A Big Year for Lily (8 page)

Teacher Rhoda tapped the bell on her desk twice to signal that it was time for everyone to put their books away
and get ready to go home. All around Lily was the noise of books closing and desk lids opening. After everyone had their things tucked neatly inside their desks, the students stood, sang the closing hymn and, finally, Lily could go. She dashed to the back of the schoolhouse, grabbed her lunch pail from the shelf, and darted out the door.

“Wait for me, Lily,” Hannah called out.

Lily slowed down until Hannah caught up with her.

“What's the big hurry?”

“Papa bought a real desk just for me. I want to go home and use it.”

“We do enough writing in school. Why would you want to hurry home and write some more?”

“I can do more than just write at the desk,” Lily said. “I can make scrapbooks like Grandma Miller does. I can draw pictures and paint. I can do anything I want to.”

Hannah didn't share Lily's enthusiasm and was in no hurry to get home. “Did you see how far Aaron Yoder batted the ball at recess today?”

Lily rolled her eyes. Hannah talked about how wonderful Aaron Yoder was all the way home from school. Every single day.

“He batted a home run.”

“So did a few of the other boys. And they aren't as much of a pest as Aaron is.”

Hannah ignored her. “Aaron is so smart! He gets his lessons done faster than anyone else in school. He has such excellent penmanship. Just excellent. Haven't you noticed?”

Lily wondered if Hannah might be getting slightly addled. Aaron's handwriting wasn't neat and tidy. Just the opposite! Teacher Rhoda scolded him for messy writing nearly every other day.

After the sandwich switch, Lily was so happy to spend time with Hannah again that she politely tolerated her ridiculous talk about Aaron. Plus, Aaron had done her one nice thing when he told Teacher Rhoda that Effie was the culprit. But that was the only nice thing Aaron had ever done for Lily, and now he was back to being his pesky old self. Lily couldn't stand listening to Hannah moon over Aaron Yoder. She actually felt relieved when they reached the path where Hannah turned off.

Lily burst into the house and galloped up the stairs. She didn't even stop to see if Mama had a snack waiting on the kitchen table. When she reached her bedroom door, she stopped abruptly. There it was! Her very own desk. Mama had picked a bouquet of flowers and put them in a vase on the corner of the desk. On the other corner were her oil lamp and her little apple-shaped candy dish. All the furniture in her room had been rearranged to allow room for the desk. Even the floor looked as if Mama had given it a new coat of wax.

Lily walked over to the desk and opened a few drawers. All delightfully empty—just waiting for her to put something inside.

Dannie came running into her room. “I helped Mama wax your floor. I helped pick the flowers too and fill your candy dish.”

“Thank you,” Lily said. She lifted the lid off of the candy dish and was pleased to see it was almost full. She would make this candy last for a long time. She would eat a piece only on Saturdays. Maybe Sundays, too. Only twice a week would she eat candy.

Dannie stood at the doorjamb, watching and smiling. Finally, Lily asked, “Is there something else I should see?”

Dannie clapped his hands. “Open the drawer. I shared some of my treasures.”

Lily opened another drawer. “Oh, Dannie,” she said when she saw what he had tucked inside: a pile of small stones, several pinecones, and some wood scraps from the shop.

He was so pleased! But Lily didn't want any of that junk messing up her beautiful desk. “That was kind of you, Dannie,” she said. “But I know how much these treasures mean to you. Why don't you keep them for me?” She scooped them out of the drawer and handed them to him.

Somehow, Dannie seemed even more pleased.

Just as he left, baby Paul toddled into her room. Lily scooped him up into her arms. “Did you climb the stairs all by yourself?” Lily said. Paul was getting to be quite a climber. Mama said every time she turned around, he was climbing up on something.

Lily couldn't work at her new desk with Paul bothering her. She took him downstairs and helped Mama get supper ready. She plopped him on the floor beside the toy box and started building a tower with the wooden blocks. As soon as Paul became interested in the toys, she quietly got up to set the table.

After the table was set, Lily sat on a stool at the end of the kitchen counter to watch Mama cook and talk to her. This was one of Lily's favorite times of the day. She had Mama all to herself and could tell her about her day at school. Today, she admitted how frustrated she felt with Cousin Hannah. “She just doesn't see Aaron Yoder in the right light!”

“It's called wearing rose-colored glasses,” Mama said. “It means you see things the way you want them to be.”

That was a new phrase to Lily and it suited the situation perfectly. Hannah wore rose-colored glasses with Aaron Yoder.

“That's not all bad, Lily. Hannah is just believing the best about a person.”

Just as Lily opened her mouth to explain that where Aaron Yoder was concerned, it was best to assume the worst about him, a horrible crash came from upstairs. A second later, a wailing sound floated down the stairs.

“Where is Paul?” Mama asked.

“He had been playing with his toys in the living room.”

