A Human Element Read Free Page B

a handful of shelled peas from her mother's basket and stuffed them in her mouth before getting to work. They crunched in her mouth with sweetness.
    "No headaches today, honey?" her mother asked as her stocky hands worked fast to pop out the peas beneath her wide apron-covered bosom. Laura tried but couldn't pop them out as fast. Fanny rocked away in her chipped green rocker, whistling cheerily, as her hands slit open peas.
    "Nope." Today would be a good day. Some days she had headaches so bad she had to lie down on her bed. Her mother would then place cool washcloths on her forehead and neck. Their town physician, Doctor Anna, said it could be child migraines and she would grow out of it in time.
    "Now don't eat all these peas." Her mother shook her finger. "Save some for supper. I'm nearly done. After this, I need your help getting the chicken feed and hay from the barn. Daddy won't be home for a bit."
    They didn't have a true working farm, Laura's father would say, but they were self-sufficient enough with chickens, eggs, an apple orchard, and an enormous vegetable garden. Wesley said Fanny could make it so they lived off their garden and orchard all year long with the cellar she stocked. By autumn, it would burst full of canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, pickles, applesauce, fruit preserves, and pickled beans. Laura liked to lift the heavy round lids off the giant pickle crocks, dip her fingers into cool wetness, and pull out a crisp one to munch on.
    The sky darkened suddenly. She looked up. Black clouds, thick and angry rolled overhead. Her heart raced faster. The bad feeling screamed again inside her.
    "Let's go inside now." Laura tugged on her mother's sleeve. They would be safer in the house.
    "But we can't let our chores go." Fanny's fingers flew across the peas. Slit. Pop. Slit. Pop. Wind whipped around the corner of the house. It knocked over Laura's basket.
    "Mommy, come on. A storm's coming." She picked up her basket and scattered peas.
    "Laura, you're being silly now. We have to go feed the chickens."
    Her mother put her basket of peas down and Laura took it as an invitation to pull her up and toward the door. The wind became a howl. Her mother's apron and skirt flew up. Thunder cracked. They both jumped.
    "Oh my," Fanny said. "A storm is coming. Quick, come help me."
    "Maybe a tornado! Let's go inside." Laura tugged at her mother's apron.
    "There's hardly ever tornados here in the Catskills." Her mother crinkled her nose and hugged Laura. She had the same pug nose as Laura, but much wider. People said they often looked alike, which Laura thought was funny since she wasn't her real mother.
    All she knew about her real mother was she had been a runaway who showed up one day. Laura dreamed up many scenarios about where her mother hailed from. Once her mother was a trapeze artist from a traveling circus who got left behind on a tour, another time a royal princess who ran away to escape marrying an evil prince. And one time she was even an alien transported to Earth on a secret mission to see how humans lived.
    Wesley often told Laura it was good luck to have two mommies. Fanny watched over her as her 'Earth mommy' while Sarah was her 'Angel mommy' looking down from Heaven. Wesley and Fanny had taken one photo of Laura's mother when she stayed with them. In it, she sat on a rocking chair with her hands folded over her swollen belly. She looked sad and yet peaceful at the same time. Laura could see she looked like her real mother. She would stare at her image and say her name out loud when she was alone. It made her real.
    Laura was afraid some days that her 'Earth mommy' would be taken from her too.
    Today felt like one of those days.
    Fanny jigged across burnt grass as the wind tugged at them. She pulled Laura with her toward the barn. On clear days, Laura liked sitting in the doorway at dusk, looking at her world from high up. Today the barn was a menacing face. A towering building that threatened to gobble them