head. She gazed at Grace and popped the corner of her small right fist in her mouth.
“You used to suck on your fist,” Gabe said.
“I did?”
“Don’t you remember?”
“ Dat . I can’t remember that long ago.”
“Oh. I thought you remembered everything.”
Grace rolled her eyes, walked around the cradle, and gave her dad a big hug anyway. He might be the silliest person she knew, but he also smelled just right and his arms around her felt wunderbaar .
“Want me to come and tuck you in?”
“I’m nine, dat . I don’t need tucking in.”
“Oh.” Gabe tugged at his beard, looking confused.
“Miriam can come, though.”
Miriam smiled as she set aside the quilt top she was working on. “Gabe Miller, it sounds to me like you have boppli duty.”
“Oh.”
Grace had noticed he said “oh” a lot lately, as if it was the one word that came to mind.
“Can you handle it?” Miriam asked.
“ Ya . Is her diaper clean?”
“It was last time I checked. You’ll smell it if conditions change.”
Gabe groaned, which made Grace giggle. When Rachel soiled a diaper, the smell was worse than a dirty stall.
“Grace and I are going to have a little girl time.” Miriam picked up one of the gas lanterns sitting on the side table.
“Good night, dat .”
“Good night, Gracie.”
Grace sighed as she slid her hand into Miriam’s and they headed toward her bedroom. She’d been worried when Rachel was born that Miriam might not have time for her anymore. When Miriam was her teacher, she used to dream about one day having a new mother. Dreaming was all she did, because praying for it seemed like asking God for too much.
Then Miriam and her dad married, and for a while Grace felt as though she were walking an inch off the ground. She had a whole family again, complete with another set of grandparents here in Wisconsin.
The hitch was she didn’t know if she should call Miriam her mamm or not. After all, she had a mamm in heaven. When she’d confessed her worries to her dad and Miriam, they had both told her a name didn’t matter as much as a person’s heart. And they both knew she loved Miriam as much as her dad loved her.
As much as Miriam loved them.
What mattered was that they were a family.
So Grace still called her Miriam, though sometimes lately in her head she said mamm , and in her heart she was starting to feel okay about using that word.
“Did you have a gut day?” Miriam asked as she pulled back the bedcovers.
“ Ya .”
“You found the supplies you wanted at the store.”
“They’re perfect.” Grace climbed into her bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. It wasn’t cold, but the covers made her feel nice and sleepy.
Miriam set the lantern on the floor beside the bed. It cast funny shadows across the room. She pulled the flashlight out of Grace’s nightstand and tested the batteries, same as she did every night. Then she set it on top of the nightstand where Grace could reach it if she needed to get up and it was dark.
“Do you know what I was thinking about?” Grace yawned so bigher eyes squeezed shut, even though she was trying to keep them open.
“Gus?”
“No.”
“Hunter?”
“I love that puppy. No, not Hunter.”
“What, then?” Miriam settled on the bed beside her.
Grace liked how Miriam was never in a hurry, even when she must be tired. When her stomach had been huge , Grace had worried that she might roll off her bed, but she hadn’t. And now they had Rachel.
“Are we going to have another boppli ?”
“That’s what you were thinking about?”
“No, but when you sat down I was remembering how big you were before, and how you looked like you had a volleyball under your apron.”
Miriam started laughing, and then Grace started laughing. Soon her dad’s voice came booming down the hall. “You wouldn’t be giggling if you were changing this diaper.”
“I thought she might do that. She usually does an hour after she eats.”
“Should you