A Surprise for Lily (16 page)

Uh-oh.
Lily and Joseph had been having so much fun playing that Mama had to come looking for them.

Mama slowed Jim down to a walk. “Whoa,” she said as she drew up next to them. “Do you want a ride?”

Lily hopped into the front seat beside Mama while Danny and Joseph climbed into the backseat. “Someone is coming to get Jim tonight,” Mama said. “I wanted to drive him one last time, so that's why I came to pick you up.”

“Is someone going to borrow Jim?” Lily said.

Mama gave Lily a sad look. “They won't be bringing him back. Jim is getting old. We've had him for a long time and he's been a wonderful horse for us, but now it's time to let him relax and enjoy the rest of his life without having to work.”

Jim was leaving them for good? Tears sprang into Lily's eyes.

Joseph leaned over the buggy seat. “We could let him relax in our barn.”

“I wish we could,” Mama said. “I truly do. But it's too crowded in the barn with two horses. It worked while Papa was training Bob, but now Bob is ready to pull the buggy for us. Horses like nice roomy stalls where they can move around. The stall is too small for Jim to stay in if he's not pulling the buggy each day.”

Lily felt a heavy sadness cover her heart. The lovely spring afternoon was gone. This was their last buggy ride with Jim. She tried not to cry but first one tear, then another, slipped down her cheeks. She heard sniffing from Joseph and Dannie in the backseat. Even Mama was biting her lip, as if she was trying not to cry. They rode the rest of the way home in silence.

Papa came out of the shop when Mama drove up to the barn. He started to unhitch Jim from the buggy. Mama got out of the buggy and walked up to Jim and stood there stroking his face. Lily was surprised to see tears streaming down Mama's cheeks. Lily couldn't stop her own tears from coming. She cried as she stroked Jim's velvety nose and told him what a good horse he had been. “I'll miss you every day,” she said. “You'll always be my special horse.” She gave him one last pat and followed Mama into the house.

Mama got a bowl and filled it with potatoes. She set them
into the sink and let cold water run over them before she started to peel them. “It's sad to say goodbye to an animal that was like a member of the family,” was all she said. Mama finished cutting up the potatoes and put them on the stove to boil.

Lily started to set the table with silverware. “Mama, do you remember the day Jim backed the buggy into a ditch and the buggy dumped over?”

Mama turned from the stove. “I'd forgotten about that! Poor Jim. I know he didn't do that on purpose, and he did a good job holding still until Grandpa Miller unhitched him from the buggy.”

Papa and the boys came in from the barn, and Mama started to dish food into bowls while Lily filled the water glasses. The evening meal was very quiet.

Before they had finished supper, a truck pulling a trailer drove into the driveway. Papa got up from the table. “Does anyone want to come outside with me and say their last goodbyes to Jim before he leaves?”

Joseph and Dannie jumped up from the table to join Papa. Mama gave Paul another bite of potato. She didn't look up at Papa. “I said goodbye to him when I came home today. I don't want to watch him leave.”

Papa understood. “What about you, Lily?”

She shook her head. “I'll stay in the house with Mama.”

Lily wished she didn't hear the clank of the trailer door as it opened and shut, then the sound of the truck engine as it drove away. Jim was no longer their horse. She had lost her appetite and pushed her plate away. She folded her arms on the table and buried her face to hide her tears.

Mama rubbed her back with circles. “Feeling sad at times
like this is normal, Lily. But it helps to know Jim will be happy in his new home.”

“But how can we be sure he will be happy and won't miss us?”

“He might miss us a little,” Mama said. “But he can make new horse friends. He will get lots of good care where he is going. Papa made sure of that.”

As Papa and the boys came back inside, Lily felt a little better. At least she wasn't dreading that final goodbye anymore. But she would never forget Jim. And she would never like Bob.

When Effie Kauffman heard that Jim had been taken away, she told Lily that when horses got old, they were sent off to a glue factory to be turned into glue. “That's not true!” Lily said. “My papa said Jim was going off to a nice farm to rest.”

