Free Dorothy Garlock by Restless Wind Page B

Pa?” she called.
    “How’d I know?” Grant had been surly for several days. Periodically, he went through days of depression when he felt useless and helpless. He sat on the step and whittled on a long stick.
    “It’s time for nooning,” Rosalee said as she approached him. “Shall I bring yours out here?”
    “Suit yourself.”
    The inside of the cabin was dim and cool compared to bright sunlight. Rosalee glanced quickly around for her sister. Odell, lost in thought, sat in Grant’s chair.
    “What are you doing in here when it’s so nice outside?”
    “I hate it here, Rosalee,” Odell blurted. “Pa’s a grouch and there’s nothin’ to do.” Her pixie face puckered as if she would cry.
    “Pa will get over it, honey. In a day or two he’ll be chipper as ever. And as far as something to do . . . the clothes are dry. You can bring them in while I fix up a bite to eat.”
    “All you ever do is . . . work! I hate it here. I’m going to live in a town when I grow up! And I’m going to have books, a pretty dress, and real shoes.” She covered her eyes with her hands and began to sob.
    “Oh, honey!” Rosalee lifted her out of the chair and sat down again with the child on her lap. She hugged her and pushed the hair back from her tear-wet face. She understood her feeling of loneliness and despair and longed, with all her heart, to make life more enjoyable for this little girl who was more like her child than her sister.
    “I know how you feel, honey, really I do. I would like all those things, too. But we can’t have them. We’ve got Pa to take care of. Mama would want us to take care of him and try to make him happy. Think how he must feel, being blind and having to depend on us. You’re his only joy in life now. When he’s going through these bad times we’ve got to be patient with him.”
    “He . . . told me to go away ’n stop yappin’ at him.”
    “I’m sure he didn’t mean it. He probably had a lot of thinking to do.”
    “And he said he’d be better off dead than the way he is.”
    “He didn’t mean that, either. What would we do without Pa to tell us stories in the wintertime?”
    “I’ve heard ’em all.”
    “So have I, but I like to hear them again.”
    “He’ll get all riled up when Mr. Horn comes back to get his horses. He said he wasn’t havin’ no damn half-breed ahangin’ ’round here.” Large blue eyes looked at Rosalee, and when tears appeared she tried to blink them away.
    “Maybe he’d like Mr. Horn if he talked to him,” Rosalee said patiently, though she knew it wasn’t true. Her father was so like so many others who’d never stop to consider that this land had belonged to the Indians and that they were the intruders.
    Odell lifted the hem of her dress and wiped her eyes. Rosalee felt the tears rising in her own throat. She hadn’t realized the depth of her little sister’s loneliness or the intense feeling of rejection the child suffered at the hands of their blind father when he was in one of his black moods.
    “Do you know what we’re going to do?” Rosalee said lightly and happily. “When we finish the washing, we’ll play a game of hide-and-seek. Then tonight we’ll cut a body for your doll out of the scraps of Ben’s deerskin. Pa made such a beautiful doll head, it’s a shame she doesn’t have a body.”
    “Oh, Rosalee! Could we?”
    “Of course we can. And I’ve been thinking about something else, too. When Ben goes over to the Haywards’ you can go along with him and stay a few days. Mrs. Hayward said you were welcome anytime. She said one more youngun among her five would he no trouble at all. You can play with Sudie May and Polly. By then we’ll have your doll ready and maybe even a dress for her.”
    “How’ll you get ’round Pa? He won’t want me to go.”
    “I’ll talk him into it.”
    Odell’s face brightened and an infectious smile shifted the lines of her mouth upward. “Oh, golly! Oh, golly! I love you, Rosalee.”