A Surprise for Lily Page 4

  Learning to love teachers hadn’t worked very well for Lily. She had loved her first teacher, Ellen, and then along came Teacher Katie. She did not love Teacher Katie. She did not even like her. Now, she had grown to love her third teacher, Rhoda . . . but what if Teacher Judith was just like Teacher Katie? Maybe that was how it went: good, bad, good, bad. Teacher Judith lived in the neighboring church district and Lily had never met her. She hoped Teacher Judith didn’t have big, bushy caterpillar eyebrows like Teacher Katie. For the second time that morning, Lily shuddered.

  Her mind drifted to worrying about Effie Kauffman, the most annoying girl in all of Pennsylvania. Teacher Judith was going to board at Effie’s house during the week. That was all Effie could talk about at church last Sunday—how she would help Teacher Judith check schoolbooks in the evenings and give her ideas about planning classes. Just the thought of Effie pawing through Lily’s work made her hopping mad. She hoped Teacher Judith might have better sense than that.

  Then her heart softened a little. How awful it would be to board at Effie Kauffman’s home. Not only was there Effie to contend with, but her mother, Ida, too. She decided she would try to be especially helpful at school to make up for poor Teacher Judith’s dreadful boarding situation. Maybe Mama would let Lily invite Teacher Judith to their house once a month for supper and an overnight. She would have to remember to ask Mama.

  She watched a little brown sparrow fly onto the tip of a pine tree branch and sing a song. It was an off-Sunday, so Mama and Papa were still sleeping. She thought she might head downstairs soon and surprise Mama by starting breakfast. Just as she put her hand on her doorknob, she heard the sound of a car turning into the driveway. She ran back to the window and recognized the big blue station wagon of Mr. Tanner, a hired driver. Lily wondered why he would come to their home so early on a Sunday morning. An odd feeling ran through her—a feeling of dread—and she didn’t know why. Lily ran down the stairs and knocked on Mama and Papa’s bedroom door. “Mr. Tanner is here,” she called. She could hear Papa’s feet hit the floor, then his footsteps as he hurried to the door.

  Papa rushed outside to see what Mr. Tanner wanted. Lily followed behind. Mr. Tanner opened his car door and stepped out when he saw them coming toward him. “Good morning, Daniel,” he said. “I came to bring you a message.”

  Mr. Tanner’s voice, usually so jolly, sounded serious and sad. “Your brother Ira called me this morning.” He paused and looked down at his shoes. “He said your daddy passed away last night.”

  Grandpa Lapp was dead? It couldn’t be true! He couldn’t die. Lily had never even finished the scrapbook she had started as a surprise for Grandpa and Grandma. Now he would never see it.

  Mr. Tanner said he was sorry to bring sad news. He and Papa spoke for a few more minutes, then he got back in his car and drove away. Papa and Lily walked back into the house, silent and solemn. Papa drew out a chair from the kitchen table and sat down, holding his forehead in his hands. Big tears started to run down his cheeks. Lily had never seen Papa cry before, not once. Big choking sobs rose from Lily’s belly and Papa held his arms out to her. She scrambled into his lap and cried right alongside him.

  A few minutes later, Joseph and Dannie galloped down the stairs and into the kitchen, like it was just another summer day. But it wasn’t. Mama followed behind the boys, telling them to be quiet because baby Paul was sleeping. They all ground to a halt when they saw Papa and Lily crying at the table.

  Papa looked at Mama. “My father died.” The boys burst into tears and scrambled to find a spot on Papa’s lap—pushing Lily off, but she didn’t mind. They all loved Grandpa Lapp. Papa took his handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his tears. He patted Lily’s cheeks with the handkerchief and then the boys’ cheeks.

  Papa gently shooed Joseph and Dannie off his lap. “I need to go milk Pansy.” He stood and put an arm around Mama. “We need to get ready to go to Kentucky. Mr. Tanner offered to take us to the funeral. He’ll be here around one o’clock to pick us up.”

  Mama wiped tears from her eyes and nodded. As Papa went out to the barn, she watched him through the window. Lily wondered what she was thinking. Finally, Mama turned to Lily. “Go up to the attic, Lily, and bring down the big black suitcase while I start to prepare breakfast.”

