A Big Year for Lily Read online

  Lily couldn’t agree more. It was horrible to wake up in the middle of the night because a creepy bat flew around her bedroom. What if the bat flew right at her? What if it touched her? Or bit her? Just thinking of its mousy little face made her shudder.

  Papa examined every inch of the walls and ceiling, but he couldn’t find any cracks big enough for a bat to squeeze through. “I can’t figure it out,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t know how they’re getting into your room. Hopefully, that’s the end of it.”

  And it was. Until the next week, when another bat found its way into Lily’s bedroom. Two days after that, another one.

  Papa had had enough. If he couldn’t find a way to stop the bats from getting into Lily’s bedroom, he decided she would have to move out of her pretty little attic bedroom. At first, Lily thought that meant she would have to go back to having a bedroom in the hallway. How sad!

  But Papa had built a nice big addition to the house, and he and Mama already had planned to move their bedroom into what used to be the old kitchen. They would give Lily their old bedroom. “The bats only moved up the timetable,” he said. Papa spent that Saturday moving all the furniture from one room to another.

  Lily was sad to leave her pretty attic bedroom. It was private and away from little brothers, and it had a purple floor. Her new bedroom was on the second floor, near the stairs, and she would hear the boys clomping up and down. On the other hand, there were no bats in this new bedroom and that was a definite plus. She still had her pretty purple rug and cushion. Another plus.

  That night, as Lily got ready for bed, she looked around her bedroom. It wasn’t nearly as pretty. There was ugly green-and-brown striped wallpaper on the walls. The floor was dark blue linoleum with big red swirls all over it. It almost made Lily feel dizzy to look at it. Looking out the window wasn’t much fun. The pine trees that had seemed so tall and majestic in her attic bedroom only blocked her view of the distant mountains. But she could still hear their whispers. That was a good thing.

  As she lay in bed, she thought about her pretty attic room. She wondered if it felt sad and empty without her. Did things have feelings? She would have to ask Papa, she thought, yawning.

  Since bats slept throughout the day, maybe she could play in the room during the day! It would be a fine place to play with her dolls or read a book. Whenever Cousin Hannah or Beth came to play, they would have a perfect place to play and not worry about being bothered by little brothers. She yawned again.

  With plans on her mind to turn her attic room into a playroom, during the daytime only, Lily drifted off to sleep.

  3

  A Walk in the Woods

  On a warm July afternoon, when the air felt still, Papa came into the kitchen to talk to Mama. “Jim needs new horseshoes. I’m going to take him over to the blacksmith.” He glanced at Lily and smiled. “I thought Lily might like to go along and play with Beth while her father works on Jim’s shoes.”

  Mama smiled. “I think Lily might be persuaded to go with you.”

  “Oh yes!” Lily was excited to hear that she could play with Beth. She didn’t get to see Beth often during the summer. She wouldn’t even mind helping Beth with her chores.

  Lily yanked her bonnet off its hook and ran to sit on the buggy seat while Papa hitched Jim to the buggy. Soon, they were off.

  As soon as Jim pulled into the Rabers’ driveway, Beth flew out of the house, surprised to see Lily seated next to Papa. The two girls followed Papa as he unhitched Jim from the buggy and led him to a shady tree next to the barn. Jonas, Beth’s father, plucked a big, heavy, black leather apron from a peg inside the barn door and tied it around his waist. He carried a wooden toolbox filled with nails, files, clippers, hammers, and horseshoes of different sizes.

  Before Jonas got to work on Jim’s feet, he made friends with the horse, which Lily thought was very smart. Jonas walked up to Jim and talked to him a little and stroked his neck. Then he picked up his front hoof. He held it firmly between his legs as he reached into the toolbox for a hammer and pulled Jim’s old metal horseshoe off. Next, he took a big pair of clippers and clipped some of the hoof off.

  “Does that hurt Jim?” Lily asked.

  “No, it feels the same as clipping your toenails,” Papa said. “Jim’s hooves need to be trimmed regularly so he doesn’t stumble when he walks.”

