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Show in my father's house/ 214 at stake conference. Aunt Elsa,who had taken the alias of Jacobs so she wouldn't be linked with Aunt Rachel, traveled from Wells to attend conference and Clustered with the others congratulating my mother. "Someone introduced us," my mother told us later. "I can't tell you how strange it felt, being introduced to my own sister-wife!" Aunt Helga nodded. "I'd like to have seen her, too." "What did you say?" I asked my mother. "I said 'How do you do?* What else could I say without letting on that we knew each other?" A deep sadness welled inside me as I thought of my mother pretending not know Aunt Elsa, her sister-wife. I thought of how Aunt Elsa''s voice went shrill, as though she expected to be„ignored or overruled by one of the older wives. I thought of my mother, so afraid we would be discovered by the townspeople. My chest ached for both of them. In January, beginning of a new year and a new decade, Aunt Rachel went into labor with her thirteenth baby. My father told us about the ordeal during his next visit. "I don't know why Rachel put off letting anyone know that her time had come, but when Leora rushed over to Elsa's and pounded on the front door, it was almost too late. Elsa knew right off there wasn't time to send for me, so she hurried about, getting everything sterile - Rachel hadn't found time to prepare - and Elsa delivered the child herself." His worrisome tone vanished and he grinned. "She's just beautiful - a gorgeous little girl, with the longest, blackest hair you ever saw." |