Testing: Day 7

Word Count: 42,007

Summary of Events:

Gabriel went to visit the doctor and had his suspicion confirmed that his leg wasn't broken. Ivy went to visit Thomas' grave and ended up sitting silently across from Gabriel again before she started crying, Gabriel then went to embrace her, which upset her and made her ask him to leave. Gabriel went and visited with his horses and thought about how he was probably going about things badly with Ivy. Ivy was told by the Bramwells that her parents wanted to come and visit, but only when she felt she was ready for them. Gabriel went and sat across from Ivy at the cemetery again and apologised for his poor conduct before leaving shortly. Ivy headed back to the Bramwell's house and thought about Gabriel's apology. Gabriel went to go back to work, being better now, and received an unpleasant surprise . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

"Arriving at the office to report for work, Gabriel found the line was short, and being as things moved swiftly, he was soon at the head of the line. The clerk startled when he looked at Gabriel, furrowing his brow.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"My shoulder's recovered, I've come to start working again," Gabriel replied.

"Oh," the clerk said, looking highly puzzled.

Gabriel didn't see what the issue was, but he waited quietly and patiently as the clerk filed through the papers all about him before finally coming back and shaking his head.

"You were released from our employ two weeks ago," the clerk replied.

"What?" Gabriel exclaimed. "I came with a note from Dr. Ellington saying I couldn't work for two weeks because he didn't want me to re-injure my shoulder, but I fully intended to come back to work once he said I could."

"Well, according to what I have here you're no longer our employee," the clerk replied. "I recall receiving the note, though."

"So then what happened?" Gabriel asked.

"I submitted it to the manager," the clerk replied. "And I guess he decided that the mine couldn't afford to run without you, and so hired someone to replace you, as we did hire someone two weeks ago."

"Oh," Gabriel said. He felt a little disheartened. He didn't need to keep up his income, as he didn't really have any plans of going anywhere. Once he was going to leave he could stop working, but right now he still needed something.

"I'm sorry," the clerk said. "You could always talk to the manager if you want an explanation."

Gabriel sighed. "No, it's alright, I can probably find something else to do."

The clerk nodded and Gabriel left the office.

He wasn't sure what else he could find. Mrs. Goddard had offered to look for him before, but she hadn't told him about anything, and on top of that, mining was the main driver of Elk City. The majority of people worked in the mine, and if the mine were ever to shut down, Elk City would likely become a ghost town.

There wasn't much for work outside of the mine, and if Gabriel couldn't find work outside of the mine then he would probably have to leave.

Being as Miss Oldford was still here, though, he wasn't sure that he wanted to. He didn't want to leave her. He wanted to give her help, and until he'd achieved that goal, he had no intent of leaving her.

Of course, she wasn't a local, so whenever she ended up going back to her hometown  he could follow her and get work there, but until then he needed to stay here and do something.

But what? That was definitely a good question, and Gabriel had no answer to it."

Testing: Day 6

Word Count: 36,022

Summary of Events:

Ivy went to visit Thomas' grave. Gabriel saw her and decided to go talk to her. Ivy wasn't pleased by the visit and by what Gabriel tried to offer as comfort to her and left. Gabriel felt badly for her and decided to go read up what the Bible had to say about loss. Ivy went to visit Thomas' grave again and Gabriel came; she continued to be disagreeable and even kicked Gabriel in the shin repeatedly before leaving once again. Gabriel got ice for his swollen shin and worked to convince Mrs. Goddard his leg wouldn't be broken. Ivy went to visit Thomas' grave again, having gone unbothered by Gabriel of late, and thought about the unfairness of Thomas' demise.

Excerpt of the Day:

"And it seemed that someone, whose name happened to be God, didn't want her to be happy, because if He would've wanted her to be happy then Thomas would still be here and she wouldn't be sitting beside a grave thinking all of these wishful thoughts.

She wouldn't have been condemned to unhappiness if God wanted her to be happy, she was more than certain of it. Not that she saw why God would want her to be unhappy when He seemed more than willing to let other people be happy. What was wrong with her?