  Jonas picked up a file and started to file Jim’s big hoof. Jonas’s big German Shepherd dog, Bumper, came over to see what was happening. He sniffed at the bits of hoof clippings and started to chew on one. Disgusting, Lily thought.

  Beth leaned over to whisper in Lily’s ear. “Let’s go play.”

  The girls ran to a swing under a big maple tree in front of the house. They took turns pushing each other, stopping between turns to tell each other important news.

  “Baby Paul is starting to crawl,” Lily said. “He tries to put everything into his mouth.” Just like that dog, Bumper. Disgusting, Lily thought.

  It was Beth’s turn. “I think my brother has a crush on Katie Miller. His ears turn red whenever he sees her at church.”

  My, that was interesting. Much more interesting than Paul’s crawling. Lily was going to have to keep her ears open for better news.

  Much too soon, Papa came looking for Lily. “Time to go home,” he said. “Jim has four new shoes and is ready to try them out.”

  Lily hopped off the swing. “We just got started playing. Could I stay a little longer? I could walk home over the fields by myself. It isn’t far.”

  Papa lifted his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. “Beth might have something she needs to do.”

  “I’d like Lily to stay,” Beth said. The girls held their breath, waiting to hear Papa’s answer.

  “Go ask your father, Beth, and see if it would be okay with him,” Papa said.

  Lily and Beth ran to find Jonas Raber in the barn, putting away his leather apron and toolbox. Lily explained that she wanted to stay a little longer and then walk home by herself. “Do you mind?”

  “I don’t mind,” Jonas said, smiling. A person couldn’t help but smile back when Jonas Raber smiled. His teeth stuck out in all different directions, a real assortment, and his eyes were warm and kind.

  Lily ran to find Papa; Beth skipped along behind her. “I can stay!”

  “Be a good girl,” Papa said. “And remember to come home before too late.” He climbed up on the buggy and gave Jim a tch-tch sound. Jim trotted down the drive with an extra spring in his step, proud of his new shoes.

  Lily turned to Beth. “Now we can swing all day.” But after a few more turns on the swing, the girls grew bored and tried to think of something else to do.

  “Have you seen my little playhouse?” Beth asked. “Dad made it for my birthday.”

  The girls ran to the edge of the garden. Beside the garden gate was the cutest little playhouse Lily had ever seen. Beth held the door open and Lily ducked her head to step inside.

  In the middle of the tiny room sat a small table and two little chairs. On one wall were several shelves filled with old pots and pans and chipped dishes that Beth’s mother no longer used.

  “Let’s get some carrots and cucumbers from the garden,” Beth said. In the garden, they picked several small cucumbers. They rubbed their aprons over the cucumbers to remove the prickles, just like their mothers did. Next came the carrots. This took a little more work: they held the carrot tops in their fists to get a better look at the small top of orange carrot that peeped above the ground. They didn’t want a carrot that was too big or too little. The big ones tasted bitter and the tiny ones tasted watery. It was important to find the right-sized carrot—those were the ones that tasted the best: nice and sweet, crunchy and carroty. After they pulled all the carrots they wanted, Beth filled a pail with water from the springhouse by the barn. They took turns carrying it back to the playhouse. Water sloshed out of the pail and splashed against their skirts and over their bare feet. They didn’t mind. It felt good
on such a hot day.

  In the playhouse, Beth filled one of the pots on the shelf with water. They swished their carrots in the water until the dirt had been rinsed off.

  Beth set the table while Lily divided the carrots and cucumbers on the plates. Then they sat down to eat and tried to have an important, grown-up conversation. With a terribly stern and serious face, Beth brought up the worry of raising youth in this day and age, which made Lily giggle. Then Lily would try: she would make her face stop smiling, then purse her lips and discuss the behavior of the youth in church lately and had Beth noticed a lot of winking going on between the boys and the girls? With that, the girls were overcome by a giggling fit. They didn’t even have to say it out loud: they were both imitating Ida Kauffman as she paid visits to their mothers! Lily was laughing so hard that her tummy hurt.

  “Let’s pretend to bake cakes,” Beth said. “We can fill some pans with wet sand and then decorate them with flowers and leaves to make them pretty.”

