Sophie's Dilemma by Lauraine Snelling

Author:Lauraine Snelling
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2007-06-30T22:00:00+00:00

Sophie woke to a quiet house and an empty bed. How had they all gotten off to school and she had never heard a peep? She turned over cautiously and waited. Amazingly, she felt well, so she sat up and wrapped the quilt around her. The grate in the hall brought up warm air from the furnace that roared in the cellar. Far and Haakan had put coal-burning furnaces in each of the houses the year before, so they no longer dressed by the stove in the kitchen. Even so, there was frost on the inside of the window. The sun set the ice fronds to glittering. Sun when she woke up in the morning. Now having it back, she realized how much she had missed that in Seattle. When the sun shone there, it had to be the most beautiful place on all the earth, but the gray days far outnumbered the sunny ones, and rarely had she awoken to sun pouring in her window.

She chose a looser fitting dress that she could button the back by herself and, after brushing her hair, made her way downstairs. Her mother and Ilse would be in the classroom teaching the new students to sign, along with reading and writing. Few had had any schooling before coming to the deaf school, and the first year here was mostly catch-up classes for them so they could soon attend the regular school, where all the students and teachers signed right along with regular speech.

She cut herself a couple slices of bread and toasted them on the rack over the open flame of the kitchen stove. A pleasant aroma came from some kind of stew cooking in the oven for the noon meal. For a change, the smell didn’t make her feel sick, a regular occurrence in Seattle. Why did she feel so much better today? The toast, along with cheese cut off the small round under the clear glass dome, and a dish of applesauce made a fine breakfast. And the sun shining on her shoulder as she sat in her mother’s rocker made it all complete. Contentment. What a good feeling.

If only Hamre . . . The thought slapped contentment like a cat on a mouse. Tears trickled down her cheeks. So many what ifs and might have beens. If only she had kissed him good-bye. Instead, she had acted like a small child, stamping her foot for not getting her own way. How . . . how could I have acted so? I knew he had to leave. He’d told me over and over. He was a fisherman at heart and never as happy as he was on a boat on the sea. I knew that.

The tears poured harder. She leaned her head against the back of the rocker and let the sobs take over.

‘‘Ah, dear heart.’’ Her mother’s voice came softly, as gentle as the hand on her head.

‘‘Oh, Mor, I cannot tell you how terrible I acted. You would be so ashamed of me.

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