Huckleberry Hill (4 page)

Lia’s heart started doing flips again. Why did she let him get to her like that?

The woman in purple stuck out her hand. “My name’s Miss Ernestina and this is Miss Gloria. We’re from Mississippi.”

Moses was naturally friendly, but it amazed Lia at how easily he conversed with two complete strangers. “People from Mississippi don’t usually make their way up this far north.”

“Gloria’s son lives in Green Bay. He works for the Packers. We drove all the way up here for a visit. When we got here he said, ‘Auntie Ernestina, you gotta see the Amish.’ So we come out this way to see what all the fuss is about.”

“I hope you like the auction,” Moses said.

“You should try the baby swiss cheese,” Lia said. “It is the best thing you ever tasted.”

Ernestina’s smile revealed a gold-capped tooth. “We will, thank you very kindly.”

“Wait,” Moses said. “Did you drive all the way from Mississippi?”

“Sure enough,” said Miss Gloria.

“In your car?”

“Sure enough, again.”

“Does it have a Mississippi license plate?”

“Yes, sir.”

Moses was halfway to the gadget tent when he spoke. “Can you wait here while I get my grandpa? He would love to see it.”

Moses pulled Felty away from his shopping long enough for him to walk to Gloria and Ernestina’s car and log the Mississippi license plate in his notebook. Heading back to the tent, he walked with an extra spring to his step while twirling his pencil around his fingers. Lia had never seen him more excited.

In gratitude, Moses bought the two Southern ladies a block of cheese before they drove away in their cream-colored Cadillac.

Once again, Moses and Lia found themselves by the food tent. Moses grew temporarily solemn. “I’m sorry what they said about us being a couple. I don’t want you to expect something from me. I’m just trying to be nice.”

The sinking feeling in the pit of Lia’s stomach took her by surprise. He’d already told her several times how he felt. Why did it feel as if he had rejected her for the first time?

To show that his declaration hadn’t affected her in the least, she rolled her eyes and folded her arms. “You’re not going to propose again, are you?”

“I want to make sure—”

“Don’t bother, Moses. I’ll not have you. Why do you think every girl wants to marry you?”

Moses’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “My grandparents think I am a gute match.”

“Jah, they tell me several times a day.”

Moses thumbed his suspenders. “Oh, bless them. How can you help but fall in love with me when Anna and Felty Helmuth are on my side?”

Lia did her best to summon more cheer than she felt. “I’ll do my best to resist.”

Moses chuckled as he pulled a digital timepiece from his pocket. “It is exactly one o’clock. There is someone I want you to meet.”

“Me?”

Moses scanned the crowd of people coming in and out of the large tent. “And there she is, right on time.”

To her surprise, Moses grabbed Lia’s scarred hand, in public, and pulled her in the direction of the tent. He didn’t seem to care that the bumpy scars made her skin so rough.

She knew she should ask him to let go, but her hand felt nice tucked in his. Instead of pulling away in protest, she savored the warmth of his calloused skin. He released her as they approached a sturdy woman with strands of gray streaking her dark brown hair.

“Well, Moses Zimmerman,” the woman said, “here I am. One o’clock sharp. I’ll have you know I’m missing a chance to bid on a fine goat.” The corners of her mouth turned downward, but she had a good-natured gleam in her eye that immediately drew Lia to her. And she was tall. Only an inch or two shorter than Lia. The woman took a look at Lia and lifted her eyebrows. “Is this the girl you told me about?”

Moses cupped his hand around Lia’s elbow. “Jah, this is Lia Shetler. Lia, this is my cousin, Sarah Beachy.”

“Uh, hello. Nice to meet you,” Lia said.

Sarah had a firm handshake. “He didn’t tell me you were tall. Tall girls are better. They command more authority, more confidence.”

Lia tried to mask her puzzlement. “Better for what?”

“Moses tells me you are interested in becoming a midwife.”

Lia’s confusion grew. “Jah, I am.” She turned to Moses. “But how did you know?”

“Mammi told me,” Moses said. “She wanted to be sure that I wouldn’t mind marrying a midwife. She knows it might take you from home quite a bit.”