  Breakfast? Who could eat? Lily was sure no one would want to eat anything. Grandpa Lapp was dead! But she went upstairs to get the suitcase for Mama.

  In just a few hours, Mama had everything planned. Uncle Jacob would take care of the animals while the family traveled to Kentucky to attend Grandpa Lapp’s funeral. Baby Paul would stay at Grandma and Grandpa Miller’s. Lily knew Aunt Susie would have fun helping Grandma take care of him.

  Mama had everything packed and ready by one o’clock, when Mr. Tanner drove up to the house. Papa and Dannie sat up front with Mr. Tanner while Mama, Lily, and Joseph sat in the back. The long ride was very quiet.

  It was after midnight by the time the family arrived at Grandma Lapp’s house. It felt awful to Lily to be here and know that Grandpa Lapp wasn’t here anymore. She wondered if Papa had the same thought.

  A dim light shone from a kitchen window and the front door opened as Mr. Tanner’s car pulled into the driveway. Uncle Ira came out to greet them, carrying a big flashlight.

  Uncle Ira spoke to Papa in low, hushed tones, like a whisper. “So glad you could come here so quickly,” he said. “Dad’s passing was quite a shock to all of us. There’d been no warning that he had any heart trouble until he had the heart attack last night.”

  Uncle Ira led the way into the house and showed Papa and Mama where they could sleep. “I’ll make some nests on the floor in the storage room for the children to sleep,” he said. He opened the door to the storage room and lifted the lid to a cedar chest that was tucked under a window. He pulled several blankets out and plopped them on the floor. “There you go. See you in the morning.” He clumped away down the stairs.

  Lily looked at her blanket nest. She was used to making a nest on the floor, but this was not much of a nest. It was just a heavy comforter. There was no pillow or a quilt to cover her. Joseph and Dannie were so tired that they just lay down and curled up like two puppies. Mama turned to the cedar chest again to try to find quilts and pillows. She pulled out two blankets and gave one to Lily and one to Joseph and Dannie to share.

  Mama hunted around the room. “I can’t seem to find any pillows, so we’ll just have to make our own.” She showed Lily how to roll up one end of a comforter to make a pillow.

  Lily lay down. The makeshift pillow felt lumpy and uncomfortable. Everything smelled of cedar and mothballs. It made her feel sick and she was sure she would never sleep. Joseph and Dannie were snoring like the little piglets at Hannah’s farm. She rolled over once, then twice, and then it was morning.

  Lily’s eyes burst open at the sound of a rooster crowing his good morning to the world. For one moment, she was home at Whispering Pines, waiting to hear the familiar sounds that meant Mama was in the kitchen. Then the rooster crowed again, and she knew she wasn’t home. This rooster’s crow was the sound of a bantam rooster, which was smaller than a chicken and louder than two. She took a deep breath and smelled mothballs. It all came to her—she was in Kentucky at Grandma Lapp’s house, sleeping on the floor in a room filled with mothballs. She couldn’t wait to get up and go outside and breathe fresh air.

  When the bantam rooster crowed again, Joseph and Dannie woke up. The three of them dressed and went down to the kitchen. Grandma Lapp was waiting for them, sitting in Grandpa’s creaky old rocking chair, slowly rocking back and forth. She spread her arms wide open and they rushed to her.

  Breakfast was scarcely over when women from Grandma’s church started to arrive. They scurried around to start washing windows. Lily knew what this meant. All day, the women would be cleaning the house. The walls and ceilings would be washed, the floors would be waxed, every horizontal surface would be dusted. The women in the church would help to prepar
e the house and cook the meal for Grandpa Lapp’s funeral. It was what women did.

  Since Lily and Mama were relatives, they weren’t expected to help clean. Instead, Papa and Mama sat next to Grandma and quietly visited. Lily, Joseph, and Dannie sat on a bench against the wall, quiet as mice, bored as could be. Some women and teenaged girls started to wash the walls of the living room. Lily wished she could help them. Anything would be better than just sitting. Just sitting and sitting. Boring!

