The Three of Us

129. A Valentine for Mama

"We're going to make your mama a present," he said happily to Walter while Anne was upstairs.

Anne returned with an armful of fabric. She dumped everything on the kitchen table and motioned for Gilbert to set Walter down on it. Anne put warmer clothes on top of the clothes Walter was already wearing. Then, she pulled a sweater over Walter's head, and changed his booties out for thicker ones. She put booties on his hands, too. She then pulled some sort of quilted bag up over him, so that his lower body was enclosed in it. Then she wrapped him in another quilted blanket, lay him in the basket, and draped a softer blanket over the top of the basket to keep out the chill.

"All right," she announced. "He's ready."

Walter let out a wail. He tried to move and could not.

"I know you don't like being wrapped up," Anne said through the blanket. "I know you want to be able to move. But it's too cold. Stay put."

Walter cried.

"He's all yours," Anne said, pushing the wailing baby toward Gilbert.

"Gee, thanks," Gilbert said good-naturedly. "Hi, Walter...Anne, are you sure he can breathe in there?"

Anne nodded. "He can. All right, have fun."

Gilbert carried the basket out and placed it in the floor of the buggy so it would be held in place by his feet and not get jostled.

"Walter, I'm sorry," he said. "Mama wants you to be warm. And miserable. Don't worry. When we get into town, I'll...unroll you."

Gilbert had never driven with a baby before and he kept looking down as if worried Walter would disappear somehow.

Once in town, he lifted the basket out and went into the post office with it. He stamped his feet to get the snow off his boots and shivered as the heat hit him from inside; there were enough other people in the post office that the building felt warm just from being packed. Before he went up to the counter, he took Walter out of the basket and began to unwrap him. Walter ceased crying as soon as he was free to move his arms and legs. Gilbert smiled at him.

As he carried the baby to the counter, Walter on his arm and the basket carried in the other hand, he was watching Walter's reactions to his surroundings. Walter had never been anywhere but home and church, except for the hospital and boarding house, which he didn't remember, and the Warren's farm, which he'd rather not remember. He watched everything with interest.

Gilbert, still smiling, set Walter on the counter top. The postal clerk looked at the baby disdainfully.

"I'm here to borrow the stamp pad," Gilbert said cheerfully. "And I need to buy a blank card."

The clerk took his money and handed over the card, then said- gesturing toward the baby- "Would you kindly remove...that?"

Gilbert said, "I can't, I have to have him sit down." He began pulling off Walter's booties and mittens.

The clerk pushed the stamp pad forward and went back to his work.

Gilbert took it. "All right, Walter...let's see. How are we going to do this?" He'd brought a whole handful of handkerchiefs with him, knowing this would be a messy endeavor; now he got them out and set them down next to the baby. "Maybe we better do your feet first," he thought. He stuck Walter's foot onto the stamp pad. Walter laughed at the squishy feeling of it, then reached toward it, wanting to grab. "No," Gilbert said to him. He pressed Walter's foot onto the blank postcard.

Then he took Walter's other foot and repeated the process, this time doing the footprint overlapping the first one at the heel, so that the two feet together created a shape that resembled the letter "V".