If she couldn't be happy, then why could anyone else be? It didn't seem particularly fair at all that she should be deprived of all of her happiness while everyone else was able to enjoy things and experience joy.

Ivy quickly raised her head, certain she'd heard something. She found that, indeed, she had. She'd heard Mr. Raider ducking under the aspens that surrounded and peacefully shaded the cemetery.

Half of her wanted to run, but half of her wanted to stay and see what sort of infuriating things he would say today. It appeared that the half of her that wanted her to stay was the stronger half, being as she didn't move.

It looked like Mr. Raider was favouring the leg she'd kicked slightly, but not too much, and she caught herself feeling grateful, not that she was sure at all why she would feel grateful. He was itinerant and infuriating, why should she be glad he wasn't hurting?

Mr. Raider had a long and brisk stride that covered ground quickly, bringing him to the grave swiftly. He then settled down comfortably cross-legged across from her, giving an acknowledging nod, but not saying anything.

If he wasn't going to say anything, she wasn't going to say anything. She didn't want him here, so she wasn't going to talk to him. She was going to stay here and think about Thomas, and the injustice of his death.

She was going to think about how cruel it was of God to have taken Thomas from her, and how unfair it was that He seemed so determined to make her life miserable when she hadn't done anything to deserve it.

And Thomas hadn't done anything to deserve dying either. He hadn't done anything wrong. He was a good man who prayed regularly, confessing any sins, and asking for their forgiveness. Why should he be killed for no good reason?

Tears filled her eyes as she stared at the dirt that covered her fiancé. There was no reason for Thomas to have suffered such a premature demise, and there was no reason that her fiancé should've been so unjustly taken from her either.

Neither one of them — much less any of the other Bramwells — had done anything to deserve this cruel robbery of Thomas' life. She couldn't imagine how God could possibly take pleasure in ruining people's lives."

Testing: Day 5

Word Count: 30,016

Summary of Events:

Gabriel ended up dislocating his shoulder while trying not to fall at his work, and so as to aid his recovery was ordered off work for a few weeks. Ivy got ready for the funeral and sat through it numbly, wishing instead it'd been her wedding. Gabriel was out working with his horses — being as no heavy lifting was required there — and watched the burial, noticing a beautiful young woman lingering at the graveside. Ivy sat through the visiting after the funeral for longer than she wanted before making her escape to sit at Thomas' graveside again and mourn his loss, along with finally dredging up memories of her older sister who'd died years ago. Gabriel was sitting and reading indoors when some new guests arrived at Mrs. Goddard's house; they happened to be his former teacher, who was convinced he should remember her, and her husband.

Excerpt of the Day:

"Gently setting his hands on her shoulders, Gabriel looked down into Mrs. Lindmark's eyes.

"I am very sorry that I do not remember you," Gabriel said. "But, as much as I can remember many a thing, there are some things that even my mind considers unnecessary to retain, and you were one of those things."

"How dare you say such a thing!?" Mrs. Lindmark cried, shoving Gabriel, who released his grip. "How dare you say it was unnecessary of you to remember me!?"

"I haven't seen you in more than twenty years!" Gabriel exclaimed. "Why should I remember you? If I had been older when I'd known you, maybe, but as a child, there really is no sense."

Mrs. Goddard grabbed Gabriel's arm to feed it back into the sling. Gabriel pulled it away and looked at her with a touch of irritation before removing the sling from around his neck and giving it to her.

"I remember the first time I saw you as clearly as I see you now!" Mrs. Lindmark exclaimed.

"Yes, and you were about twenty one at the time, you should be able to remember those sorts of things," Gabriel replied.

"You were the tiniest thing," Mrs. Lindmark said. "So delicate, your head wreathed in a golden halo of light, so soft as silk, eyes bluer than the sky itself, such a precious thing in my arms as I minded you. I've never loved a child more than that, nor will I ever. My first child."

Gabriel startled and took a step back. His heart was pounding. No. That couldn't be true.

"Mr. Ræder, I'm sorry," Mr. Lindmark said, putting a hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "I tried sending letters to you several times, but I believe they were all put into the fire, and not into the postbox."

