My Mother Married Into Four Brothers, and Each One Says I Saved Him novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: The Next Flood
The next October, on the morning of the harvest flood, I wore red.
I had bought the coat in Wisconsin Rapids the week before, alone, on a Tuesday, with the receipt in my pocket.
It was a plain wool coat, the color of a cranberry, with toggle buttons and a hood.
I stood in the bathroom of my grandmother's house and looked at myself in it for a long time.
My eyes were wet when I went out the door.
"That's a good coat," said Ansel, from the porch.
"I know."
"You don't have to."
"I want to," I said. "I've owed myself this one for a long time."
He looked at me, and his face did what it does.
He took my hand without a word, and we drove down the dike road together to the marsh.
The bogs were already flooded.
The crew stood on the gravel in their waders, drinking coffee, and when I got out of the truck in the red coat, a woman I knew from last year raised her paper cup.
Nobody said anything.
A few of them nodded.
Soren was on the reel truck.
He saw me, and he took off his cap, and put it back on, and went on with his work.
He had been at the gate every morning for a year.
He and Ansel said about twenty words a day now, and on Sundays he sat at the table.
Kasper was on the dike with a clipboard.
Eero stood at the edge of the water, holding a gauge, and he glanced up and gave me a small, grave thumbs-up.
My mother and my stepfather came down from the farmhouse in matching rubber boots.
"Nice coat," my stepfather said.
"Thank you, sir."
"Dad," he said, and looked uncomfortable. "It's Dad. If you'd like."
I thought about it.
"Dad," I said.
He nodded, and went off to look at the pump.
The reels went in at seven, and the water turned red.
I stood on the dike and watched it happen again, the berries rising in drifts, the bog filling edge to edge, and it was as beautiful as I remembered.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Mother Married Into Four Brothers, and Each One Says I Saved Him are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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