“I’m going out to the barn to groom my horse so he looks good when I take him to the young people’s singing on Sunday night.”
“Are you takin’ your aldi to the singing?” Mattie asked.
Ike tweaked the end of Mattie’s nose. “You’re not supposed to ask questions about my girlfriend, little sister.”
Mattie giggled. Mark rolled his eyes. Everyone else just smiled.
“Well, let’s get with it!” Dad clapped his hands. “If we don’t get busy now it’ll be time to go to bed, and then nobody will get any ice cream.”
Everyone hurried off to do their jobs, until a little later, when it was just about dark, Dad called them to the porch to take turns cranking the handle of the ice cream freezer. Mark and Mattie went first, because they weren’t as strong as their older brothers, and as the ice cream began to freeze up, it became harder to crank.
“Let’s go out in the yard and look at the stars,” Mark said to Mattie after they’d both taken their turns cranking the handle. He glanced toward the west, where the sun was below the horizon. All that was left of daylight was the faint orange glow of the beautiful sunset they’d seen just minutes earlier.
“Okay, let’s go.” Mattie hurried into the yard, and Mark followed.
“Look up there,” Mark said, pointing to the twinkling stars overhead. “See … there’s the Big Dipper!”
“And there’s the Little Dipper. I’ll bet there must be hundreds of stars,” Mattie said.
“Nope. There’s more than that.”
“Thousands?”
Mark shook his head. “There are about 100 billion stars in our galaxy.”
“Wow, that’s amazing! How do you know so much about the stars?”
“I read a book about them at the library. You could learn a lot if you read more, too.”
“The kind of books you read are boring,” Mattie said.
“No, they’re not.”
“Jah, they are.”
“No, they …”
“Mattie! Mark! Come inside now, the ice cream’s ready!” Mom called.
“First one to the porch gets the first taste of ice cream!” Mark hollered. The day might not have started out so good, but he was glad it had ended well. Maybe, just maybe, Dad would give in and let him lick the beaters. That is, if Mattie didn’t think to ask first.
CHAPTER 7
First Day of School
Mattie knelt on the grass in front of the pond and stared at her reflection. She noticed that her black head covering was on crooked, so she reached up to straighten it. When she glanced at the water again, her reflection was gone and another had taken its place. It was Mark looking back at her now. What was he doing at the pond? She thought she’d come here alone today.
Mattie turned, but there was no sign of Mark behind her. She looked back at the water and saw her own reflection again. Maybe she’d just imagined seeing Mark’s reflection.
Bzzz … Bzzz … A bee buzzed overhead. She swatted at it, and then quickly jerked her hand away, so she wouldn’t get stung.
“Everyone gets stung sometime,” she heard Grandpa say.
“No, no … Not me!”
Mattie stared into the water and gasped when she saw Mark’s reflection once more. What was going on? Was he playing another one of his silly tricks on her?
She whirled around quickly, thinking she’d catch him this time, but Mark wasn’t there—only the buzzing bee overhead. Bzzz … Bzzz … Bzzz … The buzzing kept on.
Mattie scrambled to her feet and tried to run, but she couldn’t move. Her feet felt like they were stuck in a bucket of cement.
“Help me! Help me!” she cried. “I can’t move, and there’s a bee after me!”
“Mattie …” Someone was calling to her, but their voice sounded far away.
Mark, is that you? Mattie tried to speak, but she couldn’t seem to get the words out of her mouth. All she could do was moan.
Someone touched Mattie’s arm and gave it a shake. “Mattie, wake up.”
Feeling as if she were being pulled from a fog, Mattie opened one eye, and then the other. Mark stared down at her with a peculiar look on his face. “It’s time to get up,” he said. “Didn’t you hear your alarm clock buzzing? I could hear it clear out in the hall.”
Mattie rolled over and hit the button on the clock by her bed. “Oh, the buzzing I heard must have been in my dream,” she murmured. “I—I thought it was a bee.”
“Huh? What were you dreaming about?”
