“Do you mind if I close the damper a bit?” she asked Anna.
Anna dipped a wooden spoon in her mixture and stirred it around. “Jah, go ahead. I will bake my meatballs after the pie. Moses loves pie.”
“I have never made meatballs.”
“Neither have I, but my daughter, Abigail, gave me a new cookbook for Christmas and I am determined to try a new recipe every week. I’ve fed Felty the same meals for sixty years.” She tapped her forehead and puckered her lips. “My doctor says trying new things keeps the mind sharp. Does your mamm ever try a new recipe?”
“Not often. We have our favorites we like to make.”
“And your sister Rachel? Does she like to cook?”
“Nae. She’s the pretty one. She can get a gute husband without knowing how to cook well.”
“If my opinion counted for anything, I’d say you’re the pretty one.”
When she heard the buggy rumble up the lane, Lia kept her eyes glued to the pie as her heart skipped a beat or two. She might as well admit that she liked him. He was a nice young man who made her laugh and liked that she was tall. Anna and Felty were delightful and so welcoming, but she shouldn’t feel guilty for now and then looking forward to conversing with someone closer to her age.
Of course, she had nothing more in mind when she thought of his coming. He had made his intentions very clear. Lia had to check a laugh before it escaped her lips. They had been blunt with each other. No guessing games needed between them. They could forget any pretense and be friends.
Just friends.
Besides, it was pure nonsense to even hope that such a man would take an interest in her, and any hopes she foolishly harbored would be dashed as sure as rain fell in Wisconsin in the spring.
Moses burst in the door like the sun poking through the gloomy clouds. Even in the uncomfortable heat, he wore the fire engine red scarf that Anna had knitted for him and a smile that took over his whole face. Lia couldn’t get enough of that dimple. Bending over, he planted a kiss on the top of his mammi’s head. “How is the prettiest girl on Huckleberry Hill?”
Anna reached up and cupped his chin in her hand. “She’s standing right over there. Why don’t you ask her yourself?”
Moses glanced at Lia and quickly looked away. “I told Dawdi I’d turn over the dirt in the garden today. Crist will bring compost next week.”
“Supper is at five o’clock sharp.”
Moses winked at his mammi. “I wouldn’t be one minute tardy for your cooking.”
He blew out the door as suddenly as he had come, and Lia spent the rest of the afternoon keeping her gaze away from the window.
An hour later, Lia pulled her golden brown pie from the cookstove as Anna slid her cookie sheet of nicely formed meatballs inside.
Anna’s pot of red sauce still bubbled on the stove. Lia had never seen anything like it, but the meatballs looked delicious and the sauce smelled faintly of grapes. Anna’s first recipe experiment looked to be a success.
Nearing suppertime, Lia brought a bottle of peaches from the basement and heated up some frozen corn. The Helmuths had a modern refrigerator powered by a generator but still used a cookstove powered by wood.
Felty, with Moses close behind, marched through the back door singing the song Lia had heard him sing every day before suppertime. He had a beautiful, deep voice that seemed to vibrate the floorboards.
“Life is like a mountain railroad, with a canyon deep and wide, we must make the run successful, so we’ll be by Jesus’s side.”
Even though it seemed to be his favorite song, he never sang the same lyrics twice. If he forgot them, he simply made them up. In the three weeks she’d been on Huckleberry Hill, Lia had heard a dozen different versions of “Life’s Railway to Heaven.” It was entirely endearing.
Both Moses and Felty hung up their hats, and Felty kissed his wife right on the lips without even a glance in Lia’s direction.
Anna kissed him back and then nudged him away. “Felty, you stink like a wet raccoon.”
“Oh, Annie-bell, you smell like a thick piece of strawberry rhubarb pie.”
“Wash up so’s you and Moses don’t have to take supper on the back porch.”
Lia refused to let Moses’s boyish grin set her heart aflutter.
Moses and Felty obediently trudged to the bathroom to wash. Anna spread the table with one of her knit coverings. She had seven “tablecloths,” all knitted with a different color yarn, to put on her round table. Although they proved a bit thick, Anna proudly pointed out that they never needed to use a trivet or pot holder to protect the table from hot dishes.
