A Yellow Bonnet

Hay Dunes

That evening when the sun had set and the dishes washed, I took out my art supply box. I loved this box, a gift from the aunties for my fourteenth birthday, with its thick creamy paper and pencils of every color and shade.

Caleb and Anna crowded in to watch while Jacob smoked his pipe and read his book. I gave Anna and Caleb a sketchbook and showed them how to draw birds and sheep and trees. While they worked away, Caleb on a boat and Anna a bouquet of flowers, I began to sketch the fields. I wanted to show William and the aunties what it was like here.

Caleb watched as I added the rickety windmill to the picture.

"My first word was windmill," he piped up, "Papa said so."

"Mine was flower," Anna didn't glance up from her sketch, "What was yours, Sarah?"

"Dune."

Caleb's face scrunched up, "Dune? What's a dune?"

I took out a fresh sheet and drew a dune as I explained it was a sandy hill that led into the water.

"William and I would slide down it into the water when we were little. It was great fun."

Caleb sighed, "We don't have dunes here."

I had not noticed that Jacob had set his book down until he rose to his feet.

"Yes, we do, Caleb," he said.

He grabbed a lantern and disappeared outside.

"We do?" the children cried.

We three, and the dogs, hurried after Jacob. He led us to the side of the barn where he kept his bedding hay. The mound was covered with a canvas to keep out the rain and mice. He grabbed a wooden ladder and leaned it against the hay.

"There. Our dune," he flashed a smile at me.

I stared at the mound basked in moonlight. Our very own dune. He had made our very own dune. I glanced around at the three Wittings. They had done so much for me.

Caleb reached over and took my hand.

"It looks pretty high," he said, "Are you scared, Sarah?"

"Scared? Scared! Of course I'm not scared!"

I clambered up the mound of hay to the very peak. At the bottom, Jacob made a soft bed of loose hay to land on.

"Fine?" he called, his eyes twinkling in the lantern light.

"Fine," I called back.

Then I lifted my arms above my head and slid down. The air wooshed past me and thrilled me to the core. I landed on the hay bed laughing.

"Was it a good dune," Caleb called.

"Yes! It was the best dune!"

We all went numerous times until it was past bedtime. We returned to the house covered in hay and dust that filled our noses and we sneezed.

The children were instructed to wash up and get ready for bed. I returned to my drawings. I held the field sketch up to the light. I frowned. It wasn't...right. Something was missing, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

So I slipped it back into my box. Instead I drew Caleb sliding down the hay dune with a huge grin on his face, and another of Anna, her hair long and wet with a rosy smile.

On his way to bed, Jacob leaned over my shoulder to study them.

"You're talented. These are really good," he murmured.

His praise caused my heart to swell and I blushed. When he left, I began another sketch, but of Jacob with his soft smile and eyes sparkling like they had earlier. I stuffed it in the bottom of my trunk when I went to bed. I had not the nerve to show anyone.