A Drop of Rain Read Online Free PDF Page B

barn.
    We have a secret hiding place in the barn. It’s made of straw and an old horse blanket. Nobody knows where we are. We stay there for hours and hours, all afternoon. We fall asleep. Then we wake up and hear Mommy calling us for dinner. But we don’t come out.
    Then Daddy finds us somehow.
    â€œWe’re never going home again,” says Johnny.
    â€œMommy spanked us. She told us to go out into the world,” I say.
    Daddy sits in the straw between Johnny and me, and puts his arms around both of us. “Now children,” Daddy says, “your mother is not a young woman. Nor am I a young man. You are our second family, you know.”
    â€œWhat does that mean, Daddy?” I ask, snuggling into his coat.
    â€œThat means there was a war long ago, before you were born,” explains Daddy, holding me close. “And our first two children, a boy and a girl, died because there was not enough food and no medicine. Only Agnes survived. She was the youngest, like you, Tiny Mouse. After the war, I had to go away for ten years to the United States of America. I had to earn money, so your mother and I could start all over again.”
    â€œDid Mommy miss her son after he died?” asks Johnny.
    â€œShe grieved and grieved and almost died herself,” says Daddy. “Not until you were born was she the least bit happy again.”
    â€œDid Mommy miss her daughter after she died?” I ask.
    â€œShe grieved and grieved and almost died herself,” says Daddy. “Not until Elizabeth was born was she the least bit happy again.”
    â€œWas Mommy happy when I was born?” I ask. Then I hold my breath.
    â€œYou, Tiny Mouse, were a surprise,” says Daddy, hugging me and kissing the top of my head. “You were our valentine, and you made Mommy and me as happy as happy can be.”
    â€œGoody!” I say, and we all go home to hug and kiss Mommy.
    When I am hugging Mommy, I say, “I am your valentine!”
    Mommy laughs and says, “No, you’re the old hen’s chicky chick chick!”
    â€œKOOKEREE KOO!” I crow like a rooster. “The old hen laid an Easter egg!”
    â€œThat’s right,” says Daddy. “It will be Easter soon. And soon time to plant seeds.”
    â€œI’ll help you!” I shout.
    â€œWhat about helping me?” asks Mommy. “I have twelve courses to prepare for Easter dinner. Then there are the eggs to decorate.”
    â€œGoody!” I shout, dancing a little polka around the kitchen. “Sausages and eggs! I can’t wait.”
    â€œWell, you must wait,” says Mommy, putting on her apron. “No meat for anyone for four weeks before Easter. And no butter, only oil for cooking.”
    And soon my brother and I are tapping our Easter eggs together.
    â€œIf you break my egg, you have to give yours to me,” says Johnny. “If I break your egg, I have to give mine to you.”
    And we eat our eggs with salt. And we also eat sausages and fish and many other delicious things.
    And we go to church. And the the priest blesses us all.
Eva
    Hanna left Poland in 1979. She never returned. She stayed with me for several years at my Grandma Goralski’s house in Edmonton, until I was established in my engineering studies.
    After martial law was declared in Poland in December 1981, she was able to get landed immigrant status in Canada quickly, and then she looked for work. She found temporary, full-time, contract work for three years in Montreal, developing the Polishcollection of a special new library devoted to Slavic culture and history. I stayed in Edmonton to finish my degree and look after my grandmother.
    After the Solidarity Uprising in August 1980, I saw Mark regularly on television broadcasts from Poland. He was translating for the leaders of the Solidarity movement. (He was very cynical when I knew him in Warsaw, but he finally decided that he believed in something!) I only