Alwy counts up to seven
“What’s the matter, Gunnie?” Alwy asked anxiously. His wife had been oddly pale and quiet all through breakfast, and now she didn’t even seem capable of clearing the table. He knew she was worried about Egelric, but she looked truly ill now.
“Mmmmph!” she replied, clutching her stomach.
“Are you sick?” he asked, but she had already run out the door and down the stairs.
Alwy looked down at his children, bewildered. But they seemed to have no better idea than he.
When she returned, she walked past him without a word and went to wash her face in the rain barrel. But Alwy noticed that her hands were trembling.
“Are you sick, Gunnie?” he asked again. He was thinking of that little boy of the Earl, who had just died. And people said his mother was very sick too.
“Sick?” she asked weakly, looking at him as if she didn’t understand what he meant.
“You know, don’t you feel good?” he prompted.
“Sick?” she asked again. “No, Alwy, I guess I’m not sick.”
“Well then, how come your cheeks is so white and how come your little hands is shaking?” he asked, trying to take them into his own.
“Oh, Alwy, don’t you have work to do today?” she said, pulling her hands away.
“Well, I guess I do. But I guess I want to know how come you don’t feel good first. If you are sick I guess I won’t go out today.”
“I’m not sick, Alwy! I’m not sick!” But now her little mouth was trembling too.
“Well, Gunnie, I don’t know but I guess you are. I guess you don’t know it yet. Why don’t you come lie down a while? Bertie, you clean off this table for your Ma before you go. She’s sick.”
“I’m not sick! Oh, Alwy! I guess I’m just expecting a baby, is all.”
“Now then!” Alwy said, stunned. But she didn’t seem happy at all.
“But, Gunnie, I guess that’s real good news. How come it makes you cry? We got lots of room for babies now.”
“Oh, Alwy, I guess you wouldn’t understand,” she whimpered.
“Well, I guess I won’t if you don’t tell me why.” Alwy tried to put his arms around her, but she squirmed away. “Oh, don’t, Gunnie!” he cried before he could stop himself. He always tried to remember not to hug her if she didn’t want to be hugged, but sometimes he forgot. However, this time it had an unexpected effect, for she stopped squirming.
“Now why don’t you just tell old Alwy why you’re unhappy?” he murmured to her. “Wynn, you just take young Egelric and Bedwig outside and play. And Bertie, you leave them dishes for me, and just you get you over to that castle, and scoot ’cause it’s getting late already.”
After the children had gone out, Alwy wiped the tears from Gunnilda’s cheeks with the towel she had used to dry her face. “Now you tell me why. I don’t want you to be unhappy.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she sighed, “I guess I just don’t want to be bringing no more babies into this awful world.”
“Now, I guess it’s not so awful, is it?”
“But it is! It is awful to have such monsters in it! And Egelric going out tonight to meet that monster, and he – and he – ”
That was it. She was not unhappy about the baby, she was worried about Egelric. He pulled her closer, and he was touched to feel how she clung to him.
“Now, Gunnie, you know that elf can’t hurt Egelric. He told him so. And he didn’t last time, so he won’t this time. Egelric will know what to do. He always knows what to do. And what else? Old Alwy and old Alwy’s dogs won’t let that monster or no monster come up to this house again, so you don’t have to worry. You just think about your baby and you just be happy about that, and you let me do the worrying.”
“Oh, Alwy!” she said with a choking laugh.
“Now, when do you figure this baby is coming?”
“I guess in late winter. I guess after Candlemas or so.”
“Well, I guess this will be the first baby born in this house, and that’s a real fine thing, isn’t it? But I made a real warm house, Gunnie. Just you wait and see how snug and happy we will all be, all – ” Alwy stopped to count on his fingers. “All seven of us! My goodness!”
Gunnilda laughed. That was better.
“You sure are pretty,” he said, stroking her cheek. “If it’s a girl, I sure hope she looks like you.”