Lia laid out the corn, the peaches, and a pitcher of milk. By this time, Anna had ladled the meatballs into the red sauce and placed them on the table with a white dish of noodles.
“The book said to serve with egg noodles,” she said, looking doubtfully from her bowl of meatballs to Lia’s face.
“It will be wonderful gute. What is in the sauce?”
“Grape jelly and oriental chili sauce. I had to go to three different stores for the sauce and even then I wasn’t sure I got the right thing. The woman at the store in Green Bay didn’t speak English. Or Deitsch.”
Felty came back from the bathroom and peered curiously into the pot of meatballs. “Oh, Annie, this looks delicious. I always said you was the best cook in the world. It wonders me that I haven’t got fat in the sixty years we been married.”
Felty pulled the chair out for Anna to sit, and Moses did the same for Lia. She felt a little silly about that small gesture.
After silent grace, Anna scooped some noodles onto Felty’s plate and then her own. She handed the dish to Lia. “Eat up. There’s plenty.”
Lia put more noodles on her plate than she really wanted to eat, but the healthy serving made Anna’s smile grow wider. She handed the noodles to Moses, who piled his plate high. The saucy meatballs looked mighty tasty poured over the golden, buttery noodles.
“It looks just like the picture in the book,” Anna said, her eyes bright.
Felty dished himself some corn. “The president of the United States doesn’t eat this well.”
Lia cut a meatball in half, skewered it, and rolled a noodle around it with her fork. As soon as she popped it into her mouth, her tongue burst into flames. Then the entire inside of her mouth felt as if it were breaking out into blisters. She chewed the meatball quickly, doing her best to avoid touching it with her tongue, and swallowed it. She might as well have poured scalding hot water down her throat.
Without a word, Moses reached over and poured her some milk as she began to cough violently. Grabbing her glass as if it held the answers to all her deepest questions, she took a gulp and let the milk sit on her tongue. The inside of her mouth cooled slightly, but her lips still felt like they were on fire—or numb. At the moment, she couldn’t really tell the difference.
“Are you all right, Lia?” Anna asked.
Lia nodded and shoved a closed-mouth smile onto her face.
Lia looked at Moses. His eyes watered, and the color crept up his neck like a strange sunburn. He smiled reassuringly at Lia, then drank half his glass of milk.
The wrinkles around Anna’s mouth deepened as she took a small bite. “I don’t think I did it right. What do you think, Felty?”
Showing no signs of distress, Felty popped another meatball into his mouth. It wondered Lia that he could do it without choking. “Delicious. You have outdone yourself.”
Anna’s lips turned down, and she shook her head. It surprised Lia to see the light fade from her eyes. “It’s too spicy. I ruined it. And I wanted to make such a nice dinner for Moses and Lia.”
Felty scooped another meatball into his mouth with a generous forkful of noodles. Reaching over, he patted Anna’s hand with his gnarled fingers. “Now, Annie Banannie, no need to fuss. This is delicious.”
“Jah, Mammi. I love spicy food.”
Lia marveled that Moses could speak. She felt as if her lips had me
lted together.
Felty waved his fork at Moses in agreement. “It’ll grow hair on your chest.”
“And clear out your sinuses,” Moses added.
Lia took another gulp of milk. “And the noodles are so buttery,” she said weakly, not wanting to lie but hoping to encourage Anna all the same.
Anna’s expression relaxed. “They’re a bit fiery for my taste, but I feel better knowing all of you like them.”
In addition to the tears provoked by the hot sauce, Lia’s eyes stung with tears of distress. She wouldn’t hurt Anna’s feelings for the world, but it would be impossible to eat another bite of those meatballs. Taking a taste of corn, she tried to think of an excuse for not finishing her supper. She’d never been so uncomfortable in her life.