Gabriel turned to stare at Mr. Lindmark. He felt cold.

"I do believe my wife is slightly infirm," Mr. Lindmark went on. "And this affection of you which she possesses has come to delude her to the point of believing that you are her offspring, and not the offspring of your parents, but I can pledge to you on my honour and on the honour of your own father that you are the son of Sigmund and Karolina Ræder, and not the son of Sigmund Ræder and Greta Klaassen, nor the son of Daniel and Greta Lindmark."

"Thank you," Gabriel whispered. He couldn't say he'd ever felt a greater terror than he had in that moment, and the relief that rushed through him at Mr. Lindmark's words was like rain in the desert."

Testing: Day 4

Word Count: 24,012

Summary of Events:

Ivy sat in a grief-stricken haze while visitors came and offered their sympathies and then started to get mad at God for killing Thomas. Gabriel received another letter from his former teacher and had to write a lengthy response because she still wasn't getting things right. After church Ivy sat in her room and continued to think about how God was terribly mean, having taken Thomas from her. Gabriel went out to feed his horses and discovered that a grave was being dug at the cemetery next door, by one man, so he decided to go help. Ivy wrote a letter to her parents about what'd happened to keep from thinking about Thomas' upcoming funeral.

Excerpt of the Day:

"He and Mr. Jaffray worked in silence for awhile. Gabriel felt with the two of them working at it things were already going faster, although even still he wasn't sure that they would be able to finish digging the grave by nightfall.

"Do you mind my asking who died?" Gabriel asked. "I haven't heard anything."

"Good young kid," Mr. Jaffray replied. "I think he was going to be twenty five this year if I'm not mistaken. My youngest boy and him were good friends."

Gabriel nodded. It sounded terribly unfortunate.

"Thomas Bramwell was the name," Mr. Jaffray said. "Was helpin' his folks rebuild their barn, it'd collapsed because of the snow we got this year — that was some snow it was; were you 'round these parts this winter?"

"I was," Gabriel replied.

"That was some snow," Mr. Jaffray said. "Anyways, from the sounds of things he fell off the barn and landed on his head. Sure way to kill anybody."

Gabriel nodded.

"Worst part is, though, he wasn't livin' 'round here," Mr. Jaffray said. "He was livin' down in Ketchum workin' . . . as a shepherd? I think it was a shepherd."

Gabriel nodded again. He noticed Mr. Jaffray had slacked off of his digging, but Gabriel didn't blame him for that, he'd been working at it longer, and he was rather old.

"Terrible tragedy," Mr. Jaffray said. "Saw the family on Sunday. Frank and Frances were all shook up, but they weren't nothin' compared to Dave. Lord, Dave looked half like he was dead. I think he must've seen Tom fall, either that or he saw Tom first. He looked terrible. Course now Dave's short a brother, and even though he an' Tom had a good five years between 'em, they were close as ever. When I read that verse about the friend who sticks closer than a brother, I think of 'em, helps put a picture in your head. God's closer even than that. Now that's somethin'."

Gabriel nodded. He and Erik were five years apart, and he was twelve years older than Paul, then on the other end he was fourteen years younger than Bjorn. Even though he and Erik had the same age difference as the Bramwell boys, Gabriel was more than certain they hadn't had the same sort of relationship.

"Ethel looked purt hit real hard too," Mr. Jaffray went on. "Course she was always more inclined to play with the boys. I think she halfways felt like Tom was her own boy. She got tore up quite when he went of to Ketchum, always fussin' about him. Even more'n his own mother did! All them Bramwells was close, though, so't's not really surprisin'."

There will be no post on June 10, the next post will be June 11.

Testing: Day 3

Word Count: 18,006

Summary of Events:

Gabriel read a reply from his former teacher and sent another one, trying to explain to her that a seven year old doesn't have the same memory as a twenty eight year old. Ivy minded the children so they didn't get too close to the construction site until lunchtime, where she chatted with Thomas. Gabriel met his former teacher's son and talked with him quite a bit, impressed to find out that he'd apparently had a profound impact on his teacher. Ivy was helping cook in the kitchen when she heard something happen at the barn, but was kept from finding out what it was . . . 

