A New Home for Lily (11 page)

O
ne evening before bedtime, Mama finished tidying up the kitchen as Lily swept the floor. “Next week is Grandma's birthday,” she said. “Papa and I thought it would be nice to invite them over for a special dinner on Sunday.”

Lily stopped sweeping. “Can I help plan the menu?”

Mama pointed to the broom. “We can sit down and figure it out as soon as we have finished up our evening work.”

Lily carefully swept the dirt pile into the dustpan and dumped it into the trash can. She hurried to hang the broom and dustpan on a nail inside the basement door.

Mama was already at the table with a tablet and pen. She wrote down the type of potato, meat, and vegetable she wanted to make.

“Can I make Jell-O?” Lily asked. She loved Jell-O. She liked how it jiggled on the plate and how it felt as it slipped down her throat.

Mama thought for a moment. “I think Jell-O would work if we mixed it with some fruit. Then we could serve it with Grandma's birthday cake.”

“Can I make it all by myself?” Lily asked. She wanted to show Grandma that she was growing up by making at least one thing all by herself.

“Jell-O is fairly easy to make,” Mama said. “I think you can handle most of it, but I should measure the boiling water for you so you don't spill any on yourself.”

On Saturday morning, Mama sent Joseph and Dannie down the road to Grandma's house with an invitation to come for a birthday dinner on Sunday. Lily stayed at home to help Mama with the cleaning. The house needed to be spotless for Grandma's special dinner.

Not much later, Joseph and Dannie returned home with a note for Mama. As she read it, the corners of her mouth slipped into a smile.

A good sign. “Are they coming?” Lily asked.

“Yes, they are,” Mama said. “Which means we still have a lot of work to get done before then.”

By midday, the house was clean. It was time to start cooking and baking Grandma's birthday meal. Time for Jell-O making.

Lily filled the big teakettle with water and set it on the front of the stove so that it would heat faster. “What kind of Jell-O shall I make?”

“You can choose whatever flavor you like,” Mama said.

Lily climbed up on the counter and looked through the supply of Jell-O Mama had in the cupboard. Mama bought Jell-O in big bags at the bulk food store. Lily tried to think how much to make so that everyone could have as much as they wanted to. A cup full of Jell-O for everyone would be
just about right. She counted up: Mama, Papa, Lily, Joseph, Dannie, Grandma Miller, Grandpa Miller, Aunt Susie. Uncle Jacob and Aunt Lizzie would stay with Great-Grandma, so that made eight people. Lily would need at least eight cups of Jell-O.

Next: which flavor should she choose? Sometimes Mama mixed a few flavors together. Lily decided she would choose several flavors and mix them together. She chose a bag of orange, blueberry, apricot, and strawberry. She hoped that mixing these flavors together would make the best Jell-O they had ever tasted.

Lily hopped off the counter. She found a big bowl and carefully measured eight cups of Jell-O powder into it. The teapot was whistling, but Mama was in the basement to select potatoes, onions, and apples. Lily didn't want to wait to stir the Jell-O until Mama came upstairs. She knew Mama was
worried she would burn herself, but she knew she could do it. She would work slowly and carefully, measuring out the teakettle of boiling water.

She put her hands in big potholders and lifted the handle of the teakettle. Grasping the heavy kettle with both hands, she carried it off the stove, holding it out in front of her. She shuffled her way slowly, cautiously, over to the sink. She was relieved when she safely set it into the sink. She found a measuring cup, set it in the sink, and carefully tipped the teakettle of boiling water into it. Then she poured the cup of hot water into the bowl filled with Jell-O powder. Cup after cup. She had just finished pouring the water over the Jell-O when Mama came back upstairs.

“Oh, Lily, I wanted you to wait until I came back.” She hurried to the sink. “Let me measure the boiling water for you.” When she reached the bowl, she stopped abruptly. Lily looked up at her. Something wasn't right. The Jell-O was gray.

“How much Jell-O did you measure into the bowl?” Mama asked.

“Eight cups full,” Lily said. “One cup for everyone. I mixed flavors.”

Mama's eyes went wide. Then she burst out laughing. “Eight cups full!” She laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks. “Well, it looks like we will be eating Jell-O for a long time.”

Gray
Jell-O.

Lily wished she had waited until Mama had come before she added the water. She had not thought how much Jell-O it would make if she measured eight cups full into her bowl. At least Mama wasn't upset with her. Lily had never seen Mama giggle so much before. It made Lily giggle too, even though she wasn't sure what the problem was.

Mama wiped away her tears and took a deep breath. “Okay. Right now what we need is a bigger bowl. A much, much bigger bowl.” She looked in the sink at the Jell-O again. “I think we'll have to use a five-gallon pail.” She hurried down to the basement to find one. She brought one upstairs and washed it out with soap and hot water to make sure it was clean. She set the pail on the floor and then dumped the bowl of Jell-O into it. Next she started measuring and pouring in the boiling water. She handed a wooden spoon to Lily and told her to stir it until all the Jell-O had dissolved.

