A Surprise for Lily (22 page)

Aunt Susie was out on the porch when Papa carried Lily up the steps. She had already forgotten about Lily's fall in
the tunnel. Her face was lit up with happiness. “Lily, there's a surprise! Two surprises!”

“First things first, Susie,” Papa said. “I want to make sure Lily's ankle is taken care of. Then she can see the surprise.”

Papa set Lily on a chair in the kitchen. Grandma Miller and Grandma Lapp fussed over her, examining the ankle and wiping her tears away. Gently, Papa cleaned the bad scrapes, washed off the blood, and took out splinters with tweezers. He turned Lily's ankle, holding it carefully, until he was convinced it wasn't broken and the grandmothers agreed. “Just a bad sprain. But let's get cold water on it.” Papa wrapped Lily's ankle with a cold, wet rag.

“Can she see the surprises now?” Aunt Susie asked, clasping her hands together in excitement.

Papa laughed. “I'll have to carry you upstairs, Lily, to see the surprises.” He picked Lily up and took her into Mama's room. Mama was lying in bed. In each of her arms lay a tiny, red, wrinkled baby. Why, Effie had actually been right about something! Mama
was
going to have a baby. Two babies! Lily was finally getting a sister.
Two
sisters!

“Oh, Mama, can I name them?”

But Mama's eyes were fixed on Lily's wrapped-up foot. “What happened to you?”

“It's a long story,” Papa said, cutting Lily off just as she was about to launch into the bear story.

Dannie came into the room and sidled next to Mama to look at the babies.

“Lily's ankle isn't broken, Rachel,” Papa said. “We can tell Mama all about your adventure later. She needs to rest now.”

He turned to go, but Lily leaned over his shoulder. “Mama, can I name my sisters?”

Papa froze. Slowly, he turned around so Lily was facing Mama and the babies. He and Mama exchanged a look. “Lily,” Papa said in his gentlest voice, “these little babies . . . they're . . . not . . .”

“Oh no,” Lily said, as a thought started to dawn. “No, no, no.” A horrible feeling started in the bottom of her stomach.

Dannie smiled at Lily. His grown-up front teeth were about halfway in now, and he didn't whistle and spit quite so much when he talked. “They're brothers!”

T
win babies, Lily thought, were much, much more trouble than just two babies. One or the other was always crying, eating, or needing a diaper change. Both grandmothers were now at Whispering Pines to help, which was the only nice thing about having twin babies.

Papa and Mama named the babies after Grandpa Lapp: Phineas and Enos. Lily loved her grandfather, but what horrible names to give two little funny-looking boys!

She still hadn't gotten over her disappointment that they weren't the sisters Effie had predicted. There were so many boys in this house. Lily tried to show interest in the babies, for Mama's sake, but it wasn't very sincere.

Mama thought they were beautiful boys, and Lily didn't want to hurt her feelings with the truth. They were odd-looking babies: bald and toothless, with ears that were too big for their heads. Dannie and Paul had been ugly babies, and they looked pretty normal now, so she hoped these new
babies' looks might improve in time. She couldn't remember Joseph as a baby, but she suspected he had been ugly, too.

Mostly, Lily tried to stay outdoors with Dannie and Joseph, even on crutches with a sprained ankle, so she wouldn't be called on to rock a crying baby. She was trying to do all she could to keep Joseph from thinking about Dozer. When she had told Joseph that the bear might have killed Dozer, he covered his hands with his ears and refused to believe it. He was adamant about it, convinced Dozer had fought off the bear. He was always on the lookout for that dog and wanted to go search for him in the train tunnel, but Papa wouldn't let him. The train tunnel was off limits this summer.

Every time Lily thought about Dozer, she felt a stone drop in her stomach. She was grieving over that silly, crazy, pest of a dog.

On Saturday morning, babies or not, it was housecleaning day. The grandmothers told Joseph and Dannie to carry every rug in the house out to the front porch. It was Lily's job to shake the rugs, which wasn't easy with a sprained ankle. She picked up a dark blue rug from the pile of rugs. Six hard shakes on one end, then she flipped it over the porch railing and gave the other end six shakes. Good enough. She rolled it up and reached for the next one. She didn't like the little bits of dirt that flew off and stung her face and arms. Shaking rugs and washing dishes topped the list of things Lily didn't like to do but had to do quite often. These rugs needed to be whacked every single Saturday.

If anyone was to ask Lily's opinion, she would get rid of the rugs. There were too many rugs in the house. One for each door. One in front of the kitchen sink and another in front of the stove. Two for each bedroom, and one for each rocking chair and in front of the sofa. It might not seem like
all that much until they sat on a pile waiting for Lily to shake the dirt off of them.

