Summer Promise by Marianne Ellis

Author:Marianne Ellis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2013-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

Nine

The days that followed were some of the most beautiful Miriam could ever remember. Summer was in full swing now with July rolling to a close. The days were lush and warm. Miriam could see summer’s promise being fulfilled in every direction. Corn stood high in the fields, the tall green stalks swaying with the breeze, their tasseled heads glinting in the sunshine. New-mown hay ripened in fat, round rolls. The rosebushes Miriam grew for the hips they would create in the autumn were a fluttering mass of pink and white blossoms as they formed one long border of her kitchen garden. The scent of the flowers was so potent, Miriam could smell it even when she was indoors.

And as for the farm stand, it bustled. That was really the only way to describe it, Miriam thought as she threw open the front doors. She had walked down to the stand earlier than usual this morning, eager to have a few moments alone. Were there more tourists than usual on the road this year? Were the harvests particularly fine so that everyone had more to bring her than usual? Or were her friends and neighbors taking extra care to support the Stony Field Farm Stand now that Miriam’s father was gone? Miriam genuinely did not know. All she knew was that, between running the farm stand and running the house, Miriam was busy from morning ’til night.

She had never in her life been so grateful for hard work. There were days when it seemed to Miriam that the tasks that made up her day-to-day life were the only things she truly understood anymore. The only moments when she felt she knew the way the world worked, when she could clearly see her own place in it, when she understood who she herself was.

Miriam knew how to iron her kapps so that the pleats stayed stiff and neat. She knew just how long the bread should rise. She knew so many different ways to put up fruits, vegetables, and meats that she had long since ceased to count them all. In the days that had followed the encounter with Sarah and Daniel in the yard outside the barn, Miriam immersed herself in the day-to-day tasks that kept her so busy. She had always found pleasure in even the simplest of them, but now it seemed to her that those tasks kept her safe as well.

They were her protection against the pain that seemed to dog her every step, overtaking her the moment she stopped moving, snatching at whatever peace of mind she had won. Her chores were her shield against the dizziness that would appear from out of nowhere, so sudden and powerful that Miriam would have to stop whatever she was doing and sit down.

Never had she felt as alone as she did in those moments, so weak, so unlike herself. The space between her and Daniel yawned in front of her, so wide and deep that it seemed to Miriam that she could no longer see Daniel across it.

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