A Surprise for Lily (17 page)

Your cousin,
Lily

Only a few weeks of school remained in this year's term. One Monday, right before lunch recess, Teacher Judith told the children to line up, in alternating grades, on each side of the room. “We're going to have a spelling bee. On Friday, the one student still standing will win a special prize.”

At the mention of the word
prize
, an epidemic of grins swept through the schoolhouse. Most of them, particularly the boys, would rather work for a prize than eat for a week.

For Lily, this news was straight from heaven. She loved spelling bees and was sure she could win. Wouldn't it be wonderful
to win two prizes this year? One for nearly perfect attendance, and one for a spelling bee. Papa would be so pleased.

No sooner had everyone else lined up along two sides of the room than Teacher Judith paired the three eighth graders with the first graders: Wall-Eyed Walter with one of the Hershberger twins, Becky with the other, and Ephraim Stoltzfus with Menno King, who whistled through his missing front teeth when he talked. She paired second graders with seventh, third graders with sixth, and so on. Aaron was paired with Bag Boy Hershberger. Lily was paired with Lavina, her favorite of the little girls. Each time Teacher Judith gave out a word, there was a frenzied conference of whispers. The youngest of the pair would recite the letters aloud. Effie and Toby were the first to drop on the word
affect
. As Effie was waved out of the round, she flounced to her chair and blamed Toby. Pair by pair went down in defeat, until Teacher Judith stopped the bee, to be continued tomorrow.

Rounds of the spelling bee continued each day. By Wednesday, only Lily and Lavina, and Aaron and Bag Boy were left. They spelled down word after word—the entire schoolhouse on the edge of their seats waiting breathlessly for one of the pairs to make a mistake. The room was filled with claps and groans and hoots.

On Thursday, it was a stalemate. “Only one student can win,” Teacher Judith said. “So we're going to split up the pairs.”

Without Aaron's tutelage, Bag Boy went down in the first round on the word
ransack
. Then Lavina waffled and forgot the
c
. The last two standing were Aaron and Lily. “To be continued tomorrow,” Teacher Judith said and announced it was lunchtime.

Lily was determined to take Aaron Yoder down in defeat. She stayed up late into the night, studying words.

As the clock ticked toward the noon hour on Friday, the entire schoolhouse had a severe case of the fidgets. No one could concentrate with a matter of such import as the spelling bee on their minds. Lily certainly couldn't. Possible words flipped through her mind:
Mississippi
,
preposterous
,
extravaganza
.

By eleven o'clock, Teacher Judith gave up on teaching math to the sixth graders. “Let's go ahead and finish up this spelling bee.”

Aaron and Lily bolted to opposite sides of the schoolhouse. They glared at each other from across the sea of desks.

“I'm going to make it a little more difficult,” Teacher Judith said. “I'm going to give the definition and let you figure out the word.”

Oh, boy.
This might be a little harder than Lily had expected it to be. She felt her cheeks flush. Aaron, naturally, looked as if he were enjoying a Sunday picnic.

“Lily, you go first,” Teacher Judith said. The entire schoolhouse leaned forward in its chairs. “It contains your vocal chords.”

Lily licked her lips. Her mind had gone blank. What was that word? She coughed nervously and suddenly remembered! “Larynx. L-a-r-y-n-x.”

“Correct. Aaron, self-confidence or assurance, especially when in a demanding situation.”

Oh, Lily knew this one! In her mind she spelled it: a-p-l-u-m . . .

“Aplomb,” Aaron said. “A-p-l-o-m-b.”

“Correct!”

Oh, boy.
Lily felt a little bead of sweat on her forehead.

“Lily, your turn. Punishment in return for an injury or wrongdoing.”

Lily smiled. This would be easy. “Vengeance. V-e-n-g-e-n-c-e.”

As Aaron smirked, Lily realized she had forgotten the
a
.

“Aaron, you try,” Teacher Judith said.

“Vengeance. V-e-n-g-e-a-n-c-e.”

“Correct!”

The boys in the schoolhouse erupted in hoots and howls. Lily's face felt red enough to ignite. She had lost. She had lost for all the girls. She had lost for herself. She had lost to Aaron Yoder. He had won by spelling
aplomb
—the very thing she accused him of being overly blessed with. She had lost by misspelling the word
vengeance
—the very thing that was driving her to beat him. Shame rippled through her. She deserved to lose. Head hung low, she went back to her desk.

Teacher Judith called Aaron up to her desk and handed him the prize: a box of chocolates. Lily's very favorite kind. If she could feel any worse, she just did.

Lily stayed inside during lunch recess. She didn't want to play softball and be anywhere near the boys. They couldn't stop gloating about Aaron's win.

