Bumpy Ride Ahead! (3 page)

C
HAPTER
3

The following Saturday, Mark and Mattie were invited to spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa Miller. Mark hoped he and Grandpa would do something fun together—maybe go fishing or take a walk in the woods. However, he was disappointed when Grandpa announced that he and Grandma would be taking the twins to some yard sales today. Mark thought going to a yard sale would be boring, but at least it was a better way to spend a Saturday than selling produce at their roadside stand and not making any money.

As they traveled down the road in Grandpa and Grandma’s buggy, Mark’s eyes grew heavy. He’d stayed up later than usual last night, first in the basement looking for the cricket, which he’d had no luck in finding. He had spent more than an hour in the basement, looking in every nook and cranny, behind all the jars on the canning shelf, and even in Mom’s washing machine. Mark thought it would be awesome if he’d caught the big insect and kept it in his room overnight, listening to it chirp. The last time he’d done that, with the ones he’d caught and put in the aquarium, it was a full-blown chorus as each cricket seemed to try and outdo the other with its musical song.

Then, when Mark had finally given up on the cricket, he’d gone back to his room, searching for big words in the dictionary. He’d found two new ones that he liked really well. They were
extravagant
and
conscientious.
Now he just needed to wait for the right time to say one or both of these big words.

Feeling the buggy’s rocking movement and hearing the steady
clippety-clop
of the horse’s hooves made Mark even sleepier. His head lulled against the seat, and he closed his eyes. Pretty soon he was fast asleep. He’d only been sleeping a few minutes, however, when Mattie bumped his arm.

Mark’s eyes snapped open. “What do you want, Mattie? Couldn’t you see that I was sleeping?”

“Sorry for waking ya, but I was wonderin’ if I could borrow your catcher’s mitt when we get home. Thought I might ask Calvin or Russell to throw the baseball to me so I can get better at catching.”

Mark shook his head. “My friend John Schrock gave me that catcher’s mitt for my birthday, so I don’t think it’d be right if I loaned it out.”

“I doubt that John would care.”

Mark said nothing—just closed his eyes again and tried to sleep.

Mattie tapped his arm. “I have another question.”

“What’s that?”

“Did you feed Twinkles this morning?”

“Now why would I wanna do that?” Mark asked. “Twinkles is your hund, not mine.”

“I know, but when you went outside to give Lucky her breakfast, I asked if you’d feed Twinkles, too.” Mattie nudged his arm again. “Remember, Mark?”

“‘Course I remember.”

“So did you feed her or not?”

He shook his head.

“How come?”

“’cause it’s your responsibility to take care of your hund, and you oughta be conscientious enough to do it.”

Mattie’s forehead wrinkled. “Consci—what?”

“The word is
conscientious.
It means
reliable.
“

“I am reliable, but I thought you could feed Twinkles as a favor to me.”

“I have enough of my own chores to do,” Mark said.

Mattie folded her arms and frowned. “The only reason I asked you to feed Twinkles is because I was busy helping Mom do the breakfast dishes. I didn’t think I’d have time to get Twinkles fed before Grandma and Grandpa picked us up.”

“We would have waited for you to feed the dog,” Grandma called over her shoulder.

“See,” Mark said. “You should have told Grandma and Grandpa that Twinkles needed to be fed.” He was glad Grandma had heard what Mattie said.

“But I didn’t, and you didn’t feed her, so now the poor hund is probably starving to death. You could have at least told me you didn’t feed her,” Mattie persisted.

“She won’t starve from missing one meal.” Grandpa glanced back at Mattie. “Just remember to feed her as soon as you get home. Oh, and Mark, it would have been nice if you’d fed Twinkles for your sister.”

Mattie looked over at Mark and said, “Don’t worry—I’ll never ask you to feed my hund again, and don’t ask me to feed your katz either.”

By the time they had stopped at three yard sales, Mattie was bored. She hadn’t seen anything that interested her at all. There were a lot of baby clothes, some farm equipment, furniture, dishes, and some canning jars, which Grandma bought, but nothing Mattie wanted. Grandpa had found a new handle for the one that broke on his rake, and he’d also purchased a metal milk can to store birdseed in for the winter on their back porch.

This third yard sale had something different from the first two they had gone to, however. There was a small concession stand set up selling hot dogs, barbeque sandwiches, homemade cookies, and peanut butter fudge. They also had bottled water available for anyone who was thirsty.

“How would you like something to eat?” Grandpa asked the twins. “Your grandma and I are getting a little hungry from all this yard-sale hopping, and I see there’s some food tables set up over there under those big maple trees.”

“I’m hungry, too,” Mark answered.

“Same here,” Mattie agreed.

