What a Pair! (9 page)

“Well, let’s get with it!” Dad clapped his hands. “If we don’t get busy now it’ll be time to go to bed, and then nobody will get any ice cream.”

Everyone hurried off to do their jobs, until a little later, when it was just about dark, Dad called them to the porch to take turns cranking the handle of the ice cream freezer. Mark and Mattie went first, because they weren’t as strong as their older brothers, and as the ice cream began to freeze up, it became harder to crank.

“Let’s go out in the yard and look at the stars,” Mark said to Mattie after they’d both taken their turns cranking the handle. He glanced toward the west, where the sun was below the horizon. All that was left of daylight was the faint orange glow of the beautiful sunset they’d seen just minutes earlier.

“Okay, let’s go.” Mattie hurried into the yard, and Mark followed.

“Look up there,” Mark said, pointing to the twinkling stars overhead. “See … there’s the Big Dipper!”

“And there’s the Little Dipper. I’ll bet there must be hundreds of stars,” Mattie said.

“Nope. There’s more than that.”

“Thousands?”

Mark shook his head. “There are about 100 billion stars in our galaxy.”

“Wow, that’s amazing! How do you know so much about the stars?”

“I read a book about them at the library. You could learn a lot if you read more, too.”

“The kind of books you read are boring,” Mattie said.

“No, they’re not.”

“Jah, they are.”

“No, they …”

“Mattie! Mark! Come inside now, the ice cream’s ready!” Mom called.

“First one to the porch gets the first taste of ice cream!” Mark hollered. The day might not have started out so good, but he was glad it had ended well. Maybe, just maybe, Dad would give in and let him lick the beaters. That is, if Mattie didn’t think to ask first.

    C
HAPTER
7    

Mattie knelt on the grass in front of the pond and stared at her reflection.
She noticed that her black head covering was on crooked, so she reached up to straighten it. When she glanced at the water again, her reflection was gone and another had taken its place. It was Mark looking back at her now. What was he doing at the pond? She thought she’d come here alone today.

Mattie turned, but there was no sign of Mark behind her. She looked back at the water and saw her own reflection again. Maybe she’d just imagined seeing Mark’s reflection.

Bzzz … Bzzz …
A bee buzzed overhead. She swatted at it, and then quickly jerked her hand away, so she wouldn’t get stung.

“Everyone gets stung sometime,”
she heard Grandpa say.

“No, no … Not me!”

Mattie stared into the water and gasped when she saw Mark’s reflection once more. What was going on? Was he playing another one of his silly tricks on her?

She whirled around quickly, thinking she’d catch him this time, but Mark wasn’t there—only the buzzing bee overhead.
Bzzz … Bzzz
…
Bzzz …
The buzzing kept on.

Mattie scrambled to her feet and tried to run, but she couldn’t move. Her feet felt like they were stuck in a bucket of cement.

“Help me! Help me!” she cried. “I can’t move, and there’s a bee after me!”

“Mattie …” Someone was calling to her, but their voice sounded far away.

Mark, is that you?
Mattie tried to speak, but she couldn’t seem to get the words out of her mouth. All she could do was moan.

Someone touched Mattie’s arm and gave it a shake. “Mattie, wake up.”

Feeling as if she were being pulled from a fog, Mattie opened one eye, and then the other. Mark stared down at her with a peculiar look on his face. “It’s time to get up,” he said. “Didn’t you hear your alarm clock buzzing? I could hear it clear out in the hall.”

Mattie rolled over and hit the button on the clock by her bed. “Oh, the buzzing I heard must have been in my dream,” she murmured. “I—I thought it was a bee.”

“Huh? What were you dreaming about?”

“I was dreaming that I saw my reflection in the pond, and then I saw … Oh, never mind.” Mattie figured if she told Mark about her dream, he’d probably think it was weird and tease her again.

“Hurry up and get out of bed,” Mark said. “We start back to school today. Did you forget?”

Mattie groaned and pulled the covers over her head. “No, but I wish I could.”

“What was that?”

She lowered the covers just a bit. “Nothing. Go on downstairs, and tell Mom I’ll be there as soon as I get dressed.”

“Okay.” Mark practically skipped out of the room. He looked excited this morning. He was probably glad they were going to school. Well, Mattie wasn’t glad. She always dreaded the first day of school and wished she could think of some way to get out of going. She realized, though, that if she didn’t go to school today, then tomorrow would be her first day of school. So she might as well get up, get ready, and get this day over with—unless she could convince Mom to let her stay home. Maybe she wouldn’t have to go to school any days this week.

