When Strawberries Bloom (5 page)

What an adorable child, Lizzie thought. But I’m not allowed to have teacher’s pets. That doesn’t work at all.

There were so many things to do, assigning the next day’s work, finding the proper pages for the lower grades, answering raised hands in between her other duties, that the clock showed eleven-thirty before she was finished.

They had only half-days that first week, an old custom that allowed the children to go home and help their parents with the end of the summer’s harvest. So at noon Lizzie quickly told everyone to put their books away just as the school van driver pulled into the schoolyard. Oh, dear, we haven’t even swept or cleaned up a thing, she thought. Oh, well, it’s my first day. I’ll keep getting better, I hope.

She told everyone they would learn their good-bye song the following day and tapped the bell to dismiss them. She was shocked to hear everyone shout, “Good-bye, Teacher! Good-bye. Good-bye!” as they scrambled for the front door. Lizzie tried to answer, but there was no use. They would never have heard her over the din, even if she had yelled at the top of her lungs. She would have to try and quiet down this enthusiastic parting. But then, maybe the children would be insulted and think she was some doddering old maid who lived a joyless existence. Quickly, she packed a few things in her book bag, locked the door, and climbed into the front seat of the school van.

She sighed as the van pulled away from the school, and the driver smiled at her.

“Big day?” he asked.

Lizzie nodded.

They talked most of the way home, and, as usual, Lizzie could hardly wait to get there because she was bursting with lots of things to tell Mam. Emma and Mandy were away working, she knew, but it was lunch-time, so Dat would be in the house.

“How did it go, Lizzie?” he asked, as she hurried in the door.

“Oh, good! Really good. Except a little, first-grade girl almost cried, and Dat, I mean it, they’re so loud after I dismiss them, it isn’t even normal. They yell good-bye with all their might.”

Dat chuckled as he took a bite of homemade vegetable soup.

“I guess they’re glad to be out of there,” he said.

As he crumbled a handful of saltines into the soup, he started to blink his eyes rapidly. He bent his head to take off his glasses and rub his hands across both eyes as he continued to blink.

“Can’t figure out what’s wrong with my eyes this morning. Everything seems a bit fuzzy, especially my one eye,” he said, as he put his glasses back on while blinking over and over.

“Didn’t you sleep well?” Mam asked.

“Just as good as usual,” Dat answered.

“Which must be pretty good by the sounds of your snoring. I can hear you from my upstairs bedroom sometimes,” Lizzie said, laughing.

“That’s Mam you hear!” Dat said.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that, Melvin. Who knows? We both snore.”

Jason slid onto the bench beside Lizzie.

“I’m starved!” he said.

“Here. Take some vegetable soup,” Mam said, hovering over him, seeing that he had bread, cheese, and sweet bologna. Jason slapped bologna on a slice of bread, threw a piece of cheese on top, smashed the second piece of bread down on the cheese, and stuffed half of the dry sandwich into his mouth.

Jason’s eating never failed to amaze Lizzie. He took bites twice the size of an ordinary person and swallowed promptly. You could hardly ever see him chewing; well, not very much, anyway. He ate so fast, Lizzie could never understand how he didn’t upset his stomach when he swallowed his food without chewing properly.

“Pickles!” Jason said loudly.

“Your sandwich is too dry, isn’t it?” Lizzie grinned at him.

“No, ’course not. I’m just hungry for a pickle.”

“How did it feel to have Lizzie for a teacher?” Mam asked.

Jason’s mouth was stuffed with pickles, so he nodded his head before bending it to eat the other half of his sandwich in one bite.

Dat shook his head, watching Jason eat.

“As soon as you have time, you can answer Mam,” he said, his eyes twinkling.

Jason swallowed and nodded his head again. “Good. I think she’s going to be all right. She’s a good teacher!”

He started slurping soup, so Lizzie knew that was as much as he would say. She looked at Mam, beaming, and Mam smiled back.

“Good for you, Lizzie. I knew you could do it. Do you think you’ll like it? This is only the first day, you know.”

