Hannah's Rainbow: Every Color Beautiful

Chapter Seven

C

Three years later, Hannah would come to believe her mother's concept on time: how it appeared to speed up with age. By the time Hannah was thirteen years old, Irma was a toddler. She was quiet and shy, a little girl who went along with whatever the rest of the family was doing.

"She's a follower and doesn't talk much because the rest of you are always doing all the talking for her," Ma said from time to time.

Hannah's little sister kept the darker hair and had blue eyes. She favored Ma more in looks. At nearly three years old, Irma was old enough to play games with, including tea parties, but Hannah was beginning to find dolls and sitting around on small chairs with pretend tea and cakes not too exciting.

Erik graduated from high school in 1925 and would be the first in the family to attend college. He had grown into an attractive young man with dark blonde hair smoothed back and piercing blue eyes, whose charisma and light-hearted manner made him popular - that, and the fact that he was the school's star pitcher for their baseball team. Whenever the phone rang, most of the time it was for him. Hannah lost track of the number of girls who called and teased him about having too many girlfriends.

Grossmutter had moved in with them earlier that year, a cot set up for her in the corner of the living room. She and Flossie would be staying with her other daughter while the Rechthart family went to visit Uncle John and Aunt Mabel in Buffalo.

Once they arrived, they hoped to make a trip to Niagara Falls. Hannah had only ever seen pictures of the falls and had never been out of Ohio. The prospect of going to New York was downright thrilling.

"Now, remember," Ma told the family as they pulled out of the driveway in their Cadillac on a sultry July morning to leave for their vacation, "my brother and his wife don't have any kids. Don't go asking them why, either."

"Why?" Harry couldn't help but ask.

Erik elbowed him in the stomach, causing Harry to grunt. "What?"

While Erik had become a ladies' man, Harry was the class clown, his mousy brown hair unkempt and a mischievous sparkle in his blue eyes, a lopsided grin to top it all off.

In the back of the seven-passenger car, Amy and Hannah exchanged looks and rolled their eyes. Between them, Irma was already dozing.

"I have a feeling this is going to be a long trip," Hannah muttered to her older sister. "Irma has the right idea."

In a hushed voice, Amy said, "I don't think Ma's particularly close to Uncle John. You know they never had kids, and that's because they didn't want them."

"Is that why Ma said not to ask? "

"I don't know. Uncle John was more into his career. Believe it or not, Aunt Mabel used to work. I think they're both retired now."

"Was she a teacher? A secretary?" Hannah didn't know of many women who worked. Her own mother used to be a seamstress for a few years before she had children, and Amy was now working as a full-time secretary, but the majority of women she knew stayed at home caring for their children.

"A nurse."

"Oh, wow." Hannah was amazed. "What did Uncle John do? Was he a doctor?"

Amy chuckled. "No, no. He was a welder."

"A welder? And he'd rather do that than have a family?"

From the front of the car, Ma said, "What are you two discussing back there?"