Emmeline drove across the city, thankfully avoiding the bulk of the traffic that generally burdened the roads, following Ginny's precise directions. She got off the highway and took some surface streets until she turned down the long drive to a farmhouse at the edge of an urban area that threatened to overtake this peaceful area at any moment. There she put the car in park after double-checking the address. It would be her luck that she'd walk straight into a stranger's house and move in!

She unbuckled Millie from her car seat and pulled her out, hearing the crow of the rooster perched on the garage roof. Emmeline wondered what she had gotten herself into. It seemed Ginny had left out a few crucial details. At a quick glance, there was more than just a rooster living here, and Emmeline wasn't sure how to deal with that. She didn't even have a dog growing up; forget about barnyard animals. Millie babbled and reached for the bird, well beyond her reach, obviously happy with the situation.

Leaving their suitcases and boxes in the car, she made her way up to the house. It sat, looming, built from gray fieldstone and two stories high, with black shutters decorating the windows. A long, wide porch wrapped around the front, and a large oak door suddenly swung open.

"You're here!" an elderly woman greeted them, dressed in jeans splattered with paint and a hot pink kerchief in her hair, rubbing her arms in defense against the cold.

Emmeline came closer and to introduced herself, but was told to forgo the formalities; Pernella knew exactly who they were, and welcomed them home. She ushered them into the kitchen. Emmeline followed her, taking in what was to be their home, at least the next little while.

Pernella put on the kettle, and then asked, "So, what do you think?"

"There are goats in the kitchen," Emmeline blurted out, forgetting her manners. A group of fifteen goats, as well as she could count, were jumping around a coordinated off area at the far end of the kitchen, blocking the back door. Pernella looked at her as if to say, Of course.

"Aren't they adorable? I've been waiting for days for them to arrive!" she cooed, reaching down to pet one of the salt and pepper goats.

"But, but, they're in the kitchen," Emmeline stammered again, overwhelmed by the feeling that she had made a huge mistake by coming here. She couldn't raise her kid in a house full of goats. What else was going on in this house that she didn't know about? She started to calculate how much money she had from Nicholas's life insurance, plus the little that some of the people from town had given her to help out, and how long that would last if she needed to immediately rent an apartment.

"It's too cold for them outside. They're only three days old. Poor darlings. I don't want them to freeze to death! As soon as it warms up, they go outside," Pernella insisted, picking one of the goats out of the pen and snuggling it in her arms. The goat bleated happily in response.

Millie squirmed to get away from Emmeline, reaching her arms out. She obviously wanted to touch one too. Emmeline was torn between running screaming away from this place and running away quietly. She was reluctant to let Millie down, no matter how much she squirmed, despite how heavy she was getting and how hard it was to keep holding her when she wanted down. Millie was just starting to crawl around and pull herself up to standing.

The February temperature was well below freezing. Emmeline looked at the baying creatures and her kid fighting her to get closer to the animals. What have I got myself into? she wondered. Goats in the kitchen! What's worse is the crazy lady makes sense! Emmeline wouldn't have the heart to put these babies outside either in this weather.

"I'm Emmeline," she finally said, feeling the need to back up and start afresh. "And this is Millie."

"Adorable! Babies, I love them. So happy you're here. Maybe it'll get my family off my back!" Pernella chuckled, bringing the goat closer for Millie to pet. Millie squealed with delight.

"I'm sorry, am I missing something? I thought you needed someone to move in to help you recoup?" Looking around the room, she realized that this woman with healthy goats in the kitchen, a half-done painting on an easel in the corner, and the smell of fresh bread from the oven probably didn't need any help.

"They want someone here to help me because that pesky little cancer scared the living daylights  out of them."

"You don't need help?" Emmeline asked. She had no idea how to take this situation—goats, roosters, a lady who didn't need them. Why was she here? Should she turn around and head back? Her heart sunk: there was no place for them anywhere.

"Stay! I can always use a hand with the animals. Besides, this ol' house is way too big for me. The more the merrier, and besides, like I said, they are constantly worrying about me. It'll be good for my family." Pernella chuckled and shook her head.

Emmeline relaxed slightly, although she wondered what other creatures she might find in the house after she got past the kitchen. She officially made up her mind that if she saw a snake, she'd be out of there, but in the meantime, maybe she could stay for a little while until she got her feet under her.

Pernella showed Emmeline around and left them to get settled in their rooms. The second floor was almost never used, Pernella explained, since her knees had gotten bad. She slept in a room off of the living room that used to be an office. This meant Emmeline and Millie would have the entire upstairs to themselves. It consisted of two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a spacious sitting room, equalling more space than they had on the entire train. There were high baseboards and crown molding and ceilings at least twelve feet high. Every room was painted a different bold color—sunny yellow, mint green, terra cotta—and each had its own special feel.

It was obvious that Pernella, at one point, spent a lot of time on her house, making it just right and definitely in her unique style. She had even hand-painted a mural of trees and water with tiny mallard ducks going up the stairs. Millie's room was a dazzling pink with the wainscoting painted out white. Tall windows let in the sunshine, and two twin beds with canopies dominated the room. Emmeline's room was light green, with toile paper covering the wall behind a queen bed with ornate carvings on the tall headboard. There was more than enough room for the two of them upstairs, and Pernella insisted that if they needed anything to just ask. She seemed pleased someone would be enjoying the rooms.