“I love it, Mam. I really do. I can’t imagine getting the blues from teaching school. It’s so much more challenging than standing at that egg-grading machine or working as a
maud
.”

“There’ll be times when you wish life was as simple as grading eggs, though. You can’t teach school without occasional troubles along the way,” Dat said wisely.

“How do you know?” Lizzie asked.

“Because I taught school one year,” Dat said.

“Did you really? I never knew that.”

So Dat launched into an account of his one year of teaching school when he and Mam were first married and living in Ohio. It was fascinating to listen to him tell the story of serious discipline problems, among other troubles he had encountered. But Dat’s stories didn’t worry Lizzie. She was quite sure that teaching school was the single most wonderful thing in the entire world, and there wasn’t too much that could happen to change her mind. It was a whole lot easier than finding a husband.

L
IZZIE NARROWED HER EYES
as she looked over her shoulder, pinning her white cape neatly into place.

“That’s crooked,” Mandy said, around a pin in her mouth. Lizzie sighed with exasperation before saying loudly, “Take that pin out of your mouth this second. I hate when you put a straight pin in there. Mam used to do that when we were little girls.”

“I won’t swallow it.”

“Take it out!”

“Grouch.”

Lizzie looked over her opposite shoulder, trying to get the pleats in her white organdy cape straight. Of all the clothes they wore, white organdy for church was the hardest to handle.

“Mandy, fix this!” Lizzie said, unable to get the whole thing straight. Mandy helped, adjusting a few pins, before saying, “Lizzie, aren’t you thrilled about our new friends we’ll get to meet today?”

More new families were moving to Cameron County that fall, including the Marks family with four girls near in age to Lizzie and her sisters. A young man had also recently moved there to help his brother, a bachelor, with the farming.

“Of course! Maybe if we have a few more teenagers we’ll start to run around here in Cameron County and not bother going to Allen County at all anymore. Marvin was talking about it last weekend.”

“Really?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Goody, Lizzie! I’ll soon be 16, and I don’t really want to go to Allen County. It’s too far away.”

“Hurry up, girls. Time to leave,” Mam called up the stairway.

Hurriedly, they pinned their black coverings to their heads, grabbed their black woolen shawls and bonnets and skipped down the steps. Emma ran lightly down the stairs behind them, a bottle of lotion clasped in one hand. In the kitchen, KatieAnn and Susan put on their coats and shawls, followed by their navy blue bonnets, while Mam hurried to get everyone out the door to the waiting carriage.

Lizzie scooped up Susan and planted a kiss on her little cheek. “You look so cute in your shawl and bonnet,” she said.

“Let me down!” Susan said, wiping her cheek as she glared at Lizzie. Everyone laughed as they hurried out the door, while Dat stood wiping the mirror on the buggy with his clean, white, Sunday handkerchief.

At church, Lizzie sat next to Mandy on the long, backless bench on the women’s side of the room. As the boys filed into the room, they bent slightly to shake hands with the ministers before going to the men’s side of the room to sit. A tall boy whom Lizzie didn’t recognize joined the group. That must be the new boy who’s moving in with his bachelor brother, Lizzie thought. She dug her elbow into Mandy’s side.

“Is that him?” she whispered.

“Probably,” Mandy whispered back.

He was taller than Uncle Marvin, with long, jet-black hair which hung in loose waves. His eyes were almost as dark as his hair, and he had an almost perfect nose and mouth. His face was expressionless and polite, but Lizzie was fascinated by his dark, good looks. Mandy must be, too, she thought, watching her. Oh, well, no use planning about this one as a husband. He’d probably go the way of Amos and of Joe and John, the twins who had caught Lizzie’s eye in vocational school. Or he’d act like Stephen. He’d tell her that he thought she was pretty once and then never mention it again.

Stephen, Joe, and John filed into the room. The twins, once small for their age when they were in Lizzie’s vocational class, had grown to almost normal size. They were still as blond and blue-eyed as ever. Stephen stood tall and dark beside them, his blue eyes flashing around the room until they landed on her. He smiled. Irritated, Lizzie turned away.

