Look Out, Lancaster County

by Wanda E. Brunstetter

  Jacob snickered. “You were probably thinking about that story Orlie read.” He pointed at Rachel. “It was about you, wasn’t it? What was your name? Rosie the Raccoon?”

  She grunted but didn’t say anything. Nothing Rachel could say would make her feel better anyway. She just wanted to get home, clean her knees, and take a nap. That is, if Mom didn’t have too many chores waiting for her to do.

  When they arrived home a short time later, Jacob headed straight for the barn, and Rachel trudged wearily toward the house. She had just stepped onto the porch, when she noticed two of Mom’s potted plants had been tipped over. Dirt was everywhere, and the plant stems were broken. She suspected her kitten had caused the mess, because Cuddles lay on the porch next to one of the pots, licking her dirty paws. Mom stood nearby, tapping her foot and clicking her tongue.

  “Bad kitten!” Rachel scolded, shaking her finger in front of Cuddles’s nose. “My whole Mondaag’s gone bad, and now I come home to this?”

  “What happened that made your Monday go bad?” Mom asked, looking concerned.

  “More trouble with Orlie during school, and then I fell on the way home and skinned my knees.” Rachel motioned to the overturned pot. “I’ll change out of my school clothes and clean up this mess as soon as I’ve put some bandages on my knees.”

  “Would you like me to take a look at your knees?” Mom asked with a worried frown.

  Rachel shook her head. “They’re not so bad. I’ll be all right.” Rachel hurried up the stairs before her mother could ask any more questions. She figured if Mom knew the details of her horrible day, she would give her a lecture, and Rachel might even be given more chores to do.

  By the time Rachel had bandaged her sore knees, changed out of her school clothes, and cleaned up the mess Cuddles had made on the porch, she was exhausted. Mom said Rachel could play until it was time to start supper, but Rachel was too tired to play. She decided to sit on the porch and blow bubbles with the metal wand Pap had given her for her birthday.

  “At least nobody gave me a crumbly old cake that stuck to the pan and looked like it should have been fed to the sei [hogs],” Rachel grumbled, as she stared at the pan of soapy water sitting beside her on the porch.

  “What was that about hogs?”

  Rachel looked up and saw an elderly Amish man walking across the grass, carrying a black suitcase. He wore dark trousers held up by suspenders, a light blue shirt, and a straw hat. He walked with a slight limp, and his hair and beard were mostly gray.

  He lifted his hand and waved. “Wie geht’s—how are you?”

  Rachel squinted against the glare of the sun as she stared at him.

  The man stepped onto the porch and grinned at her. “Don’t you know who I am, Rachel?”

  “Grandpa Schrock?”

  He nodded and sat beside her on the step. “Surprised to see me, are you?”

  “Oh, jah. We didn’t expect you’d be making the trip from Ohio until it was almost time for Esther’s wedding.”

  “Thought I’d come to Pennsylvania a little sooner and surprise you.” Grandpa patted Rachel’s arm. “That will give me more time to spend with you and the family.”

  Rachel nodded. Grandpa Schrock’s last visit had been a lot of fun. Rachel had been two years younger then, but she could still remember Grandpa sitting on the porch swing, sharing his bag of peanuts as he told her stories. Since he’d arrived almost a month before Esther’s wedding, she figured they would have lots of time to do fun things together.

  Mom stepped onto the porch with a curious look on her face. “I thought I heard voices, but I figured your daed and Henry were still in the fields, so—”

  Grandpa turned toward her, and Mom’s face broke into a huge smile. “Oh, Papa, what a surprise! Where did you come from?”

  “Ohio. Where do you think?” he asked with a deep chuckle.

  “Ach, you’re such a tease.” Mom and Grandpa hugged each other. Then Mom reached under her glasses to wipe away her tears. “We didn’t expect you until the end of October, since Esther isn’t getting married until the first Thursday of November.”

  “I decided to come early and surprise you. When my bus pulled into the station in Lancaster, I spotted one of your English neighbors and asked him to give me a ride over here.” He hugged her again. “Are you glad to see me, daughter?”

  Mom nodded. “Oh, jah, I’m always glad to see my daed.”