When Mattie entered the kitchen a short time later, she found Mom standing in front of the counter, putting sandwiches in everyone’s lunch boxes.

“Guder mariye, schlofkopp,”
Mom said, looking over her shoulder at Mattie.

“Good morning,” Mattie mumbled, slouching against the table. She really felt like a sleepyhead.

“What’s wrong? Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?” Mom asked.

“No, I … uh … think I need to stay home from school today—and maybe all week.”

Mom’s eyebrows shot up. “What’s wrong, Mattie? Are you
grank
?”

Mattie didn’t want to lie and say she was sick, but she had to do something to keep from going to school. “I’m … uh … feeling a little under the weather.” She’d heard Grandpa Troyer say that when he wasn’t feeling his best. Maybe by saying that now, it would be enough for Mom to let her stay home today.

Mom stopped what she was doing, hurried over to Mattie, and touched her forehead. “You don’t seem to have a fever. Open your mouth and let me take a look at your throat.”

Mattie did as Mom asked. This wasn’t working out so well. She was sure there was nothing wrong with her throat, and Mom would know that just as soon as she looked.

“I don’t see any unusual redness,” Mom said. “Does your stomach hurt?”

Mattie shook her head. “Uh … no, not really, but …”

“Then I don’t think you’re sick.” Mom gave Mattie’s shoulder a little squeeze. “Now hurry and set the table so we can eat.” She looked over at Mark, who stood near the sink smiling from ear to ear. He obviously knew Mattie had been trying to get out of going to school. Mom probably did, too.

“Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m hungerich,” Mark said. “And the sooner we eat, the sooner we can leave for school.”

“Jah, I can hardly wait,” Mattie mumbled under her breath.

Mom pointed at Mark’s feet. “How come you’re wearing two different shoes this morning?”

Mark’s face turned red as a radish as he stared down at his feet. “Oh, I … uh … guess I was so excited to get dressed and head for school that I wasn’t paying attention to which shoes I was putting on my feet.”

Mattie stifled a giggle. On one foot Mark wore a black sneaker. On the other foot he wore one of his black dress shoes. How in the world could he not have known what he was doing? Mark must have been really mixed up this morning.

Mom chuckled and patted Mark’s shoulder. “Well, hurry upstairs and exchange your dress shoe with your other sneaker so we can eat. I hear your daed and the older boys coming up the back steps now, so I’m sure they’ll expect breakfast to be on the table.”

“I’m going right now.” Mark hurried from the room and Mattie began setting the table. It was obvious that she wasn’t going to get out of attending school today. All she could do was grin and bear it.

As Mark and Mattie headed to school that morning, Mark felt like singing and kicking up his heels. Instead, he just swung his lunch pail back and forth as he hurried up the dirt path. He was excited about going to school because he enjoyed learning new things. He especially liked learning new words. Of course, sometimes he used big, long words that even his teacher didn’t understand. And whether he’d either heard them from Grandpa Miller or found them in the dictionary, he always made sure he knew what they meant before he tried using them in a sentence.

“What are you thinking about?” Mattie asked, bumping Mark’s arm.

“School.”

“Me, too. Sure wish I was older and had already graduated from the eighth grade.” Mattie looked at Calvin and Russell riding their bikes up ahead. They’d both saved up some of the money they’d earned selling produce at their roadside stand this summer and had bought their own bikes. That’s why they got to ride to school and Mark and Mattie had to walk. “This is Russell’s last year at school, and Calvin only has two more years after this one,” she said.

“That’s right, and we won’t be far behind them.” Mark smiled. “So we need to study hard and learn all we can.”

“That’s easy for you to say. You’re so
schmaert
, and you always get good grades.”

“You’d be smart, too, if you’d quit daydreaming so much and start paying attention to what the teacher says.”

“I do pay attention. I just can’t remember well.”

“You’d remember more if you didn’t think about other things all the time.”

“I can’t help it,” she said. “Things just seem to pop into my head.”

“Well, remember this—you’re ‘unequalled,’ so you can do anything you want to do.”

Mattie said nothing, so Mark shrugged his shoulders and kept walking toward the schoolhouse. His legs couldn’t seem to move fast enough, he was so eager to get there. He didn’t understand Mattie’s daydreaming, and didn’t think he’d ever figure her out. Sometimes he wished he had a twin brother instead of a dreamy-eyed sister who was nothing like him at all. But then if they were just alike, that would probably be boring.