A Big Year for Lily (12 page)

I
t was a bitterly cold morning in late January. Wind howled around the corners of the house and whistled through the windows. Snow piled up in deep drifts in front of the door. “The wind has a mean bite to it,” Papa said as he scraped the last bit of porridge out of baby Paul's little bowl and fed it to him. “I think it's too cold for Lily and Joseph to walk to school. What do you think, Rachel?”

Mama peered at the thermometer that hung outside the kitchen window. “It's only eight degrees,” she said. “The wind will make it feel much colder. I'll get their lunches packed while you get Jim hitched up.”

“Can I ride along?” Dannie said.

Lily sighed when she heard him ask that question. Dannie was getting to be such a tag-along. If he came, there wouldn't be enough room for everyone on the front seat with Papa. She would be the one to sit alone in the back because she
was the oldest. She would be alone and cold. She hoped Papa would say that it was too chilly for Dannie to come, but he didn't. “If you bundle up warmly you can ride along,” Papa told Dannie. He helped Dannie with his jacket and crouched down to close the hooks and eyes on his coat. “You'll be able to keep me company on the ride back home.” Papa plucked his hat off the wall peg and headed out to the barn.

Lily hadn't considered that it might be a lonely drive home for Papa after dropping them at school. She felt a tiny pinch of guilt for not wanting Dannie to tag along.

Lily hopped into the back of the buggy and was pleased that Joseph climbed in beside her. They covered their laps with the thick, fuzzy buggy robes, but it wasn't long before Lily's toes were cold. Her breath made big puffy white clouds. She and Joseph tried to see who could make the biggest breath cloud.

In the front seat, Dannie chattered away to Papa. Lily didn't even try to listen to what he was saying. Dannie had a lot to say but most of it wasn't very interesting to Lily. Fortunately, Papa was one of the best listeners in the world. He always seemed to enjoy listening to whatever anyone had to say. Even Dannie.

Jim trotted slowly through the wind and the snow. The buggy wheels squealed as they cut through the snow. It was a sound unique to a winter day, and even though Lily liked the snow on the ground, she knew that it took more work for Jim to pull the buggy.

As they crested the last hill before the schoolhouse, Dannie eyes went wide. “Look at all the fire trucks!” he said. “Look! The schoolhouse is burning!”

Lily threw the buggy robe off her lap and stood to look
out the storm front. Dannie was right! The schoolhouse was burning. Flames licked at the roof around the chimney. More fire trucks than she had ever seen were parked in the school yard and beside the road. Red lights flashed everywhere. A few firefighters held a big hose and sprayed water on the fire. Lily couldn't look at it any longer and squeezed her eyes shut. Oh, how terrible! The schoolhouse was burning. They couldn't have school without a schoolhouse.

Then came a horrible, terrible realization. Her box of
beautiful crayons was in that schoolhouse! They would be destroyed. Melted into wax.

Lily would never forget the day when Mama gave the crayons to her. She had just come back from town after buying Lily and Joseph's school supplies. Mama reached into her shopping bag and gave Joseph a brand-new pack of twenty-four crayons. Lily loved new crayons. She waited for Mama to give her a new pack, just like Joseph's. Instead, Mama pulled out a pack of sixty-four crayons and handed them to Lily. Sixty-four! She was stunned, speechless. Too happy for words.

Lily spent hours looking through her box of brand-new crayons, memorizing each name: aquamarine, topaz, sunset orange. Even the names were beautiful.

“You're growing up, Lily,” Mama said. “You're old enough to have a box of sixty-four crayons. Since fourth graders don't color very often, I expect you to keep these crayons nice. They should last for the rest of your school years.”

Lily had tried to keep these sixty-four crayons from breaking or smudging against each other. She kept the points nice and sharp. She would miss getting a brand-new box of crayons every year but having one box of sixty-four was better than a new box of twenty-four.

