Snipet #21

As Mrs. Edna Putnam sliced leeks for her much sought after chicken soup, she thought about Evelyn and the wind. The wind had just started to pick up as she stood by her kitchen window slicing vegetables, and it was then that she recalled that it was Evelyn's birthday.

Thirteen years ago the storm that had raged through the town destroyed so many of her beloved plants and trees. She had painstakingly planted every tree and form of greenery on her property herself, and the loss would have been devastating to her, if it weren't for the arrival of Evelyn. She saw Evelyn's birth as an omen, and an omen as powerful as that was due a bit of a sacrifice. Mrs. Putnam loved life, all sorts of life, animals, plants and people. She was the town midwife for many years, taking over after her own mother had retired. She came from a long line of midwives, as far back as her great-great-great grandmother Chelsea Beadle.

These women had been well known in the art of female medicine, even before there was such a thing as female medicine. They knew secrets they never told anyone except their apprentice, and each had an apprentice, their daughter or niece, when the time came to pass the knowledge on to another. But Mrs. Edna Putnam was not blessed with a fruitful womb, and when her husband died unexpectedly when she was 32, she knew her fate was sealed. She had loved George Putnam from the first moment she laid eyes on him when she was 14 years old and he was 17. For her it was love at first sight, for George, as he would affectionately say, Edna told me I was in love with her, and who was I to say otherwise?

There would be no other loves for Edna Putnam, and that was that. Unfortunately, it left her with a bit of dilemma. She had no idea who to pass the knowledge on to. She felt strongly that she would find an apprentice someday, but it wasn't until the birth of Evelyn on that stormy night, that she believed in miracles.

So, as she chopped her vegetables for the chicken soup, she pondered what she would say to Sara Martin and how she would convince her to let Evelyn learn the secrets of Edna's ancestors. She thought Sara might balk at the idea, as it seemed to Mrs. Putnam that Sara had done her best all these years to appear just like everyone else in town, even though everyone in town knew that Sara and Evelyn were anything but.

She would have to approach this cautiously. She would have to choose her words carefully. She would need another miracle.