyebrows as the questions flew around the sitting room. Her parents didn’t seem bothered, though. A knock on their still-closed door drew her attention away from the question-and-question, as opposed to question-and-answer, session.
“I’ll get it,” she volunteered. Of course, nobody heard her.
Rebekah pulled the door open. Her smile found its usual place as Joseph came into view. “Good morning.”
He looked pointedly at his arms, which held an overflowing platter, then back at Rebekah. “I have some food here.”
The scent of cinnamon hung thickly on the porch. “I would say you have all the food here.”