As she rolled up the last rug, she made up her mind to ask Mama if she could have the afternoon to play. Maybe she would take Joseph and Dannie for a walk in the woods or gather some buttercups in the pasture. She could get around pretty easily on the crutches. And wouldn't Mama like a bouquet of buttercups?

“Yes, you can all go play,” Mama said when Lily popped into her room to ask. She peeked at the babies in their cradles and was glad they were both sound asleep. One squeaked while he slept. She thought that was Phineas, but she still couldn't tell one twin from the other.

Lily went to the shop to find Joseph and Dannie. They were happy to go along with her.

“Let's pretend we're playing pioneers,” Joseph said. “We could go to the top of Mr. Beal's hill and then pretend we're going to California by covered wagon. We can pretend our house is in California.”

Mr. Beal was very nice about letting Lily and Joseph walk through his fields. She shielded her eyes against the sun and scanned the fields, but she didn't see Mr. Beal working anywhere. “Okay. But go slowly. Crutches are hard in the field.”

“What will we use for covered wagons?” Dannie asked.

“People used to walk beside their wagons,” Joseph said. “I know that for a fact. So we can pretend to be walking beside a covered wagon.”

They walked across the pasture and slipped through the fence to reach Mr. Beal's hayfield. Just last week, Mr. Beal had baled hay, so the grass was nice and short except for a few clumps that the mower had missed, which made it easier
for Lily. They crossed the hayfield and walked through the cornfield. She did not like walking through cornfields. Even though the corn was only up to her knees, the long green leaves brushed and scratched against her as she walked. Cuts from corn leaves felt just like paper cuts. Plus, there was always the worry of snakes.

She was glad when they got to the other side and climbed the hill. When they reached the top, they were out of breath and sat down to rest. She rubbed her ankle. It was a little sore, a little stiff, but not too bad.

Joseph jumped up. “Time to head out,” he said in his imitation of a grown-up voice. “I'm the leader of the wagon train so everyone has to follow me.”

Lily put Dannie behind Joseph. He could be hard to keep track of if he wasn't following Joseph around. They walked slowly down the hill and made their way back through the cornfield. When they came out on the other side, Joseph cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered, “Buffalo ahead!”

Mr. Beal's cows were grazing in the hayfield. As the children started across the field, it was fun to pretend the lazy cows were buffalo. Halfway through, a cow lifted her head and looked at them. “Moo!”

Lily thought possibly, just possibly, that small young cow was Nelly, the princess calf Papa had given to Mr. Beal. Then the cow started walking toward them. “Moo!” Several more joined in. “Moo! Moo!”

This felt strange. Cows didn't usually care what went on around them as long as there was grass to eat. More and more cows started to walk toward them. They walked faster. The moos grew louder as more and more cows joined in the chorus.

And then Lily's heart almost stopped.

Right in front of them was Mr. Beal's enormous black bull, and he didn't look happy. He walked a few steps toward them and then stopped and pawed the ground and snorted angrily.

“We'd better get out of here,” Lily said as calmly as she could. Joseph grabbed Dannie's hand and they hurried as fast as they could, Lily hobbling behind on crutches. Lily could hear the bull's snorts getting louder, but she didn't dare look back.

“Run, Joseph! Take Dannie and go!” she screamed. Then she stumbled over a clump of grass and her ankle twisted again. She fell flat on her face. Joseph and Dannie kept on running while Lily tried to scramble back to her feet. Forget the crutches! Desperate, she hopped on one foot as fast as she could. Joseph and Dannie had made it to the fence. “Run, Lily, run! The bull is running at you!”

Lily felt as if she were stuck in a bad dream, as if she were running in quicksand. She tried to run without putting much weight on her weak ankle, but she couldn't move fast enough.

A strange sound started across the pasture, then got louder and louder. A bark. A familiar bark.

“Dozer!” Joseph yelled. “It's Dozer! I knew he'd come home!”

Dozer raced toward Lily, then ran past her, headfirst at the bull, then around its back to snap at its heels. The bull spun around in a circle, and Dozer kept nipping at him, running off, then stopping and snapping. Over and over, until that bull had moved far, far away from Lily.

She reached the fence and rolled under it to safety on the
other side. She lay there panting and gasping for breath. When she finally opened her eyes, she saw Aaron Yoder and Harvey Hershberger, of all people, staring down at her.

“Did she die from fright?” Harvey asked.

“Naw, I don't think so,” Aaron said. He had Lily's crutches in his hand.

Lily sat right up, just in time for Dozer to jump through the fence and onto her lap, covering her face with licks. “Oh, Dozer! Where did you come from?” Dozer was beside himself. His whole body was wiggling. His tail wagged so fast and so hard, Lily thought it might whirl right off. He ran from Lily to Joseph to Dannie and back to Lily.

