Rosemary's Race

 by Bree (pen name)

Note: I met "Bree" at the Christian Heritage Convention in June 2022

“What?” Rosemary breathed in disbelief. She stared at her father, who was obviously distraught. In her hand she held a copy of the newspaper, open to the “wanted” section. A photograph of herself loomed near the bottom of the page. 

“You can’t do this to me!” Rosemary exclaimed, throwing the paper to the rough wooden floorboards. She resisted the urge to cry. Her anger for her father’s decision threatened to boil over.

Rosemary’s father shook his head forlornly. “I am so sorry, my dear,” he cried, taking Rosemary’s hand, which she instantly drew away, “I had no choice. Since your mother died, caring for all eight of you children has been too much for me. I have no job, and if I can’t find one soon, I won’t be able to feed you and your siblings. Everyone else can work, but you, sweet Rosie…”

Rosemary realized what he was saying. She looked scornfully at her crippled leg, the leg that sealed her fate.

“I love you, and I always will,” her father said, his face showing the pain and sorrow that filled him, “I just can’t care for all of you anymore.”

Rosemary heard no more. She hobbled out of the room as fast as her crutch would take her. Bursting out the back door, she met her four-year-old brother, Cooper.

“Why’s you cryin’, Wosie?” the child asked innocently. 

Unable to speak, Rosemary passed him. He followed her. Rosemary dropped onto a bench and sobbed uncontrollably. 

“Wosie! Wosie! Was da madder?” Though they were nearly ten years apart, Cooper and Rosemary were good friends. Cooper reached over and patted Rosemary’s back.

“I- I-” Rosemary choked, “I’m being- sent away.”

“Dat ain’t bad, is it Wosie? Daddy said me’s gwine wif you on a ‘venture,”

Rosemary’s sobs stopped suddenly. Coop, dear little Coop, was being put up for adoption too. Rosemary thought she would never forgive her father for abandoning them. She took Cooper’s hand and squeezed it. “No matter what,” she said, “God won’t let us be separated.”

****

There was a knock at the door. Rosemary hobbled to her room while her older brother went to let the visitor in. Rosemary feared it was another prospective guardian. She peeked out into the hallway. Upon seeing the woman who was let in, she dearly hoped that if anyone adopted her and Coop, it would be that one. 

The woman wore a long, black dress and her jet dark curls fell around a rosy, kind face. She looked to be nearing her forties but still carried herself as if she was twenty. As Rosemary studied her, the woman turned her head in Rosemary’s direction. Rosemary couldn’t move. The woman motioned for her to come. 

Rosemary, after a moment’s hesitation, slowly exited her room, leading a confused Cooper behind. 

“Is this the child whom I am to take?” the woman asked Rosemary’s brother. 

“Yes, and right behind her is the boy, Cooper.”

The woman reached out a slender hand and touched Rosemary’s face, then Cooper’s. Her eyes stayed fixed on the wall the entire time. 

Then Rosemary realized it. This woman was blind! Rosemary stepped back, drawing Cooper along with her. How could they trust a blind woman to care for them?

As if she had read her thoughts, the woman said “I have a large estate where you will be quite safe, with a few maids and butlers to help care for you. I am in need of a companion, and your little brother must come too, for I simply could never separate you.”

Rosemary was nearly convinced. There was no changing her Father’s mind, so she might as well go to a good home.

****

Rosemary stared out the window of the buggy at the huge mansion before her. Surely this wasn’t her new home! But as the buggy turned down the lane toward the place, Rosemary knew it was. She glanced at Cooper, who was as much in awe as Rosemary, if not more. His mouth hung open and his eyes were glued to the scene.

As the horse drawn buggy pulled up under the porte-cochére, it struck Rosemary. She would probably never see her family again. She was too busy worrying for Cooper to bother about herself, and now that she realized it, the weight of her situation seemed to make walking harder than it already was.

As soon as she was shown to her room, she collapsed on the huge bed and cried her heart out. She didn’t realize she wasn’t alone until a gentle hand was laid on her shoulder.

“I’m very sorry I had to take you from your family,” the woman, whose name Rosemary had found out on the drive was Della, sat down next to her. “I understand your pain. My parents died when I was your age. I inherited this estate. I lived here until I was older, when I married and had a daughter.”

Rosemary lifted her tear-stained face to look at Miss Della’s unseeing eyes.

“Joseph and little Louisa died in a train wreck ten years ago. I was stricken with grief. I shut myself away. I had no friends. But now, I hope that you and I can be good companions.” Della tilted her head toward Rosemary.

“I feel like I’m about to die of grief,” Rosemary said, burying her face in the pillow. “I’ll never see my family again.”