They all decided to get hot dogs, except for Grandpa.

He chose the pork barbeque sandwich. Grandma reminded everyone that she’d made peanut butter cookies yesterday, and they’d have those once they got back to their house.

“I’ll have just ketchup on my hot dog,” Mattie told the teenage boy making the sandwiches.

“I’d like mustard and relish on mine,” Mark said when it was his turn to choose.

Grandma smiled when the boy asked her what she would like on her hot dog. “Ketchup, mustard, relish, and onions, please. I want the works.”

There were chairs and a few tables set up, also under the shade of the trees, and they all took a seat to eat their lunch. Mark and Mattie were in a conversation about what they hoped to find at the next place they were going to. As Grandpa and Grandma Miller ate, they watched the small crowd of people looking over the items for sale.

“I hope I can find a yo-yo,” Mark said to Mattie as he wiped a glob of mustard off the side of his mouth.

“I’m not sure if I’m looking for anything in particular.” Mattie took another bite of her hot dog. “I thought you wanted a
new
yo-yo and not another used one.”

“If I find one that’s better than the one I have, that would be okay with me. I just have to—”

Mattie looked at Mark, wondering why he’d stopped in midsentence. Her gaze followed the direction her brother was looking, and Mattie’s heart almost stopped beating. It felt like it had jumped into her throat.

“Carolyn! Carolyn! Are you all right?” Grandpa looked at Grandma with a panicked expression.

Mattie watched in horror as Grandma pointed first to her throat and then to her mouth. It looked like she was trying to tell Grandpa something, but all she could do was make little gasping noises.

Grandpa gave Grandma’s back a couple of thumps, but it didn’t seem to help. “Can someone please help us?”

Grandpa shouted. “My wife seems to be choking!”

It was like someone sounded an alarm, and several people came running over. They must have heard the urgency in Grandpa’s voice.

“Grandma’s turning blue,” Mark whimpered, reaching out to hold Mattie’s hand.

Mattie was really scared. She’d never seen anyone choke like this before, except little Ada, but she had only sputtered on milk while she was drinking it. This was different, though. Grandma couldn’t talk, and it looked like she was having trouble breathing.

Mattie quickly said a silent prayer,
Lord, please help my grandma.

“She needs to stand up!” the teenage boy who’d given them the hot dogs yelled as he raced over and got behind Grandma.

Mattie’s fear increased as Grandpa helped Grandma stand. What was this boy going to do to their grandma?

Mattie watched helplessly as the boy wrapped his arms around Grandma’s waist from behind, made a fist with both hands together, and made quick upward thrusts into the upper part of her stomach. He did this only a few times, and all of a sudden a big piece of hot dog flew out of Grandma’s mouth. Almost immediately Grandma coughed and was able to breathe again.

Mattie breathed a sigh of relief as Grandma, her face turning red, whispered, “Guess I should learn to take smaller bites.”

It seemed like everyone, strangers included, went
“whew”
at the same time as Mark and Mattie.

Grandpa smiled and shook the boy’s hand, thanking him for saving Grandma’s life. “What is your name, son?”

“Well, my real name is Anthony, but most folks just call me Tony,” he answered, looking a little embarrassed at all the attention he was getting. “Guess it’s a good thing I was listening in class the day they taught us first aid.”

“What was it that you did to my grandma?” Mattie asked.

“That’s called the Heimlich maneuver,” Tony answered. “When someone is choking and can’t breathe, that’s what you do to dislodge the food or obstruction in their windpipe. There’s even a way to do the procedure on yourself, if you happen to be alone and start choking.”

“Well, I’m glad you were here to help. Thank you so much.” Grandma patted Tony’s arm. “Now I want everyone to quit worrying about me. I’m fine now, and you know what? I’m still hungry, not to mention eager to see some of the other yard sales that await us today.”

After the frightening experience was over, it felt good to relax, knowing Grandma was going to be all right.

“I know one thing,” Mark said to Mattie after they’d finished their lunch. “I’m gonna read up on this Heimlich maneuver. I think everyone should know how to do that.”

At the next yard sale they went to, Mattie spotted a table full of toys and games. She was on her way to look at them when she noticed a pretty snow globe on one of the tables. Inside the globe was a garden scene with flowers, a butterfly, and even a frog. Mark must have seen the globe, too, because he reached for it at the same time as Mattie.

“You’d better not touch it,” Mattie said. “It looks breakable. Besides, I saw it first.”

“Don’t be so selfish, Mattie. I have just as much right to look at the snow globe as you do.” Mark snatched up the globe and gave it a shake. Colored pieces of fake snow swirled all around inside the miniature world. It was beautiful!