Paul's cries grew louder. Mama went upstairs and Lily followed. The door to Lily's bedroom was open and there was Paul sitting on the floor. His mouth and hands were covered with melted chocolate. Beside him was Lily's little apple dish, broken.

Mama checked Paul to make sure he wasn't hurt after tumbling off the desk. Then she took him downstairs to clean him up. Lily sat on her bed with the broken pieces of her candy dish. Tears pricked her eyes. What a disappointment. Her very first day with her new desk had not gone well.

During supper, Lily told Papa about her broken candy dish. He asked to see the pieces, so she ran upstairs to get them.

“This shouldn't be too hard to glue back together,” Papa said, examining the pieces. “It's a clean break.”

After dinner, Papa glued Lily's apple dish. By bedtime, it was back on her desk. It amazed her—Papa could fix anything. But from now on, she was going to keep her door shut tight. Too many nosy little brothers.

O
n a Saturday afternoon in October, a whiskered man drove up to Whispering Pines to talk to Papa. Last summer, Papa and Uncle Jacob had built a mini barn for that man and still hadn't been paid for the work. Lily knew that because she had overheard Papa and Mama talking about it. Now the man was telling Papa that he had lost his job and couldn't pay him. “I hoped you might accept a barter deal,” the man said to Papa. “I've got some things you and your children might like.”

In the back of the man's trunk was a box filled with paints, paintbrushes, and books about painting. Lily wanted Papa to take the things. They looked so much more interesting than money. There were also tools and a lawn mower. “Please take the stuff, Papa,” Lily whispered under her breath. “Please take the stuff.”

Papa stroked his short curly beard, a sign that he was thinking
it over. He took his hat off and ran his fingers through his hair. “I hadn't been planning on buying any of these things.”

The man shuffled his feet and cleared his throat. “I don't know when I can pay you.” He looked embarrassed.

Lily felt sorry for him.
Take the stuff, Papa!

Papa put his hat back on. “Let me go talk to my wife about it.”

Lily blew air out of her mouth. Mama didn't like to buy things they didn't need. Like the goats. Papa had bought the goats from a man in a truck whose wife was mad at him. Mama had not been happy about those goats. They were always causing trouble.

Papa walked to the house, so Lily and Joseph went to play on the swing. Lily wanted to go inside and help Papa persuade Mama to keep all of that wonderful stuff in the man's truck. But she knew that wouldn't do. Papa and Mama liked to make these decisions without her excellent suggestions, she had been told. Once or twice.

Lily squeezed her eyes tight.
Please Mama, don't say no!
She was already imagining what she would paint with those fancy paintbrushes. She was sure if she followed the instructions in those books she would become a great artist.

Amazingly, when Papa came back outside, he had a big grin on his face. Papa and the man unloaded everything from the back of the truck.

Later that evening, as soon as the supper dishes were finished, Lily asked Mama if she could start painting.

Mama smiled. “I'll help you get started.” She selected a few pieces of heavy paper and put them on the table. Lily looked at all of the paintbrushes. There were so many different sizes. How could anyone know which one to use?

Mama picked up one of the paint instruction books and flipped through it. She opened it up to a brightly colored page. “I think you could paint some roses.” She sat in a chair next to Lily and helped her select the correct brush. She explained how to paint the rose.

Lily carefully followed Mama's instructions. When she finished, she held it up to admire it. It didn't look quite as pretty as the one in the instruction book but it had been fun to paint. Soon, she would be the best artist in the family. She had no doubt of that. She set to work on another rose.

Too soon, Papa called out in his deep, kind voice, “Bedtime for little lambs.”

Lily gathered the paint supplies and put them on the back shelf of the pantry, where Dannie wouldn't get into them. Or at least Mama would hear him first. She thought Papa might like to see her beautiful painted rose, so she placed it on his desktop. Her eye spotted Mama's pretty hand-painted plate, resting on a shelf above the desk. It had been there as long as she could remember. She studied it carefully. Its rim was covered with red and pink roses. She was sure she could paint a picture just like it. Maybe better. It couldn't be that hard to paint.

“Lily, we're waiting on you,” Papa called from the other room.

Lily quickly ran to join the rest of the family and listen to Papa read the evening prayer from the little black prayer book. She half listened to Papa's deep voice, and half thought about what life would be like after she became a famous artist. Ice cream after dinner, every single day. A closet full of purple dresses. New books. Store-bought bread and deli meat in every school lunch.

She couldn't wait!

L
ate one afternoon in early November, Lily was helping Mama tear an old dress into strips to make rag rugs. She heard a familiar squeaky sound and knew the mailman's truck was at the mailbox. She tossed the dress onto the floor and ran out the door as fast as she could. She wanted to get to the mailbox before Joseph did.