  Seeing the joy on her mother’s face and knowing Grandpa would be with them for a whole month made Rachel smile, too. Maybe today wasn’t such a bad Mondaag after all.

  Chapter 7

  More Surprises

  For a little girl whose sister is getting married in a few days, you sure look sad,” Grandpa said as he sat beside Rachel at the breakfast table one morning in late October. “Are you going to miss your big sister when she moves out of the house?”

  Rachel glanced at Esther, who sat across from her. “I will miss my sister, but I’ll miss you, too, Grandpa.” For several days, Rachel had been thinking about the day Grandpa would return to Ohio, and how she wished he didn’t have to go.

  Grandpa’s bushy, gray eyebrows lifted as he glanced at Pap and Mom. “Didn’t either of you tell her my surprise?”

  Mom shook her head. “We figured we should let you do the telling.”

  “Tell me what, Grandpa?” Rachel asked, leaning closer to him. “What surprise do you have?”

  “I won’t return to Ohio after Esther and Rudy’s wedding.”

  Rachel’s mouth dropped open. “You won’t?”

  “Nope. Your folks have invited me to live here. If you have no objections, I’ll stay here for good.”

  Rachel thought this was such a wonderful surprise that she could hardly stay in her seat! Over the last few weeks, she and Grandpa had only spent a little time together. Now, with him staying permanently, they would have plenty of time together. They could do so many fun things—blow bubbles with Rachel’s new wand, drive to the pond in one of Pap’s buggies, take long walks to the stream, and tease Cuddles with string. Even having to put up with Orlie wouldn’t seem as bad, because every day after school Grandpa would be waiting for Rachel at home.

  Rachel reached over and took Grandpa’s hand. “I’m real glad you’re staying.”

  He grinned and squeezed her fingers. “Jah, me, too.” When Rachel arrived at school that morning, she received yet another surprise. A plump, red apple sat in the middle of her desk. She picked it up and turned to Mary. “Did you bring me this?”

  Mary shook her head. “It was there when I came into the room.”

  Rachel opened the lid on her desk and placed the apple inside. She figured she would eat it at lunchtime.

  Sometime later, Teacher Elizabeth announced that it was time for lunch, and Rachel hurried to get her lunchbox. Since it was raining outside, everyone sat at their desks to eat their lunches.

  As the rain beat against the schoolhouse windows, Rachel ate her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, followed by two chunky chocolate chip cookies. She washed them down with her thermos of milk. She was about to put her lunchbox away, when she remembered the plump red apple.

  Rachel pulled the apple out of her desk and savored the first bite. Umm … this is so sweet and juicy.

  “How’s that apple taste?” Orlie asked, tapping Rachel on the shoulder.

  She turned around. “It’s good.”

  He grinned at her and blinked a couple of times. “I picked it from one of our apple trees this morning.”

  Rachel’s mouth dropped open. A stream of apple juice dribbled down her chin. “You—you put the apple on my desk?”

  “That’s right. I put it on your desk early this morning, before you got to school.”

  “Why?”

  “I wanted to surprise you.”

  Rachel was surprised, all right. Especially since Orlie hadn’t said a word to her for several weeks. She hadn’t spoken to him either. In fact, ever since the day Rachel and Orlie had
written those fiction stories about each other, neither had said more than a few words to one another. It was better that way, Rachel decided—better for her, at least.

  Rachel stared at the tasty apple. She’d never expected to get anything from Orlie—at least nothing nice. Maybe he was tired of making her life miserable and had decided to make amends. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad fellow after all.

  “Danki,” she murmured.

  “You’re welcome.” Orlie leaned forward a bit, and Rachel leaned backward—in case his mother had given him some garlic to eat again this morning. “I hear that your sister’s gettin’ married soon,” he said.

  “That’s right. This Thursday.”

  He grinned. “Guess I’ll see you there, ‘cause my family and I have been invited to the wedding.”

  A sense of dread crept up Rachel’s spine. Then she looked at the apple in her hand and decided having Orlie at the wedding might not be so bad. At least he was being nice now. It wasn’t like she’d have to hang around him all day. Crunch. She took another bite of the apple. It sure was tasty.