Anna rose from the table to fetch the butter—she said the noodles needed more—and while her back was turned, Moses reached his fork over to Lia’s plate, skewered two meatballs, and stuffed them into his mouth. While he chewed, Lia was certain she saw smoke coming out of his ears.
She stared at him, first in sheer disbelief and then in pure gratitude. She shook her head slightly in his direction as if to say, “You don’t need to do that,” but he merely curled his lips, swiped a tear from his face, and turned to Felty. “I saw Delaware yesterday.”
Felty’s face lit up. “Delaware! That is rare. I only seen one Delaware last year.”
There were only two and a half meatballs left on Lia’s plate, plus all those noodles slathered in hot sauce. Would she be able to manage another bite? She took a swallow of milk to give her courage and reached out her fork. But Moses gently nudged her hand aside and stole another of her meatballs. With less enthusiasm than the first time, he stuffed it into his mouth, chewed painfully, and chased it down with another half glass of milk.
By this time, his entire face shone beet red, and sweat dripped from his forehead. Lia imagined that his skin color would match perfectly with his scarf. Her profound relief together with Moses’s unmatched kindness rendered her almost giddy. The pained yet good-natured expression on his face, combined with the discomfort they both felt, struck Lia’s funny bone. A giggle escaped before she could stifle it.
Moses glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and then coughed and chuckled at the same time.
Lia put her hand over her mouth, but as was usually the case when she tried to stop the laughter from overflowing, she succeeded in making it worse. She snickered and hissed and finally gave up and laughed out loud. Moses joined her.
Anna looked at both of them with wide eyes. “Whatever is the matter?”
Lia could think of nothing to say in her defense. And even if she had, she couldn’t talk for the laughing.
But Moses, more quick-witted than she, said, “There is a joke about Delaware that I remembered.”
Lia hoped Moses knew what he was doing, because if Anna asked her to repeat a joke about Delaware, she wouldn’t be able to come up with one single thing.
Anna smiled her motherly smile. “Well, tell us. We don’t want to be left out.”
Moses pressed his lips together and furrowed his brow, but Lia didn’t know if it was because he couldn’t come up with a joke or because his stomach most likely burned with a raging fire. He sat silently for a few seconds and then a light turned on behind his eyes. “What do you call an Amish person in Delaware?”
Anna looked truly puzzled. “What?”
“A visitor.”
Amazed and impressed that Moses could come up with something, anything, for Anna, Lia again burst into stomach-splitting laughter.
Anna watched both of them as if they had sprouted rabbit ears and horse tails right there at the supper table. When their mirth finally died down, Anna, ever the loving grandmother, said, “Oh, you two. A pair of peas in a pod. If that joke makes you happy, it makes me happy.”
In the midst of more laughter, Moses reached over and took Lia’s last one and a half meatballs. Lia ate around the edges of her noodles without getting too much of the sauce while Moses scooped up bite after bite when Anna looked away. Their efforts were enough to make Anna believe Lia had cleared her plate and to start Lia into worrying about Moses’s health.
Felty’s face glowed with sweat, and he repeatedly dabbed his nose with his handkerchief, but otherwise he gave no indication that his throat might be on fire. Anna had eaten only two bites of her own recipe. Compared to Moses’s ruddy complexion, she looked fit as a fiddle. She hopped from her chair and gathered the empty plates. “Who wants pie?”
Lia nudged Moses’s foot with hers. When he looked at her, she shook her head. “Don’t eat one bite of my pie,” she whispered. “You’ll be sick.”
He took another drink of milk and raised an eyebrow. “The pie is that bad?”
“You have done enough for me already.”
Moses turned to Anna and flashed those nice teeth. “I’d love a piece, Mammi.”
Lia lifted her eyes to heaven and shook her head in exasperation. Moses, still bright red in the face, blessed her with a boyish grin. “Remember, Mammi wants to convince me to marry you.”
“I’ll not have you.”
“I’m not looking to marry—unless your pie is extra tasty.”
Lia rose from the table and helped Anna cut pie. She tried to slip Moses an extra-small piece, knowing how terribly he must be suffering already, but Anna would have none of it.
