The Glassblower(145)

“Well, Johanna Steinmann, sometimes it does no harm to listen to what I have to say. Even if that doesn’t come easily to you.” Peter grinned. “Now let’s get started.” He scratched his head. “I love you all, of course, but I’m not going to leave my patients in the lurch. And I have to show up at the foundry for a few hours from time to time when they’re firing the ovens. So I plan to spend half the day on the Christmas tree order, and the other half making my eyes. As for what becomes of my little glass critters, we’ll just have to see. They bring in a pretty penny, but my heart’s not really in them to the extent that I couldn’t give them up.”

Johanna frowned. “I do have one more question . . .” she said almost timidly.

Peter laughed. “Well go on, I don’t bite! It’s just that from time to time you Steinmann girls need to be told what’s what. All three of you can be stubborn as mules, you know that. So, what is it?”

“If we have only one workshop, where will you consult with your patients about their eyes? They surely don’t want to sit for a fitting in among all our baubles.”

“We’ll wall off a corner of the workshop,” Marie said before Peter could answer. Now that they had a plan in place, she didn’t want to hear of any further obstacles. She wanted to draw, to think up new designs for her globes. “While we’re at it, let’s wall off a little cubbyhole for me as well. Sometimes, I just need to have a little time to myself.” Marie was expecting Johanna to raise some further objection, but none came.

“Here’s one possible answer.” Peter pulled out a pencil and paper from the table drawer and sketched out a plan of the new workshop in a few lines. “The two gas connections will have to stay in front where they are now. That means the other workbenches will have to go here in the middle, which works well because that gives us the most room for painting, silvering, and packing.”

“And for other decoration work,” Marie put in. “I’m thinking that some globes will be wrapped with tinsel wire and others glued with little glass beads and . . .”

“That doesn’t matter now. We’re just talking about how to use the space,” Johanna interrupted impatiently.

Peter gave both of them a warning glance.

“Then we could put in a table for Marie and another one for me, here.” He sketched in two rectangles as he spoke. “You could study and work here, and have all the peace and quiet you need.”

Study in peace and quiet . . . Marie’s eyes gleamed.

“I would need a bookshelf as well, and somewhere to keep my papers,” she said.

“That should be easy,” Johanna said. “If we take the wardrobe from upstairs in Father’s room and use that to help wall off your corner from the workshop, you can keep everything you need in there. That would also give us more storage space upstairs.”

“Storage space!” Marie exclaimed, putting a hand to her mouth. “We haven’t given that a thought. Where in the world are we supposed to store ten thousand baubles?”

They discussed ideas for hours, and the air in Peter’s workshop was thick with excitement, happiness, and a touch of fear about what the future might bring. They all forgot about lunch until Peter put bread and cheese on the table sometime in the afternoon. When Marie ran next door to fetch some wurst, there was still no sign of Ruth. How could anybody be so childish?

Nobody paid much attention to the food. One or the other of them was constantly reaching with greasy fingers for the pencil and paper to jot down an idea. As the list of tasks grew and grew, the business began to take shape.

Johanna was slicing herself a second piece of bread when she put down the knife and wiped her hands on her apron.

“Actually there’s one more thing we haven’t thought of . . .”

“What would that be?” Peter asked.

He cast her a glance so full of yearning that Marie felt a pang of sympathy for him. She knew so well that feeling of being so close to her goal and yet so far away!

“A name. Our business needs a new name! May I?” She pointed to the pencil in Peter’s hand.

He handed it over. “You always do what you want anyway.” He shrugged, trying to seem indifferent, but Marie sensed that this was about much more than a name.

“So here you all are!”

Three heads turned as Ruth appeared in the doorway.

“I was calling for you next door. I could have called till I was blue in the face!”

She picked Wanda up in a practiced grip and put her on one hip while she closed the door behind her with the other.

“I’m so hungry I could eat half a pig! I went right up into the forest, can you imagine?” Before she sat down, she picked up a slice of bread from the basket and took a hearty bite. “What are you doing there?” she asked, pointing to the list in Johanna’s hand.