She put her lunch box back on the shelf and went to the bathroom, then came back inside to read her book. When she opened her desk lid to get her book, she found the box of chocolates that Aaron had won. Was someone playing a trick on her? She hadn't forgotten how sneaky Effie Kauffman had
been last year—switching food from children's lunch boxes so that it looked as if Lily was stealing food. “I think there's been a mistake,” Lily said. She gave the box of chocolates to Teacher Judith.

Teacher Judith smiled. “Aaron slipped in while you were in the bathroom. He said you deserved the chocolates just as much as he did.” She handed the box back to Lily. “I don't think he wanted you to know that he put them in your desk.”

Lily was flabbergasted. F-l-a-b-b-e-r-g-a-s-t-e-d. Aaron Yoder might just have a heart, after all.

M
ama's birthday was coming soon. Lily tried to think of something special she could make for her. She had already made up her mind that she would not try to bake and decorate a cake. Last year it had turned into a disaster. A “dis-as-tah,” as Joseph called her kitchen mistakes.

Lily went into the sewing room to dig through a pile of fabric scraps, searching for inspiration. She dumped several boxes filled with scraps on the floor and sat beside the pile to sort through all of it. Piece by piece, she put the scraps back into the boxes. She put the last scrap into the box and closed it with a sigh. Nothing! She wasn't at all inspired. Maybe . . . she would be inspired if she could use fabric from the piles in Mama's fabric cupboard.

It wouldn't hurt to look at the fabric. She opened the door and admired the variety of colors. They looked so pretty. A purple fabric caught her eye. She hoped Mama would use it
to make a dress for her, maybe for a new school dress or a Christmas gift. She ran a finger along the fabric. It felt soft and nice. She wondered why Mama never wore a purple dress. She had different shades of blue, teal, and green, but never purple. Suddenly Lily felt selfish. Mama always saved the prettiest fabric to make dresses for Lily. She tried to envision Mama wearing a dress made with this pretty purple fabric. It would look beautiful on her, with her thick, wavy dark hair and rosy cheeks. Papa would be sure to whistle, one note up, one down, and say something nice when he saw her wear it.

Inspired! That's how Lily felt. She made up her mind. She would use this fabric to make a dress for Mama's birthday. She had never sewed a dress before, but it didn't look very hard when she watched Mama sew. No problem. She was sure she could do it.

Digging through the pattern basket, Lily found Mama's dress pattern. She listened for the sounds of Mama in the kitchen, then quickly darted up the stairs with the fabric and the patterns to her room and locked the door.

Lily spread the fabric on the floor, placed the pattern on top and started to cut. The thin paper pattern shifted as she cut so she placed a few books on top of them to try to keep them still.

When the last piece had been cut, she folded it all carefully, put it into a grocery bag and tucked it under her bed. She would have to find an excuse to visit Grandma Miller soon and sew the dress. That way, Mama wouldn't see what she was doing and, if she needed help, Grandma would be right there to help her. But . . . Lily was quite sure she would not need help.

A few days later, Mama asked Lily to take a recipe over to
Grandma Miller's house. Lily asked if she could stay there for a while, and when Mama said yes, Lily ran upstairs and grabbed the bag that held the purple fabric pieces that she had cut out for Mama's birthday dress. She ran all the way to Grandma's house. She could hardly wait!

Aunt Susie opened the door and welcomed Lily inside. Her eyes went right to the bag in Lily's arms. “What do you have in the bag?”

“I'm going to sew a dress for Mama's birthday,” Lily said.

Aunt Susie was disappointed that Lily hadn't come to play dolls or color in books today. When Grandma Miller heard Lily's plans, she smiled. “Of course, we'll help,” she said. She opened up her sewing machine and threaded the needle with purple thread.

Lily spread all the pieces out on the table, unsure of what to do next. Maybe . . . she did need a little help. Grandma examined all of the pieces she had cut, picked up two pieces and told Lily to sew the seams together. The treadle on Grandma's sewing machine pumped easily, more easily than Lily's old sewing machine, and it didn't take Lily long. “What's next?”

Grandma Miller held Lily's freshly sewn seam, frowning. She tugged at the seam a little and tried to smooth it with her hands. “Which way did you place the pattern on the fabric to cut it out?” she asked.

Which way? Did it matter? Grandma Miller explained that the fabric had a nap to it, and it was important to cut it with the nap rather than against it. Now, even if Lily took special care to try to sew nice straight seams, they gathered together in a twisted, rippled way. Lily felt her happiness start to slip away.

“There is nothing we can do about it now,” Grandma said.
“Hopefully we'll be able to iron it really well to make it look a little better.”

“I hope so, too,” Lily said, starting to fold and pin pleats in the skirt.

“I hope so, three,” Aunt Susie said. “Because it looks awful.”

Mama's birthday arrived on a cool day in May. She'd said she didn't want a big birthday celebration this year, so Papa hadn't invited anyone to come for a special birthday dinner. Lily hoped Papa would still give Mama a gift. He always chose special surprises for Mama's birthday. Lily thought it would
be sad if she didn't end up with any presents other than the purple dress with the bunched seams. At the very least, she thought, purple always made everything better.