Joseph and Dannie looked at Lily's box of crayons with longing in their eyes. And they didn't even like to color! For the first time in Lily's life, she had something she was not expected to share. When Joseph and Dannie reached fourth grade, Mama said they would get their very own box of sixty-four crayons as well.

Lily had felt important on the first Friday afternoon art period when she took her box of beautiful crayons out of her desk and used them. None of her friends had a big box
of crayons. Beth, Malinda, and Hannah admired them, and Effie said that they were too worldly, but Lily was sure that Effie wished she had such a box of crayons.

It always took Lily a long time to color pictures. There were so many different colors to choose from and she wanted to take better care of these crayons than she ever had with her other crayons. They needed to last five years, until she would be finished with school and all grown-up.

But now, as she thought about her beautiful crayons melting in the schoolhouse fire, she wished she had colored with them every day.

Papa pulled Jim to the side of the road. A policeman came up to the buggy. “There won't be any school today,” he told Papa. The two men talked a little more and then Papa turned Jim and the buggy around to head for home.

“Couldn't we get my box of crayons out of the schoolhouse?” Lily asked.

Papa turned to look at her. “Your what?”

“My box of sixty-four crayons,” Lily said. “I don't want them to be burned.”

Papa gave her a sharp glance. “I would never ask anyone to go inside a burning building just to get a box of crayons.”

Of course. Of course he wouldn't do that. Lily felt embarrassed that she had even asked such a thing. What was she thinking?

As soon as they reached home, Dannie ran inside to tell Mama the exciting news about the fire trucks and the burning schoolhouse. He always had to be first, Dannie did.

Mama looked concerned. “I'm grateful the fire didn't start when the children were in school.”

Lily hadn't even stopped to think about something like
that. How terrible it would be to be trapped inside a schoolhouse with a fire on the roof. She felt another pinch of guilt. She had been getting all kinds of pinches of guilt today, and it was only morning.

Later that day, Papa hitched Jim to the buggy and went to pick up Grandpa Miller and Uncle Jacob. They wanted to see if there was anything they could do at the schoolhouse. They were gone a long time. Lily kept running to the window to see if Papa was coming home. She wanted to hear if the firemen had been able to stop the fire.

Mama was sewing at her sewing machine. She gave Lily a headscarf to hem by hand. As Lily sewed, she felt very sorry for herself. This had been a terrible day. First, the fire at the schoolhouse. Second, she didn't know if her box of crayons had survived. Third, she had to sit home and hem a headscarf by hand. She hated to sew. This day was almost too much to bear.

When Lily heard the squeak of buggy wheels in the snow, she dropped the headscarf she had been working on and ran to the window. Papa was pulling up to the barn. “I'm going to help Papa unhitch,” she said, and darted down to the basement to get her coat and boots before Mama could tell her to stay inside and finish the headscarf.

By the time Lily reached him, Papa had already unhitched Jim and was pushing the buggy into the barn. Lily followed Papa into the barn as he led Jim into a stall. She blinked her eyes to try to adjust to the barn's dim light. Papa curried and brushed Jim, a way to thank him for being such a good buggy horse. Lily stayed quiet as long as she could—at least a full minute. But she had to know! “Did the firemen save the schoolhouse?”

“It didn't burn to the ground, but the damage is bad. We need to tear down the entire building and build a new one. Everyone is planning to lay all their other work aside so by Monday, Lord willing, there will be a new schoolhouse for all of you children.”

So it was true. Lily's box of sixty-four beautiful crayons had been ruined. She knew it wasn't right to care more about the crayons than she did for the schoolhouse. The thing was—the crayons had been her very own, and the schoolhouse had been shared with everyone.

She walked slowly back to the house, kicking and scuffing the fluffy snow. It was only Tuesday. Monday was a long way off. She hoped that Mama wouldn't ask her to do more hand sewing. There was nothing that she hated as much as hand sewing. Even putting up with Aaron Yoder and Effie Kauffman at school was better than hand sewing.

