Amelia wrote Helga in late August that they had a bumper cotton crop. She described Ella’s new house and how the neighbors had built it on the ashes of her parents’ home.
I think they were happy to cover the evidence of what had gone on at that place. All the co-op families took house warming gifts. Made the girl cry. Al and I think Ella is holding back tears every day. Besides losing Ezra and Mama Zoé, Toby expects his sweetheart from Boston to arrive toward the end of August.
Caroline isn’t selling her family home in Boston. We think it may be a sign she’s not sure about living down here. Or, she may be planning on taking Toby back to Boston.
He needs a side business for income. He can’t survive by selling the produce and chickens his patients give him. I look back now and realize how much I helped by operating Dr. Stein’s mercantile store. That’s where we started making money before he invested in Indianola’s real estate.
Amelia read over her letter. At least she shared a few problems. No longer painted Washington County as a complete Utopia.
As usual, it was well after dark when Al returned from Brenham. During cotton-picking, he made it a practice to see that all the boys who were driving the other teams reached home safely. Amelia carried a lantern to the barn and helped him tend to the mules. He leaned on her as they walked back toward the house. “Toby got a letter today. From the little he shared, I think Caroline’s been insisting he come back to Boston. When he made it clear he wanted, or needed, to stay here, she balked.”
“How’s he taking it?”
“He’s not about to let me know how he feels. Sounds like they’ve kept the mail hot between them. Seems one of his classmates has established a thriving practice in Cambridge.”
Amelia’s chest ached as she imagined Toby’s crushing disappointment. “So, she’s comparing him to someone else?”
“I think the other guy’s won.”
Al spread the word to all the co-op families that he and Amelia would host a Thanksgiving celebration. “This year’s been hell on Hébert and Ella and Regina. Feels like they need everybody to gather for a good time.”
Amelia felt like a sponge drawing energy from Al’s buoyant enthusiasm. He and Mundy hunted until they found a huge turkey hen and butchered a calf. Despite the unusually warm weather that turned her kitchen into an oven, she thought of the days in Germany when she and Helga sang Der Lindenbaum while they glazed lebkuchens. Her cookies had become a holiday tradition, and she loved seeing how quickly they disappeared.
Al rose early Thanksgiving morning to help Mundy get the meat started before he took the wagon into Brenham to bring everyone for an overnight visit. He returned from the pit laughing. “Hébert’s already there. Had the fire going. Mundy and I gave up trying to do anything for him.”
Al had been gone for several hours, and Amelia had pulled the last of the bread out of the oven when Toby stepped in the back door, smiling like a guilty child. “Sorry if I startled you.”
She wiped her hands on her apron and threw her arms around him. “How did you get here so fast?”
“I came ahead.” He shrugged. “Wally hovers like I might break, and Cora hounds me with questions.” He looked at her, shaking his head. “And Pop...?”
Afraid she might cry, Amelia nodded and motioned him to the table while she poured coffee and set out a plate of lebkuchens.
“Last night I got it through my thick skull that Caroline wouldn’t have fit here. I remembered how she looked that day I left for home. As the train pulled out of the station, I watched her standing on the platform staring off down the track. Except for her black skin, every stitch of her clothing, her hat, her gloves, and even the way she held her head so high––reminded me of those women on Beacon Hill waiting for their driver to open the carriage door. She would have hated it here––the slurs, having to prove herself to every patient. When I wrote to her about things that happened, she’d write back saying I was crazy to put up with it, that I deserved respect.”
Amelia wanted to side with Caroline. He did deserve respect. But she held her tongue and let him pour out the pain that gnawed at him.
He stared into his coffee cup. “When I wrote about being paid in chickens, she said I didn’t have good business sense.” Toby looked up and half smiled. “She went into a raving fury when I admitted getting a hog for amputating a man’s leg.”
Amelia pushed away the desire to say Caroline sounded like a spoiled child.
Toby began to nibble and then to eat one cookie after another. “If it weren’t for Pop letting me use the rooms over the store, I couldn’t make it. But when I told Caroline I’m needed here, that I have patients who depend on me––like the Kaspar girl. She’s going to have a baby, and she’s way too young and too small.” Toby looked at Amelia like a man begging for his life. “Caroline wrote that I could find lots of Winnie Kaspars in Boston. And they’d pay good money for me to come in any weather.”