  They rinsed the dishes they had used and set them back up on the shelf. Then they went to get sand from the sandbox, added water until it felt just right and ran to find flowers. They filled their aprons with bright yellow buttercups and sweet purple clover blossoms. They were so busy decorating their little sand cakes that both of them were startled when Beth’s mother stepped out on the porch and called, “Beth! Suppertime.”

  Lily was shocked! She had been having so much fun that she had forgotten all about watching the time. She had told Papa she wouldn’t stay too late and the sun was already low in the sky. “I have to go home right now!”

  Lily hurried down the driveway, too worried to even wave goodbye to Beth. She walked down the road until she came to a little shortcut that led through the woods. She thought it was the shortcut Joseph liked to use, but it looked different in the late afternoon light.

  She gave a start, her heart leaping in fright. A sudden noise, a small crashing sound—something in the bushes. It sounded big. It sounded huge.

  Lily didn’t dare look around. What if it were a black bear? She had just heard a story about a farmer meeting up with a bear in his cornfield. She heard another sound. It was coming closer. Instinct took over and she started to run. Faster and faster! She had never run so fast in her life. Her lungs hurt from running so hard. Her side ached and her legs felt as if they could buckle beneath her. She simply couldn’t run one more step. She stopped to catch her breath.

  Crunch, pop, snap. Something was following her. What if it were a mountain lion? Joseph was always talking about mountain lions in the woods. The noise got closer and closer. She started to shake, so frightened that she couldn’t budge. Right behind her, a bush crackled. She squawked and flung her arms over her head. She was going to be eaten alive!

  A little cottontail darted in the underbrush beside the path. Every hop it made caused twigs and dry leaves to crunch and snap. Lily was relieved! And then, embarrassed. She had been running from a cute little bunny.

  Lily walked a little farther and came to the edge of the woods. There, across the field, was her house. A buttery light glowed from the kitchen. Lily had never been so glad to see that little ugly olive-green house. She ran up to the porch and into the kitchen. Stirring a pot on the stove top, Mama spun around. A look of relief swept over her face when she saw Lily.

  Papa was washing up at the sink. He didn’t look very happy with Lily. “We were getting worried about you. I was almost ready to go looking for you.”

  “I’m sorry, Papa,” Lily said and slid into her chair at the table. “I forgot to pay attention to the time. As soon as I realized how late it was, I ran all the way home. I thought a bear or a mountain lion was chasing me, but it was only a little bunny.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished them back.

  Joseph and Dannie looked at each other, jaws opened wide, then they doubled up with laughter. “Only a girl would think a bunny is a bear!” Joseph said, between fits of laughter.

  “Only a girl!” Dannie echoed, like he always did.

  Even baby Paul started to giggle, which got Papa and Mama grinning.

  Lily’s face grew hot, as if she were standing too close to Mama’s stove. She was humiliated. She didn’t think any of them understood how frightening a bunny could sound in the dark woods.

  4

  Lily’s Perfect Day Unravels

  There was a little less evening now in late August, a warning of summer’s end. Joseph took that warning to heart and was determined to live every day twice over before he lost his freedom to the schoolhouse. Lily thought he was being dramatic. She couldn’t understand how anyone couldn’t like school. Joseph kept himself scarce from the house, where Mama was sewing up a storm of new school clothes.

  The first day of school came on a beautiful sunny morning. Lily could hardly wait. She held the silky white curtain back with one hand as she stood by the living room window, waiting for her cousins, Levi and Hannah, to walk down the road. All summer long, Lily had looked forward to having Levi and Hannah join school.

  Bong, bong, bong . . . She turned and glanced at the clock. Eight bongs. What if Hannah and Levi were late? It would be terrible to be late on the very first day of school. Lily peered out the window and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Levi and Hannah round the bend. Lily grabbed her bonnet and lunch pail and darted out the door. She tossed a goodbye over her shoulder to Mama.

  Joseph was outside, swinging on the porch swing. He was trying to squeeze every last drop out of summer, not at all excited about school starting. Lily did not understand that brother of hers. Slowly, he picked up his lunch box and trailed behind Lily to the end of the driveway. They waited for Levi and Hannah to catch up to them.

