The Lighthouse Road(76)

"Mister Johnson walked down to the lot with me and carried it home. He helped me set it up. I bought the bulbs at the hardware store on the corner. Isn't it nice?"



Odd stepped in, closed the door behind him. He kicked off his boots and walked across the parlor. He put the packages under the tree and turned and crossed the apartment again. He took Rebekah in his arms and held her for a long time.



When finally he let her go he said, "It's perfect. And what's that smell?" He turned his nose to the small kitchen on the other side of the flat.



Rebekah grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the tree. "That's a surprise. Here —" she forced him to sit on the davenport—"help me with these popcorn strings."



Odd picked up a threaded needle and started stringing the popcorn. He'd never had the sensation of being awake in a dream but he did now. He said as much.



Rebekah sighed and said, "I've been difficult."



"Well, now."



"One minute I'm happy, the next I'm—" She turned away, her eyes widened and then closed. She shook her head and looked back at Odd. "I'm terrified of the baby. Even more terrified that this is no life I want, much as I do want you. I feel like a different person every day of the week." She stopped talking as suddenly as she'd started, picked the strand of popcorn back up and began stringing it with a new kind of haste.



Odd did not know what to say, or at least had no words to say what he wanted.



More calmly, Rebekah continued, "It's Christmas. I at least wanted to make a nice go of it. I thought a tree would make me happy."



"Has it made you happy?"



"Let's finish with the popcorn."



So they finished their strings and hung them and stood in the end of the daylight looking at the scrawny tree. Odd was thinking it the most wonderful tree, greater than any of the two-hundred-foot white pines left in the forest. But he didn't say anything, only stood there on tenterhooks, hoping Rebekah saw what he did.



"It needs candles," she said, her voice suggesting nothing.

"It looks awfully good to me."

She squeezed his hand.

"It's early for dinner, but if you're hungry, it's ready."

"The smell," Odd said.

Now a very pleased look came over Rebekah's face. She almost blushed.



"Rabbit stew!"





The kitchen table was so small the rims of their bowls touched. The table and two chairs, a davenport, a Murphy bed and armoire in the bedroom, these were the only furnishings in the apartment.



Their bowls were steaming. Parsnips and potatoes, mushrooms, onions and garlic, tender chunks of rabbit, barley malt, all of it held together with buttery roux. It was their secret, this feast, harkening back to their first time up at Rune Evensen's farm.



As they sat there under the cheap chandelier, he thought her face was as changeable and temperamental as a stormy sky lowering over Lake Superior. And as distant. So except to thank her for the stew, Odd had not uttered a word since they'd sat down. He reckoned even the possibility of her contentment was better than the moods likely possessing her. She stirred her bowl of stew absently, once or twice dipping a crust of bread into it and raising the bread to her lips before setting it back on the edge of the bowl uneaten.



When Odd finished the first bowl Rebekah rose automatically and fetched the Dutch oven from the stovetop. She ladled him another helping. She also topped off his mug of apple wine.



"It's delicious, Rebekah. A real treat." He said this without lifting his head to look at her.



"Have more."

He finished the second bowl and wiped it out with a piece of bread and ate the bread. He sat back with his apple wine and looked at her.



"Want your presents?" he said. "I know it ain't Christmas morning yet, but I doubt Saint Nick will mind."



He got up and stood before her, his hand outstretched as though he were asking her for a waltz. They walked to the davenport this way. Outside, the snow had started again. It was almost dark so he turned on the electric lamp. Odd took the gifts from under the tree. He put them next to her on the davenport and sat before her on the floor.



"I didn't get you anything," she said.



"As if I could want more."



She reached down and ran her hand through his hair.



"Go on, now. Open 'em up."



She took the smallest gift from the top of the stack and opened it. She smiled when she saw the chocolates and set them aside directly.



Next she opened a hatbox and pulled a cloche with pink ribbon from the tissue. She put it immediately onto her head, cocked it just so, and looked down at Odd flirtatiously.



" Looks real nice, Rebekah."