Chapter 189

“My father,” Hannah used the English word, “once, wanted to run away.”

“They really were miserable,” I said touching the hard shiny metal, “but how do you know that?”

“When he thought of the ore he always thought of what he had. He tried hard to get more.”

Suddenly, I felt a pang of fear. “I wonder if they had planned to take me with them?”

“Yes, Mama,” Hannah said pulling the ore back out.

“Sweet men,” I said smiling.

The rest of Hannah’s morning we spent on the floor in the closet. She finally let me put the ore away. As we sat, she played with the stones, cards, and pieces of my ornamentation. I noted her hand eye coordination getting markedly better as did her speech.

I encouraged her to do things repeatedly until she was able. Her learning curve was incredibly rapid. Teaching her was engrossing.

“What are you doing?” Christof asked standing in the doorway of the closet.

Hannah and I were using the flat stones to build with,