“Why are you moving to Indiana?” Mom asked.
“As I’m sure you all know,” Uncle Ben looked at Aunt Irma, “my wife’s bruder, Noah, and his family moved there last year, and Noah bought a dairy farm.”
Everyone nodded.
Uncle Ben smiled. “Noah’s dairy business is doing real well, and he asked me to move to Indiana and be his partner.”
“But you started working at the buggy shop not long ago,” Henry said. “Why would you want to quit your new job and move to Indiana?”
“I like my job at the buggy shop, but as I’m sure you know, your daed [dad] and I grew up on a dairy farm. I’m sure I’ll enjoy working with the cows on Noah’s farm even more,” Uncle Ben replied.
Hearing that Mary and her family would be leaving was the worst possible news! Rachel bit off the end of her thumbnail and spit it on the ground. She’d been trying to give up her nervous habit of nail biting, but it was hard not to feel anxious about her best friend moving away. “Can’t you start a dairy farm right here?” she asked.
“Our place here is too small for that,” Uncle Ben said.
“Can’t you buy more land?” Rachel asked.
Uncle Ben shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Land here in Lancaster County is getting too expensive, and there’s not a lot of land available to buy anymore.”
Rachel looked up at Aunt Irma with tears blurring her vision. “Can’t Mary stay with us?”
Aunt Irma shook her head. “We could never leave any of our kinner [children] here. They will come to Indiana with us.”
Grandpa, who stood beside Rachel, patted the top of her head. “If your folks moved somewhere else, wouldn’t you want to go with them?”
Rachel looked at Mom, Pap, Jacob, Henry, and Grandpa. As much as she liked her home here, she knew if Mom and Pap decided to move, she’d want to go with them. “Jah [yes],” she said in a near whisper, “I’d want to move, too.”
“What about Grandpa and Grandma Yoder?” Jacob asked. “Who’s gonna look after them if you move away?”
Uncle Ben looked over at Pap. “As you know, our sister, Karen, and her husband, Amos, have been renting a place in Tennessee.”
Pap nodded.
“Amos and Karen have decided to move to Pennsylvania and buy our house. That means they’ll be living next door to our folks, same as we have been for the past twelve years.”
Rachel swallowed around the lump in her throat. She didn’t like the idea of someone else living in Uncle Ben and Aunt Irma’s house—especially someone she didn’t know very well. She’d only seen Uncle Amos and Aunt Karen a few times, and the last time she’d seen them she was seven years old. Aunt Karen had given birth to a baby boy named Gerald three years ago, but Rachel hadn’t met him yet. If only I could do something to keep Mary’s family from moving, she thought.
“When do you plan to move?” Pap asked Uncle Ben.
“Two weeks from today.”
“Two weeks?” Rachel’s mouth fell open.
“Why so soon?” Mom asked.
“Noah just bought fifty more cows, and now he’s busier than ever,” Uncle Ben replied. “He needs me there as soon as possible.”
“Let us know when you’re ready to start packing,” Pap said. “We’ll be there to help.”
With tears clinging to her eyelashes, Rachel turned to Mary and gave her a hug. “I’m going to miss you so much!”
The day before Mary’s family was supposed to move, Mary came over to Rachel’s to spend the night.
“I can’t believe this is the last time we’ll ever have a sleepover,” Rachel said as the girls climbed the steps to her room.
Mary clasped Rachel’s hand. “Don’t say that. We’ll have more sleepovers. My family will come back to Pennsylvania to visit, and your family can come see our new home in Indiana.”
Rachel shook her head as tears gathered in her eyes. “It won’t be the same. We won’t be best friends anymore.”
“We’ll always be best friends,” Mary said. “My moving away won’t change that.”
When they entered Rachel’s room, Rachel flopped onto her bed with a groan. “I wish you didn’t have to go. Can’t you talk your folks out of moving?”
“Papa has already made up his mind.” Mary set her overnight bag on the floor and joined Rachel on the bed. “Besides, the house we’ve lived in since before I was a baby won’t be ours after Saturday. Uncle Amos and Aunt Karen are moving from Tennessee soon, and then they’ll be living in our old house.”
