Read Online Diary of a Wildflower by Ruth White - Free Book Online Page A

the train for Richmond.
    ********************
    Charles
has a cough and a fever for several days before he wakes up with red spots all
over him.  Measles.  Luther remembers that he and Samuel had measles when
they were in school, but Nell and I caught it before we started school. 
He believes Roxie had it at the same time we did, but he can’t say for
sure.  Roxie says she does not remember, but the one thing we know for
sure is that Jewel, Daniel and Clint have never been sick with measles. 
Maybe it would be best it they caught it now, and got it over with.
    Roxie
asks Luther to tack a blanket over the window in the boys’ sleeping loft to
keep the light out and protect Charles’s eyesight.  A few days later Jewel
throws up.  Her forehead is hot with fever, and soon she has spots all
over her too.  A blanket goes over our window.  I offer to stay home
from school to help Roxie, but she says no, that I should not get behind in my
lessons.
    As
I walk to school by myself, it occurs to me that this is the first time I have
ever gone off the mountain without at least one other member of my family with
me.  That thought rattles me, and stays with me all day.  What if the
earth skips a beat in its rotation while I am in the valley, and when I return,
nothing is there – no log house, no family, no animals, no barn, no garden, no
springs, no graveyard?  Or what if it was all a dream I had?  I dwell
on this thought so hard, it begins to feel like a real strong
possibility.  And…if it was all a dream, what would I wake up to?
    As
soon as the bell rings at three o’clock, I rush out of the school house and
walk up Gospel Road as fast as I can.  It seems such a long way
today.  The woods are dark, and there are
    eyes watching me from behind every tree.  I am out of
breath when I reach Willy’s Road.  To my right is the graveyard on the
knob where all the Starrs are buried.  The stones are still there.  I
peek up over the rise and see that the house is there too just as I left
it.  Of course it is.
    When
I go in, I find that Daniel is feverish now, and Roxie is weary to the
bone.  Dad and Luther are in the barn doing something, and Bea is sitting
in her favorite chair bouncing Clint on her lap.
    “I’m
trying to keep Clint away from the others,” she says to me.  “He’s too
little for measles.”
    I
could remind her that Clint has already been exposed to measles three times
over, but she is actually trying to be useful.  So I tell her that’s a
good idea.
    Then
I go to see Jewel.  She’s sitting up in bed drawing a picture of a
unicorn, and it’s pretty good.  She smiles at me.  I touch her
forehead and it feels normal.  Maybe the worst is over for her.  I go
to the boys’ loft to look at Charles and Daniel.  Charles is doing better,
but little Daniel is feeling poorly.
    At
supper I notice that Roxie’s eyes are bloodshot.  “Roxie!  You look a
sight!” I say.
    She
does not answer.
    “Are
you coming down with it too?” Bea asks.
    “I’m
real tired,” Roxie says.  “That’s all.”
    “Well,
your eyes are all red and bulging out of your head,” Luther says.
    The
next morning Roxie is too sick to get out of bed.  When I ask her how she
feels, she gives me a weak smile.  Her face has large red blotches on it
instead of small spots like the others have.
    “I
guess I’ve never had the measles after all,” she says.
    I
fetch a pan of cool water, dip a rag in it, wring it out and lay it on Roxie’s
hot forehead.  I stay home from school.  In the following days Roxie
does not get any better.  In fact, she seems to get worse.  I tell
Dad I think we should send for a doctor, but he thinks not.  After all,
it’s just measles, he says.  He tells me to stay by her side and take care
of her.
    Bea
takes charge of the little ones.  She has taken a liking to Clint. 
She also does the cooking and other woman’s work without even being told.
    I
don’t know how many days go by.