The Cotton Mill

Chapter 3-3

“Mommy, they gave you a pretty bag this time,” Lisa said.

“Oh yeah, they didn’t have those out before,” Leah said quickly.

The girls sat in the back of the Ford as they drove home excitedly reviewing their day. Momma Leah turned the dial of the old Delco car radio until she had found a station playing Christmas hymns.

“What’s a manger?” Josie asked.

“Well, it’s the thing farmers put the hay in for the cows to eat out of.”

“But why did they put a baby in it? Ain’t they afraid the cows would eat him?” Lisa asked.

Momma Leah decided at that moment that tonight the girls would be hearing the Christmas story for the first time. When they pulled into the hard-packed front yard, they saw that even though it was daylight, the strands of outdoor lights had been turned on. They started to run into the house, but the mother brought them back to help carry in the groceries, careful not to see the bags she had slipped into the back of the car.

“Here Lisa, take these two cartons of pop and put them on the back porch. Josie, you take this bag.”

As the girls started around the house to the back porch, Leah quickly grabbed the two bags with the large B by their handles, and hid them in the corner of the trunk. Just then the girls came back around the house. Leah found two bags that were light and handed them to Lisa. She then found two slightly heavier bags for Josie and the girls started toward the house. Leah grabbed two bags and followed. When she got to the screen door, she used her foot to kick on the bottom. Colin, hearing the “knocking”, came to open the door.

“Hey guys, where ya been?” Colin, freshly washed and shaved, smiled down at the girls.

“Oh daddy,” the girls said excitedly as they recited the events of the day. “We’ve bought groceries, and we ate at the snack counter, and we set in a booth, and we got candy, and nuts, and a really big chicken,…”

Colin opened the screen door to let Leah slip in under his arm.

“Hello Leah.”

“Hello Colin,” she answered with a voice as cold as the winter air.

“Daddy, what are you cooking?” Josie said, as a rich chocolaty aroma greeted her.

“Well, what do you think it is?”

“Is it chock’lit dumlins?” Lisa asked hopefully.

“It sure is!”

Poppa Campbell was known for his chocolate dumplings. Dough had been rolled out and cut into square dumplings. The dumplings were then dropped into the boiling mixture of milk, Hershey’s chocolate and plenty of sugar. The dumplings absorbed the rich taste and were delicious. The girls loved them.

“I’m sorry honey, but I used all the cocoa,” he asked. “Do I need to go buy some more?”

“No, I got some,” she answered in a monotone.

Colin set the dumplings on the table that had actually come from one of Mr. Wall’s buildings out back. It had originally been used as a work bench to work on small motors. Leah had made Colin scrub it down, and paint it a pleasant green. She then purchased a green and white oilcloth to lay over it. The four unmatched chairs had been stripped, and then painted a matching green. Occasionally at the mill, Leah did inspections. She had bought several yards of the rejected material from the mill and had dyed the cloth green to made matching seat and back cushions for the chairs.

Leah went to the corner cabinet and took four white bowls and placed them on the table. She took four matched spoons from the drawer, each with “USN” stamped on them. Colin had brought home almost a complete set of the spoons and forks from his KP duties while in the Navy.

While Colin used a coffee cup to place several of the dumplings into the bowls, Leah brought the last of the bags in, including the bag with the “big chicken”. With the slightest hint of laughter, she placed the turkey down on the counter beside the sink and said aloud, so Colin could hear, “Well, here’s the big chicken”.

Colin, glad that the conversation was thawing, laughed loudly, and then turned back to the girls.

“Now be careful; blow on it; it’s hot,” he warned.

None of the four said anything until several of the dumplings had been enjoyed, and then Colin attempted to generate a pleasant conversation.

“So, you girls had a good time eh?”

“Oh yeah, so much fun,” Josie said.

“And Josie has a boyfriend named Leon at the grocery store.”

Josie glared at her smaller sister, “And Lisa said S-H-I-T on the school yard.”

“Did you say that?” Leah said, as she glared at Lisa.

Lisa dropped her head, while still rolling an eye and sticking a tongue out at Josie, “Yes ma’am, but I didn’t mean to; it just kinda slipped out, like it does when daddy hits his finger with the hammer.”

“Well, the next time either of you say a bad word, you’re gonna get a whipping,” Leah said.

“Yes ma’am,” Lisa answered, sticking her tongue out at Josie again.

Josie returned the motion.

“Mommy, can we go over to Skeeter’s to play?” Lisa asked.

Leah stopped to think. Skeeter seemed to be a very nice boy and the girls really liked playing with him, but he was colored. Leah really didn’t have a problem, but sometimes the neighbors had asked her why she let them play with a colored boy. But Leah knew she needed to have them out of the house long enough to wrap the presents beneath the bed.

“Well, ok, but it’s 3:30; be back here no later than 5 because it will be getting dark by then.”

She knew, if she said by five, they would not be back before 4:59. An hour and half should be enough time to wrap the presents. After all, there were only a few things for each of them.

The girls quickly ate their last dumpling, and then turned the bowls up to gulp down the last of the chocolate elixir. Before they had barely swallowed all of the liquid, they had their coats on and were almost out of the door. Josie stopped though and came back to the kitchen.

“Momma, can I take some of the dumplings to Skeeter? He really loves them.”

Leah took a container from the cabinet and put two cups of the mixture into it. She then pressed the lid tightly on.

“Be sure to bring back the bowl,” she said, but was doubtful the young girl would remember.

Then Josie shot out the door to catch her younger sister, who was already half way down the road to Skeeter’s.