Lia felt her face get hot. What would Moses’s cousin think of such talk?

Sarah didn’t seem to notice. “Stuff and nonsense. If a man can’t endure his wife away from home now and then, he ain’t been trained well. My Aaron can whip up fried chicken and greens for seven children without so much as a how-do-you-do. Come over here.” Sarah directed them to a row of church benches set up outside the tent. She maneuvered herself to sit between Lia and Moses and proceeded to ignore Moses altogether. “Why do you want to be a midwife? Because it ain’t for everybody.”

Lia clasped her hands together and spoke haltingly. “I saw my nephew’s birth last summer. Birth is a miracle. I suppose I want to be part of that miracle.”

Sarah propped her forearms on her thighs. “Don’t suppose anything. Helping babies into the world is hard work. You miss out on many a good night’s sleep and there’s some problems you can’t fix. Babies die, and that’s the worst part of all.”

“It wonders me why you are a midwife if it’s so hard,” Moses said.

Sarah scolded him with her bright eyes. “I’m giving her the facts, Moses. If she can’t take the bad, then it’s no use talking about the good. I’m a midwife because it brings me closer to God. Plain and simple. There ain’t nothing to compare to bringing in a new baby just come from heaven.”

Moses folded his arms as a look of concern appeared on his face. “So, what do you think?”

Lia wasn’t sure if he talked to her or Sarah.

“I can usually take the measure of a person right quick,” Sarah said. “Moses likes you, and that counts for something. He hasn’t given his approval to any girl in three years.”

Moses pressed his lips into an inflexible line and turned his face away. Was he offended or uncomfortable?

“It can’t hurt to try you out,” Sarah added.

Lia looked from Moses to Sarah as her spirits soared. “I’m not sure what we are talking about. Are you offering to teach me to be a midwife?”

“That’s what Moses said you wanted.” Sarah pinned Moses with a look that could have peeled the paint off that new buggy of his. “You didn’t tell Lia about these plans?”

Moses scooted away from his cousin. “I wanted her to be surprised.”

“Next time, bring her some flowers. Having someone plan your life is not a nice surprise.”

“Oh, I’m not angry,” Lia said, pulling Sarah’s attention from her hopeless cousin. “It’s more than I ever thought would happen. It’s been a dream for a very long time, but my dat didn’t see how I would be able to train to be a midwife and still keep house.”

Moses looked genuinely remorseful. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, Lia. I didn’t want you to be disappointed if Sarah couldn’t take you on.”

“Don’t apologize. I’ve never seen a more thoughtful gesture.”

Sarah patted Moses firmly on the knee. “You’re off the hook, Moses. Now, Lia, there’s a book I want you to read. I sent one of my boys to the buggy for it, but I ain’t seen him for twenty minutes. That boy is sure enough a dawdler.” She stood up and looked over the sea of people. “Menno,” she called, waving her hand, “bring it over here.”

A boy of eight or nine years appeared toting a thick pink book with a picture of two women on the cover. Sarah took the book from her son and handed it to Lia. “This is volume one. Read it and make notes to yourself. I’ll send volume two with Moses when you are ready. Then the next time there’s a birth, I’ll send word so you can come watch.”

Lia didn’t know what to say or how to thank Moses or Sarah. The short conversation had opened up a new world of possibilities for her. “I’m so grateful. I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You might decide midwifery doesn’t suit you, or I might decide you don’t suit me.”

Moses slapped his hands on his knees. “You see why I like her, Lia? She’s as blunt as you are.”

Lia laughed but couldn’t help noticing that, in a roundabout sort of way, he had just told her he liked her. This thought did nothing to calm her pounding heart.

All three of them stood, and Moses took the book to his buggy. Lia couldn’t resist giving Sarah a hasty hug. “Thank you again. I am thrilled.”

Sarah waved off Lia’s gratitude. “I like that you’re tall. It will make new mothers feel more secure. But don’t marry Moses. Your children would be giants.”

