A Big Year for Lily (3 page)

T
here was a little less evening now in late August, a warning of summer's end. Joseph took that warning to heart and was determined to live every day twice over before he lost his freedom to the schoolhouse. Lily thought he was being dramatic. She couldn't understand how anyone couldn't like school. Joseph kept himself scarce from the house, where Mama was sewing up a storm of new school clothes.

The first day of school came on a beautiful sunny morning. Lily could hardly wait. She held the silky white curtain back with one hand as she stood by the living room window, waiting for her cousins, Levi and Hannah, to walk down the road. All summer long, Lily had looked forward to having Levi and Hannah join school.

Bong, bong, bong
 . . . She turned and glanced at the clock. Eight bongs. What if Hannah and Levi were late? It would be terrible to be late on the very first day of school. Lily peered
out the window and breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Levi and Hannah round the bend. Lily grabbed her bonnet and lunch pail and darted out the door. She tossed a goodbye over her shoulder to Mama.

Joseph was outside, swinging on the porch swing. He was trying to squeeze every last drop out of summer, not at all excited about school starting. Lily did not understand that brother of hers. Slowly, he picked up his lunch box and trailed behind Lily to the end of the driveway. They waited for Levi and Hannah to catch up to them.

The first thing that went through Lily's mind was that Hannah's new purple dress was much prettier than her own brown one. But she knew what Mama would have to say about that:

Lily, can't you think about how wonderful it is to have your cousin here instead of what you are wearing?

Yes, Mama
.

But she couldn't. She wanted Hannah's purple dress. “Hannah, are you excited for school?” Lily asked.

“Not really,” Hannah said. “I want to help my mother bake pies and cookies today. And I'd rather play outside than have to sit at a desk all day.”

That was shocking news to Lily. Baking cookies and pies was fine but then came washing dishes. Lots and lots of dishes. Besides, how could anyone not love school? She reminded herself that Hannah hadn't attended school in two years, and the last teacher she'd had was Teacher Katie . . . who was horrible. “School is lots and lots of fun. We get to learn new things. Teacher Rhoda is a very nice teacher. We play with our friends at recess. We can read library books when we get done with all our lessons. And we get to eat special lunches that Mama packs every day. Best of all, we don't have to wash dishes.”

Lily skipped a few steps. “I like helping Mama work, but school is so much more fun.” She didn't think that now was the time to mention two individuals who made school very stressful: Effie Kauffman and Aaron Yoder. At any given moment, Lily could be minding her own business and one or the other would create some horrible mischief that was often targeted at her. “This year will be even better. You're here! We're both in fourth grade so we'll get to sit together, eat together, have recess together.” In other words, Effie and Aaron wouldn't bother Lily as much. Naturally, she didn't say that to Hannah. There would be plenty of time for the terrible truth.

“What are you having for lunch today?” Hannah asked.

Lily opened her lunch box and peered inside. “I'm having a sandwich, a banana, and two oatmeal raisin cookies. What's in your lunch?”

Hannah opened her lunch pail, frowning. “Carrot sticks and an egg sandwich.” She snapped the lid to her lunch box shut again.

Uh-oh. Carrot sticks were a problem. Too crunchy. Aaron Yoder often teased Lily when she had carrot sticks in her lunch. “Egg sandwiches are my favorite.” She tried to encourage Hannah, but that lunch of hers was a worry. Levi's bragging was another worry. He never missed a chance to puff himself up.

By the time the two girls arrived at school, almost all the other children were already there. The first thing Lily wanted to do was to find her desk. She hoped, hoped, hoped that, this year, Aaron Yoder would not be sitting right across the aisle from her.

Lily found her desk and then looked at the desk across the aisle. “Hannah, come look!”

Hannah hurried over to see her name on a small tag. Lily
was so happy. The school year was starting out well. Hannah would sit right next to her. No Aaron Yoder!

The girls set to work arranging their new pencils and school supplies in their desks. Then they checked name tags on the other desks. Lily read the one behind hers and groaned. “Noooooooo!”

Hannah looked up. “What's wrong?”

“Aaron Yoder is sitting right behind me.” How awful. She didn't want to sit right in front of that terrible boy all year long.