E
arly Wednesday morning, Lily helped Mama pack lunch for Papa. He was going to help the rest of the men in the community build a new schoolhouse. It would take a few days to complete, so each day would be a work frolic. Usually, large meals were part of the frolics, but not this time. Each person was asked to pack his own lunch to take along.

Lily spooned some peaches into a dish and carefully covered it. She set it into a corner of Papa's lunch box while Mama fit in several sandwiches. There was still space to tuck a few cookies. Then Lily closed the lid. She hoped Papa would have enough to eat so that he wouldn't get too hungry before suppertime. She worried that the men wouldn't be able to work very fast if they got too hungry. She wanted them to work quickly so she could go back to school.

By the time Uncle Elmer drove into the driveway with his horse and buggy, Papa had his tools and lunch box, ready to
go. Lily stood at the window and watched as Papa tucked his tool belt under the seat and then climbed on the buggy. They drove down the road to pick up Grandpa and Uncle Jacob.

Lily wandered around the house aimlessly trying to decide what to do for the rest of the day. Her favorite books and her doll didn't seem very exciting. Since the fire, all she wanted to do was to color with her beautiful box of crayons. How sad. Why was it that the one thing you wanted most, you could never seem to have?

Joseph didn't mind that he couldn't go to school. He and Dannie played in the snow for a while and built a snowman. After that, they set up their toy farms in the corner of the living room and became thoroughly involved in the game of pretend farming.

Lily made another round through the kitchen and living room.

Mama could tell Lily felt antsy. “You could work on your cross-stitching.”

Oh
no
. Lily knew that she should enjoy cross-stitching as much as other little girls her age, but she hated it. It was so tedious to use a needle and thread by hand. Over and over, the same little
x
for a cross-stitch. “Maybe I could sew on the sewing machine,” she said, hoping Mama would forget about the cross-stitching. She liked the sewing machine because it was noisy and fast, but Mama didn't have anything for her to sew on the sewing machine.

Mama got the square of fabric that Lily had been working on to make a pretty pillow top. In each corner, there were several hearts made with little
x
's and three flowers. Lily sat down and threaded her needle with purple embroidery floss and took several stitches. “Cross-stitching is not fun!” she said, mostly to
herself, and jabbed the needle into the fabric again. She jabbed too hard and pricked her finger. A little drop of blood stained the fabric. “Ouch!” Lily quickly put her finger in her mouth.

Mama crossed the room to see what had happened. She saw a drop of red on the fabric. “Let's go take care of this right away before the blood sets in the fabric.” Mama hurried to get a bottle of peroxide from the medicine cabinet. She started dabbing the fabric with a cloth soaked in peroxide. Lily sat on the sofa, feeling more gloomy than she did when she started to cross-stitch. Mama was more worried about the fabric than she was about the gigantic hole Lily had poked into her finger.

After Mama was satisfied that the blood drop on the fabric had been washed away, she came back into the living room. For a moment, she gazed thoughtfully at Lily. “I don't think your mind is on the things you can do here at home. Why don't you bundle up and go spend the rest of the day with Grandma and Aunt Susie.”

Instantly, Lily felt a happy mood return. Mama did understand! She ran to get her coat, shawl, and bonnet and started up the road. It was snowing and the wind blew right in her face, but as long as she kept her head down and walked fast, she didn't mind the cold too much.

Grandma and Aunt Susie were pleased to answer the knock on the door and find Lily. “Come in, come in out of the cold,” Grandma said.

Lily stepped inside and removed her boots. She was careful not to let any snow stay on the floor. It would never do to make melted snow puddles on Grandma's floor.

Aunt Susie took Lily's wraps and hung them on a hook. “Do you want to help me color?” she asked, a hopeful look on her sweet, childlike face.

Oh, how wonderful! She would get to color today, after all. Lily followed Aunt Susie to help her choose which coloring books to color in. Aunt Susie had a big stack of coloring books. Lily took her time looking at each one before settling on one with baby animals.