“I don’t suppose I’ll ever marry,” Lia said. “That’s why being a midwife would be so satisfying.”

The lines around Sarah’s mouth deepened. “Of course you’ll marry. As pretty as you are, it’s a wonder some boy hasn’t snatched you up already.”

“Boys think I’m too tall.”

“Stuff and nonsense. I am three inches taller than Aaron. He doesn’t mind one single bit.”

“Aaron must be an uncommon man.”

“He is my treasure.” Sarah tucked her sweater tightly around her neck. “I must go see about a goat.”

Moses returned from the buggy with bright cheeks and dancing eyes. “Rudy Ebersole has rabbits for sale. Do you want to see them?”

“Denki for thinking of me for Sarah,” Lia said.

“I really didn’t do that much.”

Lia wanted to be certain he knew how important this was to her and how much she appreciated it. She laid her hand on his arm. “It means the world to me.”

He shrugged his shoulders, but his mouth curled upward. “I like people to be happy. Do you want to see the rabbits?”

Moses and Lia spent the next hour petting bunnies and goats and playing with the puppies that a local Englischer was giving away for free. Moses thought Anna and Felty would love a new puppy, but Lia put her foot down. Sparky would not take kindly to an uninvited guest.

The shadows lengthened and the drone of the auctioneer finally subsided. Moses and Lia found Felty and Anna making the last of their purchases in one of the tents. Anna carried two full shopping bags and Felty had his fingers tightly around another one while he paid the girl at the adding machine.

“Mammi, what did you buy?” Moses asked.

Her plastic bags ruffled as she lifted her arm and pointed to Felty. “I didn’t buy anything.”

Felty took his bag, and they walked out of the tent together. “I found exactly what I was looking for.” They followed him to sit on a bench where they set the bags down, and Felty began shuffling through them. He pulled out a shiny metal hammer that came apart in two halves. Each piece looked like a bulldozer scooper. “This is an ice cube crusher,” he said. “You put a piece of ice in here, and it will come out in pieces.”

Anna sighed, but didn’t speak.

“Very nice,” said Moses.

“It looks heavy,” said Lia.

Felty picked it up by the handle and flexed his arm. “Sturdy. This is fifty years old and will probably last another fifty.” He took the next thing out of his bag, a two-piece glass jar with a lid. “This is a nut chopper. I’ve looked for one of these for years. Anna has been saying how bad she needs a nut chopper to make some of those recipes in her new book.”

“I have not, Felty.”

He unscrewed the lid. “You put the nuts in here and turn the crank and the nuts go through these metal gears and come out the bottom, chopped.” Felty held it in his palm and turned it slowly so they could see. Back in the bag it went.

He pulled out a dull metal box about the size of a small book. “This is an ice shaver to go along with our ice cube crusher. It has a sharp blade and you run your ice block along the side here. It swings open so you can get your ice out.”

“Now, Felty,” Anna said, but she didn’t elaborate.

Moses helped Felty put the shaver back in the bag and one by one pulled out all the things Felty had purchased. He had bought a fan for the egg incubator he wanted to build, a doughnut cutter, and a mount-on-the-counter meat grinder.

“We already have two of those,” Anna said.

Felty reached his hand into the bag one last time. “And look at this. I never saw one of these before. It’s a garlic press.”

“Why do we need a garlic press?” Anna said.

“For all those new recipes. Lydia Mae says it makes garlic without having to peel it.”

“Do you think it will really work?” Moses asked.

“We’ll find out,” Felty said. “If it doesn’t, we can sell it back at the next auction.”

Moses and Lia helped them gather up their bags. “Come on,” Moses said. “I’ll take you home.”

Felty and Anna were slower in their steps going than they had been coming.

Lia thought about the book waiting for her in the buggy. She thought of how happy she was to be with the Helmuths on Huckleberry Hill. She thought of Moses’s handsome face and the dimple that appeared when he smiled. She remembered his uncommon kindness. And even though he would never be her beau, he was her friend. “Denki for letting me come,” she said. “I loved being with all of you.”