“I was dreaming that I saw my reflection in the pond, and then I saw … Oh, never mind.” Mattie figured if she told Mark about her dream, he’d probably think it was weird and tease her again.
“Hurry up and get out of bed,” Mark said. “We start back to school today. Did you forget?”
Mattie groaned and pulled the covers over her head. “No, but I wish I could.”
“What was that?”
She lowered the covers just a bit. “Nothing. Go on downstairs, and tell Mom I’ll be there as soon as I get dressed.”
“Okay.” Mark practically skipped out of the room. He looked excited this morning. He was probably glad they were going to school. Well, Mattie wasn’t glad. She always dreaded the first day of school and wished she could think of some way to get out of going. She realized, though, that if she didn’t go to school today, then tomorrow would be her first day of school. So she might as well get up, get ready, and get this day over with—unless she could convince Mom to let her stay home. Maybe she wouldn’t have to go to school any days this week.
When Mattie entered the kitchen a short time later, she found Mom standing in front of the counter, putting sandwiches in everyone’s lunch boxes.
“Guder mariye, schlofkopp,” Mom said, looking over her shoulder at Mattie.
“Good morning,” Mattie mumbled, slouching against the table. She really felt like a sleepyhead.
“What’s wrong? Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?” Mom asked.
“No, I … uh … think I need to stay home from school today—and maybe all week.”
Mom’s eyebrows shot up. “What’s wrong, Mattie? Are you grank?”
Mattie didn’t want to lie and say she was sick, but she had to do something to keep from going to school. “I’m … uh … feeling a little under the weather.” She’d heard Grandpa Troyer say that when he wasn’t feeling his best. Maybe by saying that now, it would be enough for Mom to let her stay home today.
Mom stopped what she was doing, hurried over to Mattie, and touched her forehead. “You don’t seem to have a fever. Open your mouth and let me take a look at your throat.”
Mattie did as Mom asked. This wasn’t working out so well. She was sure there was nothing wrong with her throat, and Mom would know that just as soon as she looked.
“I don’t see any unusual redness,” Mom said. “Does your stomach hurt?”
Mattie shook her head. “Uh … no, not really, but …”
“Then I don’t think you’re sick.” Mom gave Mattie’s shoulder a little squeeze. “Now hurry and set the table so we can eat.” She looked over at Mark, who stood near the sink smiling from ear to ear. He obviously knew Mattie had been trying to get out of going to school. Mom probably did, too.
“Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m hungerich,” Mark said. “And the sooner we eat, the sooner we can leave for school.”
“Jah, I can hardly wait,” Mattie mumbled under her breath.
Mom pointed at Mark’s feet. “How come you’re wearing two different shoes this morning?”
Mark’s face turned red as a radish as he stared down at his feet. “Oh, I … uh … guess I was so excited to get dressed and head for school that I wasn’t paying attention to which shoes I was putting on my feet.”
Mattie stifled a giggle. On one foot Mark wore a black sneaker. On the other foot he wore one of his black dress shoes. How in the world could he not have known what he was doing? Mark must have been really mixe
d up this morning.
Mom chuckled and patted Mark’s shoulder. “Well, hurry upstairs and exchange your dress shoe with your other sneaker so we can eat. I hear your daed and the older boys coming up the back steps now, so I’m sure they’ll expect breakfast to be on the table.”
“I’m going right now.” Mark hurried from the room and Mattie began setting the table. It was obvious that she wasn’t going to get out of attending school today. All she could do was grin and bear it.
As Mark and Mattie headed to school that morning, Mark felt like singing and kicking up his heels. Instead, he just swung his lunch pail back and forth as he hurried up the dirt path. He was excited about going to school because he enjoyed learning new things. He especially liked learning new words. Of course, sometimes he used big, long words that even his teacher didn’t understand. And whether he’d either heard them from Grandpa Miller or found them in the dictionary, he always made sure he knew what they meant before he tried using them in a sentence.
“What are you thinking about?” Mattie asked, bumping Mark’s arm.
“School.”