After Mama was satisfied that the Jell-O was dissolved, she was ready to measure the cold water. After all the water had been measured, Lily discovered that they had at least forty cups of Jell-O. She had never seen that much Jell-O in her life. She had certainly never seen such a gray color of Jell-O before. No wonder Mama had laughed.

The rest of the day, Lily helped Mama prepare other food. They had to walk around the pail of Jell-O in the middle of the kitchen. It was too heavy for Mama to move by herself, so it would have to wait until Papa came home. He would be able to carry the heavy pail down to the basement where it would stay nice and cold until tomorrow's dinner.

When Papa finally came home, his eyebrows shot up when he saw the pail of gray Jell-O sitting in the middle of the kitchen. He looked questioningly at Mama. “Is there a reason you made enough Jell-O to feed the church?”

“It's all part of the adventure of having a young cook in the house,” Mama said.

Lily told him the story of the Jell-O. Papa looked at Mama, and then they both burst out laughing. Why was it so funny?

Papa patted her head. “It looks like Lily is practicing to cook for lots of people.” He bent down and lifted the pail
with an extra grunt. He winked at Lily and she knew he had only pretended that it was very heavy for him as he carried it to the basement.

The next morning, Mama sent Lily to the basement with a big bowl and a dipper to scoop Jell-O out of the pail. She had some fruit ready to mix into it. Lily hoped it might not have quite such a gray tinge after the fruit was added.

Lily pushed the dipper into the Jell-O to scoop some out and put into the bowl. It made a funny slurping noise as she pulled the dipper out. Once the bowl was full, Lily looked at the pail. There was still so much Jell-O in it that she couldn't even see the bottom of the pail through the glassy gelatin. They would have to eat Jell-O for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, for weeks and weeks, months and months, if they were ever going to empty that pail.

When Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Susie arrived, Lily ran to the door to meet them.

Aunt Susie had brought her doll along to play with. She and Lily loved to play dolls together. “First,” Lily whispered to her, “I have something to show you in the basement.”

Grandma went to the kitchen to help Mama finish getting dinner ready while Lily and Aunt Susie slipped quietly down to the basement. Lily walked over to the pail of Jell-O and pointed. “Look how much Jell-O I made yesterday.”

Aunt Susie peered into the pail. “Gray Jell-O. Is this all we will have to eat today?”

“No, Mama made a good dinner,” said Lily. “But we do have a lot of Jell-O.” They both peered into the pail again. “Quite a lot.”

They went back upstairs. Grandma filled the water glasses
as Mama dished out bowls of steaming food. Mama saw Lily and Aunt Susie come into the kitchen. “Go tell Papa that dinner is ready.”

Lily went to the living room to tell Papa and Grandpa that it was time to eat. As everyone sat at the table, Papa bowed his head to ask a silent blessing. When it was over, Papa lifted his head and reached for the platter of fresh homemade bread to pass it around the table. When it came to Aunt Susie, she passed the bread on to Joseph without taking a slice.

“Are you sure you don't want any bread today?” Grandpa asked. Everyone knew that Aunt Susie liked bread.

Aunt Susie shook her head. “Not today,” she said in her slow, thick way. “I'm saving room for Lily's gray Jell-O. She made a whole pail full and we need to help her eat it.”

Mama explained about the Jell-O and everyone laughed, especially Joseph, which got Dannie giggling. Lily nudged them under the table with her toe.

“Send a bowlful home with us,” Grandma said.

“You mean, a bucketful,” Grandpa murmured.

Grandma ignored him. She turned to Lily. “It takes a lot of practice to become a good cook. I'm happy to hear that you're already starting to learn.”

Grandpa leaned toward Lily and lowered his voice. “Someday, you might want to ask Grandma about your mother's adventures as a beginner cook.” He winked at Lily. “I seem to remember something about gravy on the ceiling.”

“Dad!” Mama said, pretending to be horrified, and everyone laughed.

While everyone helped themselves to second and third helpings of Jell-O, Lily made a point to remember to ask Grandma about Mama and the ceiling gravy story on her next visit.

Summer was deepening. It would soon be time for the start of another school year. Mama was working hard to make sure that Lily and Joseph had new clothes to wear. Lily stood at the edge of the sewing table. She liked to watch Mama sew new shirts and dresses.

Mama pumped the sewing machine's treadle up and down with her foot as fast as she could. The stack of finished shirts, pants, dresses, and aprons grew bigger and bigger every day. When the last piece of clothing had been sewn, Mama asked Lily to dig through the button box and find enough matching buttons for all the new clothes.

Lily liked digging through the button box. She carefully counted out little piles of buttons that matched the dresses and shirts. She needed seven buttons for each shirt, five buttons for each dress, and one for the apron. Nine buttons for each pair of pants. Pants didn't have nice buttons. They all looked the same. Big and black. Lily was glad she was a girl and all her buttons could be pretty.

After Lily had counted out the buttons into little piles, Mama told her to put them into an empty pill bottle. Mama folded the clothes and put them into two grocery bags. “Take these to Grandma Miller,” she said. “Ask her if she has time to sew the buttons and buttonholes. I'm already way behind in the garden and everything that needs to be done around here.”