“I found him down by the fishing hole,” Harvey said.

Aaron looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. “
You
found him?”

Harvey shrugged. “I helped.”

Aaron rolled his eyes. “He's a little beat up from the bear, but no bones are broke. I thought you'd want to see him so I brought him right over.”

Lily gave Dozer a closer look—he had some scrapes that were healing, and one ear looked a little torn, but he was the same old Dozer. Wonderful and exasperating.

The bull glared at them, snorting and pawing the ground. “Let's go home, Dannie,” Joseph said. “Come on, Dozer!” The two boys started off across the yard.

But Dozer wouldn't budge. He was waiting for Lily.

“That bull is gonna come right through the fence if we don't get out of here,” Aaron said. He held out a hand to help Lily to her feet. Harvey immediately held out his hand to her, too.

Lily looked at both of their hands, reluctant to take them. It wasn't so long ago that Aaron had tried to help her up on the school yard and then released her so she fell back down again. She couldn't quite get past her suspicion about the motives of Aaron Yoder. She was doubly suspicious of Harvey Hershberger.

But then the bull started to ram the fence with his big head. Lily grabbed the boys' hands and they practically lifted her into the air. Aaron handed the crutches to her and the three of them started off toward Whispering Pines, Lily limping between the boys.

When Lily realized Dozer wasn't following, she stopped and turned back. “Come on, Dozer! Let's go home!” Dozer gave a few more warning barks to the bull, then turned and followed behind Lily, Harvey, and Aaron to the safety of home.

After all, he was a fine dog, Dozer was.

W
hy didn't Grandma Lapp go live in a retirement home, like most people do, instead of moving into Lily's crowded house?
Family is very important to the Amish, and the elderly are treated with great respect. The Amish don't have retirement homes. They don't have nursing homes, either. Instead, the elderly are kept at home and family members share caregiving. They consider such caregiving to be an opportunity to give back to the parent or grandparent who has given so much to them. Many Amish farms have a grandfather's house, called a
Grossdaadi Haus
, so that grandparents can live nearby but have a separate entrance and kitchen.

What is an Amish church service like?
The Amish hold their twice-a-month church service in homes. Every church family takes a turn hosting church, usually once a year. Homes are built or adjusted with large doors to open the interior to accommodate a large gathering for such a service. The Amish worship service lasts three or more hours. Females sit on one
side, males on the other. From the very start, children are trained to remain quiet during the service, though often a plate of cookies or pretzels will be handed down the line of benches. After the church service, they share a simple meal together. The afternoon is reserved for visits with neighbors and friends.

Do the Amish have music in church?
Music sung at church is entirely a cappella, without instruments, because that would be considered showy. There is no harmony so that no individual stands out. “We all sing in one voice, in unison,” said an Amish dairy farmer. The congregation sings from the
Ausbund
—a term meaning “selection” or “anthology”—a hymnal with only printed words. Tunes, learned by memory and passed down through the centuries, are sung not with many voices but with one. The slow tunes, or
langsam Weis
, as the Amish call them, were composed by martyrs in prison.

Every Amish church service begins and ends with a hymn. Some of the hymns can take as long as twenty minutes to sing. For three hundred years the Amish have sung these hymns in just this way, and so it will always be.

What is an Ordnung?
Ordnung is a Pennsylvania Dutch word. Because the Amish have no centralized church government, each local church maintains its own set of guidelines, or Ordnung
.
While many core values are shared, there is a great deal of variation in Ordnung from church to church.

How do the Amish choose their church leaders?
A typical Amish church has a bishop, two ministers, and a deacon. Those leaders are chosen through a divine lottery. The only way to become a minister is to be “hit” by the “casting of the
lot,” just the way Judas Iscariot's replacement was made in the book of Acts. Nominations for the position are whispered to the existing minister from the members, including women, though only married men can be nominated. It's a system to ensure that a person of good reputation will become a leader. Whoever receives more than three votes is nominated. Then a slip of paper with “You are the one” written on it is put in an
Ausbund
—the Amish hymnal. The same number of hymnals as there are nominees are placed on a bench in front of the congregation. Only one hymnal holds the slip of paper. With a divine nod, the man who picks the hymnal with the lot inside becomes the selected minister. When the need for a bishop arises, he will be chosen from the ministers, just the way it happened with Lily's uncle Jacob.

Why did Uncle Jacob seem sad to be chosen as a bishop?
Amish ministers, bishops, and deacons serve without pay and without formal training. They must spend long hours in preparation for the Sunday service and take on the burden of caring for the church members, the way a shepherd cares for his flock of sheep. All that extra work and worry, on top of their own families and jobs. Uncle Jacob's response was very typical—he felt the weight and responsibility of this new role on his shoulders.