Felty put his arm around Anna. “It’s been a wonderful-gute day. All of Annie’s pot holders sold, I found a nut chopper, and I saw Mississippi.”

What more could anyone want from life?

Chapter Six

Moses snapped his head up when he heard the low hum of the mail truck’s engine. While he cut the curds, he watched from the window as the mailman stuffed envelopes into the mailbox that stood in front of the cheese factory. Furrowing his brow, Moses puzzled silently over his memory lapse. How could he have forgotten about the mail?

Every Friday, without fail, a letter in a sunny yellow envelope came from Minneapolis. Moses could always depend on Barbara. He waited by the mailbox on Fridays so he could read Barbara’s letter the moment it arrived. Friday nights were spent writing her back. His reply letter went into the mailbox early Saturday morning and reached Barbara by Tuesday.

Today, he hadn’t even remembered. He’d been thinking about Lia, wondering if she liked her book, hoping she didn’t just pretend to like his cheese. Even knowing as little about her as he did, he knew she wouldn’t pretend. He liked that she didn’t make a fuss about him like most unmarried girls.

Moses called for Adam, who took over Moses’s job while Moses sprinted outside for the mail. Sure enough, the yellow envelope peeked out from under a seed catalog. He snatched it from the pile and carefully slid his finger underneath the flap to rip open the top. “Sorry, Barbara,” he said, repenting of his momentary forgetfulness. No one should ever replace Barbara in his thoughts.

Moses’s heart beat a little faster. Would she really come? She hadn’t set foot in Bonduel for more than three years. His hopes soared. It could happen.

Like always, Barbara filled her letter with accounts of her exciting life in Minneapolis where she worked at a clothing store and went to something she called beauty school. Could someone actually go to school to learn how to be beautiful? Moses found the idea both confusing and ridiculous. Either girls were beautiful or they weren’t.

Like Lia Shetler. She didn’t need beauty school. Her dark, intelligent eyes and flawless skin, framed by the wisps of curly hair that escaped from her kapp, were irresistibly attractive. And so much was hidden in her smile, as if she knew a thousand things she didn’t tell.

Moses found his mind wandering from his precious letter and snapped himself back to attention. Barbara was pretty too.

She always ended her letters like that.
I am thinking of returning to the community. I depend on you, Moses. I need you to stay faithful
.

Sometimes he felt as if Barbara were dangling from a cliff, and he, with his hand extended, was the only one who could save her. He felt stretched mighty thin. She had broken his heart when she decided to leave, but he had told himself that if he truly loved her, he would wait for her. For as long as it took. How strong would his love prove if he stopped caring about Barbara simply because she was away?

As penance for letting thoughts of Lia distract him, Moses read the letter three times. Tonight he would make his reply extra long so Barbara would be assured of his loyalty.

He considered Lia Shetler a friend, nothing more. And he would keep thoughts of her at bay, no matter how tempted he was to indulge them.

 

 

With her hands caked in flour, Lia slowly pushed the rolling pin across the dough as she watched out the window. She fixed her eyes on the tree-lined lane that crawled up Huckleberry Hill and ended at the Helmuths’ front yard.

“He’ll be here soon,” Anna said, stirring an orange-red concoction on the cooktop.

Lia blushed and tore her gaze from the window as she wiped the sweat from her face with her sleeve. Surely Anna didn’t think she expected anyone in particular, or even looked forward to his arrival. It just happened to be the day of the week that Moses came up the hill to help his grandparents. She wasn’t watching for him particularly.

He did not want a wife. Especially one so plain as Lia Shetler.

“You know,” Anna said, “this garlic press is a right handy tool. I did six whole cloves as easy as you please.”

Lia’s dough flattened nicely as she rolled it into an almost perfect circle. Pies were her specialty. Dat always asked her to make pies for his birthday. Every time he ate one, he decided Lia should teach her sister Rachel how to cook. He said that a pretty girl who could cook would attract every unmarried young man in the state. So two or three times a year, when Dat insisted, Lia would try to teach Rachel the basics of pie making. Lia dreaded the cooking lessons. Rachel didn’t have the patience to roll out a smooth crust, and fractions like half a teaspoon sent her into a panic.

