“Ma insisted on having me bake, even in her condition.”
“Your Ma is a very sweet woman.” Rebekah slid her hand beneath the platter. “Here, let me help you.”
Her gaze fluttered back to meet his, where it lingered a moment. Again, her heart began to thunder.
“Mind if I come in and see Beanie?”
How impolite, Rebekah.
“Of course!” She stepped inside with the food. “How is your Ma feeling?”
Joseph held the door and doffed his hat. He nodded as he waded into the fray that was the Stoll household. “She’s feeling better. Pa is fixing her a special chair so she can sit at—” He paused before the other words spewed forth in a rush. “At the festival tonight.”
Rebekah studied him over her shoulder as she deposited the platter on the table.
Is he blushing?
He stopped beside the loveseat where Elnora still attempted to field questions from the boys. “Did I miss the measuring?”
Elnora shifted so Joseph could see the baby. His face softened at once. “He’s bigger than I thought last night.”
Samuel appeared from the kitchen, a length of rope in hand. “Every one of you little boys were measured against this rope at birth,” he announced as the din quieted. “Then, I hold the rope to the wall and mark the measurement.”
The twins looked at each other and nodded. “I never really thought he would get measured standing up,” one of them muttered. The voice was so low, it was impossible to tell which had spoken.
Rebekah hid her smile behind her hand at their enlightened expressions.
“Joseph?” Elnora’s voice was a little more than a whisper. “Would you like to hold Beanie?”
He nodded emphatically and handed his hat to Rebekah.
Elnora passed Beanie to Joseph and carefully straightened one chubby leg. Samuel pinched the end of the rope at Beanie’s head in one finger and measured him, crown to foot. As soon as Elnora released his leg, he curled it back against his body with a tiny sigh.
“Here, I’ll take him,” Rebekah whispered to Joseph’s shoulder.
Ever gentle, he placed the tiny boy into her arms. Their eyes locked. A sizzling heat, like bacon in a skillet, shinnied up Rebekah’s backbone.
She tore her gaze away from his and focused on her father as he finished placing Beanie’s mark on the wall. Still, her breathing refused to slow.
He spoke first. “Look at that! Already, he is taller than three of his brothers when they were born.”
Samuel let out a hoot. “He is a big strapping boy! What did you call him last night, Joseph?”
Joseph shifted a nub of grass from one side of his mouth to the other before he spoke. “Bull. Beanie Bull.”
“Ah yes, Beanie Bull,” he recited slowly and printed the letters on the doorframe.
Rebekah stepped over to the measuring wall. “Is he bigger than I was, Pa?”
She searched the wall, but her name wasn’t near the bottom like everyone else’s.
Samuel and Elnora exchanged a look.
“Well, is he?” The smile melted from her face with the silence.
Finally, Samuel spoke. “We didn’t start that tradition until Jeremiah was born.”
She squatted carefully and studied the wall. Sure enough, there was her first mark.
REBEKAH – AGED 7
“Oh, I see.” Her knotted brow eased. “Well, if we’re counting first marks, then I was taller than all of you.”
The choir of boys disagreed in a mishmash of tenors and basses.
Rebekah stepped to her father’s side. “Well, how big is this little hookin’ bull?”
Samuel waved his hands. A slow hush fell over his boys. Once they were quiet, Rebekah slipped Beanie into his arm. “The new baby is twenty-three inches long. And weighs…”
Joseph handed him a sack filled with potatoes. Samuel hefted Beanie in one arm and the sack in the other. “A little more than a ten-pound sack of potatoes! I’d say twelve pounds.”
Samuel stood, beaming, with his sack of spuds and his newborn babe. The little boys milled about before drifting en masse outdoors.
Elnora smiled and took a seat in the sitting room. “My, that was an event.” She motioned to Rebekah and Joseph. “Come, sit. Are you two excited for the festival tonight?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Joseph avoided Rebekah’s glance as he took the seat across from her mother. “My ma’s been baking since last night to prepare for it.”
Elnora eased back on the loveseat. “We’ve been soaking apples—”
Her tired eyes widened. “At least I hope somebody put the apples in to soak, because I honestly don’t remember doing it.”
Rebekah giggled. “Pa put them in to soak yesterday…I think.”
After sharing a laugh, a quick screech from Beanie brought Elnora to her feet. “Well, children, I believe Beanie and I better go nap before the festivities tonight.”
Joseph rose when she did.
The woman’s voice was tinted with exhaustion. “Won’t you bake the pies, Rebekah?”
“I will, Ma.”
After watching Elnora and Beanie retreat up the stairs, Joseph turned back to Rebekah. He plucked his hat from somewhere and danced from foot to foot.
She reached to scratch a rogue itch behind her ear.
I’ve never seen him so jittery.
A piece of newly cut hair brushed across her cheek. She froze.
