Andrew

by Jennifer Beckstrand

  Jerry seemed pleased by the invitation. Andrew could only be annoyed. What was wrong with him? Jerry had just saved his bruder. He should feel nothing but grateful. Jerry asked the other two firefighters, and they all agreed to a slice of bee-sting cake.

  “Brady is going to drive the truck back onto the road, and then they’ll come in.” Jerry fell in step beside Mary, and Andrew felt compelled to abandon Alfie and walk with Mary and Jerry. Ach, their names rhymed. They were the perfect couple.

  Except that they weren’t.

  Mary was going to have a baby, and Jerry would never consider someone like her as a suitable wife, would he?

  “I’d heard you were back,” Jerry said. “I’m sorry Alfie got stuck in that tree, but at least it gave me a chance to see you.” Jerry glanced at Andrew. “My dat never has to find out.”

  Andrew knew exactly why Jerry didn’t want his dat to find out, but did Jerry have to come right out and say it? Didn’t he care about Mary’s feelings? Andrew felt about two inches tall. In all his righteous indignation, he had said much worse things and felt perfectly justified. Who was he to find fault with anybody?

  Mary laughed as if she found everyone’s disapproval endearing. “I’m going to become the best-kept secret in Bienenstock. They gossip about me, but no one wants to admit they’ve talked to me. Andrew sneaks around like a fox prowling the henhouse.”

  “I do not,” Andrew said. Hadn’t he followed her into Edna King’s house in plain view of about thirty of die youngie?

  “I’m sorry,” Jerry said. “I’m as much of a coward as any of them, keeping it from my parents. It’s just easier, if you know what I mean.”

  “I know,” Mary said. “I used to be one of you.”

  “You still are,” Jerry said. It was a kind thing to say, even if it wasn’t entirely true.

  “That’s nice, Jerry, but I know how they feel about me.” She peered at Andrew. “I can’t expect anyone to understand what I’ve gone through. People here don’t know what I know. They haven’t had the experiences I’ve had. I can forgive them for being less than kind. They can’t make sense of it.”

  Jerry slowed his pace as they approached the house. “Where did you go? I heard you were in Milwaukee.”

  “Nothing quite that grand. I went to Green Bay and lived in my boyfriend’s stepmom’s basement.”

  Andrew wanted to speed up, but Jerry slowed to a crawl. “Josh?”

  Mary nodded.

  They shouldn’t be talking about such things, but his curiosity was like a raging fire. Who was Josh, and why did Jerry know about him? Andrew swallowed past the lump in his throat. It was none of his business, and he hoped they’d keep talking about it.

  “Green Bay has a gute football team,” Jerry said. Football team? Who cared about football when there was so much more to know about Josh?

  Benji and Alfie walked ahead of them. Benji had his arm draped around Alfie’s shoulder, their heads together as if they were already planning their next adventure. Alfie glanced back at Andrew and whispered something to Benji. Benji looked back at Jerry and bit his bottom lip. They were planning something, for sure and certain. Andrew could only hope it wasn’t a climb to the roof of Bitsy’s barn.

  Benji broke away from Alfie and grabbed Jerry’s hand, pulling him forward and away from Mary and Andrew. “Do you have a gun?”

  Andrew smiled at Mary. “At least Benji and Alfie got some excitement out of the whole thing.”

  “I thought it was very exciting,” Mary said.

  Andrew shook his head. “I thought I was going to have a seizure.”

  Andrew didn’t know why, but he liked it very much when he could make Mary smile. Had Josh made Mary smile? “You watch out for your bruderen.”

  “It’s what the oldest does, I guess.”

  “Most bruderen your age ignore their younger siblings. My oldest bruder is ten years older. I hardly know him.”

  Nobody seemed to have been in a hurry to get to the house, but even moving like snails, they had to get there eventually. They walked up the porch steps, Benji still chattering with Jerry about guns and fire hoses. Alfie had grown silent, probably finally feeling the full pain in his arms and wondering how he was going to explain two bandage-covered arms to Mamm.

  Bitsy invited them to sit around her heavy wooden table and served everyone a piece of cake. Jerry and his two firefighter friends, Brady and Rob, got the biggest pieces. Andrew tried not to be offended. Maybe Bitsy was just grateful to them for saving her cats. Maybe she liked Jerry better than she liked Andrew. What did it matter who Bitsy or Mary liked better? Andrew didn’t care one bit.