  Rachel bit into it again, only this time she felt something rubbery and slimy touch her lips. She wrinkled her nose and spit the piece of apple into her hand. “That is so ekelhaft!”

  “What’s so disgusting?”

  “This!” Rachel’s hand shook as she held it out so Orlie could see what she had almost eaten.

  Orlie’s eyebrows arched upwards. “Ach, there was a little critter in that apple.”

  Rachel gritted her teeth. “You gave me a wormy apple on purpose, didn’t you?”

  He shook his head. “How could I know a worm was inside?”

  Rachel turned the apple over and studied it closely. Sure enough, she saw a small wormhole near the stem. How could she have been so stupid? She should have looked the apple over thoroughly before taking a bite. She should have known Orlie wouldn’t have given her anything nice. He’d probably given her the wormy apple just to be mean.

  She plunked the apple on Orlie’s desk. “You are uninvited to Esther’s wedding!”

  He looked stunned. “Why?”

  “Anyone who would give someone a wormy apple shouldn’t be allowed to attend anyone’s wedding.”

  “But, but … I—I didn’t know….”

  “Humph! And I suppose you didn’t know who you were writing about when you wrote that goofy story about Rosie the Raccoon?”

  Orlie shrugged. “Knew it about as well as you knew who Otis the Horse was supposed to be.”

  Rachel whirled around and closed her lunchbox with a snap. Learning that Grandpa would be staying in Pennsylvania had been a good morning surprise. But receiving a wormy apple and hearing that Orlie planned to attend Esther’s wedding were two afternoon surprises she could have done without!

  As Rachel climbed out of bed on Thursday morning, excitement filled her soul. She’d spent several days helping Mom and Esther clean the house for Esther’s wedding. Yesterday, many of their Amish friends had come to help, too. It had been a lot of work, but the house was now spotless, and everything was ready for the wedding.

  Rachel skipped across the room in her bare feet, smiling. She wouldn’t have to go to school today. All of the children who’d been invited to the wedding would also be excused. Not Orlie, though. He’d be sitting at his desk with plenty of work to do, because Rachel had uninvited him to her sister’s wedding after he’d given her that wormy apple.

  “It serves him right for being so mean,” she muttered as she pulled her bottom dresser drawer open. Orlie needed to be taught a lesson, and Rachel hoped by missing Esther’s wedding, he might learn that he couldn’t go around teasing all the time without suffering the consequences of his actions.

  Rachel picked up the small package wrapped in white tissue paper that she’d placed in her drawer. Then she tiptoed across the hall to Esther’s bedroom.

  “Come in,” Esther called when Rachel knocked on the door.

  Rachel stepped into the room and spotted Esther standing by her window. “Guder mariye, bride-to-be.”

  Esther turned to face Rachel. “Good morning. What do you have in your hands?”

  “It’s a wedding present for you,” Rachel said, handing the package to her sister. “I made it myself.”

  Esther placed the gift on the bed, removed the wrapping, and lifted out a white hankie with a lacy edge. In one corner, Rachel had embroidered the letters E.K.—which would be Esther’s initials after she married Rudy King.

  “What a nice surprise,” Esther said, hugging Rachel. “Danki so much.”

  “You’re welcome.” Rachel was pleased that her sister liked the gift. It had been a labor of love, since Rachel didn’t like to sew much.

  Esther motioned toward her door. “I guess we’d better go help Mom with breakfast now. Today’s my big day, and I wouldn’t want to be late for my own wedding.”

  Rachel giggled and followed her sister.

  Downstairs, Mom scurried around the kitchen with a spatula in her hand. She halted and gave Esther a kiss on the cheek. “How’s the bride feeling on this fine fall morning?”

  Esther smiled, her cheeks turning pink as a rose. “I’m a bit naerfich [nervous], so you’d better give me something to do that will help settle my nerves.”

  Mom nudged Esther toward the table. “While I cook some oatmeal, you can help Rachel set the table.”

  “Okay, Mom.” Esther’s hands shook as she pulled paper napkins out of the basket in the center of the table.

  “Why are you so nervous, sister?” Rachel asked. “You’re shaking like a maple tree on a windy day.”

  “I’m nervous about marrying Rudy today.”

