The day after/

It had been a long day, yesterday. Blick was so tired she wanted to sit right down on the kitchen floor and cry. She was smart enough to know that would never work. She also knew the whole family was as tired as she was. There would be trouble around the corner. Were could she go to be out of the way? She had no room of her own, there were only two bedrooms in the Schoolhouse.

Blick went out in the kitchen, found her mother and asked her if she could hide somewhere and get some sleep. Don't you want to eat supper first? No , I can't eat. I know I will get in some kind of trouble if I am around. Tell people if they ask that I am around. I won't leave the school property.

Blick found her cat and walked as far away from the kitchen a d the laundry area where the lingon berries would be prepared. She clutched the cat to her and they went to the Northern most corner of the school playground. There, by moving a bench she knew she could escape discovery. It was late enough to give her a safe place to hide. She held her cat so close she could feel the little heart beat against her own heart and soon they were sound asleep. She was told the next morning that she did not wake up after midnight when her father carried he into the bedroom where she shared the bed with two of her sisters.

Next morning it was still dark when Blick woke up. She went into the kitchen where her mother was boiling the oatmeal and brewing the coffee. What can I do to help. First you have to eat. Because you missed supper, you have to eat a hearty breakfast. A bowl of oatmeal with apple sauce and milk and a slice of the bread I baked yesterday before news of lingon berries. Then you can help clean up after last nights production. Blick sat down in her chair, enjoying the aromas filling her nose. The bread was sliced and put on the table and Blick could not tell which she liked better, the smell of the fresh bread or the opened can of apple sauce. Her mother said, do you remember the day you sat in that same chair and pealed and quartered the apples you are now going to eat on your oatmeal. Blick shivered slightly as she remembered the fall day when the first snow of the season had fallen. The smell of the apples with cinnamon and brown sugar made her feel very hungry.

Have you fed your cat this morning. And given him fresh water. No, he is still asleep.