The Lopsided Christmas Cake (18 page)

“Which of the women are you interested in?” Joseph hoped it wasn’t the same twin he had his eye on. But they looked so much alike, he couldn’t be sure which one he’d met in Topeka.
What if I can’t talk to her without stuttering?

Delbert shrugged. “I’m not sure which one I met before. Right now I’m thinking the more serious one.”

“Not the twin who was holding the lopsided cake?”

“Nope. Did you see the look of disapproval on her sister’s face when she took that dessert out of its container?”

Joseph nodded. “I wonder how it got that way.”

“We’ll never know if we don’t talk to them.” Delbert thumped Joseph’s back. “I see ’em by the table where all the other baked goods are. Let’s head over there now.”

When the men approached Thelma and Elma, Joseph couldn’t think of a single thing to say. He stared at the twins, feeling rather foolish.

“I’m Delbert Gingerich, and this is my friend, Joseph Beechy,” Delbert spoke up. “I’m the one who gave the winning bid, but it was really for him.”

Joseph’s face felt like it was on fire.

“That was an interesting presentation you ladies gave.” Delbert chuckled. “The humor you added really got the audience enthused. Did you plan it that way?”

The twins looked at each other with strange expressions. Then the one wearing the green dress spoke up. “It was definitely not planned. I think I speak for my sister when I say that we were both nervous wrecks.”

“That’s right,” the other twin agreed. “We’ve never cooked anything in a public setting before. I was surprised that anyone even bid on our crazy-looking cake, much less paid so much for it.”

Joseph, finally finding his voice, said, “It didn’t l–look like you were n–nervous.”
Not like I feel right now,
he mentally added.

“Which one of you is Elma and which one is Thelma?” Delbert asked.

“I’m Elma,” the twin wearing the blue dress said. “And this is my sister, Thelma.”

Delbert moved closer to the twins. “If I’m not mistaken, I bumped into one of you at Yoder’s Hardware about a month ago.”

“That was me,” Thelma spoke up. “It was when you were waiting at the checkout counter and you dropped your things.”

Delbert snickered. “That was pretty clumsy of me.”

“I met one of y–you, too,” Joseph stuttered. “It was—”

“At the hardware store in Topeka.” Thelma finished his sentence. “That was me, as well.”

Elma smiled. “Apparently, you’ve both met my sister before.”

“Where do you live?” Delbert asked.

“Our home is in Topeka,” Elma said. “We moved there from Sullivan, Illinois, after our grandparents died. They left us their house and variety store. Where do you men live?”

“We’re both from LaGrange,” Delbert said before Joseph could find his voice. It seemed like Delbert was taking over the conversation. Joseph sure hoped his friend wasn’t interested in Thelma.

They talked awhile longer, and then Delbert suggested that Joseph pick up the cake so they could get going.

“We should probably go, too,” Thelma said. “We want to grab a bite to eat and then head for home soon after. Our grandparents’ house is pretty run-down and in need of repairs. We may paint the living room this afternoon.”

Delbert reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card. “I’m a carpenter with my own woodworking business. If you need any repairs done that involve carpentry, please consider giving me a call.”

Elma smiled. “You may be hearing from us.”

As the men turned away, Joseph nudged Delbert’s arm. “If they call you to go look at their place, I’d like to go along.” He walked with a spring in his step.

Delbert grinned and thumped Joseph’s shoulder. “Sure, no problem.”

As Thelma and Elma headed for home after a quick bite to eat, they talked and even laughed about their lopsided cake. “At first I was mortified,” Elma said. “But everything turned out pretty well in the end. I feel good knowing that our contribution went to a good cause.”

“Jah.” Thelma held firmly to Rusty’s reins. “In addition to our cake going for such a high bid, we got to meet two very nice fellows.” She glanced over at Elma. “Do you think we should call Delbert and see how much he would charge to fix our sagging front porch?”

Elma nodded. “Since Dad gave us that money, maybe we can afford to hire Delbert to do the work. In addition to making our place look nicer, it’ll be a lot safer.”

“You’re right,” Thelma agreed. “Honestly, I fear that someone will step right through the old wood and get hurt.”

Elma sat up straight and loosened her sweater. “Whew! It’s sure getting warm in this buggy.”

I wish it were Joseph we’d be calling to work on our house,
Thelma thought.
But I’d better accept the fact that I might never see him again.

T
he following Saturday, when Elma came into the house after checking messages in the phone shack, she smiled at Thelma and said, “Remember when I left a message for Delbert Gingerich the other day?”

Thelma placed a clean dish in the drying rack. “Jah. Did you hear something back from him?”

“I did. His message said that he would be out later today.”

Thelma smiled, putting a freshly washed glass on the rack. “That’s good to hear. I hope he’s willing to fix our porch and that it won’t cost too much. It would be nice if we didn’t have to use all the money Dad gave us on just one project.” She rinsed some pieces of silverware and set them in the dish drainer to dry.

“I agree. If Delbert’s able to do it and we have some money left over, maybe we can ask him to do a few other projects.”

