The Noble Ladies' Orphanage

Chapter 8

"Get up, Sleepyhead," Karolina said as she nudged Josef's shoulder with her bare toes. "You're going to be late."

Josef opened one skeptical eye and saw his little sister standing above him, hair combed and neatly braided, with lunch in her cotton bag.

"What's going on here?" Josef asked.

"You're going to be late, that's what's going on," Karolina said.

She descended the ladder and sat down at the wood slab table with her mother and Eva. The house consisted of one open room on the mail level with the kitchen and fireplace against one wall and her parents' bed beneath the sleeping loft where all the children slept.

"It's nice of you to join us this morning, Karolina," her mother said. "What's going on?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Karolina asked. She took a bite of toast and sipped the tea from her chipped cup.

Eva laughed. "When is the last time you sat down to eat breakfast before flying out the door to go to Maraček's? Have you ever done this before?"

"And your hair," her mother said. "I didn't know you knew how to use a comb." Eva laughed again.

Karolina started to stand up. She intended to walk out the door and slam it, but she sat back down and took a deep breath. "Well," she said, taking another prim sip of tea, "I guess there's a lot you didn't know about me."

"I guess so," her mother said. Her mother got up and walked over to the walked over to the clay jar where she kept coins when she had some. She pulled out three coins, hesitated, put one back, and handed one to each girl. "Do you think you could each bring home a little milk from the dairy this afternoon?" she asked. "It's been a while since the younger ones had any milk."

"Of course," both girls said. Eva tucked her coin into the pocket tied around her waist, and Karolina dropped hers in her cotton bag that held her bread for lunch.

"Mother," Karolina said, "what was your life like when you were our age? What did you do?" She looked hard at her mother, realizing that she hadn't spoken this much to her in weeks, maybe months. Feathery wrinkles covered her otherwise youthful face. She'd spent so much time squinting in the sun as she worked outside with the garden, the meager chickens, and occasionally as a day laborer when he father couldn't work.

"Well, my life was much like yours, I suppose, although I didn't work in a dairy. I worked in the fields. That's where I met your father," she said. Her eyes smiled though her lips seemed too tired. "He was so kind to me. He said I worked like a man even though I looked like a child."

"And you still look like a child," a deep voice said. Their father had just limped into the tiny house. "The chickens are fed. Josef is coming with me today. Josef!

"Coming, Father," Josef said, descending the ladder to the loft.

Their father cut a hunk of bread from the loaf on the table, split it in two, and handed the larger piece to Josef. We'll be off," he said. "We're working at Ivan Kalab's farm today. I hope to be home by sundown." He kissed his wife, patted the girls on their heads, and walked out the door.

"We better go, too," Karolina said. She put her arm around her mother, which she hadn't done for a long time. Her mother squeezed her, and Karoline closed her eyes. It felt good.

"What's gotten into you," Eva asked as they walked down the road toward the dairy. "Spending time with the family? Combing your hair? Going to bed on time?"

"Oh, nothing," Karolina said. "I guess I was just thinking about what it would be like to not have a family." Eva looked at her sister as she'd look at a stranger wearing foreign clothing.