“Me, too. Sure wish I was older and had already graduated from the eighth grade.” Mattie looked at Calvin and Russell riding their bikes up ahead. They’d both saved up some of the money they’d earned selling produce at their roadside stand this summer and had bought their own bikes. That’s why they got to ride to school and Mark and Mattie had to walk. “This is Russell’s last year at school, and Calvin only has two more years after this one,” she said.
“That’s right, and we won’t be far behind them.” Mark smiled. “So we need to study hard and learn all we can.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You’re so schmaert, and you always get good grades.”
“You’d be smart, too, if you’d quit daydreaming so much and start paying attention to what the teacher says.”
“I do pay attention. I just can’t remember well.”
“You’d remember more if you didn’t think about other things all the time.”
“I can’t help it,” she said. “Things just seem to pop into my head.”
“Well, remember this—you’re ‘unequalled,’ so you can do anything you want to do.”
Mattie said nothing, so Mark shrugged his shoulders and kept walking toward the schoolhouse. His legs couldn’t seem to move fast enough, he was so eager to get there. He didn’t understand Mattie’s daydreaming, and didn’t think he’d ever figure her out. Sometimes he wished he had a twin brother instead of a dreamy-eyed sister who was nothing like him at all. But then if they were just alike, that would probably be boring.
When Mark and Mattie entered the schoolyard, Mattie spotted Stella talking with a group of girls over by the swings, so she decided to join them while Mark went to visit with some of the boys.
Even though Mattie didn’t like all the schoolwork she knew she’d have to do, she did enjoy getting to see all her friends. It was fun to talk about the things they’d done over the summer months. Some, like Becky Yoder, had gone on a trip to visit family who lived in another state. Mattie wished she had relatives living somewhere other than Ohio. It would be fun to ride the bus or train and visit somewhere she hadn’t been before. But at least they got to ride in their driver’s van whenever they visited Grandpa and Grandma Troyer in Burton. That was better than staying home all the time.
Mattie said hello to Stella and the other girls, and then someone suggested they take turns pushing some of the younger ones on the swings. Mattie didn’t want to do that, so she picked some pretty flowers growing in the field next to the schoolhouse to give to their teacher, Anna Ruth. She’d only picked a few flowers when the school bell rang.
Mattie sighed and shuffled into the schoolhouse behind the other children. Like it or not, her school day was about to begin.
When Mattie and the others entered the schoolhouse, the boys jostled one another as they hung their straw hats on some hooks on the wall, and then put their lunch boxes away on a bench at the back of the room. On the girls’ side of the room things were a little quieter, as they found places for their lunch boxes as well. Then Mattie hurried to the front of the room, where the teacher’s desk sat in the corner, and gave her the flowers she’d picked.
“Why, thank you, Mattie. These are lovely, and it was nice of you to think of me.” When Anna Ruth smiled, the whole room seemed to light up. She had light brown hair, hazel-colored eyes, and a pretty face. Mattie was surprised the twenty-year-old schoolteacher wasn’t married yet. In fact, as far as she knew, Anna Ruth didn’t even have a boyfriend. Maybe she, like Mattie, didn’t plan to get married. Or maybe she just hadn’t found the right fellow yet.
“I’m glad you like the flowers, and you’re welcome,” Mattie said before taking her seat. Maybe she would do better in school this year if she stayed on the good side of their teacher.
“Good morning, boys and girls,” Anna Ruth said after the scholars had all taken their seats.
“Good morning, Anna Ruth,” the children replied.
Next, the teacher read a verse of scripture from the Bible. “‘If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God.’ James 1:5.”
Mattie felt like hiding under her desk. Had Anna Ruth chosen that verse to read this morning because she knew Mattie wasn’t smart? Well, why wouldn’t she know it? Mattie had struggled in school last year, and unless God gave her a good dose of wisdom soon, she’d probably struggle this year, too.
Dear God, she silently prayed, help me to be smart like Mark.