Thelma grabbed a clean dish towel and began drying the dishes. “That would be good.”

“It will be nice to see him again. He seemed like a pleasant man.” Elma grabbed her to-do list and took a seat at the table. “What do you think would be the second thing we could ask him to do?”

Thelma finished drying a glass and put in the cupboard. “How about putting on some nice cabinet doors beneath this old sink? That would look better than the outdated curtain.”

“You’re right, Sister. That would be a good thing to have done.” Elma jotted it down.

“So it’s Delbert you’re interested in, and not his friend Joseph?”

Elma tapped her pencil against her chin. “What makes you think I’m interested in Delbert?”

“You said it would be nice to see him again, and—”

“Now don’t get any silly ideas,” Elma interrupted. “He will be coming here to work, not for courting.”

Thelma set her dish towel aside and sat across from Elma. “If he showed an interest in you, what would you do?”

Elma blinked her eyes rapidly. “I really can’t say, since that hasn’t happened.”

“But if it did?” Thelma persisted.

“I give up!” Elma lifted her hands in the air. “I can tell that you’re not going to drop this subject till I come up with an answer.”

“That’s right.”

“If Delbert were to show some interest in me, I may be interested, too. But I’d have to get to know him first to see how well we’re suited.” Elma leaned closer to Thelma. “Is that the answer you were looking for?”

Thelma grinned, bobbing her head. “Of course, it would be more fun if we both had suitors. Think of all the things we could do as courting couples.”

“Maybe Delbert could fix you up with his friend Joseph. You did mention the other day that you thought he was
gutguckich.
” Elma tugged the tie on her headscarf.

“I didn’t say he was handsome. I said he was cute. Delbert’s the handsome one, with that shiny blond hair.”

“You’re right about that.” Elma placed her pencil on the table. “We can’t sit here all day and talk about something that may never happen. We need to get out to the store before any customers show up.”

“Okay, but I’m going to check on the horses first. I want to make sure that Pearl is happy in her new home.”

“Speaking of Pearl,” Elma said, as Thelma started for the door, “since she got new shoes put on last Monday, we can use her instead of Rusty when we need to go somewhere.”

Thelma shook her head. “If he’s not worked with, he’ll never become fully road trained. You can take Pearl whenever you need to go somewhere with the buggy, but I’ll keep using Rusty.” Her face brightened. “I haven’t given up hope on him yet, and I’m going to hang in there till I produce a wonderful buggy horse. Besides, I’m getting more confident each time I take him out.”

“That’s your choice,” Elma said, “but you need to be careful, because you never know what that animal might do.”

“I know, and I will be careful.” Thelma smiled and scooted out the door.

The twins had closed the store for the day, when Delbert showed up. Thelma was surprised and pleased to see that Joseph was with him.

Looking shyly at Thelma, Joseph mumbled, “I—I came along ’cause Delbert owes me a meal.”

“That’s right,” Delbert agreed. “We’re planning to eat at Tiffany’s here in Topeka.”

“We’ve never eaten there,” Thelma said, “but we hear they have good food.”

“If you have no other plans, maybe you’d like to join us for supper,” Delbert suggested.

Elma was about to say that she planned to fix a meat loaf, but Thelma spoke first. “We’d be happy to go to Tiffany’s, wouldn’t we, Sister?”

Feeling like a bug trapped in a spider’s web, all Elma could do was nod. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go to supper with these men. She simply felt like things were moving too fast. After all, they’d only met Joseph and Delbert last week, and here the men were asking them to share a meal at a restaurant. Maybe Delbert was only being polite. It could be that after Joseph said they were going out to eat, Delbert felt obligated to invite the twins to join them. But there was no point in mulling this over; she and Thelma had already agreed to go.

“Maybe I should take a look at your porch,” Delbert suggested.

“That’s a good idea,” Thelma spoke up. “Let’s head over there now.”

When they stepped onto the porch, Delbert released a low whistle. “This is sagging pretty badly.” He kicked at a couple of boards with the toe of his boot. “I’d say several pieces of this wood are rotted.”

Elma cringed. “Does that mean it’s going to be expensive to fix?”

“Not necessarily,” he replied. “It’s gonna depend on what I find when I start tearing into it. I can give you an estimate, but it might go over that amount. I’ll try to work within your budget, though.”

Thelma smiled. “We appreciate that. Don’t we, Sister?”

“Of course.” Elma wondered if they should have gotten another carpenter to look at the porch, too, but if Delbert did the job, it would give her a chance to get to know him better. She could tell from the rosy color on her sister’s cheeks that she was glad Joseph had come along with Delbert today, too.

When they entered Tiffany’s, Joseph made sure he was sitting across the table from Thelma, which put Delbert across from Elma. Earlier at the twins’ house, he wasn’t sure which twin was who, because they looked so much alike. But after listening to them, he quickly realized that Thelma was more talkative and had a sense of humor.

Despite Joseph’s shyness, on the buggy ride over, he’d managed to carry on a conversation with Thelma but mostly because she had so much to say. He wondered, now that they were at the restaurant, if she would continue to carry the conversation, or was she all talked out?