Cooking lessons would end when Rachel burst into tears and fled the hated kitchen. Lia would trudge up the stairs to comfort her sister with the assurance that she would always make the pies for the family, and Rachel could eat them.

Lia wrapped the finished crust around her rolling pin and laid it into the pie tin. She took the saucepan full of raisins mixed with butter and brown sugar and poured it into the crust. Raisin pie was a gute treat in early summer before other fruits were in season. Later she would make blueberry, apple, and even huckleberry pie. After topping the raisins with another crust, she opened the cookstove and looked at the temperature gauge.

“Do you mind if I close the damper a bit?” she asked Anna.

Anna dipped a wooden spoon in her mixture and stirred it around. “Jah, go ahead. I will bake my meatballs after the pie. Moses loves pie.”

“I have never made meatballs.”

“Neither have I, but my daughter, Abigail, gave me a new cookbook for Christmas and I am determined to try a new recipe every week. I’ve fed Felty the same meals for sixty years.” She tapped her forehead and puckered her lips. “My doctor says trying new things keeps the mind sharp. Does your mamm ever try a new recipe?”

“Not often. We have our favorites we like to make.”

“And your sister Rachel? Does she like to cook?”

“Nae. She’s the pretty one. She can get a gute husband without knowing how to cook well.”

“If my opinion counted for anything, I’d say you’re the pretty one.”

When she heard the buggy rumble up the lane, Lia kept her eyes glued to the pie as her heart skipped a beat or two. She might as well admit that she liked him. He was a nice young man who made her laugh and liked that she was tall. Anna and Felty were delightful and so welcoming, but she shouldn’t feel guilty for now and then looking forward to conversing with someone closer to her age.

Of course, she had nothing more in mind when she thought of his coming. He had made his intentions very clear. Lia had to check a laugh before it escaped her lips. They had been blunt with each other. No guessing games needed between them. They could forget any pretense and be friends.

Just friends.

Besides, it was pure nonsense to even hope that such a man would take an interest in her, and any hopes she foolishly harbored would be dashed as sure as rain fell in Wisconsin in the spring.

Moses burst in the door like the sun poking through the gloomy clouds. Even in the uncomfortable heat, he wore the fire engine red scarf that Anna had knitted for him and a smile that took over his whole face. Lia couldn’t get enough of that dimple. Bending over, he planted a kiss on the top of his mammi’s head. “How is the prettiest girl on Huckleberry Hill?”

Anna reached up and cupped his chin in her hand. “She’s standing right over there. Why don’t you ask her yourself?”

Moses glanced at Lia and quickly looked away. “I told Dawdi I’d turn over the dirt in the garden today. Crist will bring compost next week.”

“Supper is at five o’clock sharp.”

Moses winked at his mammi. “I wouldn’t be one minute tardy for your cooking.”

He blew out the door as suddenly as he had come, and Lia spent the rest of the afternoon keeping her gaze away from the window.

An hour later, Lia pulled her golden brown pie from the cookstove as Anna slid her cookie sheet of nicely formed meatballs inside.

Anna’s pot of red sauce still bubbled on the stove. Lia had never seen anything like it, but the meatballs looked delicious and the sauce smelled faintly of grapes. Anna’s first recipe experiment looked to be a success.

Nearing suppertime, Lia brought a bottle of peaches from the basement and heated up some frozen corn. The Helmuths had a modern refrigerator powered by a generator but still used a cookstove powered by wood.

Felty, with Moses close behind, marched through the back door singing the song Lia had heard him sing every day before suppertime. He had a beautiful, deep voice that seemed to vibrate the floorboards.

Even though it seemed to be his favorite song, he never sang the same lyrics twice. If he forgot them, he simply made them up. In the three weeks she’d been on Huckleberry Hill, Lia had heard a dozen different versions of “Life’s Railway to Heaven.” It was entirely endearing.

Both Moses and Felty hung up their hats, and Felty kissed his wife right on the lips without even a glance in Lia’s direction.