“Oh Lily,” Effie sighed, as if she were the parent and Lily were the child. “He just didn't want you to worry.”

That afternoon, Lily went down to the workshop and told Papa what Effie had said. Papa stopped varnishing a table and looked up. “Lily, have Mama or I ever lied to you?”

No. Of course not. Effie, though, lied all the time. Lily felt much better.

Weeks passed. Papa was right: Bob had turned into a good buggy horse after all. He hardly ever pointed his ears back now and rarely showed the whites of his eyes anymore. Lily still didn't like him, but she didn't dislike him quite as much. She didn't think she could ever love a horse like she loved Jim.

One Saturday afternoon, Joseph ran down to meet the mailman. Lily used to try to race him to the mailbox, but
he was faster than her now and it wasn't fun anymore. Lily watched him from the kitchen window and heard him yell a big “Yahoo!” He ran back to the house waving a big white envelope. “We got a letter from Jim!”

“Don't be silly,” Lily said. “Horses can't write.”

“Well, Jim probably can, because it's from him.” Joseph pointed to the return address:
From Jim.
“You don't know everything, Lily.”

“I know more than you and I know that horses can't write.”

Mama came over to see what the fuss was about so Joseph handed the envelope to her. She smiled when she saw the return address. “I guess we'll have to open it to see what this is about.” She pulled out a pin from her apron belt and slit the envelope open. She drew out several photographs and looked at them before handing them to Lily and Joseph so they could see them.

They were all of Jim. In one picture he was running in a nice green pasture with a white board fence and a long red barn in the distance. In another one, he was eating hay in a big roomy stall in the barn. The next one showed him standing next to some other horses. It reminded Lily of how the men gathered before church, talking about the weather and crops.

Something lifted inside of Lily. She felt so much better now that she knew that Jim was happy. It was very kind of the new owner to send pictures of Jim. Whenever she missed Jim, she could always go look at his pictures again and realize he was happy in his new home.

And she couldn't
wait
to show those pictures to Effie Kauffman.

S
pring meant softball games. It was Lily's least favorite game to play during recess. Today was the first day it hadn't rained in a while and the boys were eager to get the game started. Aaron Yoder and Harvey Hershberger chose the teams. Lily was the first player Harvey chose for his team, which even struck Lily as very strange. Usually, she was chosen last because she was a terrible batter. A terrible catcher of balls, too.

Each time Lily was up at bat, she struck out. She tried so hard to hit the ball, but her bat never met anything but air. Harvey didn't seem to mind at all. He was surprisingly encouraging and told her she made a great effort.

The next day, the softball game continued on during recess. Joseph was up to bat when a buggy came clattering into the school yard. They always had to stop the game when a horse
was in the school yard and find something less risky to play. They didn't want a foul ball to hit a horse.

Harvey's father, Abe Hershberger, eased out of the buggy and marched up to Teacher Judith. “What's the idea of having the children pick teams to play softball? Don't you know how that starts a competitive streak in children?”

Teacher Judith looked bewildered. Abe Hershberger kept on scolding her until she finally held up a hand to stop him. She whispered something to him and they walked into the schoolhouse to finish the conversation. All the children gathered around the steps of the schoolhouse, trying to figure out what was going on. Abe marched back outside, untied his horse from the hitching rack, jumped into his buggy, and drove out of the school yard without a smile or a wave to his children. Teacher Judith rang the bell early and everyone hurried inside.

The next morning at recess, Harvey said, “I'm not going to play softball today. Dad said no one else is allowed to play, either. He said he would whip anyone who didn't obey that rule.”

Aaron Yoder was not so easily fobbed off. “So that's where you get your particular brand of craziness, Harvey,” Aaron said, speaking with the authority of one who managed the school yard—and in a way, he did. “No way. We've always played softball and we always will, as long as I go to this school. It's my favorite game.” He picked up a bat and ball and walked out on the playground.

Effie Kauffman ran after him. “Aaron, you and I can be team captains, if Harvey doesn't want to play.”