  Mary sat Alfie at the head of the table and pulled up a chair next to him. She filled a bowl with water and got some first aid supplies, then carefully poured water over Alfie’s arms and gently scrubbed away the dirt. Alfie hissed and flinched, but he wasn’t one to make a big fuss. Mary went upstairs and came back with a pair of tweezers. “We’re going to have to get out all the slivers.”

  Alfie clamped his eyes shut and held his breath.

  “You have to breathe, Alfie, or you’ll pass out.”

  “Okay,” Alfie said, sucking in a deep breath and holding it again.

  Mary smiled at him and did her best to move quickly. While Alfie shut his eyes, she pulled out six slivers and deposited them on a paper towel on the table. One sliver was nearly an inch long. Alfie picked it up and examined it from four different angles. “Look, Benji. Look at the size of it.”

  Benji took the sliver from Alfie. “Oy, anyhow. Won’t Willie be jealous?”

  Every life-threatening, terrifying experience was worth it if you could brag about it to your friends.

  Alfie deflated like a leaky bicycle tire. “We can’t tell Willie. His mamm will tell Mamm, and we’ll never get dessert again.” He eyed Jerry across the table. “You won’t tell anybody, will you?”

  Jerry took a swallow of his milk. Bitsy hadn’t given Andrew any milk. “Andrew already asked me to keep it a secret. I won’t even tell my dat.”

  He wouldn’t tell his dat for more than just Alfie’s sake.

  Andrew took a bite of cake. It was like heaven in his mouth. “I don’t think you’re going to be able to hide this from Mamm,” Andrew said. “Mary is going to have to bandage both your arms all the way up. Mamm will see that a mile away.”

  Alfie flinched as Mary smeared ointment on his skin. “I’ll wear my long sleeves.”

  “All summer?”

  Mary layered gauze pads all the way up Alfie’s right arm. “Even when it’s safe to take off the gauze, you’ll have scabs for weeks,” Mary said. “If I were your mamm, I’d notice for sure and certain.”

  Benji grimaced. “Mamm will know. She sees everything, except that one time when Alfie and me . . .” He trailed off, no doubt realizing he had nearly revealed a deep, dark secret. His face suddenly brightened. “We could pick off all the scabs.”

  Mary made one of her many faces, puckering her lips into a wrinkled frown. “Then he’d need bandages again.”

  Andrew watched Mary as she loosely wrapped medical tape around and around Alfie’s arm to hold the gauze in place. He was quite taken with the lines of her fingers, the curve of her hands as she tended to Alfie. He’d once touched those hands, and they were petal soft. “I’m afraid Mamm is going to find out,” Andrew said. “You might as well tell her what happened.”

  Alfie didn’t like that answer. “I can do it. Mamm never notices what I wear.”

  “She notices everything,” Benji insisted. “Do you remember when we snuck candy before dinner, and she smelled chocolate on our breath?”

  “She checks behind my ears, but she’s never asked to check my arms.”

  Jerry, Brady, and Rob stood in unison. “We’ve got to get back to the station,” Jerry said. “Denki for the cake.”

  Bitsy swatted away his compliment. “Don’t thank me. Mary made it.”

  Jerry turned his annoying smile to Mary. “Denki, Mary.
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten something so delicious.”

  Really? In his twenty, twenty-one years of eating, Jerry had never tasted anything as delicious as Mary’s bee-sting cake? He had stooped to shameless flattery. Mary would see through that like a thin window curtain.

  Her cheeks turned an attractive shade of pink, which was probably from the exertion of wrapping Alfie’s arms. Jerry looked sharp in his fireman’s uniform, but a smart girl like Mary could surely see past a nice smile and a uniform.

  Bitsy opened the door for them. “Come by anytime. Mary’s always got something baking.”

  “I will,” Jerry said, as if Bitsy had invited only him. Andrew had never known Jerry to be the arrogant type, but he was certainly getting on Andrew’s nerves today. “Stay out of trees, Alfie.” Jerry was down the porch steps before he finished his sentence.

  Alfie motioned to Benji, who went to the open door and waved. “Denki, Jerry. You did gute helping Alfie.” He leaned his head out the door and whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear him. “But Mary’s already spoken for.”