But then she brightened. She wouldn't have to actually look at Aaron, unless she turned around, and she decided she would never, ever do that. Aaron was invisible to her.

“Children, time to come in!” Teacher Rhoda rang the bell on the school steps and the students scrambled to find their seats. As soon as the class settled down, Teacher Rhoda read a Bible story. And then the new school term began.

Lily opened one of her brand-new books and admired how crisp and clean the pages were. She hoped she could keep it looking nice all year long.

“Fourth grade,” Teacher Rhoda said, “work on assignment one in your math workbook.”

The first assignment of the year! Lily got right to work. It was so good to be back in school and even better to be a fourth grader. She wiggled happily in her seat and picked up her pencil, but it slipped through her fingers and dropped on the floor. She bent down to retrieve it. As she pulled herself up, her head bumped against something. She couldn't sit up—something was pressing down on the back of her head. She glanced behind her and saw Aaron Yoder with a big goofy grin on his face. He was holding his hand above her head. Lily ducked out of his reach and sat straight up, furious. She
reached up to check her prayer covering and try to pouf it where Aaron had squashed it. How infuriating!

Lily glanced over at Hannah, embarrassed and mad. At least, this year, she had an ally against the monkeyshine of Aaron Yoder. But Hannah sat there with a big smile on her face, as if it was funny!

Anger flooded through Lily. “It's not funny!” she snapped at Hannah, and her cousin's smile faded.

This was only the first day of school and already Aaron was being difficult. And Hannah was not being an ally at all. Despite Lily's rule to never turn around in her desk, she turned around. She meant to stick her tongue out at Aaron, but as she turned, her elbow hit her brand-new book on top of her desk and knocked it to the floor. Before she could pick it up, Aaron put his dirty bare foot on it.

Teacher Rhoda noticed. She came back to their seats to see what the commotion was all about. “Aaron, get your foot off of Lily's book,” she said sternly. Aaron slowly lifted his foot and tucked it back under his desk while Lily picked her book up. She looked at it sadly. It had Aaron's big, dirty bare footprint on it. He was an awful boy.

The morning melted away. By midafternoon, an autumn haze drifted across the stifling schoolroom. Lily was relieved when school was dismissed. What a disappointing day. She plucked her bonnet from the hook at the back of the schoolhouse, pulled her lunch pail off the shelf, and headed out the door with Hannah.

Levi and Joseph started to run, but Lily didn't feel like running home from school. She trudged alongside of Hannah.

“I take back every bad thing I ever thought about school,” Hannah said in a far-off voice. She had a strange dreamy
look on her face and Lily worried if she might be getting sick. “Isn't Aaron Yoder the most wonderful boy in school?”

Wonderful?
Wonderful?
Why, Lily was just this moment thinking he was the worst boy in the state. The world. The universe.

Hannah swung her lunch pail at her side. “He can run faster than any of the other boys at school. And his eyes are such a pretty blue and his hair so nice and curly.” She sighed a little. “Lily, do you think he likes me?”

Lily stopped in her tracks. “Why would you want him to like you? He isn't nice to any girls. Didn't you see what he did to my covering?” Her black covering was still squashed. “And don't forget my book.” How terrible! To have to live with Aaron Yoder's dirty footprint on her beautiful new book, all year long. “And his hair looks like a wren has moved in and is building a nest.”

Hannah giggled. “You should have seen how surprised you looked when you couldn't sit up because he was holding his hand above your head.” She giggled harder. “It was so funny!”

Why was Hannah sticking up for Aaron? Lily shot her a look of irritation.

“You were right, Lily. School is exciting,” Hannah said. “And the best part is that Aaron Yoder sits across the aisle from me, and I can look at him whenever I want to.”

Lily shook her head in despair. How sad. Poor Cousin Hannah. She had been without school for so long that she had lost all logic.

All of Lily's wonderful plans for this school year were evaporating, like a wisp of steam over a teacup. She was so sure that everything would be better this year with Cousin Hannah by her side. Instead, everything was worse.

L
ily was feeding baby Paul cereal in his high chair and getting very frustrated. He waved his arms and kicked his feet, demanding, “More, more!” He never stopped eating, that baby. She couldn't feed him fast enough. She glanced out the window to see if Papa had already put the harness on Jim and hitched him to the buggy. Papa was going to town today and had asked Lily if she wanted to go along. Of course! Of course she did.

