 | © Copyright 2006 by More Than Novellas |
Part II
Elizabeth Delayne
July 29, 2006
lizdelayne@hotmail.com
Before she’d moved into town to help Oma, it had been Fritz who chopped Oma’s wood. He got into the habit of talking to her grandmother over a cup of tea. Having cared for her ill husband for several long months, and losing him in the depths of winter, Lena’s grandmother came to lean on and trust Fritz. Their talks over tea were a soothing balm to her weeping heart.
Soon after she moved into town, it was Lena he talked to—and she wanted to believe that he was looking at her with a special gleam in his eyes. He came every other night at first, with stories and laughter. Even on Sundays at church, when Lena found time to be with her immediate family, he would always take a little time with her.
Or maybe it had been her imagination. She’d missed her brothers and sister, the noise and the normal day to day crowded routine. She loved Oma, but she longed for the daily presence of her mother. They were quite close, and being in town, away from her mother, was a little harder than either had anticipated.
Maybe she’d imagined Fritz’s attention because she’d wanted it so badly. She’d thought him to be her friend, at least. She’d thought him honest and strong, gallant even—like the knight from Camelot. She’d begun to secretly wish and hope.
However, the town was growing an Fritz’s father was depending on him. He seemed to be busier and busier, coming by less with each passing week. Soon, it was Lena who chopped the wood, and only Lena who brought Oma stories that she heard around town.
Still ... Lena had hoped ... and Oma always believed the best of him.
But, Dante Freiderick ... her *dear* Fritz ... wasn’t only busy with his father’s business. It wasn’t just the money that had destroyed her trust in him.
He’d been courting the banker’s daughter. They’d gotten engaged, became a fixture in town ...
And nothing had been right in Lena’s heart since ....
Laurie Baker
August 11, 2006
baker_grad@yahoo.com
"Is he coming vet, my Lena?"
Lena realized she was staring out the front window again. "Who is coming, Oma?" she asked in a bland tone.
Oma only laughed. She continued to stir the pot on the wood burning stove.
Lena sighed. She recognized the smell now.
Sarah
August 16, 06
baughmanks@gmail.com
Frederick walked along the wooden walkway, doing his best to stay afoot with the strong winds.
Chancing a glance up to gauge how far until he reached the small dress shop where Lena and her Oma waited for him, he saw a small crowd gathered in front of the shop. Smoke poured from the small windows. Wind or not, he broke into a run.
"What is going on?" he panted when he reached a man on the outskirts of the crowd.
"Frau Kreiger's shop is on fire."
Freiderick wanted to shout "I know that, you fool. What of my love?" but instead opted for an urgent "Lena and Greta Kreiger are fine?"
With a scowl and shrug of his shoulders, the man said, "We dunno. Haven't seen any sign of them."
Laurie Baker
August 19, 2006
baker_grad@yahoo.com
Lena stared at the smoke. She felt the fear ripple against her heart. Oma's business ...
She held onto her grandmother's frail hand as they stood helpless in the back. "Oh, Oma ..."
Her grandmother was muttering a prayer in her native language. She spoke softly and quickly. Lena knew the language, but she could not keep up.
Lena could only think of the beautiful fabrics and the dresses that her grandmother had sewn. She'd only had the new Singer sewing machine for a few months. It had taken them years to save up the money. Her grandmother was just beginning to get used to the machine.
Lena felt her heart race as she studied the smoke. The fire had not yet reached the back of the building. People were fighting the fire from the front.
Surely she would have enough time to get in and save the sewing machine. She released Oma's hand.
And ran through the back. Her grandmother's voice was barely heard against the thud of her heart.
Elizabeth Delayne
August 21, 2006
lizdelayne@hotmail.com
The smoke was bad. Her eyes hurt painfully. The sewing machine was heavy, and made so much more dificult because she had to hold it with gathered cloth. The heat had seeped into the metal, made it unbareable to the touch. Lena pulled again. The legs scraped the floor. She was almost to the door.
She coughed, her lungs heavy, her mind swirling.
Just a few more feet ... but it seemed so far.
Then he felt the hands on her upper arms. She was yanked back, thrust toward the door.
"Go!"
She looked back at Freiderick even as she stumbled out the door. The air hit her like a firce slp and her lungs rejected it. She racked with coughing.
Someone lifted her, carried her back, away, but she couldn't help but look ... wait. Her eyes burned. It seemed like so long. Where was he?
Freiderick emerged, the machine crashed into the dirt as if he'd thorwn in. He fell to his knees, coughing.
She pushed up, away from the person who'd helped her and she knelt shakilly at Freiderick's side.
"Freiderick--"
His breath came out it painful gasps. He wouldn't look at her.
Then she saw it, his hands, the skin peeled back from the flesh ... from his palms.
She reached out to touch, but didn't. She didn't want to hurt him.
"You're hands ..." she murmured as his gaze slowly raised to meet her own. His look was pained. And blank.
She reached out to touch him, but he pushed up and walked away.
She watched him leave as her grandmother's shop tumbled into the fire.
Oma came and sat beside her, when it should have been her comforting her grandmother. She leaned against Oma's shoulder and wept. The sewing machine was saved, but at what cost? It didn't even matter now.
"Oh, Oma. His hands."
And it was all her fault.
Sarah
September 10, 06
baughmanks@gmail.com
Mrs. Reiner came and helped Lena's Oma to her feet. "You und Lena will stay mit me tonight."
Lena sighed and gathered her skirts around her as she stood.
"Oma, I will meet you at Frau Reiner's home. First, I must go thank Fritz." As she turned to go, Lena missed the knowing glint in her Oma's eye.
Lena strode purposefully across the street and down a few doors to Dr. Schmitt's office. It was a small building -- sturdy, if in need of a new coat of paint. Of course, with the snow still falling thickly and the wind blowing harshly, Lena only knew this from memory. Turning the knob with her mittened hand, she blew in the door with the wind and a cloud of snow.
Freiderick turned toward the door just as Dr. Schmitt finished tying off the bandage on his left hand.
"Lena! You should be resting. Didn't Frau Reiner come to take you and your Oma to her home?" He tried to ignore the pain on his right palm as the doctor began to clean the blisters. When he lifted a flap of skin on Freiderick's hand, though, he could not withhold a brief cry of pain.
"Oh Fritz, I'm so sorry!" Lena cried as she rushed up to him. Cupping his face in her still-mittened hands, her tearful eyes gazed into his. "Can you ever forgive me?"
Sarah
September 28, 06
baughmanks@gmail.com
"Of course I will forgive you," Fritz said. He took a deep breath. "Will you marry me?"
Lena felt the earth shift below her feet. At the very least, that is what it seemed to do. She reached out to grab something, anything, to steady herself. Seeing Fritz wince, she looked down, only to gasp in horror at what she had done.
"My hand will be fine," Fritz assured her, moving her hand from his own hand to his arm, where no burns were.
Lena felt tears well in her eyes. How could she refuse him, after what he had just done for her, the great sacrifice he had made for her Oma? But then, how could she marry him after he had been engaged to that uppity Miss Goebles? Word around town ranged from Fritz breaking off the engagement because he could not fight the true love he had for Lena, to Miss Goebles dismissing him when one of her father's associates from Boston showed an interest in her. Lena had no way to know. What Fritz still pining after Miss Goebles and only settling for her in order to ease his loneliness, or did he truly love her?
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