“I know.” Rachel sniffed. “I just wish things could stay the same as they are right now.” She touched Mary’s hand. “I’m going to miss you so much, and I–I’m afraid you’ll forget about me.”
“Never!” Mary reached down and opened the canvas satchel she’d brought along. “I have something for you.” She handed Rachel a little faceless doll with brown hair just like Mary’s. “I asked my mamm [mom] if I could give you my doll so you would have something to remember me by.”
Rachel hugged the doll close to her chest. “Danki [thank you], Mary. I’ll think of you every time I play with this doll.” She hopped off the bed and hurried across the room. “I have something to give you, too.”
“What is it?”
Rachel opened the bottom drawer of her dresser and took out a rock she’d painted to look like a ladybug. “I signed my name on the bottom,” she said, handing the rock to Mary. “That way you won’t forget who gave it to you.”
“I’ll never forget you, Rachel. Thank you.”
“I wish you could have brought Stripes over tonight, so he could say good-bye to Cuddles,” Rachel said as she and Mary put their nightgowns on and got ready for bed.
“Mama didn’t think it was a good idea,” Mary said. “Stripes isn’t good about staying in the yard, and if I’d brought him over to play with Cuddles, he could’ve run off. Since Mama and Papa are busy packing our things, they wouldn’t want to be bothered with having to hunt for my cat.”
“Maybe I can bring Cuddles over to your house to say good-bye,” Rachel said as they crawled into bed. “I can’t believe you’re moving tomorrow.”
Mary nodded and fluffed up her pillow.
Rachel stared at the ceiling. Even if they stayed awake all night there wouldn’t be enough time to say all the things she wanted to say to Mary. Writing letters and a visit once in a while wouldn’t be the same as spending the night at one another’s house, playing in the haylofts in their barns, or eating lunch at school together. Tears trickled down Rachel’s cheeks. After Mary moved away, nothing would ever be the same.
“Can you please open the window, Rachel?” Mary asked. “It’s kind of stuffy in here.”
“I suppose I could, but I have to be careful not to let Cuddles in. Mom doesn’t like it when Cuddles sneaks into my room and gets up on the bed.”
“We could just open it enough so some fresh air gets in.”
Rachel pushed the covers aside, turned on the flashlight by her bed, and padded across the room. She’d no more than opened the window, when—meow!—Cuddles leaped from the tree right into her arms.
“Oh no!” Rachel exclaimed.
“Is that Cuddles?” Mary asked as she sat up in bed.
“Jah. She must have been sitting in the tree hoping I would open the window.”
“Bring her over here so I can pet her.”
Rachel shook her head. “No, Mary … Mom doesn’t like me to have Cuddles on the bed. She has to go back outside.”
“Don’t put her out just yet. I’ll come over there so I can pet Cuddles.” Mary scrambled out of bed and hurried across the room.
Rachel handed the cat to Mary, and Cuddles purred loudly while Mary petted the top of her head. “She sure is soft and silky, isn’t she?”
“Jah, but she’d better go back out now.” Rachel opened the window wider, and was about to take the cat from Mary, when—flap! flap!—something flew into the room.
“What was that?” Mary squealed.
“I—I
don’t know. I think it might have been a bird.” Rachel shined her flashlight around the room. Woosh! Woosh! The creature flew so fast she could barely follow it with the light.
“It’s a schpeckmaus [bat]!” Mary dropped to the floor and dove under Rachel’s bed, with Cuddles still in her arms.
Woosh! Woosh! Rachel dropped to her knees and shined the light again. Sure enough, there was a little brown bat flying around her room. “Yeow!” Rachel hollered as it swooped past her head. She ducked lower and scurried under the bed to join Mary and Cuddles.
“Wh–what are we gonna do?” Mary’s voice quivered. “How are we gonna get that bat out of your room?”
“Let’s lie here real quiet. Maybe it’ll fly out the open window.” Rachel reached over and stroked Cuddles’s head for comfort.
“You don’t suppose it will fly under the bed and bite us, do you?”
“I don’t think so. Pap told me once that the bats we have around here aren’t dangerous.”
Mary giggled. “Then what are we doing under the bed?”
