Free The Fulfillment by Lavyrle Spencer

come home with Aaron for breakfast last Sunday, as usual. He’d also noted that Aaron hadn’t been down the hill to herhouse for over a week. He guessed something was amiss.
    But Aaron only answered, “I reckon so,” and stooped to pick up another stone. “It’ll do us all good to get away for a while.”
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    Abiding by local custom, Mary baked a cake to offer on this first visit to a family with a new baby. Also following local custom, Clem Volence went down to his cellar and brought up a quart of golden, homemade dandelion wine to treat the visitors. Between the cake and wine, the children, and the babble of excitement over the unexpected call, the coolness between Aaron and Pris went quite unnoticed. Newt monopolized Aaron’s lap once they were seated around the kitchen table. The child’s nonstop chatter was welcome, for it filled the chasm that gaped between Aaron and Pris whenever their eyes met. She had greeted him with a civil hello but made sure when they were all seated that her chair wasn’t next to his. Mary caught Priscilla’s quick retreat from Aaron’s gaze and looked for some sign of reconciliation between the two of them, aware of its importance to her.
    The baby was awake, and Cora brought him into the kitchen, taking him straight to Mary with great sisterly pride.
    â€œYou wanna hold him, Mary?”
    Cora bent near Mary’s shoulder to show off the prize.
    â€œI’d love to if it’s all right with your mama.”
    â€œâ€™Course it is,” Agnes assured her with a laugh. “By the time you have your fifth one,you’re just too glad to have someone else do the holding for a change,” she added.
    The warm shape felt foreign. The baby was quiet, though awake.
    â€œWhat’s his name?” she asked.
    â€œJames,” Newt said importantly, “but we’re gonna call him Jimmy while he’s little.”
    The baby’s eyelids were nearly transparent, and he had no brows at all. There were tiny white newborn dots on his nose, and his mouth with its slightly swollen upper lip sometimes sucked at nothing.
    â€œAin’t he cute?” Newt asked, and though she wasn’t too sure about it, Mary answered, “He’s plumb beautiful, Newt. Anyone can see that.”
    She hadn’t any of the knack for talking inanities to an infant and would have felt foolish trying it in front of all these people. But the longer she held Jimmy, the nicer he felt. He was a good size in her arm, and the little lumps and bumps of his tiny body kind of fit as they lay against her. He had an uncommonly good smell about him, not unlike the barn cats after they had drunk fresh milk. He moved his feet inside the blankets, and the little movement felt right against her stomach. Sometimes the tip of his tongue peeked through rosy lips, and she marveled at the smallness of it, just as she did at his tiny fingernails and earlobes.
    As always, the men were talking weather, crops, and planting—always foremost in their minds at this time of year. The remainder of April and May would be spent putting the crops in, the last of May always an unspoken deadline they aimed for.
    â€œI don’t know if I’ll be done by the end of May this year,” Jonathan said, “but if I’m not, Mary said she’d give Aaron a hand getting in the last of the seed corn. I’m taking the train down to Minneapolis in the last part of May, to the Cattle Exposition.”
    Mary looked up. With a sudden shock she realized what he was talking about. The Cattle Exposition…the Black Angus…but it was long ago when they’d talked about it. She hadn’t given it a thought for some time. Now she felt a tremor run through her.
    He meant to leave her and Aaron alone. Why hadn’t Jonathan said anything more about this to her? Why was he telling everyone here about his plans to make the trip, sealing them with finality by doing