Dawn's Rising

Chapter 8; Growing Pains

The next day dawned bright and warm, but none of Karl Jakobsen's family saw the start of it. All of them slept long until the last hours of the morning. Then one by one they shuffled into the living room, rubbing sleep from their eyes. Julianna was the last to rise, and was greeted with smiles and good humored joking about being the last to rise. Remembering how exhausting the trip over from Norway had been from personal experience, none of their neighbors disturbed them until the eleventh hour. But then Katrina Lausund came and knocked on the door. With a bright smile, she let herself in before Karl could even stand up from his seat at the table. With a huge basket of clothing under her arm Katrina entered in with a sunny smile, "I just wanted you to know that Ingrid and I have put a caldron of water on to cook for washing clothes. And if you just might have anything that needs washing, you are very welcome to come and join us." Katrina said this with a twinkle in her eye, knowing full well that after such a long journey nearly all the clothing that they had brought with them was likely to be dirty.

"Oh my! Thank you so much. We will be right over in a few minutes." Silje said with genuine gratitude as she tried to stand up from her stool in haste. She didn't quite succeed though due to her swollen belly, swollen legs and swollen feet, and ended up sinking back down onto her stool. Silje then lifted a hand in entreaty towards her husband and waited for him to come around and assist her to her feet. "Julianna, help Kristine go through her trunk for all her dirty things. And Petter, you can do the same for yourself. Strange, but I was sitting here right before Katrina came in, thinking that we needed to wash clothes soon, no matter how tired we all were. Or else, tomorrow we wouldn't have anything presentable to wear." With that the family was dispersed leaving behind their half eaten breakfast.

Under the warm sun of early September, Julianna, her mother, and Katrina busied themselves at hanging up wet clothing, bed sheets, and table cloths as fast as possible onto five parallel lines of thin rope. A warm breeze blew gently against them, increasing the chance that all their wash would be dry before the sun went down. Karl had thoughtfully carried out a stool for Silje to sit her basket on, so that she didn't have to bend down so far. Julianna worked on filling the line that was closest to the houses, while behind her back Silje and Katrina worked on filling the next line over.

Suddenly a voice sounded right beside Julianna, "Good morning, bright eyes," Jens said in a loud cheery voice, startling her so that she dropped the wet towel which she had been holding. "Oops!" Jens exclaimed as he rescued the towel before it hit the ground. "Are you always so jumpy?" From the corner of her eye Julianna caught a glimpse of her mother and Jens's aunt exchanging meaningful grins. With a blush Julianna bent to catch up another piece of clothing. She blatantly ignored Jens and left him holding the towel he had rescued a little longer.

"Julianna, aren't you going to wish Jens a good morning too?" Silje said to her daughter in a sweet tone.

"Good morning," mumbled Julianna to a delighted Jens, as she continued to look steadfastly at what she was doing instead of at Jens.

"I didn't expect to see you up and at it so early today, after such a late night last night." Julianna gave Jens a quick withering look as she took the towel that Jens held out to her. He only blinked innocently back at her.

A moment of silence met Jens' cryptic statement, before Katrina finally asked, "What do you mean Jens? How do you know that Julianna was up late last night?"

"Why, I was with her, that's how. Saw her walking around outside as I made my way back from the privy, and joined her for a stroll. Had to loan her my slippers though, since she was walking around bare foot."

"Julianna Maria Jakobsen," Silje declared to her daughter with genuine shock, using Julianna's full name as she did only when she was upset with her. "What were you doing walking around outside barefoot in the middle of the night?!!"