Rachel laughed, too. “Do you want to crawl out and see if the bat’s still there?”
“No way! Do you?”
“Nope.”
“Let’s close our eyes and go to sleep,” Mary suggested. “When we wake up in the morning, maybe the bat will be gone.”
Rachel didn’t think she would sleep very comfortably on the hard floor underneath the bed, but she wasn’t going to crawl out if Mary wasn’t. “Gut nacht [good night], Mary,” she said.
“Good night, Rachel.”
Cock-a-doodle-do! Cock-a-doodle-do!
Rachel groaned and released a noisy yawn. The rooster was crowing; it must be morning. Thwack!—she bumped her head as she tried to sit up. Then she remembered—she, Mary, and Cuddles had slept under her bed to get away from the bat that flew into her room last night.
Rachel glanced over at Mary, still asleep with Cuddles in her arms. “Wake up … it’s morning,” she whispered, nudging Mary’s arm.
Mary’s eyes snapped open. “Is—is the bat gone?”
“I don’t know. I don’t hear it flying around.” Rachel started to crawl out from under her bed when the bedroom door opened and Mom stepped in.
“What in the world are you doing, Rachel? And where is Mary?”
Before Rachel could respond, Mom knelt down and peered under the bed. “What are you two doing under there, and what’s Cuddles doing in your room?”
“It was stuffy in here last night,” Rachel explained. “Cuddles came in when I opened the window. Then a bat flew in, and Mary and I were kind of scared, so we slept under my bed.”
Mom’s forehead wrinkled, and Rachel thought for sure she was in for a lecture. But then Mom’s lips lifted into a smile and her eyes twinkled. “A bat got into my room once when I was a girl.”
“What did you do?” asked Rachel.
“I hid under the bed.” Mom held onto the bedpost and laughed so hard tears streamed down her cheeks. Rachel joined Mom’s laughter, and Mary crawled out from the under the bed and started laughing, too.
Finally Mom stopped laughing. She used the corner of her apron to dry her eyes, and she looked around the room. “There’s no sign of a bat in here now. It must have flown out the window.”
Rachel took Cuddles from Mary. “I’ll put her back in the tree.”
Mom nodded. “Then we need to hurry and eat breakfast so we can take Mary home. Today’s the big move, and we need to be there to help them pack.”
Rachel frowned. With all the laughter going on in her room, she’d almost forgotten that Mary would be moving today.
As if she could read her thoughts, Mom patted Rachel’s arm and said, “I’m glad you and Mary were able to spend the night together—even if you had to sleep under your bed.”
Rachel managed a weak smile. Maybe when they got to Uncle Ben and Aunt Irma’s house, she could talk them out of moving.
When Pap guided their horse and buggy onto Uncle Ben’s driveway, Rachel thought she was going to break down and sob. Two big moving trucks were parked near the barn. Several people rushed around the yard, hauling boxes and furniture out of the house and into the trucks. Pap halted the horse near the hitching rail, and Mom, Mary, Grandpa, and Rachel climbed down from the buggy. Henry pulled his horse and buggy in next to Pap’s, and he and Jacob climbed down from it, too.
“What can we do to help?” Pap called to Uncle Ben, who was carrying a large box out to the truck.
Uncle Ben motioned to the house with his head. “There are more boxes and furniture in there that need to be put in the trucks.”
For the next few hours everyone scurried about, loading the trucks, cleaning the house, and fixing snacks for those who had come to help. By noon the house was empty and both trucks were full and ready to go.
As Rachel and Mary walked through the house together, their footsteps and voices echoed in the bare rooms. There wasn’t a stick of furniture or anything else left to remind Rachel that this had been Mary and her family’s home. It didn’t look right to see everything gone. It wasn’t right for Mary to move to Indiana.
“Mary, Nancy, Abe, and Sam … it’s time for us to head out. Our drivers are ready to go,” Uncle Ben called.
A lump formed in Rachel’s throat as she looked at Mary. “I wish you didn’t have to go.”
“Me neither,” Mary said as tears filled her eyes.
Rachel rushed over to Uncle Ben and grabbed hold of his arm. “Won’t you change your mind and stay here in Pennsylvania?”