During services, Lizzie considered the possibility of staying here in Cameron County on weekends. Allen County had lost much of its charm since Amos and Ruthie were dating, she had to admit. Now there were enough young people in church to have their own supper crowd somewhere nearby and have a singing in the evening each weekend. That would be exciting, something new, and she bet they would have lots of fun once everyone became acquainted.

Doddy Glick stood up to give the main sermon, and, as usual, he preached with fervor. He always became quite loud, waving his arms for emphasis as he exhorted the congregation, adding Old Testament stories as examples for their everyday lives. Lizzie never tired of listening to Doddy preach, enjoying his stories of Gideon, David, and other Old Testament heroes.

After services, Lizzie asked Uncle Marvin if he was planning to stay here for the rest of the weekend. He raised his eyebrows and nodded toward the Marks sisters and said he guessed he’d have to since they had more young people now. Lizzie laughed and hit his arm playfully.

“Oh, you! I know exactly why you aren’t going to Allen County!”

“Should we try and have a singing here? Do you want me to ask if Aaron Fishers want to hold one? Or what? What could we do this afternoon?” he asked.

Stephen and the new young man, John, walked up to Marvin.

“Hello,” they said, nodding to Lizzie.

“Hi!”

“So … do we want to go boating?” Marvin asked.

“The water’s too low,” Stephen said. “We need more rain.”

“Volleyball?” Marvin asked.

“We can go down to my brother’s place,” John offered.

Lizzie watched him speak, quite impressed with this tall guy. Of course, she wanted to go to his brother’s place, and now she had several girlfriends and Mandy to go with her, all of whom had recently turned 16.

“I have to do evening chores because Leroy is in Allen County,” John said.

“Good! We’ll help you!” Marvin volunteered. “Do we want the girls to go along? There are only three of them.”

“They can make supper,” John said, smiling shyly.

Lizzie was ecstatic! She walked as calmly as she possibly could to the washhouse and almost shrieked as she grabbed Rebecca’s hand.

“Rebecca, I’m so glad you’re 16. And Mandy and Mary Ann just turned 16! We’re going to have so much fun together. First of all, the boys are doing chores at Leroy Zook’s place. You know, that old guy that’s dating Emma’s friend. They want us to go along and make supper!”

“Does that mean we’re going to start having suppers and singings here now?” Rebecca asked.

“I guess that’s up to the parents, but I think everyone would be glad to have singings, even if the group is small. Should we ask Aaron’s wife if they want a hymn-singing this evening after the boys have finished the chores at Leroy’s farm?”

And so plans were made, with the small group of youth being “officially” started in Cameron County. The girls had great fun cooking supper through trial and error at Leroy Zook’s house as the boys did the evening chores. Mary Ann was easy to talk to and, after a few hours together, Lizzie felt as if they had known each other for a long time. Rebecca was also talkative and good-natured with an easy laugh, and her antics never failed to send Lizzie into rounds of helpless laughter.

The boys came in for supper, filling their plates before sitting in the living room to eat. The girls ate around the kitchen table, laughing about the lumpy gravy on the mashed potatoes.

“This is a nice farm,” Mary Ann said.

Lizzie agreed. The house wasn’t new, but it had four good-sized rooms with a porch running along the front of the house. The view was nice, overlooking rolling pastures and neighboring farms. Leroy had recently built a new cow stable, and a new silo jutted up against the looming mountain, giving the whole farm a prosperous look.

What would it be like to marry John and live here in this farmhouse, milking cows every morning? Lizzie thought she could marry a farmer if he looked like John. It wouldn’t be so bad to stumble out to a cow stable at five o’clock in the morning if a husband that good-looking was beside you, helping you milk cows.

Was John a farmer, or was he only helping out his brother for a little bit before returning to Lamton with its big community of Amish folks? Did he have a girlfriend? She wondered how he was going to the singing that evening, and if she might be riding in the same buggy.