Joseph was hammering away in the woodworking shop, working on a project. He had heard the squeaky truck, too, and bolted out the door. He could run faster than Lily and beat her to the mailbox by just a few steps. So frustrating! She was the eldest and should be the first for everything.

Joseph pulled the mail out of the mailbox and slowly—oh so slowly—looked through every letter before handing it all to Lily with a smug grin. The thrill of beating her to the mailbox was over. He went back to the woodworking shop, hands in his pockets, whistling a tuneless tune.

Lily looked through all of the mail: a few letters, a catalog, and a picture postcard. She loved postcards. It was tempting to read what was written, especially since someone had drawn little pink flowers and twisty green vines in the bottom corners of the postcard. But Mama had told her that reading other people's mail was as bad as eavesdropping. Personally, Lily felt eavesdropping had some benefits. How else would she learn some interesting news? Just the other day, she discovered that Grandma had bunions. She wasn't sure what they were, but they sounded like a new type of vegetable from her garden.

Sometimes, Lily wished she weren't so curious, but she was. She was born that way. As she walked back to the house, she was sorely tempted to read the postcard, but of course it wasn't right. And she knew Mama was watching from the kitchen window.

Lily waited patiently as Mama read the postcard. “What does it say?”

Mama looked up. “Your cousin Esther is getting married and we are invited to her wedding.”

“Uncle Ira's daughter, Esther?”

“Yes, do you remember her?”

Lily tried to think. She could remember visiting Grandpa Lapp's in Kentucky when she was still a little girl. She remembered Uncle Ira and Aunt Tillie. Who could ever forget Aunt Tillie and the Pow-Wow doctor she'd hired to cure Dannie's shyness? It didn't work, either. Dannie was still as shy as a mouse.

Lily tried and tried, but she couldn't put a face on Cousin Esther. Uncle Ira and Aunt Tillie had a big family of grown children—at least, they seemed grown-up to Lily, who had been only six.

But any wedding sounded like fun! It meant they would all go to Kentucky. “Are we going to go?”

“Papa and I will talk about it later,” Mama said. “Put the mail on Papa's desk.”

Later that day, Papa went through the day's mail. As he read the postcard, Lily waited right by his side.

“What do you think, Rachel?” he asked.

“Esther is your niece,” Mama said. “If you'd like us to go, it's fine with me.”

Papa put the card on the stack of letters. “I'll give it some thought.”

Lily was disappointed. What was there to think about? It was a wedding and it would be fun. Sometimes, grown-ups seemed to make everything so serious and complicated. When she was all grown-up, she would make decisions right away. Would something be fun, or not fun? It was so simple.

A few days later, Mama told her that they had made a decision. Papa, Mama, Dannie, and baby Paul would go to the wedding but Lily and Joseph would have to stay at home.

Lily was stunned. Tears filled her eyes. How cruel! To be left alone while her family was off at a wedding?

Papa explained that they would have someone come stay with Lily and Joseph while they were away. “I'm sorry, Lily. I know you're disappointed. But it's more important for you to go to school than go to a wedding.”

Lily was shocked senseless. Life just wasn't fair.

Lily helped Mama pack the big black suitcase with everything needed for the trip to Kentucky. She kept hoping Papa and Mama would change their minds. She even packed a
grocery bag filled with her clothes, just in case. Maybe, if Papa couldn't find anyone to stay with them, they would be able to go. She would be ready.

But the evening before the trip, Papa drove off in the buggy and came home with Carrie Kauffman. Lily's hopes were dashed. Carrie climbed out of the buggy with her battered brown suitcase and walked toward the house. Carrie had come to stay with them after baby Paul had been born. Carrie had been nice. Maybe the situation wasn't quite so bleak. It was still a bitter disappointment to be left behind, but it wasn't quite so bleak.

The next morning, Lily woke and listened for the sounds of Mama in the kitchen. The house was strangely quiet. Then she remembered and felt an empty, sick feeling start in her toes and travel to her head. Papa, Mama, and the little boys had left for Kentucky while she had been sleeping.

Lily dressed quickly and hurried to wake Joseph. If allowed, he would sleep until noon. They followed Carrie out to the barn to do the morning chores. When it came to milking the cow, Carrie hesitated. “I've never milked a cow before,” she said.

“How do you get your milk?” Joseph said.

“We buy it. We don't even own a cow.”

What? How sad for Carrie! A cow was like a family member. Pansy was as important to Lily's family as Jim, the buggy horse. She could hardly remember a time without a cow.

Then a worry swooped in and replaced her pity for Carrie. Lily had never milked a cow, either. She had seen Papa and Mama do it more times than she could count. How hard could it be?

