Tuesday, March 12, 2013

The Trek Back

They looked like a gang of Gypsies, moving in an irregular mass. Mother and Father, sisters Alma and Ida. Blick and her cat. The wheelbarrow with full baskets of lingonberries. It was uphill from the harbor 
to the wind milll. Less uphill to the edge of the village but  then flat over farmland all the way to Alrum. Father did the most difficult part of the trip. Others were taking short spells of pushing the wheelbarrow.

Father was panting and blowing air between his lips, long after reaching the edge of the village. Mother was insistent on not stopping and wasting time After getting home, water had to be collected for boiling the berries Fire had to be started. Supper would come after the berries were under control.

Blick was holding her cat in her apron. He seemed happy to be in such a familiar place. He had a strange collar made of sticks and yarn to keep him from licking his stitches at the end of his 2 cm. long tail. Blick wished she could stop to empty he left shoe. Sand or gravel had somehow filled the front of her inherited shoes. 

When they finally reached the school house, everybody was happy to see Ivar was home. He was the strongest of the family and there was a lot of lifting and carrying to be done.

Blick asked her mother if she could tape Topsy to her room and sing to her.

Mother said 'not yet'. first set the table and go to the cellar and get the bread, the milk, the cold cuts and 

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