“Jinny, please get the food,” Wilma said, keeping her eyes on her daughter until the girl stood and went through the swinging door into the kitchen. Then Wilma turned to her youngest son. With effort, she kept her tone even. “Don’t be ridiculous, Harry. You’re only fourteen, not sixteen. Even if you were sixteen I’d hardly sign for you. I’m having a hard enough time thinking that Chase is old enough to go.”

“I’m eighteen, Mom,” Chase said.

“In the nick of time!” Jack said, grinning. They had just celebrated Chase’s birthday four days before.

“You were born prematurely,” Wilma snapped. “If you’d been born when you were supposed to have been, in May, you would still be seventeen, and we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”

“Mom, he’s plenty old enough,” Jack said. “Besides, isn’t it best we go together? If he’d been born in May, he’d just be going next month, that’s all. Or he’d be asking you to sign for him.”

“Well, he could at least wait until he graduates high school,” Wilma said. A flimsy argument, but her head ached and she could hardly think. She wanted simply to stand on her chair and scream bloody murder until they agreed not to leave her.

But then, looking at them, the square of their jaws, the glint in their matching eyes, she realized there was nothing she could say to Jack to change his mind. And unless he did, Chase was going to go, too.

John cleared his throat. “This is his chance to make history, not just learn about it.”

Wilma glared at him. “I suppose you’re all for their going!” she scoffed. “You men and your wars! Making history!”

“Mom!” shouted Jinny from the kitchen. “I can’t find the serving fork!”

As Wilma got up, John said, “It’s the way of the world, Wilma.”

She slammed open the swinging kitchen door with the flat of her hand. It was all she could do to keep from weeping.

Chapter 13

Homes should mean something to us humans. They are a basic instinct. A home, with a life that centers only on food and sleep, is not really a home, it’s a house. Beauty and graciousness, joy of living, being used in every part, these are the things that make a house a home.

—Popular Home Decoration, 1940

HOME OF MRS. CECILIA FRYT
412 W. First Street, Pine Rapids
Tuesday, July 18, 1950