They took the books and crayons to the kitchen table and sat down to begin coloring. Grandma was baking an apple pie. She looked at Lily and said, “Your nose is still red from the cold walk you had to our house. It looks as if you need some hot chocolate.” She set two mugs of steaming hot chocolate on the table for Lily and Aunt Susie. Then, just for fun, she sprinkled a few mini-marshmallows on top.

Lily felt warm and cozy and special as she stirred her hot chocolate and took a few tiny sips. This day had started so bleak and was improving by the minute. Papa was helping all the other men build a new schoolhouse, and she could spend all afternoon at her Grandma's house, coloring with her favorite aunt. And no little brothers! It was pure bliss.

Grandma sent Lily home in plenty of time to help Mama prepare supper. Papa walked up the driveway just as the sun was setting and dinner was ready to be served. Lily had just set a bowl of fried potatoes on the table as Papa washed up at the sink. He had a pleased look on his face. “Is the new schoolhouse finished?” Lily asked.

“Not quite,” he said. “Tomorrow we should finish up. On Friday, we'll be moving in desks while the school board goes and buys new books. You and Joseph can go back to school on Monday.”

Lily felt excited. She loved going to school. Having a
brand-new schoolhouse would be fun. And new books would be nice, too. She wondered if Teacher Rhoda would make the children start all over again with the workbooks. That didn't sound like much fun. But then a happy thought danced through Lily's mind, something that hadn't occurred to her: she would no longer have to see Aaron Yoder's big, dirty footprint on her new book—the one he had stepped on, back on the first day of school.

Monday was still five whole days away! Lily felt almost too excited to eat. Not quite, but almost.

On Monday morning, Lily and Joseph didn't bother to wait for Hannah and Levi. They were too excited to see the new schoolhouse.

All of the other students felt the same way—they all arrived early. Everyone was excited to smell that fresh paint smell and be the first to walk on the new wooden floors. Beth and her brother Reuben arrived at school just as Lily and Joseph were about to enter the schoolhouse. “Wait, Lily! Wait for me. Let's go in together!” Beth ran up to the door.

Joseph went in but Lily paused by the door to wait for Beth. They held hands and walked over the threshold, barely able to hold their excitement in. It was beautiful! The walls had been painted a soft cream color. Shelves were built along the two sidewalls that went up to Lily's waist. The shelves were already filled with library books to read when they had spare time, and new board games and puzzles to play with at recess on rainy days. Farther down were encyclopedias, dictionaries, and stacks of songbooks.

The floor was painted a bluish gray. Lily checked her shoes
to make sure they weren't dirty before stepping off the rug and onto this pretty floor. She and Beth went to find their desks. They were still in the same places they had been, which was a little disappointing. Lily had hoped Teacher Rhoda might have moved Aaron Yoder's desk far, far away. No such luck. Maybe, if everything was clean and shiny and a fresh start, Aaron would start over with Lily, being nice and kind and sweet. She doubted it, but she hoped.

She opened the lid on her desk and paged through the new books inside.

Beth squealed. “Oh Lily, come look at this!”

Beth stood at the back of the room beside the little sink where everyone could wash their hands. Lily crossed the room to see what Beth was so excited about: beside the sink was a shiny new water fountain. It had a little handle to pull at the side, sending up an arching stream of cold water. Lily had never seen anything so wonderful. Beth held the strings of her covering to keep them from getting wet as she took a drink. Then Lily got a turn. They wouldn't have to share a water cup at the pump in the school yard. They wouldn't even have to go outside to have a drink. For the first time, Lily felt a little glad about that fire. New things were so much fun.

Teacher Rhoda rang the bell and everyone found their seats. As she read a Bible story, Lily sighed happily. It felt good to be back in school with the other children. Everything looked and smelled new and fresh and pretty. She couldn't wait to work in her new books with her new pencil and read all the new library books that were waiting on the bookshelves.

But there was even better news! Last night, Papa had told her he would buy a new box of sixty-four crayons for her the next time he went to town.