  Already spoken for? Did Benji mean the father of Mary’s child? How did Benji know such things? Andrew was going to have to quit underestimating his little bruderen. Benji, especially, had keen ears and a fruitful imagination.

  Bitsy shut the door and plopped into the chair next to Yost, who was on his second piece of cake. “I’ve had enough excitement to last an entire year. It’s lucky I dye my hair, because I think the rest of it turned white today.”

  “Did you think I was going to die?” Alfie said, eagerly leaning forward with his eyes as wide as saucers. What boy didn’t want to tell his friends that he’d almost died?

  “I didn’t think any such thing, young man,” Bitsy said, stabbing her uneaten piece of cake with her fork. “That fire truck ran over a half acre of dandelions and almost toppled my beehives, and Farrah Fawcett left her window seat for the first time in a decade. I won’t even need to go to the Fourth of July fireworks. I’ve had enough thrills today to last me all summer.”

  Alfie turned to Mary. “I could have broke my neck. I could have.”

  Mary patted Alfie’s hand. “Were you scared?”

  “I wasn’t scared, but Benji was.”

  “I wath not,” Benji protested, with a double forkful of cake in his mouth.

  There were so many lectures Andrew could have given Alfie, he didn’t know where to begin. The no-bragging, no-lying, no-sneaking-around lectures would have to wait. He gave Alfie the stink eye. “That was a very deerich thing to do, Alfie. You could have been badly hurt.”

  Mary tore the last piece of tape and let go of Alfie’s wrist. Alfie turned his arms every which way so he could get a good look. He was covered from bicep to wrist in bandages, as if his blue shirt had long white sleeves. “Ach! I look like I fought with a bear. Willie won’t think he’s so tough when he sees me.”

  Alfie obviously had a short memory. A very short memory. A memory the length of a mealy bug. Maybe he wouldn’t be so cocky when Mamm caught sight of him.

  “You know, Alfie,” Mary said, “you have a wonderful nice bruder. Andrew came running when you needed help, and he stayed by the tree the whole time and made sure we called the fire department. I’m sure he would have rescued you himself if you hadn’t been so high and the branches hadn’t been so thin.”

  Andrew clamped his mouth shut on scolding Alfie. Mary was smiling at him as if he was one of the blessed saints. He didn’t want to burst her bubble.

  Alfie studied Mary’s face, bloomed into a grin, then turned his gaze to Andrew. “Jah. Andrew is wonderful brave. You should see him with his shirt off. He has big muscles.”

  Andrew thought his face might catch on fire. He vowed never to be in the same room with Alfie again, unless it was in his own house and there were no girls present. He didn’t dare look at Mary. Was she as embarrassed as he was? Or was it commonplace to a girl who’d already . . . well . . . had already seen a man’s chest before? Ach. That thought made him want to shrivel into a little ball, crawl beneath the floorboards, and never come out.

  When he heard her laugh, he worked up the courage to glance in her direction. She was making a funny face at Alfie as if he’d just said something dumm and typical of an eight-year-old—nothing more serious than that. Andrew relaxed a little. If Mary didn’t feel awkward, then he wouldn’t either.

  He liked that about her. Even in the most uncomfortable situations—like someone finding out she was pregnant—she didn’t get flustered. For sure and certain everyone would feel comfortable around her if they gave her a chance.

  Bitsy’s lips vibrated as she blew air from between them. “Big muscles aren’t nothing. I prefer nice teeth and a lot of money.”

  Yost’s mouth fell open. “You married me for my money?”

  Bitsy raised her eyebrows. “How much do you have?”

  “Hardly any.”

  “Then I married you for your teeth,” Bitsy said.

  Yost smiled. “I’m glad I still have a few left.”

  “You have just the right amount.” Bitsy’s brows inched together. “But what do you say, Mary? Do you like muscles or teeth?”

  Mary laughed, unembarrassed and unconcerned. “I like a gute heart.” If Mary wasn’t bothered by this conversation, Andrew wouldn’t be either.

  Bitsy groaned as if one of her cats had jumped on her lap and asked to be petted. “Go ahead. Make the rest of us look shallow.”

  “I like a gute heart too,” Andrew said, just so Bitsy wouldn’t think he was one of the shallow ones.

  Bitsy eyed Andrew as if he were a door-to-door salesman. “But I bet you wouldn’t mind a gute set of teeth.”

