Jane Smiley - Some Luck

It was so hard to go in. It was a small church — there were only two steps up to the porch, and the double doors were closed, which meant that the service had probably commenced. Besides hardly ever knowing what time it was, Rosanna always underestimated how long it would take to get ready and then go somewhere.

Walter said, “This is it, right?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, it says right here that it is.” He pointed to a small plaque beside the double doors.

“I’m sure we’re late.”

“Not that late. Maybe a minute or two late, if the service starts on the hour.” He and Frankie went up the two steps, and he put his hand on the door pull. Rosanna felt herself step back. It was like magic, like something about the church was pushing her away. The doors looked terribly closed and forbidding, and as hard as she had tried, the five of them looked like rubes, especially her, dowdy, and as homemade as cornmeal mush. She shook her head and said, “We’re too late.”

Walter muttered something that she couldn’t quite make out, but then she heard Frankie say “Damn it” and was sure he was echoing his father’s words.

She exclaimed, “Frankie! What a naughty thing!” Frankie looked up at Walter. Walter stayed still for a moment, then said, “Well, are we going in? We’re dressed to the eyeballs here.”

Rosanna felt as if something terrifying was about to happen, but she couldn’t imagine what — a warm Sunday morning on a quiet street in Usherton, hardly an automobile going by, the maples planted along the sidewalks just trembling slightly in the breeze, leaves rattling the way they did when they got a little dry. Rosanna removed her hand from Joey’s and lifted it toward her face; Joey grabbed her skirt. Was her fear zinging to him, or was his fear zinging to her? As a side thought, was this what Joey felt like all the time? That had never occurred to her before. She glanced down at him.

And then both of the doors flew open, and two men in nice clothes stepped out and wedged them. After that, the congregation started emerging in small groups. The first four or five people paused and waited, and then the pastor, Rosanna suspected, came, stood by the door, and held out his hand for people to shake as they wished him a good day. It was then that Lillian dropped her hand and climbed the steps, and the group of people stepped aside and made way for her. She held herself straight. One woman said, “Oh, isn’t she cute?” and a man said, “What’s your name, little girl?” and Lillian said, “I am Lillian, how are you?” Several people chuckled, and another woman said, “Lovely child,” and at that point, Walter stepped forward and held out his hand to the pastor. “Don’t mean to get in the way, sir. We were hoping to attend the service,” and that first lady said, “And a little child shall lead them,” and pretty soon, Walter had ascertained that the next service would begin in half an hour, and they were certainly welcome. Rosanna walked out of her fear as if it were a booth set beside the curb, and her skin tingled with pleasure as she followed Lillian and Walter up the steps.

A young man showed them to a pew about halfway down the aisle, and they sat there — even Frankie was quiet enough — looking around as the congregation entered for the next service. Rosanna had Lillian beside her, between herself and Walter, and Rosanna stared at her blond hair sparkling in the light that poured through the windows. It shook her a little — just a little — to have given birth to this being. She glanced at Walter. He was looking around as if he didn’t know what was happening. But Rosanna did know. She did know, even if she had to keep it to herself.

LILLIAN WAS SITTING in her very own chair, and her dolls were sitting in front of her. Each had a teacup, and two of them, Lolly and Lizzie, had saucers. Lillian gave Lolly a cookie in her saucer, and then gave Lizzie a cookie in her saucer. After pausing a moment, and saying, “Thank you, you’re welcome,” twice, Lillian picked up the two cookies and took a small bite out of each one. Then she set them down again and said, “Oh, deshilus thank you.” Now she picked up her teapot and very carefully poured make-believe tea into each teacup, one for Lolly, one for Lizzie, one for Mamie, one for Dula, one for Frances, and one for Jewel. Jewel and Mamie had tiny little hands, so she leaned forward and pushed one of their hands through the handles of the teacups in front of them. Jewel’s dangled, but Mamie held her cup pretty well. Lillian thought a moment, then said, “And how are you, I am fine. A pig got in the house, but then it jumped out the window!”

Lillian laughed.

Dula, who couldn’t sit up very well, fell over. Lillian sat her up again, propped against Lizzie, who was the biggest of the dolls and had shoes. As she propped Dula up, she said, “Don’t be sick, Dula.” She made a gagging noise and said, “Oh dear, oh dear, you will feel better in a minute.” She slid her toe out very slowly and gently knocked Dula over. She said, “Oh, Dula could be worse.” Then she leaned forward and picked the doll up and cradled her in her arms. She began to sing her a song—“Laalalala Babybaby.” Then she stood up and carried Dula over to the cradle, laid her in it, and covered her up.

She went back to the tea party and resumed her seat. She said, “More tea, oh, thank you, thank you. Have another cookie.” She leaned forward and took careful, small bites out of Lizzie’s cookie, then Lolly’s. “Mmmm, yes, thank you. You won’t believe what the pig did.”

ONE DAY in February, Irma and Ragnar asked to have three days off in a row. Rosanna suspected that something was up, but Irma was not showing, so the only thing she said to Walter was that she could manage — the cows weren’t producing much milk at this time of year, so making the butter wasn’t hard, and Joey could gather the eggs — he was good at it, and didn’t ever startle the hens. They left on a Wednesday and returned Saturday night, so that Walter and Rosanna would be free to go to church on Sunday. On Monday, Ragnar came to Walter and said that he had found a job at the veterinary school at Iowa State College, and he and Irma would be leaving in two weeks.

Walter attempted to conceal his irritation. Ragnar was — what? — thirty-two now, and his English was pretty good. Walter had gotten used to treating him like a relation, which meant giving him lots of work and little free time. Rosanna had been whispering for a year that Irma was unhappy on the farm, and so none of this was surprising. He said, “What’s your job?”

“Cleaning up the pens, for now.”

“You can do that here.”

“ Ja , but Irma, she got job, too. Cooking at the Delta Delta Delta house there. I will also be having gardening chores there.”

Walter said what he felt, which was “Sounds like the life of Riley.”

“Ja,” said Ragnar. He shrugged. Walter didn’t ask what he and Irma were going to be paid. It was certainly more than he paid them. Two weeks later, they were gone.

A week after that, it was time to plant the oats. Walter had burned off the cornstalks from that field, and disked in the nicely charred remains. His father had always said that if you could manage to burn over a cornfield once it was harvested and the stalks were dried up, the boost you got for the soil was a measurable one — the oats would be plumper, and there would be more of them — but burning over the field depended so on the weather that he couldn’t do it every year. This year the weather had been right, and so that forty acres was perfect — flat and smooth, with no ridges. He hitched Jake and Elsa to the end-gate seeder, and as he drove from fence to fence, Frankie fed the oat seed into the hopper. Frankie at nine was big and strong. They did it on a Saturday, March 2, just about perfect. Then Frankie hayed the horses all by himself, climbing up the ladder into the loft and forking down bunches of the still-golden stalks. On the way into the house for supper, Walter said, “You did a good job today, Frankie. It’s going to be more work now that Ragnar’s gone.”