“More, more!”

Lily turned her attention back to feeding the baby. She filled the spoon halfway and dodged Paul's waving hands to feed him another bite. Lily could hardly hold still, she was that excited. She had gone to town only once since they had moved to Pennsylvania. She knew Papa would wait patiently for her, but she still wished that Paul could be done with his
breakfast. She tried giving him bigger and bigger bites, hoping his tummy would finally be full.

When the last spoonful was scraped from the bowl, Lily decided Paul had eaten enough for two babies. She lifted him out of the high chair and set him on the floor. He went toddling off to find his toys and Lily hurried to find her shoes and stockings. She wriggled her feet into them and stood up, feeling odd. She had been barefoot for months now, ever since late spring. Shoes felt heavy and clumsy. But it would never do to go barefoot to town.

Lily said goodbye to Mama and the boys and darted out the door. This was going to be a perfect day. Joseph and Dannie could help Mama with all the Saturday housecleaning. They could watch baby Paul while Lily enjoyed a long ride to town and back with Papa.

Papa was just tucking the tie rope under the seat as Lily hopped on the buggy. He gathered the reins in his hands, clucking “giddyup!” to Jim as he guided the horse out of the driveway and down the road.

It was a beautiful morning. Lily watched birds flit from branch to branch in the trees along the road. Leaves were starting to turn from green to orange, a hint that summer was ending and autumn was coming. The trees were so filled with heavy leaves that branches seemed to touch overhead. It seemed as if Lily and Papa were driving through a long tunnel. Sunlight peeked through the branches to light their way. A few squirrels darted around with nuts in their mouths. They were trying to find the perfect spot to bury them. Once winter came, if they could remember where they buried their nuts, they would dig them up. If they couldn't remember, a new tree would grow. Lily grinned.
She wondered how many trees along the road were once forgotten nuts.

As Jim trotted down the road, Papa started to whistle. The buggy went past neighbors' farms. Lily looked at the lazy cows, grazing or laying under trees, chewing their cuds. One or two would look over to watch them pass by, then go back to chewing. Horses were more interested in who passed by their fence. They would neigh to Jim, then canter alongside the fence, as if they had challenged him to a race. Lily knew that Jim would ignore them. He wouldn't even neigh back.
I have more important things to do today and don't have time to play your games,
Jim must have been thinking.

Lily sighed happily. She was sure there was no better place in the world to be than right there on the front seat of the buggy beside Papa. He asked about her first week of school. She told him everything: all she had learned, and even the part about Cousin Hannah thinking Aaron Yoder was so wonderful. “She doesn't know yet that he's the worst boy in school.”

An amused look danced in Papa's eyes as she described her dilemma with Hannah and Aaron. But he didn't scold her for complaining about Aaron, or take Hannah's side. He just listened carefully. He was a fine listener, Papa was.

Too soon, they reached town. Papa guided Jim to the hitching post. They would walk to the stores and carry their things back to the buggy. Papa's first stop was the feed store to buy feed for Pansy the cow. For Jim, too. The clerk behind the counter added up the bill. As Papa counted out his money, the clerk told Lily she could pick out a lollipop.

Lily looked at all the lollipops and chose a purple one. She slipped it into her dress pocket hidden under her apron.
She hoped it would taste as good as it looked. Purple things usually did not disappoint.

Papa hoisted the bags of feed onto his shoulders, as if they were light as feather pillows, and walked back to the buggy. He set them in the back of the buggy and drew a shopping list out of his pocket.

“Next is a trip to the fabric store,” he read. “Mama needs half a yard of denim to patch the boys' pants.”

“I think boys have knees as hungry as their tummies,” Lily said. “They always seem to have holes in their pants' knees. Mama says they have hollow tummies.”

Papa laughed out loud. “Here I thought it was the grass they crawled on to play with their toys. All this time they had hungry knees. We'll have to tell Mama when we get home.”