As everyone sat down at the table for supper, Lily handed Mama a box that Grandma had helped her wrap. Mama opened it carefully and drew out the purple dress. She held it up, oohing and aahing over it. “Did you make this by yourself?”

“I cut it out by myself,” Lily said, “but I took it over to Grandma so she could tell me how to sew it.”

“If you don't mind waiting to start eating,” Mama said, “I think I'll go change into this dress right now.”

“Go right ahead, Rachel,” Papa said, winking at Lily. “We'll wait patiently, won't we, boys?”

Joseph and Dannie looked longingly at the bowl of steaming mashed potatoes.

When Mama came back into the kitchen, Papa let out a long low whistle, one note up, one note down. It was just the way Lily had imagined it! “You look as pretty as a posy,” he said. His eyes were smiling as he watched her. Purple was definitely the right color for Mama.

Before Mama sat down, Papa raised a hand. “Since it's gift time, I have something for you too.”

Dannie leaned next to Joseph and whispered, “I thought it was supper time.”

Papa ignored him and rose from his chair. “Let's all go down to the shop.”

Everyone followed Papa down the stairs. Lily wondered what Papa had made for Mama's birthday.

Papa led Mama to the back of the shop where several tables and chairs were waiting to be picked up by the customers who
had ordered them. He stopped at a beautiful table with six chairs. “I made this table and those chairs for you,” he said.

“Oh, Daniel! Thank you!” Mama reached out and stroked the top of the table. “It feels like satin.”

Papa chuckled as he watched Mama examine the chairs. “There's an old saying: Cobblers' children have no shoes. I didn't want anyone to say that a furniture maker's family goes without furniture. It's about time we got rid of our rickety old table and have a nice one.”

“I didn't mind using our old table,” Mama said.

“I know you didn't,” Papa said. “But you deserve nice furniture and this table is the first of more to come.”

“Oh, Daniel,” Mama said again. Her eyes got that shiny look, as if she might cry.

“If Joseph and Dannie can give me a hand, we can carry this thing up to the kitchen and have our first meal on it tonight. It only seems right that a beautiful birthday girl should get to eat at a nice new table.”

Mama blushed with all of Papa's compliments. Lily loved hearing them.

By the time the table and chairs had been moved to the kitchen, the supper was almost cold. But no one minded, not even Joseph and Dannie. Mama had a wonderful birthday. The best ever, she said.

Lily liked to wash the new table off after every meal. The beautiful, glossy varnished top was so pretty and shiny. Even Joseph and Dannie helped set the table for every meal without being asked.

A few days after Mama's birthday, Lily walked into the
kitchen to get a drink of water after planting beans in the garden. She stopped in her tracks as she saw Joseph and Dannie scrubbing the table with a stainless steel scouring pad.

“What have you done to Mama's beautiful table?” she gasped.

The boys stopped their scrubbing. Joseph looked a little more closely at the table and his face turned a funny shade of grayish white when he saw that the beautiful glossy varnish had been scratched off.

“What are you doing?” Lily asked again. Even to her ears, her voice sounded screechy.

“We were coloring a picture for Papa with markers,” Joseph said. “The markers soaked through the paper and stained the table. We tried to wash them, but they wouldn't wash away. So then we thought of the stainless steel scouring pad because that's what Mama uses when she washes pots that are extra dirty. I didn't know the varnish would come off, too.” He looked and sounded miserable. Dannie nodded alongside him, looking a little less miserable.

Lily felt sorry for Joseph. She knew just how he felt. Accidents happened. They happened all the time. “You both need to tell Mama what happened.”

Joseph looked as if he was going to be sick. She knew he would rather run and hide than tell Mama he had ruined her birthday table. But slowly, he walked out the door with Dannie following behind. Lily drank her water very, very slowly. She wanted to be inside when Mama saw her beautiful table was no longer beautiful. She felt sorry for Joseph, but not so sorry that she didn't want to see him get into trouble.

Mama did look sad as she saw the table, but she assured Joseph and Dannie that Papa would be able to fix it. “He'll
have to sand down the table top to remove the varnish that is on it now, then re-varnish it.”

“I can help him sand it,” Joseph said.

“Me too,” Dannie echoed.

“I'm sure he'd like your help,” Mama said. She tousled their hair. “Run along and play now.”

Lily was astonished. She wondered how Mama could stay so sweet even with little boys who had ruined her table. She knew how much Mama treasured that table.

Then she thought of all the times Mama had been patient with her when she had made mistakes. She couldn't even think of a time when Mama lost her temper. Lily made up her mind that if she ever had children—and she was sure she never would—but if she did, she hoped she would be just like Mama.