The Road Back to Sweetgrass: a Novel by Linda LeGarde Grover

Author:Linda LeGarde Grover [Grover, Linda LeGarde]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC019000 Fiction / Literary
ISBN: 9781452943008
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Published: 2014-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

Back at home, some things had changed. For one thing, I once again had a bed. Yvonne had gotten married and moved to Mesabi. Her husband got hired on at the mines, and she clerked at the Ben Franklin. They were saving for a down payment on a house. Annette had quit school and was engaged to one of the Dommages who was at the Marine boot camp in San Diego; they planned to marry before he went overseas. She spent much of her time reading bridal magazines and driving Grace and Cecile around to rummage sales and the Salvation Army store in Mesabi.

Grace told everyone that I had decided not to become a nun, after all, but that the vow of chastity I had taken in the convent couldn’t be revoked and so I wouldn’t ever be getting married. Also, that she thought the shorter hair was an improvement.

I felt invisible around the house, not unwelcome so much as unnoticed. Grace’s life had become closer to the life she had always wanted. Now that she had something to hold her head up over and talk about besides her story about me in the convent, she emerged from her cocoon of worry about her girls to become, for Grace, almost a social butterfly. She also became a regular drop-in visitor at Tuomelas’ (although she always brought her own cup of coffee, in order to not waste the dime) and at the RBC (no need to bring her own coffee, as it was free for the Elders), where she could brag modestly about her daughters’ lives, luck, and accomplishments.

When Mozhay received federal money for its own Head Start program, I applied for a job and was hired by the RBC. I have worked with little kids ever since. It keeps me busy, and I love the work. Yet, although ever since I got back home I have always had a lot going on, taking care of my mother and dad, and helping Margie out with Crystal during all of Zho Washington’s troubles with his wife and his health, and all those little Head Start dumplings, sometimes, when I am by myself in the teacher’s lounge or while watching TV after Grace and Roy go to bed, I feel lonely.

After Jack got home from the service, he telephoned the house every once in a while, asking for me. Grace told him I wasn’t home. At the gas station, at Pamida, at Mass, at the spring and fall powwows, I avoided him. All things considered, that was a blessing. I was grateful for Grace’s way of thinking, which protected me from what was really unbearable. And there was Crystal, of course, who I could pretend was my own at Head Start and when I watched her while Margie worked, and then the worrying I did along with Margie when Crystal got a little older took up so much of all our time that one evening when I sat down for the Rosary with Grace and Roy, I realized that I hadn’t thought about Chicago all day.

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