Read Online Sister's Choice by Judith Pella - Free Book Online Page B

sewing her patchwork.
    “Maggie,” Grandma said, “did I ever tell you the story of how your grandfather and I got together?” When Maggie nodded, a little bemused because of course she had heard this story, Grandma added, “I mean the whole story?”
    “Well, you and Grandpa grew up together. You and his family were close friends, and the two of you did everything together,” Maggie replied.
    “Yes, that is part of it, but there is more that I haven’t shared because I thought it would be more suitable to do so when you were older.”
    “Grandma, don’t tell me it’s risqué!”
    Grandma laughed. “Hardly that. Do you want to hear about it?”
    “Of course,” Maggie said eagerly. In her youth she had always thought family stories were so boring, but she was grown up now and before long would have children of her own to whom she would want to pass on these stories.
    “Well,” Mama put in, “I have heard this, so if you don’t mind, I have to sweep the porch and water some plants.”
    When Mama was gone, Grandma continued, “You are right that your grandfather and I were playmates, almost like a brother and sister. I certainly never imagined having romantic feelings toward him. In fact, when I was about sixteen I set my cap for another, a boy named Raymond. But I did so for all the wrong reasons. You see, his mother had made a beautiful quilt that was laid-on work in a pattern of flower wreaths. To this day I have not seen the like, it was so fabulous. She said it would go to her son’s bride. I wanted to be that bride so I could get that quilt.”
    “Grandma, how shocking!” Maggie said, half teasing but also truly a little shocked that her grandmother could ever have been so frivolous.
    “Most girls in my day did not marry for love, Maggie. Many marriages were arranged by their parents for economic reasons. It wasn’t as shocking as it might seem to you for me to seek a man for whom I felt nothing.”
    “For a quilt?” Maggie thought of all the hullabaloo this last summer with the girls thinking a quilt could win the minister. Maybe Grandma’s story wasn’t so farfetched.
    “You should have seen that quilt.” Grandma smiled and seemed to be looking at it in her mind’s eye. “And Raymond was not opposed to my advances. I could have won him, if I do say so myself.”
    “What happened, then?”
    “One day your grandfather and I were out in the field picking berries. I happened to glance at him. He was popping a nice juicy berry into his mouth, which was already stained purple because he was eating far more than he was putting into his bucket. My heart started racing. Grandpa always said later it might just have been an attack of the vapors, but I know differently. I saw him as if for the first time and was smitten with what I saw, stained lips and all. I thought the feeling would go away. I hoped it would because I still wanted that quilt, but even I knew I couldn’t marry one man when I was falling in love with another.”
    “What made you suddenly fall in love with Grandpa?”
    “I had begun to think that if I married Raymond, I would not be able to continue being friends with your grandfather. A married woman could not associate with another man in that way, and I knew my heart would break if I had to give up Joey.”
    Maggie had never heard her grandfather Joseph called Joey. It made her really able to think of her grandparents as youngsters.
    “I knew,” Grandma added, “that was the kind of love that was worth a hundred quilts.”
    “That’s a nice story, Grandma,” Maggie said. She thought a moment and added, “What is the moral to the story?” She knew Grandma’s stories almost always had deeper meanings.
    “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe that life doesn’t always turn out as you think it will.”
    Maggie glanced out the kitchen window and saw Mama busily sweeping the porch. “Can I tell you something, Grandma? Please don’t say anything to Mama or she might get all in a