Emmeline felt satisfied. This just might work after all. It was a bit dusty, and in the corners were cobwebs signaling a lack of attention that didn't seem to be an issue downstairs. It would take a few days to get things together, but it would work. Maybe, as long as she could get over the goats.

It didn't take long to feel as though they had settled in and were as comfortable with Pernella as they had been anywhere else. As it turned out, this seventy-two-year-old feisty lady was hard to keep up with, but Emmeline fell in love with her busy lifestyle. Pernella made her own soaps, tapped the four maple trees in the yard, ran after the animals, painted, made bread from scratch, and insisted that one day when she grew up, she wanted to be an actress! Emmeline wondered what she was like before the cancer for her family to be so worried about her.

It wasn't long, though, before Emmeline could see through the front that Pernella put up and why she needed help.

Pernella was still going through chemo treatments that would knock her socks off. Days on end, through the nausea and vomiting the treatment induced, she struggled to get anything done. She didn't complain and refused to ask Emmeline for help, but a grateful look would cross her face as Emmeline ran to the pharmacy to get meds or picked up the groceries. Although Emmeline felt bad that Pernella had to go through this, it was a welcome distraction. She was busy, busier than she had ever been in her whole life, and it helped to distract her from the pain of losing Nicholas. By a few months passed, and Pernella's test results showed some serious improvement in her condition, and Emmeline and Millie were happily settled into a routine.

Millie thrived. Emmeline healed. But the ache from not having Nicholas by her side, watching Millie take her first steps, or see that precious mouth fill up with teeth, was something she was sure she would never fully get over.

Emmeline got a job at a local bakery where Pernella sold her jams. She learned to make bread and donuts and fell totally in love with cooking. Her job at the bakery was something that really spoke to her her soul. She liked to get up early and set the dough to rise. She found therapy in pounding it down and watching it rise again, feeling somewhat akin to the dough.

Millie loved the animals, and by her first birthday, she would trail, tripping, behind Pernella, as she did chores. And Pernella learned to rely on Emmeline, regularly telling her that this must be what it would feel like to have kids.

Pernella had never married. She had had a mad affair in her late teens with a man who came from a very wealthy family. After learning of his family's disapproval, they snuck off together to be married. His family tracked them down as they walked up the steps of the church in Niagara Falls. Instead of standing up to his father, he bowed his head and dutifully followed him home, leaving Pernella alone to fend for herself in front of a church in her mother's wedding dress hundreds of miles from home. At that moment, she knew she would never marry, and she didn't. She had a full life, went where she wanted, did what she wanted, and never looked back.

Millie celebrated her first birthday and her second in this house, with Grammy Pernella by her side, along with several more. When it came time for Millie to go to kindergarten,  Emmeline and Pernella cried in the schoolyard while Millie rolled her eyes, telling them they couldn't take her the next day unless they both promised to behave! Emmeline sniffed. How did she grow up so fast?

Emmeline's parents came from time to time to visit and play with Millie, whose intelligence startled them. Millie had a wide, round face and poker-straight dark hair, and still looked every bit of Nicholas's little girl. The little mole that matched Emmeline's was still their main similarity. Millie grew, going back and forth between tomboy and princess, regularly caring for the goats in her Cinderella gown that she constantly wore. At times Millie was bold as brass, calling out her kindergarten teacher for making a mistake. Emmeline had to come to the school more than once and fetch her little girl from the office.

"But Mommy, she was wrong. How can she be our teacher if she doesn't even know the answers?" asked Millie, her wide, innocent eyes begging for a logical answer.

"Millie, your kindergarten teacher doesn't like it when you do that. Couldn't you pull her aside and tell her nicely that you think she made a mistake instead of yelling it in the middle of class?"

"But then the class wouldn't know the right answer!" Millie said, throwing her hands up into the air. Her teacher had been teaching the class a song about the colors of the rainbow that wasn't entirely correct. "Mom, it's violet, not purple, and they sang the colors out of order!"

Damn kid! thought Emmeline. Making sense! "Okay, there is a right and wrong way to do things. Shouting 'Don't be so stupid' in class is the wrong way. Politely saying, 'Perhaps you made a mistake' is the right way."

These were the types of situations that Emmeline never expected as a parent, w there were a million of them. She fumbled through trying to teach Millie all the things she needed to know, and answer all the questions she wanted answers to. The situation with the teacher wasn't the first of its kind, and unfortunately, Emmeline knew it wouldn't be the last. It wasn't that Millie meant to be rude; it was just that the world was a little bit more black and white for her then it was for everyone else.

That made having a routine very important. Very important for both of them, especially as Pernella was a little scatterbrained and regularly told time by feel instead of by what the clock said. For instance, if it felt like noon to her, it could actually be nine pm, and she would be left wondering why the stores were closed, then annoyed when she had to acknowledge what the pesky clock said.

Not acknowledging things for what they were seemed to work for Pernella in many ways, especially at the five-year mark from her last chemo treatment. She said she would beat cancer despite the doctors' dire warnings, and she did. The doctors were now optimistic that it was gone for good. They threw a party on the day she got the news. Ginny came up from Port Hope with her parents and Callum, and they celebrated together.

Emmeline made the cake, covered with white fondant and little daisies. During her time in the bakery, she learned so much, and she began to dream that one day she could open up her own coffee shop and bakery. It was still just a dream, one she quickly dismissed and refused actually to admit out loud. She had a kid to worry about. That needed to be her entire focus. Still, would it be all wrong to consider a dream for herself?