“No one is supposed to play softball,” Harvey said. Then a light went on in his eyes. “But we can still play ball if we
only have one team. The four youngest can be batters and everyone else gets a number. Whoever is number one will be on first base. Number two will be on second. Number three will be on third. Everyone else can be outfielders. When a batter makes an out, he goes to the outfield and everyone moves up one position.”

Aaron Yoder rolled his eyes but agreed to the new rules. “If that's how we're going to play, I'll end up being a batter for the rest of this school year. No one will ever get me out.”

Aaron's arrogance was insufferable, but Lily knew he was probably right. Aaron would be batting every inning and she would be stuck in the outfield for the rest of the school term.

Recesses were extra fun on the days when Mama was teaching English. Mama liked to come out and pitch the softball to the batters.

This afternoon, Aaron was up at bat. He hit the ball far to the outfield. Then it was Beth's turn. She swung and missed. Once, then twice. On the third try, she hit a fly ball right to Sam Stoltzfus, who easily caught it and Beth was out. The children all rotated a position and Harvey stepped up to bat. Everybody scattered to the outfield. Harvey always hit the ball hard.

Mama pitched the ball to Harvey. Lily heard a loud crack as Harvey's bat met the ball. It flew right at Mama and knocked her down! Aaron bolted to the pitcher's mound to help her up. Harvey dropped his bat and ran to join them. Aaron and Harvey held Mama's arms and helped her into the schoolhouse.

Lily froze. She wanted to run to Mama but her legs didn't budge. She felt as if her feet were glued to the ground. Beth,
Malinda, and Effie hurried over to Lily. “I hope that ball didn't hurt the you-know-what,” Effie said.

Lily looked at Effie, confused. “What are you talking about?”

Beth tugged on Lily's sleeve. “Don't you think we should go see if your Mama is okay?”

The girls ran to the schoolhouse. Inside, Mama sat at the teacher's desk. Her face looked as white as a ghost. Aaron gave her a cloth he had rinsed in cold water. Harvey filled a glass of water for her. Lily quickly ran to Mama's side. “Are you all right?”

“I'm sure I'll be fine in a few minutes,” Mama said, but she didn't sound fine or look fine. Everybody swarmed inside the schoolhouse to surround Mama's desk.There was a big lump on her forehead where the ball had hit her. She pressed the wet cloth against her head and closed her eyes. “Really. I'm fine. You can all go out to play.”

Aaron gave Mama a concerned look, then he shooed everyone outside. Lily stayed inside with Mama just in case she needed anything. To her surprise, she soon heard the clip-clop of a horse and buggy approach. Papa had come! Lily ran to the window and saw Aaron and Harvey climb out of the buggy with Papa. In the backseat were Dannie and Paul. Harvey and Aaron must have run to Whispering Pines to tell Papa that Mama was hurt.

Papa hurried into the schoolroom. “Rachel, are you all right?”

“I'm fine, Daniel,” Mama said, holding the cold cloth to her forehead. “Just a little bump.”

Papa gently moved the cold cloth away from Mama's forehead. His dark eyebrows shot up. The lump was even bigger
now, as big as a goose egg, turning blue and purple. “I need to take you home. Is there any student who could take your place until school is dismissed?”

Mama's eyes scanned over the eighth graders: Becky, Ephraim, Wall-eyed Walter. “We'd better just let the children go home early.”

Papa sent everyone home, then helped Mama into the buggy. He insisted she lie down to rest as soon as they reached home. Tonight, Papa said he and Lily would get supper ready while Mama rested. The next day, she woke up feeling better.

At school the next morning, Effie ran up to Lily. “Is your mama all right?”

“She's doing fine,” Lily said, surprised that Effie would ask about Mama.

“When a woman gets hurt during her you-know-what, it means she's in for twice the trouble. It's a fact.”

Lily looked at Effie as if she was speaking Chinese. “What are you talking about?”

Effie simply pursed her lips as if the why of it was too obvious to say.

