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Over the next few days, I learned to do most of the things that kept Laban’s life going in that place. How he’d done them on his own I couldn’t imagine. Maybe he’d had another girl, and I shuddered to think what might’ve happened to her. I cooked his skimpy meals of beans and more beans and ate what was left. I never had much appetite, but I knew I had to stay strong. I washed his clothes in the sink and hung them over the stove to drip and dry. He only had one outfit, so while I laundered it, he’d sit shivering in his long johns, which he wore like a second skin. I kept the floor swept. The coal came, and I shoveled it into the furnace, which was in a cellar with doors just beside the entrance to the cabin. He rolled himself out to watch me and make sure I did it right. I learned to li
