"He's not hurt, though?" Clyde said.
"No, no, nothing like that. But Bethany's mother Stacey wouldn't even let him in her yard. Yelled at him that his father was a-" she looked down at her son and mouthed the word, "pervert."
Daniel growled. "That awful woman. What right does she have?"
Daniel turned angrily toward the door, but Clyde stopped him. "Noooo. No sir. There is nothing to be gained by that."
"But-"
"Yes, I know. And you may be completely right, but going over and yelling at her isn't going to do anything but get the police on my mother's doorstep for a second time in one day, and I know you don't want that again."
Daniel flushed, remembering how much trouble he had already brought-however unintentionally-to Frau Rice's home. No, he did not want to risk that.
Instead, he sat beside his wife and child, rubbing Benjamin's back and speaking soothingly to him. "It won't matter," he said. "You have many other friends. All your friends from church, and from the daycare."
Gradually, as he and Sofia sat with him, Benjamin's tears began to ease. After a time, Stefan came and asked Benjamin if he wanted to play with the wooden cars that they'd both received for Christmas, and the boys went into the next room.
Sofia and Daniel joined Clyde and Ella Lou in the kitchen, taking chairs at the table as Nina served light sugar cookies. Daniel tried to smile as he took a few bites. She was always ready with a treat in times of distress.
After their cookies were gone and each had a fresh cup of coffee, Ella Lou asked, "What happened at the station?"
Daniel explained in detail, and everyone expressed their relief.
"It's over, then?" Sofia asked.
There was an awkward pause. "Well," Clyde said, "that's difficult to say."
"But if the police say he's innocent?"
Another awkward pause was interrupted by the boys joining them, looking for entertainment, and the topic was dropped for the time.
As Clyde was preparing to leave, the phone rang. Sofia went to answer it as Daniel and Clyde finished discussing his latest plans for opening a self-storage facility in Bamberg. When Sofia returned, the look on her face silenced both men.
Sofia shook her head. "The daycare said our Benjamin couldn't come back. Some of the parents objected."
"Oh, for God's sake!" Daniel said. "This is madness!"
Ella Lou heard him, and came into the room trailed by the boys. "What is it now?"
Sofia explained and Ella Lou said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. That poor child."
Clyde shook his head. "That fool Barnes must be burning up the phone lines, trying to make trouble."
Daniel threw up his hands. "He's telling everyone in town that I'm a monster. What am I to do?"
"Honestly?" Clyde said. "Not much."
"That damn idiot," Ella Lou said. "Only an act of God can explain why that man ever amounted to anything more than a junior supervisor at a widget factory."
"Widget?" Daniel said.
Clyde shook his head.
It was something else that Daniel would let pass and never understand. But one thing he did understand was how upset Benjamin would be at this latest setback. "Perhaps," Daniel said, "it really is time for us to go."
Everyone fell silent, even Sofia. Daniel stood there listening to the muffled laughter of his son and Stefan as they played in a back room of the house.
"That's ridiculous, Daniel," Ella Lou said. "Don't pay any attention to what Barnes says. This will all blow over."
"This isn't just about Barnes, Frau Rice," Daniel said, shaking his head. "I never intended Grantville to be our permanent home." He turned and smiled at his host. "I came here to learn up-time painting techniques, and I have. I've not learned everything, and I'm sure if I-if we-stayed, I could learn a lot more. But I'm not an up-timer. I was born in Stettin, in Pomerania. My life is not here." He pointed to the window. "It's out there somewhere. I'm in my fifties. To you up-timers, that's nothing, middle aged. But here. . I need to get out there and take care of some things, do some things, before it's too late."
Clyde was about to speak, but Daniel continued. "Did you know that I have two other sons from a previous marriage? They're in their twenties now. One lives in Magdeburg. Perhaps the other does as well, I do not know. But I'd like to see them again, to share with them what I have learned. And Benjamin needs to know who his brothers are. I understand that Gustavus Adolphus is in Magdeburg as well. Perhaps he'll let me paint him again if he is well enough. . using newer, more daring, techniques."
The room was very quiet, and Sophia moved to her husband and gave him a hug. Daniel liked that. He appreciated her youthful softness, her casual, effortless displays of affection. It was something he wasn't used to, but he had learned a lot since coming to Grantville. He was learning more and more each day.
Tears welling in her eyes, Ella Lou Rice finally said, "So, when will you all be leaving, then?"
Daniel exchanged a look of understanding with his wife, then said, "By the end of the week."
After he closed and locked his trunk, all of his clothing packed, Daniel stepped over to the window and twitched aside the curtain just enough to look out on the town. He would miss it-far more deeply than he'd expected when they first began talking of leaving. Most of all, he would miss Frau Rice. Or. . perhaps he would most miss watching Stefan and Benjamin play in the yard.
He sighed and started to turn away, when he noticed Stacey Rowland Duvall, Bethany Anne's mother, standing in her yard, staring toward the house. He glared at her, wishing Clyde hadn't stopped him when he'd wanted to yell at her after she was cruel to his boy. It might well not have accomplished anything, but he would have felt better, at least.
And then he realized what she was staring at: the painting. That painting, sitting propped against the trash by the curb, still torn and warped, damp from the morning dew, awaiting collection. He'd studied it until he felt he could glean no more, before asking Nina to dispose of it. He'd expected it to be burned, forgetting how tenacious these up-timers were about saving everything, recycling everything.
The woman looked both ways, and across to the house. Apparently she saw no one, because she passed through her gate, crossed the street, and stopped before his ragged canvas. As she reached down to pick it up, he felt a brief impulse to run down and snatch it away from her, but he made himself wait and watch, curious to see her reaction.
She turned the painting around, propping it up to let the light fall on its surface, and simply stood there and stared at it. After a moment, she slid her right hand up, pressing it against her chest. It was a move Daniel had made himself, perhaps a half dozen times in his life: when he'd first set eyes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, El Greco's The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, Titian's Assunta, and Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. It was a gesture that came of pure emotion, of being moved beyond words by an inspired work of art. Daniel found that his hand, too, was pressed to his chest, moved beyond words that his work had touched someone so deeply.
The woman reached down and picked up the painting, took it back across the street to her home, and closed the door. At last, his heart lightened, Daniel smiled. My first fan, he thought.
Many more to go.
He picked up his trunk and went out back to join the others, who were saying their goodbyes.
After hugs all around, Clyde slapped Daniel on the shoulder with his big, generous hand. "It's not too late to change your mind, my friend. You could stay and we could open up that art gallery right here in Grantville that we talked about. Barnes will tire of his nonsense soon enough."