Aaron Yoder was up to bat. So far, just like he had predicted, he had never been out. Every day, Lily hoped he would get out. She wanted Aaron to be taken down a peg. Or two. She was banished to the outfield where she would do the least damage to the game, Aaron told her.

Aaron's bat hit the ball with a loud, satisfying crack. Lily watched the ball fly up, up, up before it started to come down. She held out her apron and was thrilled when the ball landed magically in her outstretched apron. All the children cheered!
Someone had finally gotten Aaron Yoder out. That someone was Lily!

Aaron scowled as he headed to the outfield and everyone else moved forward a position.

At long last, Lily was rotating to the infield. She had moved up to third base. Only three more batters needed to get out, then she could have a turn at bat. Now Malinda was up to bat. Despite the fact that Malinda was a very timid, always worried girl, she was a surprisingly strong athlete. She hit that ball far into center field and made it safely all the way to third base. “You did a good job of catching Aaron's fly ball,” she said, puffing and panting as she stood on the base. “I wish I had thought to use my apron to try to catch balls.”

Sam Stoltzfus hit a ground ball and Malinda ran on to home plate. Junior Hershberger dashed past Lily to Aaron in the outfield. Aaron whispered something furiously into his ear and Junior took off. That was just like Junior. He acted as if Aaron was some kind of hero.

Now Harvey was up to bat. Lily hoped she might catch his ball, too. Maybe today was her lucky day. The ball went up, up, up, right toward her! She opened up her apron and backed up to try to catch it. Back, back, back, then . . . she tripped and landed into something soft and squishy and moist. A steaming fresh pile of horse manure! She jumped up and swatted the back of her dress, trying to brush it all off. Aaron and Junior had dropped to their knees, slapping the ground as they roared with laughter. Junior had sneaked that manure pile out there!

Just when Lily thought Aaron might be getting a tiny bit nicer, he did something rotten! What a
coward
—to get a little boy to do his dirty work. He was an incurable pain. But she was going to concoct a scheme to cure him.

Dear Cousin Hannah,

Thank you for your newsy letter! I'm glad you are enjoying school so much. Since you asked, yes, I do think that Tom the hired boy is too old for you. Ten years is a big difference, especially when you are eleven and he is twenty-one.

I have gobs to tell you. Something funny happened during the softball game at lunch recess today. Harvey Hershberger's little brother, Junior, was catching balls in the outfield and he used his baggy trousers to catch a ball! He's always wearing trousers that are too big for him—probably Harvey's hand-me-downs. He looked so silly! The boys just howled and now they call him Bag Boy. Junior loves the attention—any attention—just like Harvey does.

Last week, Junior put a pile of fresh horse manure behind me on third base, so that I tripped and fell into it. It was all Aaron Yoder's doing. So I thought of a perfect way to get back at Aaron. I filled a pail full of dried horse manure and slipped into the schoolhouse early one morning, silent as snow. Teacher Judith was outside, talking to Effie, as usual, so the timing could not have been any better. I dumped the entire pail in Aaron Yoder's desk! Then I hid the pail in the basement. No one would ever be able to trace it to me.

I could hardly wait to see what Aaron would do. Oh Hannah, I could hardly sit still. Finally, Aaron would be humiliated.

Well, you won't believe what happened. When Teacher Judith asked the sixth grade to get their spelling
workbooks out, Aaron opened his desk, shuffled the manure around to find his workbook, took the book out, and closed the lid of his desk. As if a desk filled with manure was nothing unusual to him! When he was up front for spelling, he asked Teacher Judith if he could open the windows, being as how it was a warm day. Of course, she said yes, even though it was a chilly morning. She never says no to anyone.

So Aaron opened up the window next to his desk. All day long, whenever he needed something from his desk, he pitched a few pieces of manure out the window.

Infuriating! Nothing ever bothers Aaron . . . but that never stops him from trying to bother me! I wish he would tease Effie half as much as he teases me. She would love his attention. I loathe it.