  The first thing that went through Lily’s mind was that Hannah’s new purple dress was much prettier than her own brown one. But she knew what Mama would have to say about that:

  Lily, can’t you think about how wonderful it is to have your cousin here instead of what you are wearing?

  Yes, Mama.

  But she couldn’t. She wanted Hannah’s purple dress. “Hannah, are you excited for school?” Lily asked.

  “Not really,” Hannah said. “I want to help my mother bake pies and cookies today. And I’d rather play outside than have to sit at a desk all day.”

  That was shocking news to Lily. Baking cookies and pies was fine but then came washing dishes. Lots and lots of dishes. Besides, how could anyone not love school? She reminded herself that Hannah hadn’t attended school in two years, and the last teacher she’d had was Teacher Katie . . . who was horrible. “School is lots and lots of fun. We get to learn new things. Teacher Rhoda is a very nice teacher. We play with our friends at recess. We can read library books when we get done with all our lessons. And we get to eat special lunches that Mama packs every day. Best of all, we don’t have to wash dishes.”

  Lily skipped a few steps. “I like helping Mama work, but school is so much more fun.” She didn’t think that now was the time to mention two individuals who made school very stressful: Effie Kauffman and Aaron Yoder. At any given moment, Lily could be minding her own business and one or the other would create some horrible mischief that was often targeted at her. “This year will be even better. You’re here! We’re both in fourth grade so we’ll get to sit together, eat together, have recess together.” In other words, Effie and Aaron wouldn’t bother Lily as much. Naturally, she didn’t say that to Hannah. There would be plenty of time for the terrible truth.

  “What are you having for lunch today?” Hannah asked.

  Lily opened her lunch box and peered inside. “I’m having a sandwich, a banana, and two oatmeal raisin cookies. What’s in your lunch?”

  Hannah opened her lunch pail, frowning. “Carrot sticks and an egg sandwich.” She snapped the lid to her lunch box shut again.

  Uh-oh. Carrot sticks were a problem. Too crunchy. Aaron Yoder often teased Lily when she had carrot sticks in her lunch. “Egg sandwiches are my favorite.” She tried to
encourage Hannah, but that lunch of hers was a worry. Levi’s bragging was another worry. He never missed a chance to puff himself up.

  By the time the two girls arrived at school, almost all the other children were already there. The first thing Lily wanted to do was to find her desk. She hoped, hoped, hoped that, this year, Aaron Yoder would not be sitting right across the aisle from her.

  Lily found her desk and then looked at the desk across the aisle. “Hannah, come look!”

  Hannah hurried over to see her name on a small tag. Lily was so happy. The school year was starting out well. Hannah would sit right next to her. No Aaron Yoder!

  The girls set to work arranging their new pencils and school supplies in their desks. Then they checked name tags on the other desks. Lily read the one behind hers and groaned. “Noooooooo!”

  Hannah looked up. “What’s wrong?”

  “Aaron Yoder is sitting right behind me.” How awful. She didn’t want to sit right in front of that terrible boy all year long.

  But then she brightened. She wouldn’t have to actually look at Aaron, unless she turned around, and she decided she would never, ever do that. Aaron was invisible to her.

  “Children, time to come in!” Teacher Rhoda rang the bell on the school steps and the students scrambled to find their seats. As soon as the class settled down, Teacher Rhoda read a Bible story. And then the new school term began.

  Lily opened one of her brand-new books and admired how crisp and clean the pages were. She hoped she could keep it looking nice all year long.

  “Fourth grade,” Teacher Rhoda said, “work on assignment one in your math workbook.”

  The first assignment of the year! Lily got right to work. It was so good to be back in school and even better to be a fourth grader. She wiggled happily in her seat and picked up her pencil, but it slipped through her fingers and dropped on the floor. She bent down to retrieve it. As she pulled herself up, her head bumped against something. She couldn’t sit up—something was pressing down on the back of her head. She glanced behind her and saw Aaron Yoder with a big goofy grin on his face. He was holding his hand above her head. Lily ducked out of his reach and sat straight up, furious. She reached up to check her prayer covering and try to pouf it where Aaron had squashed it. How infuriating!