Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen

Author:Bich Minh Nguyen [Nguyen, Bich Minh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-02-06T05:00:00+00:00

October 14, 1918

To Whom It May Concern at San Francisco General Hospital:

Two days ago, I was made a mother by a woman at your hospital. I wish her to know, if it is acceptable, that I am profoundly grateful. If it is irregular to write this letter, I apologize. May she know that the boy’s name is Albert? He will be well taken care of all his life.

Yours,

Mrs. Louis Stellenson

The handwriting was scratchy, calligraphic. All at once I imagined a woman sitting down at her husband’s desk, her hand traveling over the thin cream-colored paper edged in blue. A burst of feeling, an impulse sent off in the mail. And what about the recipient? Was she still in the hospital when the letter arrived? Had a nurse handed it to her silently, apprehensively? How had the letter found its way to this book?

I forgot I was in the dim heat and dust of Rocky Ridge Farm, that even now another tour group was right outside the door, surveying the little room where Rose had slept and grown up. I forgot about Alex playing watchman. I forgot everything but the two women poised on either side of this letter, bound forever by a child. Rose’s child?

I was startled by two soft knocks on the door. Alex opened it and whispered, “Better hurry up.”

I had to take the letter. I refilled the crate with its contents, but I must have arranged them wrong, because the lid wouldn’t fit. Alex tapped on the door again, so I added the copy of Free Land to my bag too, secured the crate, and slid it back where I’d found it. Then Alex and I were down the stairs and out on the front lawn, walking away from Rocky Ridge. The choral group was still at it, now singing about Charles and Caroline Ingalls. More children and families were streaming in from the parking lot, eager to visit Laura’s life, while Alex and I hurried to his car like a pair of bandits.

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