Anna kissed him back and then nudged him away. “Felty, you stink like a wet raccoon.”

“Oh, Annie-bell, you smell like a thick piece of strawberry rhubarb pie.”

“Wash up so’s you and Moses don’t have to take supper on the back porch.”

Lia refused to let Moses’s boyish grin set her heart aflutter.

Moses and Felty obediently trudged to the bathroom to wash. Anna spread the table with one of her knit coverings. She had seven “tablecloths,” all knitted with a different color yarn, to put on her round table. Although they proved a bit thick, Anna proudly pointed out that they never needed to use a trivet or pot holder to protect the table from hot dishes.

Lia laid out the corn, the peaches, and a pitcher of milk. By this time, Anna had ladled the meatballs into the red sauce and placed them on the table with a white dish of noodles.

“The book said to serve with egg noodles,” she said, looking doubtfully from her bowl of meatballs to Lia’s face.

“It will be wonderful gute. What is in the sauce?”

“Grape jelly and oriental chili sauce. I had to go to three different stores for the sauce and even then I wasn’t sure I got the right thing. The woman at the store in Green Bay didn’t speak English. Or
Deitsch
.”

Felty came back from the bathroom and peered curiously into the pot of meatballs. “Oh, Annie, this looks delicious. I always said you was the best cook in the world. It wonders me that I haven’t got fat in the sixty years we been married.”

Felty pulled the chair out for Anna to sit, and Moses did the same for Lia. She felt a little silly about that small gesture.

After silent grace, Anna scooped some noodles onto Felty’s plate and then her own. She handed the dish to Lia. “Eat up. There’s plenty.”

Lia put more noodles on her plate than she really wanted to eat, but the healthy serving made Anna’s smile grow wider. She handed the noodles to Moses, who piled his plate high. The saucy meatballs looked mighty tasty poured over the golden, buttery noodles.

“It looks just like the picture in the book,” Anna said, her eyes bright.

Felty dished himself some corn. “The president of the United States doesn’t eat this well.”

Lia cut a meatball in half, skewered it, and rolled a noodle around it with her fork. As soon as she popped it into her mouth, her tongue burst into flames. Then the entire inside of her mouth felt as if it were breaking out into blisters. She chewed the meatball quickly, doing her best to avoid touching it with her tongue, and swallowed it. She might as well have poured scalding hot water down her throat.

Without a word, Moses reached over and poured her some milk as she began to cough violently. Grabbing her glass as if it held the answers to all her deepest questions, she took a gulp and let the milk sit on her tongue. The inside of her mouth cooled slightly, but her lips still felt like they were on fire—or numb. At the moment, she couldn’t really tell the difference.

“Are you all right, Lia?” Anna asked.

Lia nodded and shoved a closed-mouth smile onto her face.

Lia looked at Moses. His eyes watered, and the color crept up his neck like a strange sunburn. He smiled reassuringly at Lia, then drank half his glass of milk.

The wrinkles around Anna’s mouth deepened as she took a small bite. “I don’t think I did it right. What do you think, Felty?”

Showing no signs of distress, Felty popped another meatball into his mouth. It wondered Lia that he could do it without choking. “Delicious. You have outdone yourself.”

Anna’s lips turned down, and she shook her head. It surprised Lia to see the light fade from her eyes. “It’s too spicy. I ruined it. And I wanted to make such a nice dinner for Moses and Lia.”

Felty scooped another meatball into his mouth with a generous forkful of noodles. Reaching over, he patted Anna’s hand with his gnarled fingers. “Now, Annie Banannie, no need to fuss. This is delicious.”

“Jah, Mammi. I love spicy food.”

Lia marveled that Moses could speak. She felt as if her lips had melted together.

Felty waved his fork at Moses in agreement. “It’ll grow hair on your chest.”

“And clear out your sinuses,” Moses added.

Lia took another gulp of milk. “And the noodles are so buttery,” she said weakly, not wanting to lie but hoping to encourage Anna all the same.

Anna’s expression relaxed. “They’re a bit fiery for my taste, but I feel better knowing all of you like them.”