Excerpt of the Day:

"Ivy nodded, rising from her seat and looking out the window. The men were all gathered on the ground, and their gathering prevented her from having a view.

"Do come sit back down," Mrs. Pharis said. "Everything's alright."

"No it isn't," Ivy replied. "I know it isn't. The way Mrs. Bramwell looked at me there is no way on earth everything is alright, besides, all of the men are gathered around like an accident has happened."

"It's alright," Mrs. Pharis insisted. "Come sit down."

"And it's Thomas," Ivy declared. "Mrs. Bramwell wouldn't have looked at me all the time if it wasn't Thomas, and you wouldn't have taken me from the kitchen if it wouldn't have been Thomas. I need to go see that he's alright."

"Please, it's alright," Mrs. Pharis said, settling her hands gently, yet firmly, on Ivy's shoulders and steering her away from the window. "Come, tell me more about what you've planned for the wedding."

Ivy pulled away from Mrs. Pharis and hurried into the kitchen. All of the women looked up at once before crowding in front of the door. It looked like they were both blocking the exit and hiding someone.

Whirling around, Ivy bolted for the front door, dodging around Mrs. Pharis, and closed it behind her. Margaret, who was watching the children, looked up with a start, and the children stopped their playing to watch as Ivy ran around toward the barn. She had to see Thomas.

She was quite near to the men when several of them looked up and saw her. David Bramwell hurried out and caught her. Desperately she tried to fight him, but his hold was strong.

"Ivy, please, you're not supposed to be here, go back inside," David said.

"No!" Ivy protested, struggling violently. "Something's gone wrong with Thomas!"

"David!" a sharp call sounded that prompted Ivy to still. "You can tell her, just don't let her come here."

Ivy looked up at David. He was staring at her with a haunted expression, his face pale, his eyes glassy, almost like he didn't want to do what he was about to do. His lower lip quivered.

"I, Ivy . . . I'm sorry Ivy," David said quietly, shakily. "He fell . . . he's gone."

Ivy felt she must've screamed, she didn't know what she did, but the entire world dissolved into a blur around her. She may've dropped to her knees, she wasn't sure, she didn't feel David's hold lessen on her, if anything he may've embraced her to himself.

Tears were flowing and blurring her vision, she felt sobs wrenching her body, but she didn't feel like she was hearing them at all. It couldn't be. How could this happen? Why did it have to be him? Why did Thomas have to die?"

Testing: Day 2

Word Count: 12,009

Summary of Events:

Gabriel chatted with Mrs. Goddard over supper, commenting that he wasn't happy about the amount of time he spent with his horses, and she offered to look for a different job for him; he the received a letter from a woman who said she was a former tutor of his, but he couldn't remember her. Ivy and Thomas arrived at his parents' home after dark and were welcomed warmly before heading to bed. At lunch Gabriel stopped an argument between a couple of men over politics, but he still hadn't found the son of this apparent former tutor of his, who was how she'd even found out about him. Ivy was helping the Bramwell women prepare lunch for the men working on the barn and found herself quite worried.

Excerpt of the Day:

"When she got a moment to glance out the window she could see the men working at the barn. They were still removing the broken, fallen timbers, and a man had gone up on either end and managed to saw the front and rear walls off at the same height as the rest of the walls so that they didn't have to worry about more collapse.

Ivy was worried, though. She wanted them to just take down the whole barn and start again from the beginning. Not that she knew why.

If the bottom portion of the barn was structurally sound, there really wasn't any sense in tearing it down and starting all over again, they could just build onto it and it'd be all fine, she was quite sure.

But yet she wasn't sure. She was worried, and had taken to now avoiding looking out the window as much as possible. It disturbed her that she was so worried, and the worst part was that she couldn't explain why. She felt like it was dangerous, but the men were more than confident that it was fine.

Even Mr. Bramwell and David had told her she was being over-worried and it would all work out just fine — and they should know better than Thomas even because they lived on the same property as the barn and knew how well they cared for it and what kind of condition it was in.

