Nice long story for you to enjoy

"You're no fun, no fun at all," whimpered my little six-year old sister as she slipped under the branches of the weeping willow in our farm house back yard. Elaine always wanted to play some girlie game about house or dolls. If only she were like my cousin Eloise who'd be ten like me in a couple months. We played cowboys and indians whenever she and her brothers came over, a whole lot more fun.

I wished I had brothers like Eloise's, but whenever I asked Mommy about it she'd look sad and shake her head. Then she'd get teary and walk away. Mommy and Daddy were gone to St. Paul on this particular day in late August. They planned to get back in the middle of the afternoon. "We're bringing a big surprise," Daddy said.

"What is it?" I asked, wiggling with excitement.

"Wait and see," was all he said as they drove off.

A little bored, I decided to try a few more pages of "Lad, a Dog," one of the wonderful Albert Payson Terhune books about collies Mommy encouraged me to read.

I had barely started when I heard our Chevy's tires scrabbling down our gravel driveway. I ran from the porch to meet them. What had they brought me?

Mommy smiled as she opened the car's back door.

A kid, maybe three inches taller than me, stepped out. This was my surprise? He had the tiniest head I had ever seen, with beady, blue eyes behind little, round, wire-rimmed glasses. His black hair was slicked straight back, sticking out over his ears and all around his shirt collar. His faded blue shirt and baggy cotton trousers appeared to be about two sizes too big. He looked very shy, hanging on to a little cardboard suitcase with gnarled hands, gazing down at the sidewalk like a rabbit looking for a hole.

I must have had a pretty puzzled look on my face, because Mommy said, "Alvin, don't just stand there frowning. Say hi and show Eddie to his room."

"Uh, hi," I said. Then turning to Mommy, I asked, "His room?"

"The one at the top of the stairs," she replied. "Eddie is going to work for us."

"Oh," I said. This skinny creature was going to be our hired man? He didn't look strong enough to throw hay bales, let alone lift eight gallon milk cans. "Follow me," I said.

Eddie's room had only a single bed, a wobbly chair, a little dresser and a tiny closet. "This is it," I said. "This is your little room."

Eddie gazed around. I noticed his lip was trembling, like he was about to cry. In a shaky, squealy voice he said, "I ain't never had my own room." "Why not?" I asked. "We all got rooms up here. Mommy and Daddy sleep downstairs, next to the kitchen."

"I slept on a baggy mattress on the floor. My sister slept with my mother on another one in the corner. We cooked and ate in the kitchen."

"You must have been pretty poor. Didn't you have a daddy?"

Eddie snuffed and wiped his nose with his left hand. Then, smearing it on his baggy pants, he said, "I had a daddy a long time ago. He was always drunk. Then he left. I never saw him again."

I wondered what it would be like without a daddy. "How'd you get enough money to eat?"

"My mom cleaned hospital floors, but then she got sick. They said we was too little to go to the hospital."

"What did you do?"

"I don't wanna talk no more," is all he said.

"Up to you," I replied. "Put your stuff in the dresser. I gotta go."

I hurried back down to the kitchen. My German Grandma was kneading some bread dough. "Is dis kid staying for supper?"

Daddy came out, slipping one strap of his overalls over his shoulder. "Ma, Eddie's gonna work for us. He's our hired hand now."

"He don't look big enough to be no hired man," she muttered as she greased three loaf pans with lard.

"We'll have to fatten him up wit your good bread. It's been real tough for him, like lots of people in dese depression times."

"Looks like a dumb ting to hire somebody like dat," she replied as she pushed dough into her pans.

Mommy tied the strings of her apron as she entered the kitchen. "Eddie needs us," she said. "There's lots of kids like him these days."

Grandma only sighed. "I'm gonna work in my flower garden," she said.

"I have to buy Eddie a couple pairs of overalls and shirts and some decent shoes," Mommy said.

"How much is dat gonna cost?" Daddy asked.

"Oh, don't worry. I have some egg money saved up."

"OK," Daddy said over his shoulder as he tromped down the back door hallway steps. "When you get back, send him out to da barn."

I turned to Mommy. "Can I ask something?"

"Of course, as soon as you help put away groceries."

I handed her boxes and cans from the paper sacks on the kitchen table. Then she asked, "How about a piece of apple pie?"

"Wow! In the middle of the day?"

"Sure. Call Elaine in too."

As soon as we were seated, Elaine asked, "Who's that funny looking boy?" "I want to talk to both of you about Eddie," Mommy replied as she handed us our pie. "We'll talk more about it later, but while he's still upstairs I want you to know that Eddie is an orphan. He has no parents. The state of Minnesota looks after him. They asked us to give him a place to stay and some work. That's why he's come to live here."

"Mommy," I asked, "why are his hands all twisted? Did he hurt them?"

She smiled and wrinkled her forehead at the same time. "Eddie has what the doctors call rickets. When you don't get enough milk and the right food your bones don't grow right."

"Will they get better?"

"Sure, but they'll never be completely straight. With lots of the right food, sunshine and love he'll be fine."

Elaine chewed a bite of her apple pie while she asked, "Is he coming to school with us?"

"No sweetie. Eddie is sixteen and will grow a little more with good farm meals, but he's limited. He can read a little, but the farm will be his school from now on."

At that Mommy looked up. Eddie stood in the doorway, still clutching his little suitcase. "Come on in, Eddie," I said. "Have some of Mommy's apple pie. Then we can go together to buy you some new clothes."

This was very strange. Eddie wasn't going to be my brother, but maybe, I thought, I could be the brother he never had.

"Oh, Alvin," Mommy said, with a sly smile. "I have another suprise for you." She reached to the top of the refrigerator to bring down a book. "It's second hand and a little worn, but still in good shape. It's called "Buff, A Collie." _______________________________________________

Author's note: Eddie Roberts was a real person who came to work on my parents' farm in southern Minnesota in the 1930s. He lived and worked on their farm for over a decade before they quit farming and moved to St. Paul where my father began his insurance business. Even then Eddie stayed with them and worked as a floor sweeper in a local factory. He died in his mid fifties. In my novels Eddie is the source for my character Orville. - Alvin Franzmeier (www.freyaschild.com).