Dear Papa Read online

  I have to take back half of what I said about Irma and Inez. Inez got up before the milking this morning and ran off to town with a boy from the next farm over. He’d agreed to bring Inez when she showed him my letters.

  Inez and I have got a lot of catching up to do. I’ll write more later.

  Your traveler,

  Isabelle

  Good Friday night

  Dear Papa,

  Here we are on Palace, but not at 1234.

  Am I an orphan, Papa?

  Too tired to write more.

  Isabelle

  Holy Saturday

  Dear Papa,

  Inez and I are at Jordahls’. We stayed last night in the room next to Jimmy’s. He snores. Here is an account of yesterday.

  The boy in the seat behind us on the bus threw up before we were even at Cannon Falls. We should have known then to turn around for Zumbrota. But we put hankies over our noses and slept. Found the streetcar in St. Paul. Rode to Cleveland Avenue. Walked home. Knocked on the door. No one home. Sat on the step. Still no one home. Left our bags and walked to Jordahls’.

  “Oh, mercy!” said Mrs. Jordahl. “When did you girls arrive? How did you get here?”

  “An Easter surprise for Mother,” I told her. “We’ve come home!”

  “Have you seen our mother?” Inez asked her.

  “Have you talked to any of the other neighbors?” Mrs. Jordahl asked us.

  We shook our heads and waited.

  Mrs. Jordahl was wearing the same apron she had on at Thanksgiving, when Mama didn’t get out of bed. She wiped her hands on it and sat us at the kitchen table. No cookies this time but a good loaf of bread, and traveling does make one hungry.

  And I guess why I’m stalling, telling you all the details, Papa, is Mama just isn’t home. All you need to know now is that she’s living close to here with Ian and Ida and we will see her tonight. But maybe you don’t want to know the whole story?

  Your Isabelle

  Easter Sunday

  Dear Aunt Izzy,

  We are a neighborhood scandal.

  How will I go back to Miss Lockey’s class now, when my mother has left the house my papa bought for us and moved in with a man she cleans for? A bachelor man. A Catholic bachelor man.

  I have been in St. Paul only two days and already I have been stared at and whispered about. Mostly at church.

  Inez and I got here Friday. We stayed at Jordahls’. Saturday Mama came over for dinner at Jordahls’. Oh, the hugging and kissing! She was so happy to see us. (Not happy enough to rush right over when we got here.) But she was a different Mama. She was dressed up in a new dress and my hands touched each other when they went around her waist. Her hair was young and her giggles were, too. And she had with her the owner of the house, Mr. Francis something-or-another. Mrs. Jordahl told us that Mr. Francis needed live-in help to cook and clean. Mama and the kids have their own part of the house. But live-in help’s children should not call the helpee “Papa Frank.”

  From,

  Isabelle

  April 11, 1944

  Dear Papa,

  I was with Mama for Easter like I wanted. Ian and Ida found the most eggs. It was a tie. I didn’t look real hard.

  Mama had been saving meat stamps, and there was a ham with enough for Inez and me even though we were unexpected guests.

  Love,

  Isabelle

  April 13, 1944

  Dear Eleanor,

  Hello from St. Paul! Did you wear a new hat for Easter? Only two days until your party. I am sorry I will miss it.

  It is wonderful to be in St. Paul again. My family was the center of conversation after church on Sunday. Our previous home was a bit too small for growing children so we have moved to a larger house by the river. My mother kept it as a surprise for my sister Inez and me. What fun it was to pick out a new room. Wish you could see it.

  How is everything at school?

  Since we have moved, I will be going to a different school than before I left. I will start next week. I am practiced at being the new kid.

  Your friend,

  Isabelle

  April 14, 1944

  Dear Aunt Izzy,

  I am fed clear up to my eyebrows with Mama’s “Whee! Let’s pick out a room at Papa Frank’s for you girls,” and “Whee! Isn’t it clever of you girls to find your way home by yourselves,” and “My, my, how you gave your aunt and uncles a fright.” I am thinking about calling Pastor Grindahl and telling him that one of his flock was socializing with her boss on the night before Christ was raised from the dead.