Still, though, Ivy couldn't be at rest. She determined as much as she could to force the fearful thoughts from her mind. Everything would be fine. The barn's walls had stood well for this long, they weren't going to fail now, especially if they weren't even rotted.

Ivy bustled about her work as quickly as she could. She was in a way surprised that no one had asked why she was so worried, but she also wasn't; they'd just met her this morning, they likely didn't know that she was worried, nor did they know what she was worried about — other than Mrs. Bramwell.

It upset her that she was so worried. Everyone else knew there was nothing to be worried about, but she couldn't seem to make the worry go away. It wasn't the first time that such a thing had happened to her, but it was by far the worst she'd felt and the most worried she'd felt.

In the end, every other time, everything had turned out alright, just as everyone else had been so confident of, and she was more than certain it would be the same now, consciously, but her subconscious would not let her stop worrying. It seemed to be clutched in terror, as if her subconscious knew something she didn't, not that she was sure how, she'd not even been here a full day.

Some form of disturbance had been around her since she'd arrived, though, and it only seemed to grow with the passage of time, not lessen, no matter what Ivy did to try and get herself to settle down."

Testing: Day 1

Word Count: 6,023

Summary of Events:

Ivy and Thomas set out from the Oldford farm for Elk City and Ivy pressed Thomas to try and describe his family to her a little bit more, even though he didn't really feel he knew how. Gabriel fed his horses and did what little work he could with them before going inside and eating the meal Mrs. Goddard — the owner of the rooming house he lived in — had kept warm for him. Ivy thought about how much she loved Thomas and how she now understood what her sister Anna and sister-in-law Mildred had been experiencing when they'd been preparing for their own weddings years ago better . . . 

Excerpt of the Day:

""You're surprisingly quiet," Thomas said softly.

"I want you to be able to hear your family when we arrive," Ivy replied, smiling.

Thomas smiled, uttering that soft, low, warm chuckle that flooded her heart with joy she was sure a woman could only know when she had a wonderfully perfect man for herself.

"I appreciate your consideration," Thomas said quietly, the smile still on his face. "Of course you have always been very considerate, even to people you don't like, I've noticed."

"Oh, thank you Thomas," Ivy said, flushing.

"I haven't made you considerate," Thomas said.

"For the compliment Thomas," Ivy replied.

"Oh, you're welcome," Thomas said, a bit of colour creeping into his cheeks as he kept his gaze steadily on the horses.

"I'm even considerate to people I don't like?" Ivy asked.

"Not as considerate as you are with people you do like," Thomas replied. "But yes."

"How so?" Ivy asked, honestly not sure how that could possibly work.

"Well, you do as the Golden Rule: you treat others the way you would like to be treated," Thomas replied.

"Don't you have an example?" Ivy asked.
"Well, Ophelia Calvert," Thomas replied.

Ivy shuddered.

"I knew you wouldn't like to hear it," Thomas replied. "But Ophelia always talks you down for being so good and kind, and having such lovely appearance as you do, whereas you say nothing about her. You ignore her unkindnesses, and also, you make no comment about her because you have nothing nice to say about her. Not even now. You just keep silent and put it all aside. That is, in a way, considerate, if you know what I mean."

Ivy shifted her jaw, not sure she understood.

"You know that you don't like the way Ophelia treats you, so you considerately refrain from treating her in the same manner," Thomas said. "You've chosen to show her some caring and consideration despite the fact that she shows you none in return."

"I guess that is true," Ivy said. "And in part, I must admit, I don't understand why she treats me like she does."
"Jealousy," Thomas replied. "Ophelia gets the impression that you're faultless, not to mention I've heard that more than once a young man she met first because she lives in town completely forgot about her as soon as you walked in the schoolroom door when the session started."

"They obviously never bothered to talk to me," Ivy said. "Although I've always thought men go after the blondes, so Ophelia should be the one with the crowd of men."

"And that's what she thinks too, however, it seems all of the men around here have an affinity for raven-haired women such as yourself," Thomas said, a smile blossoming over his face. "Myself included.""