  “Then don’t get married. Stay here with us.”

  “I love Rudy and want to marry him.” Esther smiled. “Guess I’m really more excited than nervous.”

  “Every bride has a right to be nervous on her wedding day,” Mom put in.

  Rachel watched Esther place the napkins around the table, where each family member would sit. “I still don’t see why Esther wants to get married,” she said as she set spoons and knives on top of each napkin. “I’m never getting married … not ever!”

  Mom chuckled. “You’ll change your mind someday. Just wait and see.”

  At eight thirty sharp, more than one hundred guests filled the house to witness the marriage of Esther Yoder and Rudy King. Men and women sat on backless wooden benches in separate sections of the room, just as they did during their regular church services. After everyone was seated, Rudy’s brother-in-law, Michael, announced the first song from the hymnbook called the Ausbund. On the third line of the song, the ministers stood and left the room. Rachel knew they were going upstairs to a room that had been prepared for them on the second floor. Rudy and Esther followed so they could receive counsel and words of encouragement before the ceremony. While they sang the second song, Rachel saw Orlie Troyer sitting across the room with some other boys.

  She clenched her fingers into tight little balls in her lap. What’s he doing here? I told Orlie he was uninvited to Esther’s wedding.

  Rachel spotted Orlie’s mother sitting on the women’s side, with Orlie’s little sisters, Becky and Malinda. On the men’s side, Orlie’s father sat with Orlie’s older brothers, Isaac, Jonas, and James, who were in their teens and had already finished school.

  She sighed. I guess if Orlie’s family came today, they would expect him to be here, too. He probably never even told his folks I said he couldn’t come. Sure hope he doesn’t do anything to ruin my sister’s wedding.

  Rachel’s attention was drawn to the front of the room again when Esther and Rudy returned to their seats. The ministers entered a short time later, and Herman Lapp, one of the ministers, delivered the first sermon. Then came a time of silent prayer before the longer sermon, given by Bishop Wagler.

  Rachel fidgeted on her bench. She wondered how much longer the ceremony would last. She thought about what she would say to Orlie after the wedding
service.

  When the bishop finally finished his sermon, he cleared his throat and said, “We have two people who have agreed to enter the state of matrimony, Rudy King and Esther Yoder.” He paused and looked at the congregation. “If any here has objection, he now has the opportunity to make it known.”

  The room was so quiet Rachel thought she could have heard a feather fall to the floor. Surely no one would try and stop Esther and Rudy from getting married.

  Bishop Wagler had just opened his mouth to speak again, when a streak of gray and white darted across the room.

  Rachel gasped. “Oh, no … it’s Cuddles, and she’s after a maus!”

  The cat zipped this way and that, swatting her paw every time she came near the mouse. The mouse zoomed under a bench on the men’s side of the room. Grandpa reached down, trying to catch it in his hands. Zip! Zip! The mouse darted away, escaping not only Grandpa, but every other man who tried to capture it. Walter Troyer, Orlie’s father, tried to stomp the poor mouse with his boot, but the tiny critter escaped to the women’s side of the room.

  “Ach, get away from me!” Anna Miller shouted, as the mouse ran across her shoes. Anna and the ladies near her screamed and jumped onto their bench.

  Cuddles leaped into the air and landed in Sarah King’s lap. The elderly woman, who was Rudy’s grandmother, turned white as snow and nearly fainted. Rachel’s mother reached over to steady the poor woman.

  “Everyone, please calm down!” Bishop Wagler shouted over the high-pitched screams. “Please take your seats and let the wedding continue.”

  Rachel knew the wedding couldn’t continue until either the cat or the mouse had been caught. She did the only thing she could think to do—she jumped off her bench and chased after Cuddles. Round the room they went—the mouse going one way, the cat following, and Rachel right on its tail. Several men shouted directions.

  Suddenly Orlie joined the chase. He dove for the mouse but missed. The critter darted right up Deacon Byler’s leg.

  Rachel gasped and grabbed her kitten as it scooted past. At least one problem was solved. She was about to haul Cuddles out the door when the mouse skittered up the deacon’s chest, pitter-patted across his shoulders, and darted down his other pant leg.