Mama stood in the backyard, pinning up clothes on the line. Rikka sat on the floor of the washhouse, drawing pictures in the wet sand. Hildemara ran past Mama and up the stairs, yanked the screen door open, and let it slam behind her as she dove into her bedroom. She stepped on the lower bunk and threw herself onto the top one. Her whole body started to shake. Her teeth chattered. Pressing herself into the far corner against the wall, she pulled her legs up against her chest.
23
“Hildemara?” Mama stood in the bedroom doorway. “What’s wrong with you?” Her eyes flickered. “Where’s your shirt?”
The man had her shirt.
“Did you leave it at the ditch?”
Hildemara panted softly, looking past Mama, afraid he might be outside.
Mama glanced out the screen door. “Where are the boys?”
“Grand Junction.”
“What happened to your leg? How did you get those scratches?”
Hildemara didn’t feel anything, and she didn’t want to look. Mama came into the room and stepped up on the bottom bunk. “Come on down from there.”
“No.”
“Hildemara…”
“No!”
“What happened to you?” Mama spoke firmly this time, demanding an answer.
“He… he… was in the bamboo.”
“Who?”
Hildemara started to cry. “Mr. Kimball, I think. I don’t know.” When Mama reached for her, she screamed. “No! I’m not coming down.”
“Hildemara!” Mama held her tight in her arms though she struggled.
Clotilde appeared in the doorway. “What’s wrong with Hildie?”
“Go get Rikka. She’s in the washhouse.”
“But-”
“Now!”
Clotilde ran out the screen door. It banged, making Hildemara jerk, then banged twice more, each time more softly. Mama lifted Hildemara down and carried her into the hallway.
“Come on, girls!” Clotilde hurried inside with Rikka. “Inside the house. Go on.” She locked the door behind them and told Clotilde and Rikka to play in the living room while she talked with Hildemara in the front bedroom. She sat on the edge of the bed, Hildemara on her lap. “Now tell me what happened.”
Everything poured out of Hildie. She hiccuped sobs and stammered. “Are you mad at me? I don’t want to go back for my shirt. Please, Mama, don’t make me.”
“I don’t care about the shirt. You’re going to stay right here inside the house.” She sat Hildemara on the bed. She held Hildemara’s face firmly and looked into her eyes. “You listen to me now. That man is never going to touch you again, Hildemara. He’s never going to get near you. Not ever again. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Mama.” She had never seen such a look in her mother’s eyes before. It frightened her all over again.
Mama let go of her and straightened. “Stay in the house.” She went out of the bedroom. Hildemara heard a drawer being yanked open. Trembling, she rushed to the doorway and saw Mama standing with a butcher knife in her hand. “You girls stay inside this house.”
“Mama!” Hildemara ran out of the bedroom. “Don’t go. He’s bigger than you.”
“He won’t be much longer. Lock the door!” The screen door slammed.
What if the man took the knife away and used it on Mama?
“No!” Hildemara yanked the screen door open. “Mama, come back!” Mama was running along the row of grapes. She disappeared around the end. “Papa!” Hildemara shouted. “Papa!”
“Ring the bell!” Clotilde stood behind her.
Hildemara grabbed the cord and pulled and pulled and pulled. The bell clanged loudly. Sobbing, Hildemara kept pulling. Cloe held Rikka by the shoulders, both pairs of blue eyes wide.
Papa came running across the yard. “What’s wrong?”
Hildemara ran down the steps. “Mama went that way! She has a butcher knife! She’ll get herself killed!”
Papa didn’t wait to ask questions. He ran in the direction Hildemara pointed. “Marta!”
Bernie and Fritz, the others on their heels, came flying around the front of the house. “What’s happened?” Bernie panted. “We heard the bell!”
Hildemara sank onto the back steps, covered her head, and sobbed.
“Holy cow!” Tony laughed. “Little Sis is half-naked.”
Mortified, Hildemara jumped up and ran inside the house. Gulping sobs, she put her foot on the bottom bunk and dove into the top, pulling a blanket over her.
“Leave her alone!” Cloe shrieked, following after her. She climbed up onto the bunk with Hildie. Rikka climbed up, too. When Bernie came inside, Cloe yelled, “No boys allowed!”
It seemed forever before Hildemara heard Bernie’s voice again. “I see Papa. Mama’s with him. What in the heck is Papa doing with a butcher knife?”
Hildie let out her breath, but stayed under the blanket. She heard Papa’s voice. “Tony, Wallie, Eddie, go on home.”
“Did we do something wrong, Mr. Waltert?”
“No, but Bernhard’s got work to do. Go on now. Everything is fine.” He sounded as though nothing bad had happened. The boys called out their good-byes and left. Papa’s voice changed. “Into the house, Sohn. Keep the children in the house until I get back.”
“Where’s he going, Mama?”
“To the sheriff.”
Sheriff Brunner came to the house late in the afternoon. Bernie and Fritz were sent to the tree house, Clotilde and Rikka to the porch bedroom. Hildemara had to sit at the table and tell the sheriff what had happened at the ditch. He looked at the scratches on Hildie’s left leg, his face grim.
“I stopped by Kimball’s house on the way out here. He wasn’t there.”
Mama gave a hard laugh. “That doesn’t mean he won’t come back.”
Hildie’s heart tripped. Papa sat her on his lap and held her close.
“I’ll swear out a warrant for his arrest, but I can’t promise anything. He has a car. He’s probably miles from here by now.”
That night, Hildemara awakened to the smell of smoke. A fire bell clanged in the distance. Mama and Papa stood in the yard, talking in low voices. “Maybe lightning set the place on fire.” Mama sounded hopeful.
“There hasn’t been any lightning.” Papa spoke grimly.
“Let it burn, and him with it.” Mama came back inside the house.
The sheriff returned the next morning and spoke to Mama and Papa. “Kimball’s house and barn burned down last night.” He didn’t sound pleased. “You know anything about it?”
Papa answered simply. “No.”
Mama spoke her mind as usual. “I went after him with a butcher knife, Sheriff Brunner, with the full intent of killing him. I saw him driving off in his fancy black automobile. I may wish the man dead and in hell, but I wouldn’t have any reason to burn down a perfectly good house or barn. Unless he was in it. Was he?”
“No.”
“Now, there’s a real pity.”
Sheriff Brunner stood silent and then decided, “It must have been Providence.”
Bernie and Fritz didn’t come down from the tree house until Mama called them in for dinner. “What’d the sheriff want?”
Mama looked between the two of them. “He asked if we knew anything about the fire last night. If he finds the arsonists, he’ll arrest them. And before you ask what an arsonist is, Clotilde, it’s a person, or persons, who burn down houses and barns.”
Bernie and Fritz slunk down in their chairs. Papa stared hard at the two of them. “Whoever started that fire last night had better not brag about it. He’d better not breathe a single word about it, or he-or they-might grow up behind steel bars eating bread and drinking water.”