“Moses will want the biggest piece.” She peered at him over her glasses as if to determine what size of piece he would need to fall in love.
When they were all seated again, Moses stuffed a bite of pie in his mouth with more enthusiasm than Lia would have thought possible.
But she didn’t really care if he liked it.
It was just a pie.
It took her a moment to notice that she gripped her fork and her knuckles had turned white.
Moses savored his bite and then nodded in approval. “Delicious. Puts every other raisin pie to shame.”
Lia took a deep breath and relaxed her hand before she lost circulation.
“This is wonderful gute,” Felty said with his mouth full.
Anna fluffed her fork along the top of her piece. “Your crust is so flaky. I was never able to master a flaky piecrust.”
“Nonsense,” Felty said. “Your piecrust is my favorite.”
Lia took a bite. To her relief, the pie tasted delicious. The sticky-sweet raisins had cooked to the perfect consistency and texture. The crust held up nicely, soft and moist on the bottom, flaky and golden on the top.
Not that it mattered. It was just a pie.
Once Moses cleaned his plate, he stood slowly, as if he were toting a full jug of water on his head. “Denki, Mammi, for the wonderful meal.”
“Will we see you next Tuesday?” Anna asked.
Moses made his way around the table and planted a kiss on his mammi’s forehead. “Jah, of course. But I will come on Thursday to help Lia stack the limbs from the peach trees. I pruned in March and still haven’t cleared them away.”
Anna smiled as if she thought Moses’s coming an extra day this week was a very good idea. Lia guessed that Anna saw the certainty of a happy wedding in the near future. Lia saw it as another demonstration of Moses’s kindness. Stacking limbs was a muscle-numbing, back-aching chore. She would be glad for his help.
“Lia, walk out with Moses,” Anna said. “The sunset over the hill will be beautiful tonight.”
Moses cocked an eyebrow. “The sun won’t set for another three hours yet.”
Anna merely patted his arm as if he were a small child who needed guidance. “Better than being an hour late for it. Dawdi and I will do the dishes, never you mind about that.”
Amused and pretending not to be suspicious of Anna’s motives, Lia nodded cheerfully and stood.
Moses put a hand on his stomach as if protecting it from getting bumped while he opened the door and motioned for Lia to go first. They walked toward the barn as Moses looked faithfully to th
e west.
“Nope, no sunset.” He chuckled. “I hope you’re not offended, but I got milk to weigh and cheese to test. I won’t have time to wait for the beautiful sunset.”
“I’ve got chickens to feed and tomato plants to look after. I will be annoyed if you stay to look.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Have you ever considered that you might hurt my feelings with your plain-spokenness?”
“Are your feelings hurt?” she asked, with a tease in her voice.
“Not yet, but you never know when something you say will put me in my place right quick.”
Lia folded her arms around her waist and gave him a teasing smile. “I’ll keep trying to do just that.”
He suddenly stopped walking and turned to study her face. He looked at her for several seconds without speaking. She stared right back, a mixture of discomfort and pleasure stirring around inside her. What was he looking for?
“The color of your dress makes your eyes pop out of your head,” he said quietly.
“Sounds painful.” Why did she have to choose this moment to make a joke?
He slid his hands into his pockets and shifted his gaze to the ground.
Lia took a step closer. “Denki for what you did for me at supper. You don’t know how grateful—”
“Nae, thank you, for sparing Mammi’s feelings. She only wants to make people happy, and food is one of the ways she shows love. She frets about her cooking like she frets over her grandchildren.”
“Of course. I understand. To a woman, a good meal is an offering of love. She puts part of herself into the recipe.”
“I have a request,” Moses said. “Will you make another pie on Thursday?”
Lia felt herself blush although she wasn’t sure why. “Jah, I can.”
“It’s just that, well, I think your pie was gute. What I mean is, from what I could tell . . .” He kicked the dirt at his feet. “I’ll bet it was an extra-tasty pie, but I couldn’t be sure because those meatballs seared my tongue, and I think all my taste buds are dead.”
Huckleberry Hill Page 5