Lily was so pleased that Papa had laughed. She hadn't even known she was making a joke, and Papa had laughed! She couldn't stop grinning as she followed him inside the store. She stopped abruptly as her eyes took in the rows and rows of fabrics. All sorts of beautiful fabrics with flowers and other designs. She had never known there were such beautiful patterns. She spotted a pretty cream fabric sprinkled with tiny purple roses. Oh, wouldn't it be wonderful to have a dress in that fabric? She reached out to touch it. It felt nice and soft. Papa noticed. “Don't touch anything, Lily,” he said.

Lily drew her hands away and held the sides of her apron so she wouldn't be tempted to touch more fabrics. But they were all so beautiful! Papa told the girl behind the counter what he wanted. Lily thought it was sad to buy only a piece of ugly denim when there were so many other pretty fabrics to choose from.

Papa paid for the denim and handed the bag to Lily. “Here, I'll let you carry this back to the buggy.”

Lily tried to match her steps to Papa's long strides. He slowed down so she could keep up with him more easily. She chattered happily as they walked. She had so much to tell him! About how she was looking forward to seeing her friends in church tomorrow. About all the ideas she had for her friends to play after church was over. Lily hardly gave Papa a chance to answer anything before she launched into talking about something else. It was a wonder to her—to be able to talk to Papa without interruptions from any little brothers.

The next stop was the grocery store. Mama needed sugar and flour and a few other items. Lily pushed the cart for Papa up and down the aisles as he selected everything that Mama had written on the shopping list. Lily hoped Papa might buy some of the interesting things in the store instead of only the same old regular food that they always had. Store-bought cookies, for one. Puffy white marshmallows, for another. Sadly, Papa kept to Mama's list.

After Papa paid for the groceries, he handed Lily a light bag to hold while he carried everything else in his strong arms. Back at the hitching post, Jim waited patiently. Papa set the bags on the ground while he carefully stacked everything inside the buggy.

He took a big five gallon bucket out of the back of the buggy and popped the lid off. It was full of water. Lily watched as Papa lifted the pail up for Jim. Jim drank half of it and then gently blew the water droplets off his velvety nose to let Papa know that he had had enough. Papa dumped the rest of the water out on the street and put the pail back inside
the buggy. He untied Jim, then paused and looked at Lily. “It's awfully warm today. How would you like to have an ice-cream cone?”

Of course she would! Of course. “Ice cream is one of my favorite things!”

Papa grinned and tied Jim back up. “Then let's go get you one.”

Could this day get any better? Lily skipped happily beside Papa as they walked to a nearby ice cream shop. Papa ordered a big vanilla ice-cream cone and handed it to Lily. She admired the pile of swirled ice cream and then waited for Papa to give her a spoon to eat it. He turned to leave the store and she hurried to keep up with him. He must have forgotten that she would need a spoon.

“You'd better start eating it before it melts,” Papa said as they walked back to the buggy.

“But how? I don't have a spoon.”

“You don't need a spoon when you have a cone to hold the ice cream. You can lick it.”

“Like a cat?”

Papa laughed. “Just like a cat.”

Twice now, Papa had laughed! But Lily wasn't trying to be funny. She thought it seemed odd to lick ice cream. Tentatively, she tried it.
Oh my. Oh my goodness
. This was better than a spoon! She would never want a spoon for ice cream again. Licking was too much fun.

Papa held her cone as she climbed onto the buggy. Then he handed it back to her as he untied Jim. It was finally time to go home. The trip to town had gone much too fast.

Jim trotted up the road, Papa whistled merrily, and Lily quietly licked her ice cream. It was almost all gone except
for a few bites inside the cone. Her tongue couldn't reach the bottom. What a shame to let that ice cream melt. Here's where a spoon would have come in handy.

She tossed the cone out of the buggy. Maybe a squirrel or a bunny would come along and finish the last few bites of the ice cream.

Papa stopped whistling. “Why did you throw your cone away?”

“I couldn't lick the rest of the ice cream.”

“The cone was something you could eat. And even if it wasn't, you shouldn't have thrown it out of the buggy.”

Lily had thought the cone was made from cardboard. She was sorry she wasted it. She would always wonder what it would have tasted like. How sad.

But maybe Papa would take her to town again. And maybe he would buy her another ice-cream cone. Next time, she would eat the whole thing.

As Jim turned into Whispering Pines, with Papa whistling, Lily thought this was the most perfect day of her life. Thrown-out cone and all.