  How is Inez doing with all of this you may be asking yourself, probably while stroking the fur of that new striped cat of yours. Inez couldn’t be happier. Mr. Frank lives on a very nice street called Mississippi River Boulevard, which will be good for her social life. She and Mama yabber it up, making fun of Uncle Edgar’s stutter and more that isn’t fitting a mother of five, and during wartime, too.

  Before I left I took stamps from Uncle Bernard’s desk. I guess sin runs in the family.

  Please write to me at 1234 Palace. I will check the mail every day even though no one is living there.

  Maybe I’ll go by Valborg now. I am in an ugly mood.

  Sincerely,

  Valborg

  April 23, 1944

  Dear Aunt Izzy,

  I guess you are waiting for my new address, as the only mail at Palace has been bills. It is (for now): 2455 Mississippi River Boulevard. There is room for you here for sure. Ida and Ian and I walked through the whole house yesterday and counted the rooms. There are fourteen, including three bathrooms. “Never a line,” says Mr. Frank. There are three bedrooms in our part of the house. And a room for nothing but sitting and reading or playing games. One room is Mama’s, one for Ida and Ian, and one is now for Inez and me.

  I went downstairs the first few mornings I was here to sit in the kitchen with Mama. It is not like the kitchen days on Palace. I feel like a visitor when I sit with my own mother. She is busy but not the stomping busy she was before I went to Zumbrota. She is humming busy, wearing a clean apron and nodding at me when I talk but crossing things off lists and stirring and wiping all the while. It is all right though, as I cannot think of a lot to say.

  “Aren’t we lucky to live here?” she says to me. She was going to come and get me soon, as soon as she could figure out how Things would work out. “One day you’ll understand,” she said. But she goes on wiping plates and doesn’t notice that I’ve braided my own hair, when we spent so much time practicing before. I wish I could feel as lucky as Mama.

  Isabelle

  April 29, 1944

  Dear Aunt Izzy,

  It is a long walk to Palace, but Inez and I did it today. We played hopscotch with Jimmy and looked in the windows of 1234. Jimmy had to lift me up. Everything inside the house is waiting. The front porch was open and Mrs. Jordahl let us sit there and eat our snack. Inez wasn’t hungry so I ate hers. The paint is rubbed away from the wall where we used to kick off our shoes. Afterward, Mr. Jordahl drove us back to Mr. Frank’s. He didn’t stay.

  We’ve been in St. Paul for three weeks and I am with Mama and the rest, but I am not home.

  What would Papa think of all this?

  How do you like your place in California? Maybe you would like to move out here and buy your brother’s house. I’d live in it with you. Your new cat would love all the trees around here.

  From,

  Isabelle

  April 30, 1944

  Dear Papa,

  The lilac buds are coming out. I braided Ida’s hair today. Imagine. It took her so long to get hair and now it is long enough for braids.

  Mama doesn’t have to work so hard now. She only cleans one house. I thought that would make you glad.

  Love,

  Isabelle

  May 1, 1944

  Dear Papa,

  The truth of the matter is that we are living in the house Mama is cleaning. We are not living on Palace.
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br />   From,

  Isabelle

  May 2, 1944

  Dear Papa,

  A man owns the house. He is a Catholic. But we have our own part of the house. It is on Mississippi River Boulevard. We still get gas at your station.

  Love,

  Isabelle

  May 5, 1944

  Dear Aunt Izzy,

  Mr. Frank wants to “get to know me better.” Pshaw! He has hair growing out of his nose. He did not go to war to fight for this country (on account of he is too old and besides he has a withered-up hand). He drives up to the station and waits in the car while Stanley fills the tank. He does not get out to lean on the car and make conversation like Papa’s regular customers did. Instead he shouts jokes out the window in a big tuba voice. He thinks he is funny. I am surprised Mr. Jordahl will take his credit. I will not call him Papa Frank like Ida and Ian. They are too young to know better. Little Ida is as bouncy as her curls. She would call the milkman Papa if he hung around long enough.

