Jane Smiley - Some Luck

Mrs. Frederick could move one of her arms a little bit, and that hand shook up and down almost all the time. She could turn her head, but her mouth stretched off to the left side, and though she opened it and closed it, only sounds came out, not words. Tears seemed to pour down her face. Minnie wiped them away with a handkerchief. Mr. Frederick stayed out in the barn, fixing things, or milking the cows, or getting ready for plowing and planting. Minnie said that he couldn’t stand to come in the house, and Mama said that of course he felt guilty about that, which made him stay away all the more.

Lillian did not tell anyone that she thought this was worse than Pearl Harbor, even Minnie — Minnie would have been dismayed to hear that. No one was dead, after all, buried at the bottom of the sea, no one wounded. Around Denby, all was still and cold, and peaceful. Sometimes, Minnie asked about Frank — she would plop down on the sofa after feeding her mother some oatmeal mush, or making sandwiches for Lois, or putting clothes through the wringer, and ask about Frankie. Since Frank had only written home twice, Lillian decided to make things up — he had a friend from Arkansas now, named Isaiah Furman, and they had to get up at 4:00 a.m. and tiptoe through the forests in long, silent lines, carrying packs that weighed eighty pounds, with their rifles above their heads. They had to shout “Hut two tree faw” and salute and wash their own underwear in buckets of water they got from the river, and they also had to eat and drink from their helmets. Minnie listened with interest and seemed to believe Lillian. Frank had written to say, “I got here. The trip wasn’t bad. The barracks are pretty primitive, but warmer than my tent, more later.” The second time, he wrote, “Don’t mind the drilling, it is easy. Lots of complainers around, though. I guess we are headed east. Will let you know, Love, your son, Frank.”

Lois stopped going to school altogether — there was too much to do around the house. Minnie gave her reading and writing to work on. Henry had to go with Lucy to the school on the other side of Denby. It was not far from Joey’s farm, so Joey drove them there every day in his new car. Since it was winter, Joey was not working in the fields, but he had decided to fix up Uncle Rolf’s old house and move in there. Uncle John and the new wife, Sheila, didn’t want that house — too small and primitive. It only had four rooms, but Joey said that was enough. He milked the six cows first thing, drove the kids to school, worked all day, fixing the roof and replacing the windows, until the kids were finished for the day, then drove home and milked the cows again.

Lillian was a very shallow person, because the thing that made her saddest of all was how the Fredericks’ house, which was still, underneath all the mess, the nicest house she had ever seen, was now a place that looked bad and smelled bad. Minnie could not keep ahead of the mess, because she would always have to stop and do something for Mrs. Frederick. She put some things away as best she could, but she washed the dishes in the sink as she needed them, and the same with the pots and pans. She herself did not seem to eat anything, only to drink tea (“My one luxury,” she said, with cream in it that she kept back from sending to Dan Crest). She was thin, and her hair was always hanging down in a tangle. She didn’t say much about it, but Lillian knew that she was up and down all night, because Lois told Lillian that Mrs. Frederick cried out a lot and someone had to get up and quiet her, and it wasn’t Mr. Frederick (“He’s never been a patient man,” said Mama). Anyway, when they discussed it over their knitting and sewing, Granny Mary, Granny Elizabeth, and Mama all agreed that the sorts of things that Minnie had to do were not a man’s work. Granny Mary said, “Nun, man weiß nie, was eine gute Sache ist und was nicht. Gott muss einen Plan haben.” Mama said, “But it’s not a plan I like very much.” Granny Mary said, “ Ja , well …,” and shrugged, then crossed herself. Then they talked about worse things that had happened to people over the years.

WALTER WASN’T QUITE SURE how to think of anything anymore. You didn’t think that war was good for anyone, and when you went to church, you prayed for soldiers in the army, and civilians in the battle zones, and the cities being bombed to smithereens, and yet in the fall he had made three times his income of the previous year, and he was supposed to give thanks for that — surely it was bad luck not to. And then there was Frank. Rosanna was livid about Frank’s quitting college two quarters before graduating (and with an A average) — he hadn’t been drafted by the lottery, so why not hope for the best? — but Walter thought Frank fit the army like “stink on shit,” as the expression had gone when he himself was in the army, and Walter hoped Frank got more out of the experience than he had. Didn’t he miss him? Well, what was there to miss? Ames or the Ozarks or North Carolina or Europe? For all they heard from him, it was about the same. And then there was Joe — Joe had gotten a 2-A farm deferment from the draft board, but maybe, for his own sake, he’d be better off in the army, seeing the world. However, there was plenty of work to do. As Walter sat with Claire on his knee, holding her hands in his and saying, “This is the way the lady rides, clop-clop-clop,” he sorted in his mind how many fields he, Joey, and John were going to have to plant this year. “This is the way the gentleman rides, trot-trot-trot.” Claire began to giggle. There was really no reason to plant much in the way of oats — only some for the family, the pigs, and the cows, one field — but that was a lot of work for some hay and grain. “And this is the way the …” He paused until Claire cried, “Farmer!”

“Yes! This is the way the farmer rides!” She rocked back and forth, laughing, and Walter laughed, too. She was three now, and this was her favorite game. The Fredericks had gotten rid of Lois’s old hobby horse, so often she sat astride that, held a curl in the wooden mane, and yelled with pleasure.

From the kitchen, Rosanna shouted, “You about ready for supper?”

Walter got up and carried Claire into the kitchen. Henry was setting the table, and Lillian was mashing potatoes. She poured in a little milk. Walter said, “What are we having?”

“Fricassee,” said Rosanna, “but no dumplings. You’ve had enough dumplings, and so have I. I’ve got new peas from the garden, though, and the last of the asparagus. And these are the last of the potatoes until the new potatoes are ready, so let’s enjoy them.”

“Always do,” said Walter.

He set Claire in her seat on her cushion, and Henry set the water pitcher on the table. The door opened, and Joe came in, stepping out of his boots as he did so. There was a blast of spring air through the doorway, right in Walter’s face, moist and fragrant of mud and manure as well as apple blossoms and new grass. Walter took a deep breath. When Joe sat down, he said, “So how many acres we got to plant this year?”

“Eighty for me, a hundred and forty for you, two hundred for Grandpa Otto, and I guess Grandpa Wilmer is putting a hundred and eighty in corn and letting ninety lie fallow. We can seed that with clover when we get the chance.” He paused and looked at Walter. “Mr. Frederick asked if we would plant his back fifty, along our fence line. He’s had it in oats, and he manured it a year and a half ago. It should produce pretty good.”

“Why doesn’t he plant it himself?”

“He doesn’t feel up to it.”

“We’ll see,” said Walter. “I’ll go talk to him about it. Six hundred and fifty acres is a lot. The tractor has thousands of hours on it now, and my father’s tractor is older than that.”