  It wasn’t long before Joseph and Dannie couldn’t stand it any longer. Joseph placed one hand on the bench between them, and Dannie placed his hand on top of it. Joseph placed his hand on top of Dannie’s, and Dannie placed his other hand on top of it. It was the stacking game. Joseph pulled his hand from the bottom of the stack and placed it on top. Then Dannie did the same. Then Joseph did. Then Dannie did. Faster and faster until their hands were just a blur. Papa frowned at the noise they were making. They stopped. Lily, Joseph, and Dannie sat quietly with their hands in their laps. Bored stiff.

  By late afternoon, vans started to arrive. One after the other, filled with Papa’s brothers and sisters and their children. Men had brought church benches to the house and filled the living room with them. The benches at the back of the room started to fill with Lily’s cousins, aunts, and uncles.

  Lily didn’t know any of her same-age cousins except for three: Ella, Rosie, and Miriam. She knew those cousins only because they were included in her circle letter. She wished the girl cousins could go find a place to talk far away from this room of hushed whispers. Everyone acted sad and solemn and oh-so-proper.

  Happily, all the cousins—boys and girls—were just as bored as Lily. The boys lasted about an hour and then they suddenly got up and filed out to the barn. Papa gave a nod to Joseph and Dannie and they followed right behind the big boys.

  The girl cousins, being more mature and grown-up than the boys, sat for a while longer, until one of the older ones suggested that they could go outside and sit under a shade tree. Everyone else jumped up from the hard backless benches, as if they were set free. Lily was so relieved when Mama said she could go, too. Oh, to be able to get up and walk outside! She had never appreciated it so much.

  The boy cousins had gathered outside the barn, talking and laughing. The girls sat under the big shade trees, clumped together in little age groups.

  Lily sat on the ground next to Rosie, her closest-in-age cousin. “I wish we didn’t have to miss our first day of school,” Rosie said.

  Lily’s eyes went wide. Today was the first day of school! How could she have forgotten such an important day? Her thoughts left Kentucky and sailed to Cloverdale. How were Hannah and Beth and Malinda doing with a new teacher? Where was Lily’s seat? It had better not be anywhere near Aaron Yoder. She was so sad to realize she had missed out on the excitement of the first day of school. Effie, she knew, would be acting insufferably important. She would want everyone to assume she was Teacher Judith’s best friend.

  “How many children are in your grade?” Miriam asked her.

  Surely, Miriam was interested only in the girls in Lily’s grade. Who would ever care about the stupid boys? Hannah did, but she had an unreasonable crush on Aaron Yoder. Effie would care about the stupid boys, but she was boy crazy and made no sense at all. “There are four other girls in my grade,” Lily said. Rosie and Ella had about the same number of girls in their grades.

  Miriam sighed wistfully. “I wish I had classmates,” she said. “I’m all alone in my grade. There are plenty of children in the grade ahead and behind me. I’d even be happy with a boy in my class.”

  Lily knew Miriam wouldn’t feel that way if she could spend a day anywhere near Aaron Yoder or Sam Stoltzfus. She was just about to say so when something started pinging around them. Someone was tossing gravel peas at the girls’ heads. The girls sprang to their feet and looked up into the leafy tree branches. Rosie’s brother, Ben, was high on a branch, laughing as he reached into his pants pocket to toss another handful of gravel at them.

  “Oh Ben!” Rosie said. “Go away and quit being such a big pest.”

  Ben took his time climbing back down the tree. When he hit the ground, he hooked his thumbs into his suspenders. “Do you girls want to play hide and seek?”

  “We’ll play if the older girls will,” Rosie said.

  Lily thought that was pretty smart of Rosie. If they ended up in trouble for playing during the preparation for Grandpa Lapp’s funeral, the older girls would be held responsible.

  “No problem,” Ben said. “I’ll go find everyone.”

  For the first time since yesterday morning, Lily felt happy. She liked being a part of a big group of cousins. By the time Ben rounded up everyone who wanted to play hide-and-seek, he had gathered twenty-two children. All of Lily’s first cousins on the Lapp side who were close to her in age. Since it had been Ben’s idea to play hide-and-seek, the oldest cousins said he should be the one to do the seeking. Ben was pleased. Lily could tell that he liked being the center of attention. He reminded her of the horrible Aaron Yoder.

  “I’m only going to count to one hundred before I start looking for all of you,” Ben said. He buried his face in the crook of his arm and leaned against the tree trunk. “One . . . two . . . three . . .”