  I started a new school. My teacher is old. The children are wild. I skinned my knee on the playground my very first recess. I’m so lonely I even miss Eleanor. And almost Aunt Jaye. I’d miss you if I’d seen you more recently.

  Here is a stamp. Please send me a letter.

  From,

  Isabelle

  May 7, 1944

  Dear Papa,

  There is more to the story. I’m sorry I had to keep it from you and now I can hardly face my pencil when I write to you.

  We are living in the house of a bachelor man. Mama cleans his house and cooks. That’s why we live here. But I overheard Mrs. Leonard at church talking to Mrs. Jacobson. “It’s not right,” she said. “Sophie’s inviting trouble. That man takes Sophie and the kids around like they are a family and I’ve heard the little ones call him ‘Papa Frank.’” Ida and Ian just don’t know better, Papa. I tried talking them out of it but they already have the habit.

  Your girl,

  Isabelle

  May 8, 1944

  Dear Aunt Izzy,

  I am just wondering. Mama didn’t have any sisters of her own, so did you two seem like sisters when she married your brother? When I ask her about you she raises her eyebrows up. Do you like her? Does she listen to you? Will you talk to her? Maybe she just needed someone to talk to and she was here cleaning one day and Mr. Frank listened and she stayed. I’d be happy to look for some money to send you for the long-distance bill if you would call her on the phone. You don’t have to say I said to call. I don’t think she thinks about Papa enough now. You could send me a picture of my papa that I could accidentally leave out on the mantle. I only have one picture of my papa and I keep it by my bed so I can sleep. Now I can’t remember any of his faces except the one he is making in the picture, surprised because he had just pulled his head from under the hood of a car when Stanley snapped a shot with his new Brownie. I know he wasn’t always surprised, but I forget the mad face and the silly face and the listening-to-the-radio face. Do you forget his big-brother face?

  School was better today. Back in Zumbrota I learned to spell lots of words so I could beat out Sue Joan W. and Eleanor in the spelling bee. Now I know more words than any kid in this class. Today was a spelling test and my new teacher smiled at me. I didn’t know she knew how.

  I know that despite what Mama says about you, she would like to get a long-distance phone call.

  From,

  Isabelle

  May 10, 1944

  Dear Papa,

  You taught me to hold my head high no matter what people say. But today when I stood outside at recess and the Mississippi River Boulevard kids were playing on one side and the rest of the kids were playing on the other, I didn’t know where to go. Some kids have said mean things about Mama. I got detention for socking Donald yesterday. Then today the Boulevard kids pretended I was not there when I asked to join kickball, and the other kids argued over who had to have me on their team.

  Do you see any Catholics in heaven? Mr. Frank does not live that different from us, except for the big house and nice car. The Jordahls don’t either, except for going to church on Saturday sometimes and Jimmy being the way he is, but he would be that way even if he were Lutheran, Mrs. Jordahl says.

  Love,

  Isabelle

  May 11, 1944

  Dear Papa,

  Ian and Ida are going to draw a picture of you. I thought it would be best if they had some reminders that you are their papa, though you haven’t been here in a while. When Mama is busy with what she does around this house, Ida and Ian really listen to me. I tell them stories about you. In fact, I have started to put the stories in a book I made with a stack of paper and fasteners from the desk of Mr. Frank. He has an office somewhere downtown but has an office in the house, too! When I went in there to ask him to please not hold Ida’s hand in public, I left with a stack of supplies. He gave them to me, not like the towel and money I took unlawfully in Zumbrota. He recognizes that girls such as me have to look out for their families. He’d been cleaning his desk and wondered if I would be able to make use of some of the supplies that are extras, as no one is supposed to waste during the war (or anytime else, I told him). I have paper clips, fasteners, lined paper and unlined paper, and a box and a scissors. I will do my part for the war effort and put the supplies to good use, I told him. So I am making a book. It is like a history book. My new teacher is big on reading history. She said if some people had paid more attention to history, specifically the Great War, we would not be having war again now. Well, if Ida and Ian learn about the history of our family, maybe they will not be so eager to have it all changed up. A few parts I am having to fill in on my own. I know you won’t mind. Sometime I’ll have Mama or Aunt Izzy check facts for me, but writers must get the words out, my teacher says. She would know. She talks all day.

