ATOP Chapter Twenty-Four

"So," Josh planted his hands on his hips as he surveyed Mac's front yard. The brand new house stood proudly in front of them, resplendent in its brand new coat of whitewash and bright green shutters thrown open in cheery welcome. The shade oak mentioned so prominently in Katie's letters towered over where the porch was to be, still crowned in a glory of golden leaves. Across from the house stood the foundation of the barn, ready for building, and it was to this that Josh turned. 

"When are y'all gonna come build me a barn, Cat?" he grinned. "I want a big one, and I want it orange with purple polka dots, you know Emma would love that."

"I am surprised," Mac answered wryly. "That Emma hasn't actually disowned you yet."

"Oh, she has, she has," Josh shook his head, unconcerned. "Many times. She always realizes her mistake soon afterwards and repents heartily. She knows that I'm a once-in-a-lifetime kinda catch."

"All that time you were stuck with this guy, and you still haven't learned that the only way to live with him is to ignore him when he gets like that," Ronnie laughed at Mac as he passed them in pursuit of Benjie, who had run off with a ladle from Katie's kitchen.

"Impossible," Mac called after him. "He's always like that. Can't ignore him all the time!"

"Yes, you can!" Ronnie yelled back. Seeing Benjie, Josh promptly lost interest in the barn and also took chase. He beat Ronnie to the little boy and scooped him up. Josh was, accordingly, beat over the head with aforementioned ladle. He managed to confiscate this rather effective weapon, tossed it gleefully at Ronnie, and ran off with Benjie, both of them laughing hysterically. 

"That kid," Ronnie rolled his eyes as he bent to retrieve the ladle. "He's never gonna grow up."

"Just ignore him, Chief," Mac grinned.

As this "kerfuffle", as Emma would have termed it, was going on, half the population of Lanesboro was driving up Mac's lane. Jafe stood by the house, directing traffic. He grimaced, realizing that enough vehicles were present that the grass would have to be used as parking space. Hopefully that wouldn't upset Katie, the grass would certainly be taking a beating. 

As all manner of cars, beat-up old pick-ups, tractors, and even horse-drawn wagons pulled in to unload a crowd of neighbors, friends, and family, things began to fall into motion with all the speed of organized chaos. It was a warm, sunny sort of fall day, so the mothers set up camp in full view of the kitchen windows, spreading out blankets for the babies to roam around on. Older children frolicked in the open back yard. Single girls quickly gathered into circles and talked animatedly together, sending surreptitious glances at the opposite group of young men.

Half by his own appointment and half by Mac's, Jafe had been made boss of the barn-building outfit. He was now mounted on a wooden crate, decorated in blue and red with the words "Sunlight Soap", and shouting at the top of his lungs. Directions were given, and a schedule for the day... to include a hearty lunch and dinner, complete with a dance in the new barn by nightfall. Then Jafe jumped down from his soapbox and dragged Mac onto it. Cries for a speech now rippled through the crowd and even the girls were paying attention now.

Mac scanned the crowd until his eyes met Katie's and he grinned. She had just come out of the house, arm-in-arm with her sisters, but pressed through the gathering when she saw Mac about to speak. 

She reached his side, he took her hand on his and pulled her up on the crate beside him. Wrapping an arm around Katie's shoulders, Mac beamed on his assembled friends and neighbors. 

"Well, everyone, can't really say thanks enough fer bein' so willing t'come out 'n help Katie 'n me... we sure do appreciate it, more 'n I kin say. Pretty much everyone knows me here, spent all th' best years o' my life here and lookin' out over this crowd, it sure is a blessing t'see so many dear and familiar faces. I thank th' Lord for each 'n every one o' ye an' I thank Him fer seein' fit t' bring me back here in... well... in mostly one piece." he chuckled and tapped his wooden leg. "Guess I'm in two pieces now, but thank God 'twas the bigger piece o' me that got home again! An' most of all, thank God fer my precious Katie, couldn't imagine my life without her. I love you, Lintie," and he smiled down at her. 

Hearty cheers erupted and a few hats went sailing merrily overhead. One familiar one hit Mac squarely in the nose and he frowned at the thrower thereof. Josh grinned from ear to ear, wholly unashamed and pleased with himself. Mac snatched up the wayward hat, which had fallen at his feet.

"Thanks, Torpedo, another one to add to th' collection," he laughed. "Well, that's that, folks, daylight's a'burnin', let's get t'work!"

♡♡♡

Under the capable supervision of Jafe, the building began to take shape rapidly. Scarcely an hour into it and, as Josh said critically, "it already almost looks like a barn!"

"Aye, and she's gonna be a beauty," Mac called down to him from the top of a ladder and turned precariously on his perch to wave at Katie. She was standing head and shoulders out of the kitchen window and waving back enthusiastically. Mac added something softly to himself about "she who already was a beauty" and blew his wife a kiss. 

Crucial preparations were happening in Katie's crowded kitchen just as surely as they were happening outside. Dozens upon dozens of hungry people to feed and noon only a few hours away...! Such a flurry of slicing, dicing, stirring, boiling, baking, and washing as took place in there and somehow, no one seemed to trip over each other or make any kind of a mistake, no matter how small. They made it look simple, those veterans of the kitchen, with Marjorie reigning as queen in her blue-checked apron with wisps of snow-white hair escaping her careful bun and her eyes sparkling as merrily as Katie's. Her brand-new daughter-in-law was clad in an identical apron and was unconsciously sporting a smudge of flour on her nose. 

Rachel stood wedged into a corner between the oven and the sink, deftly wrapping apples into little round slices of pastry. She had just finished frying all sorts of mysterious ingredients into the apples, and a simply lovely smell wound its way through the kitchen. Emma was elbows-deep in dishwater, scrubbing away at pots and pans for all she was worth. Katie had just withdrawn herself from the window for the third time in twenty minutes, at Emma's command, and was now quickly drying the dishes Emma had washed and putting them into cupboards with a terrific clatter. She was too excited to pay much attention to what she was doing. 

"Which one is Anne?" Emma murmured as she leaned over to wipe the flour off her sister's nose with a dishrag. As she spoke, Emma gestured with her head towards the half dozen women clustered around the table making sandwiches. A steady stream of others were coming in and out through the propped-open kitchen door as they set up the tables outside. 

"She's not here yet," Katie whispered back. "I don't know if she'll really come after all... she seemed hesitant when I invited her..." she raised her voice to call out to a girl who held a chubby baby in one arm whilst attempting to wrap sandwiches with the other. "I can get those, Emily, why don't you take Ellie outside? She looks like she's getting restless..."

"She is that," Emily laughed, dropping the sandwich to gather the squirmy baby Ellie in both arms. 

"Speaking of Annie," Katie was whispering again. "That girl there is a close friend of hers. Emily Sparks... she teaches kindergarten at the school... and I've never seen anyone love babies as much as she does... Except you, maybe?" she grinned at her sister.

"True," Emma smiled slowly and lifted a hand from the dishwater to pop a soap bubble that was drifting lazily towards the ceiling. "I'm going to have a houseful of babies someday. Precious little girlies, and little rascals of boys that I hope are just like their daddy, even if they give me gray hair at thirty-five..." she laughed and shook her head. "Dear ol' Scout, he's ridiculous isn't he? But he's got the truest heart of any man I've ever known, and I love him all to pieces."