The Argument A Little House fanfic

 Laura and Almanzo have an argument about life, love, mending clothes and finding boots. A one shot. Story complete in one chapter.

The Argument

It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura was sitting in the rocking chair nearest the fireplace mending shirts, dresses, jackets and socks for the social tomorrow night. She loved sitting in that chair, so did Almanzo, it was his favorite, so she grabbed it when she could get it. It reminded her of the time that Almanzo first brought her here after the mud fight with Nellie.

"Beth, where's that new blue shirt you made for me?" Almanzo called from upstairs. "And I can't find the new boots you bought me for my birthday? My jacket's missing too."

"Your jacket's got a big hole in the sleeve, Manly. I'm mending it for you right now. Your blue shirt is missing a button, so you'll have to wear another and I have no idea where your new boots are. I'm not sure it will matter if you wear your old ones tomorrow night anyway. No one will be looking at your feet."

"How can you be so sure?" Almanzo said, perched on the stairs, halfway between the upstairs rooms and the parlor. "That's the reason we bought the new ones. And the other blue shirt you made me is missing, too."  He ran down to the bottom step  and waited for her answer.

"Almanzo, there should be three blue shirts I made you and two of them should be hanging in the wardrobe," she answered, as she looped and knotted the last stitch. "As far as the boots are concerned, everyone will be preoccupied with other things around them. I'm sure they won't even think to look at your old boots." Laura cut the thread, pulled the needle out and threw the jacket at him, which he caught one handed.

"You're gettin' better at that," Almanzo said, staring at her. "At least you're not hittin' me in the face like you used to."

Laura stood up. "You're the one who keeps encouraging me to do that," she said, as he walked back upstairs. "You're the one who told me I didn't have to bring it to you every time I finished mending one of your things. "

"I didn't realize that you were going to take me seriously," Almanzo shouted, from the top of the stairs.

"Well, maybe if you gave me things separately instead of saving them up for the last minute, we might not be having this conversation."

Almanzo frowned. He ran down the stairs again. "You know, I could use a little help here findin' those boots."

"Maybe if you put them where they belonged they might be easier to find,"

Almanzo stared at her. "Beth, I put them in the same place I always do. I just don't lay things down anywhere."

Laura looked at him. "We're getting nowhere arguing about this. We'll find them. They're around here somewhere. I'll bet that they're sitting right under our noses."

"You still think I misplaced them, don't you?"

"Manly, I'm just saying that we shouldn't be angry at one another before we go to sleep."

"Who said we were going to sleep?"

He looked at her and ran up the stairs again. He ran down the stairs carrying his guitar. With one last look at her, he opened up the front door and walked out into the warm late autumn night, slamming the door behind him.

Laura didn't go after him. She wasn't going to argue outside, she had done that one too many times. No one could hear them; at least she didn't think so. They were miles from the nearest farm. The mending was far from done. She still had that hole in the pocket on the right side of Manly's trousers to do.

And the boots, let's not forget the boots.

Frustrated, she stood up and gathered the clothes that she already mended to bring upstairs. She opened the sewing box and put the needles and thread back into it and closed it up. Tomorrow is another day, she thought, shaking her head.

Not looking where she was going and with the pile of mended clothes in her hand, she tripped on something, sending the clothes every which way. Bending down to pick up the clothes in front of her, she felt something hard. At first she thought it might have been one of her Remembrance Books, but that wasn't it. It felt like leather, alright, but this particular item was too long and thin to be a book at all.

And a book didn't have a heel attached to it either.

Laura picked up the item and stared it at. She smiled and shook head. "Well," she said, "one is better than nothing." And if one was there, the other one couldn't be far behind, could it?

She felt around both sides of the chair and sure enough, she had been right. Covered in one of her dresses and Manly's other missing blue shirt was the other boot.

So Almanzo had been right and wrong at the same time. He was right that there was one shirt hanging in that wardrobe, not two, but he was wrong about not misplacing his boots. And Laura had been right and wrong as well. She was right that there should have been two shirts in the wardrobe, but she was wrong because she had taken the other shirt by mistake.

Well, it didn't really matter who was right or wrong, all that mattered was that this whole argument was going to end right now, this second.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Manly, wake up," Laura said, as she wrapped her shawl tightly around her shoulders. "Come on, it's getting cold out here. Let's go back in the house."

Almanzo stirred a little. He opened up one eye, then the other and then both at the same time. He sat up, stared at his Beth and then frowned. He turned slightly to his side and looked down. A bundle of something was sitting on the left side of the chair.

"Beth, what's this bundle here on the side of my chair? You know Doc Baker told you to…."

"I know what Doc Baker told me, Almanzo." Laura answered." I didn't come out here to start a fight. I came out here to bring you inside. I love you, you know. I just don't want you getting sick again, that's all. One bout of pneumonia is quite enough for me and I would think that you would feel exactly the same way."

He looked at her and smiled, "And in what way is that? Do you mean you love me or you don't want me getting sick again?"

"You know, the more we stay out here, the colder it's going to get," she said, searching his eyes. "We'd better get inside then, don't you think?"

Almanzo nodded. He stood up and looked at the bundle again. He bent down to pick it up while Laura grabbed his guitar. He scrambled for the door knob with the other hand, but Laura got there first.

"This is the stuff you were mending in there, wasn't it?" Almanzo asked as he began to unravel it.

"That's only just a few of them. They'll need to be ironed," Laura said as she walked through the door. She placed the guitar against the wall next to the door. She turned to watch Manly as he separated the rest of the stuff. After the shirts, came the pants with the hole in the pocket. And the next two items weren't soft at all. They felt like leather, soft leather.

Almanzo smiled and held them up to show Laura. "My new boots," he exclaimed as Laura picked up the clothes off the chair where he had deposited them. "Where did you find…"

She walked over to the front door and shut it and with the clothes still in her hands, kissed him lightly on the lips.

"I almost tripped over one of them," she said looking at him. "That particular one was under my feet and the other one was in between the rocking chair and the fireplace, Manly. You took them off and left them there."

Almanzo smiled and shook his head. "So I did misplace them," he said, looking at her. "Laura, I'm …"

But he never finished the sentence. And the clothes and the boots ended up on the floor again.