  Yours,

  Isabelle

  May 12, 1944

  Dear Papa,

  Ian said today, “Papa never was sick. He just left.” I told him he was dead wrong. I saw you in the hospital all puffed up after they gave you that medicine. Then I saw them put the box in the ground after the medicine did not work but blew up your insides. I hope I never get an allergic reaction. But Ian and Ida did not see the box. They had to stay home with the Christiansons. I am putting a chapter in my book called “The Death and Funeral of Mr. Nils Anderson.”

  It is Friday. We eat fish here every single Friday. I didn’t notice until it happened three Fridays in a row, and when I pointed it out to Mama, she said that’s what the Catholics do. The smell is bad even when Mama fancies it up with the recipes she’s found in the Altar and Rosary Society cookbook. It is her job to cook and clean here so she is only following the rules. I know she would rather be fixing a bacon sandwich for you.

  I am putting Ida’s picture of you with my letters. She can’t be expected to remember your face exactly. I think the fact that she drew you to look like St. Nicholas must mean that she remembers you as a happy papa. I told Ian to start over. He put you hanging off the back of a train leaving town. He must not have understood the assignment. I don’t remember you ever taking a train trip.

  Stanley said yesterday, “Sure miss your Pop, Isa-bellie-boop.” Me, too. I slipped him a twenty-five-cent tip out of the coins Mr. Frank gave me.

  Love from,

  Isabelle

  May 16, 1944

  Dear Aunt Izzy,

  Mr. Frank took us to the movies Saturday. When we walked in, we saw the Nelsons from the old neighborhood. She never was my mother’s friend and her daughter Beverly never was mine. But Mrs. Nelson came right up to Mama and put her hand on her arm.

  “Sophie, you look wonderful! And how your children have grown. Why haven’t we seen you out in the yard yet this spring?” Here she paused and smiled her red lips at Mr. Frank, then looked back at Mama. “Anything new, dear?” She raised her eyebrows way up and leaned close to Mama when she said it. That’s why I never played with Beverly. Always on gossi
p patrol.

  “Nothing I can think of,” Mama said. “And you?”

  Mrs. Nelson does not give up that easily but Mama just smiled big and fake and turned to walk into the theater. We all scurried to catch up with her but not before Ida had to say in a voice big enough for the whole lobby to hear, “Papa Frank, can we get popcorn?”

  “Sure, doll!” he bellowed and grabbed her hand. “How about the rest of you?”

  It is like that everywhere. Mr. Frank doesn’t go with us to church because of being Catholic, but people talk anyhow.

  Mama says Mr. Frank is lonely. That is why we eat at his table at supper. And why he takes us places and stands in the kitchen drying the dishes and talking to Mama after supper. What do you think, Aunt Izzy?

  Isabelle

  May 17, 1944

  Dear Aunt Jaye and Uncle Bernard,

  Mama said I gave you quite a fright when I left. I hope I didn’t add to the gray hairs Mama says you’re sprouting. How are things in Zumbrota? Have there been many newcomers? Are the lilacs blooming? What did you see going on next door on the day of Eleanor’s party?

  Have you talked to my mother? Did you know we have moved? We are on Mississippi River Boulevard. Mama is the live-in help for Mr. Frank Colletti.

  He is a bachelor and Catholic. Just thought you should know.

  We would love to have you to dinner next Sunday. Church gets out at 12:00 so dinner could be at 1:00. It should be a nice spring day for a drive, I think. It is a surprise for Mama. We will all be planning on you unless I receive a letter. Maybe you could suggest to Mama that we move back to Palace.

  From,

  Isabelle

  May 17, 1944

  Dear Irma,

  How is spring planting going? I am no longer so mad as when I talked to you on the phone from Jordahls’. Inez misses you, though. I can tell.