First, Pansy's udder needed washing with a special cleaner.
Lily sat on the little milking stool, feeling rather important, and got Pansy ready to be milked. She knew there was a certain way to milk a cow, a way to squeeze to get the milk to start, but her hands were small. She also knew that if a cow was milked wrong, it made her bind up and not lower the milk. She changed the plan. She had Carrie sit on the stool to try to milk Pansy. Carrie bit her lip, then started to milk. A few drops of milk plunked noisily into the pail. That wasn't how Mama milked Pansy—a big stream of milk would flow into the bucket. Lily and Joseph tried to show Carrie how to grab a teat, but they couldn't get much milk to come either. They kept taking turns trying to milk Pansy. Lily's forehead started to sweat. She was getting hotter and hotter though the morning was cold.

Pansy grew impatient. She could tell Carrie didn't know what she was doing. After a long while, Carrie decided they had enough milk. She took it inside to strain and cool it. Lily was surprised to see that even with all their hard work they had managed to get only a quart of milk. Mama and Papa usually got a gallon and a half. Lily had never seen such a pitiful show of milking a cow.

Lily was starving. She washed up for breakfast and happened to glance at the clock. It was already past time to leave for school. “Hurry, Joseph! We'll be late!”

Lily grabbed several bananas from the pantry and tossed them into their lunch pails. They could eat one on the way to school since they hadn't eaten breakfast before they left.

They ran all the way to school and got there just as Teacher Rhoda rang the bell. Lily slid into her desk breathless and panting. She tried not to think about Mama and Papa having fun on their trip. She tried not to think about poor Pansy,
uncomfortable with a nearly full udder. She tried not to think about how dirty her dress was from the morning's milking—she hadn't had time to change for school. She thought she might stink a little too. Mostly, Lily tried not to feel sorry for herself for missing the wedding, but it was so hard! She had wanted to go so badly.

After school, Carrie tried to milk Pansy again. Two cats appeared out of nowhere, the way cats do, and tried to catch milk squirts when Carrie missed the bucket.
Pretty smart cats
, Lily thought. Papa would have shooed them away, but Carrie didn't say anything, so Lily let them stay. The cats were funny to watch. The milk would splash in their faces and then they would jump back as if they had been scalded. They would stop, lick the milk off, and start over. All in all, it made the milking go fast, though Carrie didn't get much more milk from Pansy than she had in the morning. Finally, they gave up and walked back to the house to make supper.

Lily and Joseph were both feeling very hungry. All they had eaten today were bananas. Lily didn't want to even think about bananas. She was sick of them.

Carrie was peeling potatoes to cook for dinner. Lily had a better idea for those potatoes. Mama always let them each have a small slice of raw potato sprinkled with salt to eat while they prepared supper. Those potatoes were so delicious. Tonight there was no reason they couldn't eat all the raw potatoes they wanted to. After all, they might as well try to make the most of their time with Carrie, since they were stuck at home. Mama and Papa and Dannie and Paul were having fun. Why couldn't they?

“Let's not cook the potatoes,” Lily said.

Joseph's eyes lit up. “Yes, let's have a great big bowl full of raw potatoes for supper.”

Carrie got the same look on her face as she did when she saw Pansy's big udder. Uncertain and a little confused. “I've never heard of such a thing.”

Lily and Joseph both assured Carrie they loved eating raw potatoes, so she agreed, still looking hesitant. Lily happily placed a big bowl filled with raw potato slices on the table while Carrie dished out a bowl filled with steaming sweet corn and a platter of meat.

After they prayed a silent blessing, Lily reached for the bowl of raw potatoes and piled a big stack of them on her plate. She passed the bowl to Joseph. He piled an even bigger pile on his plate, then passed the bowl to Carrie. Carrie took a tiny slice. Just one. Lily thought Carrie was a little too timid. How could anyone not love raw potatoes?

Lily sprinkled salt on a slice and ate it. Delicious! It was every bit as crisp, slightly sweet, and crunchy as she knew it would be. She sprinkled another slice, ate it, then another and another. It wasn't long before her stomach felt funny. Joseph seemed to be having the same problem. They both took another slice and slowly ate it. That was enough. Soon Lily couldn't face one more bite of raw potato.

Carrie got a bowl and filled it with cold water and together they placed the remaining potato slices into it. They could stay in the refrigerator until tomorrow. She said she would fry them for dinner. Lily wasn't sure if she ever wanted to eat another slice of potato—cooked or raw. Bananas, either. She was done with bananas and potatoes for a long, long time.

As Lily got ready for bed that night, she felt tears start to roll down her cheeks. Carrie was nice, but she didn't know
how to take care of children. She didn't know how to cook or milk a cow. She missed Mama and Papa. She even missed Dannie and Paul. Everything seemed strange—hollow and empty—without the sounds of Mama in the kitchen and Papa coming in from the barn one last time before he went to bed. She would never fall asleep tonight. Never. She was heartsick and tummy sick. She rubbed her tummy. It felt bloated and weird, like it might explode. She wondered if this was how poor Pansy was feeling tonight.