  Andrew couldn’t help but grin at the skeptical look on Bitsy’s face. “I suppose not.”

  Bitsy finished her cake, pulled her chair around the table next to Alfie, and pointed her fork at him. “Now that the dust has settled and you didn’t break your femur, I want to know what you were doing in my basswood tree.”

  Benji, who was sitting next to Alfie, clamped his lips together and shook his head as if Bitsy had asked him the question. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head.

  Alfie nibbled on his bottom lip for several seconds, obviously choosing his words very carefully. Lord willing, he wasn’t making up a lie. Everyone would know. “I can’t tell,” he finally said.

  “Because it’s a secret and he doesn’t want to lie.” Benji gave Alfie a reassuring nod. “Alfie would never tell a lie.”

  Hmm, Andrew wasn’t sure about that, but he was proud of Alfie for not making up a story about why he was stuck in the tree, and he was proud of Benji for having so much faith in his bruder.

  “Were you spying on my beehives?” Bitsy said.

  Benji had always had a hard time keeping a secret. “We were spying, but not on the beehives.”

  “Benji!” Alfie scolded. “Don’t say anything.”

  “Sorry.”

  Bitsy leaned back in her chair, folded her arms, and glanced in Andrew’s direction, the fork still in her hand. “Whatever spying you were doing, I appreciate that you had some consideration for my dandelions, though it didn’t matter in the end because that fire truck ruined the whole field.”

  Andrew gave his bruderen a stern gaze. “The boys and I will come early tomorrow to fill in the ruts, even if it takes all day.”

  Alfie burst into a smile. “Really? We’re going to spend the whole day here?”

  Benji leaped off his chair, jumped up and down, and clapped his hands in delight.

  Andrew had no explanation for the excitement, except that maybe they were hoping for another piece of bee-sting cake tomorrow. It was wonderful gute.

  Bitsy’s piercing gaze could have drilled a hole through Andrew’s skull. What was she looking for? And why did she seem to be picking on him? “All right,” Bitsy said, after a long pause. “But you can’t step on the other dandelions while you smooth out the ruts. That would be a disaster.”


  “We’ll be extra careful,” Andrew said, though he couldn’t guarantee the safety of all of Bitsy’s dandelions. He was working with two eight-year-olds.

  Bitsy was still looking at him as if she wanted to read his mind. “It was nice of you to help your bruder, Andrew. Most brothers couldn’t have spared the time.”

  “Andrew’s nice,” Benji said. “He doesn’t yell at us.”

  Bitsy pursed her lips. “He stepped on my dandelions. He still has to prove himself.”

  Why did he need to prove himself to Bitsy? It was hard enough just keeping up with Mamm and Mammi Martha and the peanut butter. Bitsy was concerned about her ruts. Andrew could only do his best.

  Bitsy stood and gathered the plates from the table. Mary followed suit and started gathering forks. “Leave them, Mary,” Bitsy said. “Alfie and Benji are going to help Yost and me clean up and get dinner started. You and Andrew are going to walk out to the field and examine the ruts and the beehives. Make sure Andrew knows enough not to get stung tomorrow.”

  Mary glanced at Bitsy, then at Andrew, and shrugged. “Okay. I’ll show Andrew the hives.”

  “And be careful of the dandelions.”

  “Always.”

  If Bitsy was anything, she was single-minded. The dandelions seemed to be the only thing she cared about, and they were a common weed. Surely there were more important things in her life.

  Mary smiled and led the way as she and Andrew strolled down the porch steps and over the grass to the deep ruts in Bitsy’s lawn. Andrew had to tiptoe to avoid the thick clumps of dandelions. “For sure and certain Bitsy cares about her dandelions,” he said.

  Mary nodded. “Bees love dandelions. She’s very protective of her bees.”

  “But there are lots of other flowers on the farm. And look at those trees. It looks like the bees are getting plenty.”

  “It’s true,” Mary said. “Maybe it’s because Bitsy has a heart for the downtrodden, and there’s nothing more common and less valued than a dandelion. Most people try to get rid of them. But Bitsy looks beyond what most people can see. Dandelions take no effort to grow. They are hardy, even if you step on them, and the bees like them just as much as they like roses or tomatoes. I think bees like them better because they’re so easy to find.”