Next, it was time to stand with the others and recite the Lord’s Prayer. When that was done, everyone filed to the front of the room to sing a few songs. The first song they sang was called, “Sing Little Children, Sing,” but Mattie had a hard time concentrating on the words. It was easier to look out the window, where a stream of light filtered through and drifted across the light-colored walls and dark wooden floor. She spotted a big old horsefly on the window, buzzing angrily and trying to find its way out. She was tempted to leave her place and open the window so the fly could escape, but figured she’d be in trouble with the teacher if she did that. Well, at least that old fly hadn’t gotten trapped on the flypaper hanging from the wall in one corner of the room. Maybe when the door was opened at recess the fly would find its way outside to freedom.
Glancing out the window next to it, Mattie noticed a herd of black-and-white cows grazing and swishing their tails in the pasture across the way. Out another window on the other side of the room, she saw a field of dreary-looking dried cornstalks. Summer was almost over; there was no doubt about it. Soon the warm days of August would turn cool, and autumn would swoop right in. Mattie dreaded walking to school when the weather was cold or rainy. One more reason she hoped for a new bike that would get her to and from school a lot quicker than walking.
Mattie’s mind snapped to attention when Stella poked her arm and whispered, “It’s time to take our seats again.”
Mattie shuffled back to her desk and sat down, dreading the arithmetic lesson she knew would be coming next. Later in the day, they would study reading and spelling. Mattie wasn’t looking forward to those subjects either. She glanced up at the sign on the wall above the teacher’s desk: You Are Responsible for You. It was a reminder that she needed to study harder to get good grades, but sometimes her thoughts took her in other directions.
As the morning wore on, Mattie’s stomach began to rumble. She glanced at the battery-operated clock on the wall and smiled when she saw that it was almost time for lunch.
After lunch, some of the older students got a game of baseball going. Mark didn’t want to play, but after his friend John Schrock, who was Stella’s cousin, kept pestering him about it, he finally agreed.
“It’ll be fun,” John said, as he and Mark waited to take their turn up to bat.
“We’ll see about that,” Mark muttered. It might be fun for those who could play well, but he didn’t like baseball and had never been able to play the game
without messing up. Mattie, on the other hand, played baseball as well as any of the boys. Everyone wanted Mattie on their team. In fact, when it was her turn to bat, he could see the look of happiness on her face. If Mattie did even half as well in school as she did on the ball field, she’d be an excellent student.
The first ball that was pitched came right over home plate. Mattie swung and—crack!—the bat hit the ball with such force that it sailed right over the pitcher’s head and landed in the neighbor’s field of drying corn.
Everyone cheered as Mattie ran around all the bases and made a home run. Russell and Calvin even whistled real loud.
“Good going!” Stella patted Mattie on the back. “I’m sure glad you’re on our team.”
“Danki,” Mattie said with a grin. Her cheeks were rosy, and her blue eyes sparkled like twinkling fireflies on a hot summer night. It was obvious that she enjoyed playing ball very much.
Mark was glad his twin sister had made a home run, but oh, how he wished he could play as well as she did. Mattie made that home run look as easy as pie. It just wasn’t right that a girl could play better than her brother.
John was up to bat next, and he hit a ball that took him to second base.
Then it was Aaron Stutzman’s turn. He hit the ball on the second swing, and it took him to first base, while John ran quickly and made it to third base.
“It’s your turn now,” Mattie said, smiling at Mark. Did she know how nervous he felt?
Mark’s palms grew sweaty as he stepped up to home plate and grabbed the wooden bat. Then, squinting against the glare of the sun, he positioned the bat over his shoulder.
The first pitch flew past Mark and hit the fence.
“Strike one!” someone hollered.
The catcher quickly recovered the ball and threw it back to the pitcher.
The pitcher threw the ball again, and when it blurred toward home plate, Mark swung with all his might. But he missed the ball, lost his balance, and fell on his back with a groan.
The girls gasped, and several of the boys laughed. Mark wasn’t hurt, but he sure was embarrassed. He couldn’t believe what had just happened to him.
What a Pair! Page 6