“Rosemary, the task set before you—keeping me company and caring for your brother—was assigned to you not by your father, not by me, but by God. Run the race set before you with diligence.”

After this little speech, Della left so that Rosemary could mull over her options.

If this is where God wants me, I better be satisfied with it, Rosemary thought, and I’ll trust God to let me see my family again. 

Just then, a bell next to the door rang. Rosemary assumed it meant it was suppertime, so she

cleaned up and opened the door of her room.

Rosemary hobbled down the carpeted stairs, running her hand lightly along the ornate banister. It reminded her of the banister at her own home, the one that she could slide down even with her disability.

A fresh wave of homesickness washed over her, but she managed to prevent it from overflowing in the form of tears. She made it to the bottom of the stairs and entered the dining room. Della sat at the head of the table, with Cooper on her left. She motioned for Rosemary to sit on her right.

The meal before her was unlike any Rosemary had ever seen. There was roast quail, mashed potatoes with butter on top, and a mix of cooked-to-perfection veggies. As she heaped her plate high, she decided that this was a small blessing, though she wished she didn’t have to give up her family to obtain it.

****

Ever since he had bid farewell to his two children that morning, Rosemary’s father had sat in his wife’s old rocking chair staring into the fireplace or at the ceiling. His remaining children, under the directions of the eldest, avoided the room for their father’s sake. He rocked past supper and went to bed even before his children, where he shed silent tears for his beloved children.

Meanwhile, Abe, Cora, Jane, Oliver and Mabel mourned the loss of their siblings in their own ways. 

Abe, the oldest, was reminded of Rosemary and Cooper at every turn. A forgotten toy, a name and height scrawled on the doorpost amidst lots of others.

Cora, Rosemary’s older sister, went around doing her daily chores, crying all the while. 

Jane, who was four years younger than thirteen-year-old Rosemary, missed her playmate so dearly that she refused to even look at the toys they used to share. 

Seven-year-old Oliver, on the other hand, carried Cooper’s toys everywhere, caressing and cuddling them. 

Little Mabel constantly asked where Wowo, which was her name for Rosemary, and Boop, which was her name for Cooper, were and why they hadn’t given her a kiss before going “bye-bye.”

The home, which had been a cheerful, happy haven before it’s mistress’s death, was now a house of sadness, containing an incomplete and sorrowful family.

****

It had been nearly a week since Rosemary and Cooper had been taken to the residence of Della, and Rosemary still got homesick at the slightest remembrance of her home and family. After tea, Della, Rosemary, and Cooper were in the sitting room. Della was teaching Rosemary embroidery and Cooper was playing with toy horses. A rickety structure made of blocks built under the ottoman served as his barn.

As Rosemary yanked at her tangled string, she remembered the time when Cora had tried and failed to teach her to sew. She realized she’d never learn to make a simple pillowcase, let alone create such a work of art as the roses that Della had created, despite Della’s blindness.

Rosemary heaved a shuddering sigh as she told herself to focus on the task at hand. Do diligently the job you have right now. Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough troubles of its own. Run the race set before you; there is a great reward. Yet, Rosemary couldn’t help worrying and wondering how she could get back to her family. 

Every day of her stay at Della’s mansion, Rosemary had had memories triggered by anything, causing her to doubt that she had a reason to be separated from her family. The race before her seemed quite rocky, narrow, and steep when her thoughts slipped in that direction.

To bring her thoughts back to the good, she would remind herself of God’s promises and blessings. She still had Cooper, she was in a huge home with a kind guardian, and she was given more than she needed.

But being separated from her family was still one of the hardest trials of her life. She felt like she was looking through a window but focusing on the smudges.

****

It was after supper that Rosemary heard the happiest news of her life. As she took up her sloppy embroidery and sat down to work on it, Della spoke.

“I have grand news for you, Rosemary,” she said. “Your father and older brother are coming to work for me as a gardener and a stable hand. They and all your other siblings will stay in a large cottage on the edge of my land. You and Cooper may go live there too, so long as you continue coming to visit me.”

Rosemary stared at Della the entire time. When she heard she would go too, she hobbled as fast as she could to Della and threw her arms around the woman’s neck. “Thank you!” she cried, sobbing tears of joy, “I will visit you every day of my life! Thank you! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome, child,” Della said, “Over the past week I’ve come to love you and Cooper as my own children. You’ve changed my life for the better and I thank God that He gave you to me, even if it was only for a week or so.”

Rosemary then remembered Cooper, who was sitting with a blank, unknowing look on his face. She released Della and gave Cooper a huge bear hug, dropping her crutch in the process. “Coop, we’re going home! We’re going home!”