Toby reached for the cookie tin sitting on the cupboard. “Even Violet’s sugar cookies weren’t this good.” He slumped back onto the bench, shook his sweat-soaked collar. “I can only imagine how she would hate this heat. Boston has heavenly fall weather.”
Al’s wagon rattled into the front drive, and Toby sighed. “Sounds like my nursemaids have arrived.” He pulled Amelia into a hug. “Thanks for letting me blow off steam.”
When Ella climbed down from the wagon, her bonnet slipped off, revealing hair pulled back smooth. Amelia stared at the beauty chiseled in a face that had lost its little-girl roundness.
After he told several people that the elusive Caroline would not be coming to Brenham, Toby figured the word had spread because they stopped asking about her. He relaxed and enjoyed being among folks who loved him. By the time they gathered to eat, he’d joined in the jokes and the old ways––arguing politics––who to support at the nominating convention. Several of the boys who would graduate in spring from Miss Regina’s school mentioned the lynchings over in Brazos and Robertson counties. They argued about asking Stephen Hackworth for credit to buy land. Others whispered ways to convince their parents that the H&TC Railroad offered the route to success in Kansas. Toby looked at the tables of chattering families and wondered how they would survive when all the strong young men moved away.
Ella interrupted his thoughts with a tray of cakes and coffee. Like everyone at the table, he dove into a slice of Cora’s cake. During the lull, a boy at the end of the table called out, “Hey, Tob, you’re not getting first dibs on Ella for much longer.”
Toby lifted his head in surprise and saw the pained expression in Ella’s eyes, her empty tray held across her breast as if covering herself. Then she whirled and headed back toward the house.
“Come on, Tob,” Al’s called. “We’ve got a gaggle of kids waiting to ride Prancer and Sunshine.”
Toby’s neck and ears blazed. He stared after Ella, then dropped his eyes feeling like a voyeur, caught in the act. He climbed off the bench and followed Al to the stable.
For the rest of the afternoon, Al and Toby led the horses up and down the road for the younger children and then supervised races for the older kids. When the sun slipped below the treetops, the slow departure began. The guarded comments about the emptiness left by Mama Zoé and Ezra came more easily as night cast shadows on all the faces.
When the last of the crowd drifted away, Amelia met Ella coming out the back door with a lamp in her hand. “I want to sleep at Mama’s tonight. I’ll be up early to ride back with Mister Al.”
“Come for breakfast. There won’t be a bite of food in that house.” Amelia watched the young woman––moving as gracefully as Mama Zoé––disappear, the faint glow of her lamp swallowed by the darkness.
Cora and Wally had already gone upstairs to bed when Toby came in. He started out of the kitchen, then turned to Al. “Thanks for coming to my rescue. I was struck dumb by that poor bastard blurting about Ella.”
“There’re several men around here who have their eye on her.”
Toby blew a silent whistle. “Working next door to each other, we get along great because she’s so smart and hardworking.” He shrugged. “It hit me today that she’s really beautiful. I guess she grew up while I’ve been gone.”
“Yep, boy. She’s grown up.” Al looked at Amelia. “You ready for bed? Morning will be here early.”
“Don’t count on me for breakfast.” Toby started upstairs. I’m going to sleep a little and head back.”
It felt like she had barely stretched out when she heard the creak of the stairs. Toby was feeling his way down in the dark.
She slipped on her robe and carried a lamp to the kitchen. “You need breakfast before you go,” she whispered.
“Just a slug of coffee. Hear that wind? Sounds like we’re about to get our first norther.” Toby sat on the end of the bench and pulled on the boots he had carried downstairs under his arm.
While they sipped coffee, they heard Al’s prosthesis squeaking “Why didn’t you get me up?”
“You got here just in time to say good-bye. I’ve got patients to see before I go to the office.” Toby patted Al’s shoulder and then wrapped his arms around Amelia. “Thanks for listening to me.”
“You make me feel like a real mother.” Suddenly wanting to cry, she turned to busy herself at the stove.
They watched Toby ride into the darkness, and Al slumped against her. “I wish I could comfort him. Make losing Caroline easier on him. There would’ve been a half-dozen girls to make him a good wife if he hadn’t gone off on this missionary quest.”
Amelia thought she might explode. “Why would he want your comfort? You don’t mean it. You want him to be an important white doctor. Your son is a Negro, Al Waters.” She pulled away from his out-stretched hand and hurried upstairs to dress.