He slowly shook his head. “I’m sorry, Rachel, but our plans have been made and my bruder is expecting us to arrive at his place in a few days.”
Mom hugged Aunt Irma then turned to Rachel and said, “Say good-bye to your cousins.” She nodded at Jacob and Henry. “You boys need to say good-bye, too.”
Mary grabbed Rachel and gave her a hug. “I’ll write to you soon, I promise.”
Rachel could only nod in reply. Her throat felt like it was clogged with a glob of peanut butter. No matter how much she wanted, she knew she wasn’t in control of this situation. She’d learned that lesson all too well when she broke her arm a few months ago.
“We’ll try to visit you soon after our boppli [baby] is born,” Pap said as Mary’s family climbed into the trucks with their drivers.
“We’ll look forward to that,” Aunt Irma called.
As the trucks pulled out of the driveway, Rachel thought her heart was breaking in two. She wasn’t sure if she would ever see Mary again.
“You and Mary can still be friends even though you won’t see each other as often as before,” Mom said gently. “But you’re a friendly girl, and I’m sure it won’t be long until you make another best friend.” She placed her hand on Rachel’s slumped shoulder. “There’s a little song I learned about friendship when I was a girl. Would you like me to sing it to you?”
“I guess so.”
“Make new friends but keep the old,” Mom sang in a clear voice. “One is silver the other is gold.”
Rachel sniffed. “I—I don’t want a new friend. I just want my best friend, Mary!”
Chapter 2
Verhuddelt
As Rachel walked behind Jacob on their way to school Monday morning, her heart ached. With each step she took she felt more and more depressed. Mary had moved on Saturday. Their house was empty, their barn was empty, and even Mary’s desk would be empty—forever.
Rachel kicked a rock with the toe of her sneaker. “It’s Uncle Ben’s fault,” she mumbled under her breath. “He shouldn’t have taken Mary away.”
Jacob nudged Rachel’s arm. “Was fehlt dir denn? [What’s the matter with you?] What are you gemmummelt [mumbling] about?”
“I wasn’t mumbling.”
“Jah, you were.”
“I was just thinking about Mary moving and how much I’m going to miss her.”
“They said they’d come to visit,” Jacob reminded her. “And after Mom has the boppl
i, maybe we can make a trip to Indiana and visit them, too.”
“But it could be a long time before they come back here for a visit. Mom might not feel up to traveling with the baby for a long time, either.” Rachel swallowed hard, hoping she wouldn’t cry in front of Jacob. If she did, he would probably call her a little bensel [silly child].
“I’m going to miss everyone in Mary’s family, too,” Jacob said, “but I won’t go around all droopy because they’re gone.”
“I’m not droopy,” Rachel said, frowning.
“Jah, you are.”
Rachel clamped her mouth shut and hurried ahead, refusing to argue with Jacob anymore. They walked on in silence—Jacob whistling, Rachel kicking stones as she thought about how much she already missed Mary.
When they arrived at the schoolhouse, Rachel spotted Orlie down on his knees, staring at something in the grass. Curious as to what it might be, Rachel hurried over to Orlie.
“Look what I found!” he said excitedly.
“What is it?”
“It’s a painted ladybug rock. It must be the one you made for my birthday in February.” He grinned and held the rock out to her. “Now that it’s spring and the snow’s melted, it was easy to find the rock!”
“That’s nice.” Rachel had almost forgotten about the painted rock she’d made for Orlie’s birthday and had accidentally dropped in the snow.
“You don’t seem very excited about the rock. Isn’t it amazing that I found it?” Orlie asked.
She only shrugged in reply.
“What’s wrong? Why do you look so sad?”
The mysterious glob of peanut butter clogged Rachel’s throat again and she swallowed a couple of times. “Mary and her family moved to Indiana on Saturday.”
“I probably would have known that if we’d had church yesterday,” Orlie said.
Rachel nodded. The Amish church they belonged to had church every other Sunday, and they took turns having it in one another’s homes.
“How come Mary’s family moved to Indiana?” Orlie asked.
“Her daed’s going to help run a dairy farm.” Rachel frowned. “It won’t be the same with Mary gone.”
Look Out, Lancaster County Page 30