  Ella spoke first. “Let’s all hide in the woodshed.” Miriam, Rosie, Lily, and Ella held hands and ran across the yard toward the woodshed. As they reached the shed, Rosie lifted the hook that held the door shut. The girls stepped inside and drew the door shut behind them. As Lily’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, she felt an unexpected wave of missing her grandfather. Grandpa Lapp had hung his gardening tools in a row on one wall. Along another wall were neatly stacked piles of split firewood that reached all the way to the roof. Papa stacked his wood in the exact same way. Another wave of missing Grandpa crashed over her. Then it vanished, like a wisp of steam from a cup of tea, as they heard Ben’s voice call out, looking for people. The girls froze, huddling low on the floor so Ben couldn’t see them through the tiny window as he ran by.

  A few seconds later, Lily heard a funny little noise outside the shed. The girls looked at each other. “Was that the hook on the door?” Lily asked. Ben’s face appeared at the tiny window as he peered inside and then ran away, laughing as he went.

  Rosie tried to open the door but it was locked. “Ben!” she hollered. “Get back here and let us out!” She started to pound on the door. “Grrrr! He is such a pest!”

  Why, this was just the kind of thing Aaron Yoder liked to do! Lily hoped that Ben and Aaron Yoder never met. Double trouble.

  The girls took turns pounding on the door. Finally, the door hook was undone. Mama opened the door with a look of frustration. She spoke directly to Lily. “I don’t mind if you want to play with your cousins instead of sitting inside, but I expect you to be quiet. Understand?”

  “Yes, Mama,” Lily said. How unfair! Why was she the only one who was told to be quiet? Her cousins made just as much noise as she had. Rosie and Ben were the loudest of all.

  The next morning, after breakfast, Mama helped Lily pin her black cape and apron. All the other Lapp aunts and girl cousins were arriving soon. Buggies drove up to the house to drop off women and girls. Everyone was dressed in black and no one smiled. Even though it was a warm day, Lily felt cold.

  Aunt Tillie, as usual, told everyone what to do and where to sit. All the older grandchildren were supposed to sit on benches at the back of the room. Lily was happy to see she could sit on a bench against the wall. She looked forward to leaning against the wall during the long service. The girls filed in first and then the boys.

  Cousin Ben sat right in front of Lily. He looked as if he had been doing somersaults in the hayloft before he had come into the house. His hair had a few pieces of hay sticking out of it.

  After everyone had been seated, the bishop stood and started to preach. Little by little, Ben leaned on his bench so his backside was resting against Lily’s knees. Lily wasn
’t sure what to do. Rosie noticed and nudged Ben. He looked back at both girls with a smug “you can’t tell me what to do” grin on his freckled face. He sat up, but it wasn’t long before he started pushing his backside against Lily’s knees again. Disgusted, Rosie nudged him to sit forward again. It worked . . . for another minute. Then he leaned again.

  Rosie leaned over to whisper in Lily’s ear. “Poke him with a pin the next time he leans against your knees.”

  What a good idea! Lily wished she could think quickly like that. She pulled a pin from her apron belt and held it by her knees. It wasn’t long before Ben tried to lean back again. This time, Lily was ready. She held the pin firmly in her hands, point side out, and felt a delightful thrill of triumph as Ben jumped to his feet when the pin stuck him.

  Ben’s commotion caused his parents to swivel around. His father rose to his feet and marched to the back of the room. He placed his hand on the back of Ben’s neck and guided him to sit between his parents.

  The pin had worked! Lily tried not to feel smug as the back of Ben’s neck flushed bright red with embarrassment.

  Lily sat in the buggy with Papa and Mama and the boys as they made their way to the graveyard, slowly and sadly. Ahead of them was the buggy with the casket that held Grandpa Lapp’s body. Next came the buggies with Papa’s older brothers and sisters. Behind them came Papa’s two younger sisters, then a long string of buggies filled with other relatives and friends.

  At the edge of Grandpa Lapp’s grave, Lily stood next to Papa and watched as four men gently lowered the casket and covered it with dirt. The sound of the dirt hitting the casket made Lily cringe. It took a long time until the men were done. Finally, everyone returned to the house to eat a meal that the women had prepared.