Aaron chuckled and turned his face away.
“What?” she said.
She could tell he was trying to wipe the smile off his face and couldn’t quite manage to look concerned or contrite. “You look like a mud toad. A blue mud toad.”
Suvie quit laughing long enough to grunt her indignation. Bending over, she scooped up a handful of mud and flicked it in Aaron’s direction. It hit him on the shoulder and one drop splashed onto his cheek. He half-growled, half-laughed, swiped the glob of mud from his face and smeared it down Suvie’s forearm. Then he quickly scooped up his own handful of mud and cocked his arm, ready to throw.
Suvie backed away, giggling uncontrollably. “Now, Aaron, don’t forget it’s your fault I’m wet. You should have let me drive the buggy.”
Aaron showed all his teeth when he smiled. They looked extra white next to the dark smear of mud down the side of his face. “That pretty blue dress needs some dots.”
She turned and ran a few steps away from him, when he released his ball of mud and it hit her in the back of the head. It was a pebble-size ball of mud and she barely felt it, but she couldn’t resist teasing him. She made a face and pressed her palm to the back of her head. “Ouch, Aaron. Ouch.”
She drew out the syllables convincingly enough that Aaron immediately came to her side. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. Did that hurt?”
Stifling a smile, she took the mud he’d just thrown at her, leaned close to him, and smeared it down his other cheek.
He growled and grabbed her wrist. “You’re tricky,” he said, but certainly didn’t seem too put out about it.
Where he touched her, her skin seemed to burn and tingle and melt all at the same time. Was that normal? Were the sudden heart somersaults and tightening of her throat normal too?
He stared at her with something akin to surprise on his face.
Nope. He didn’t think it was normal either, but he didn’t seem inclined to step away.
Suvie wasn’t a fussy type of girl, but if he looked at her like that much longer, she might faint. She slowly withdrew her wrist from his hand and squeezed some water out of her sleeve. It dribbled onto his boots.
“Ach,” he groaned. “I just bought these boots.”
They laughed until Suvie thought her ribs might explode. She hadn’t expected Aaron to be so much fun.
Suvie led Aaron’s horse out of the puddle while Aaron pushed the buggy from the back, soaking his already-damp boots.
“There’s a deep hole on one side here,” Aaron said. “It’s a gute thing Coke didn’t step in it. He might have broken his leg.”
“I’m happy I could sacrifice my blue dress to save Coke.”
Aaron smiled. “I used to really like that blue dress.”
Once the buggy was upright, Aaron walked around the perimeter of the puddle. Something caught his eye, and he called out. “Who is this little spy?”
All Suvie saw was a straw hat and a backside retreating as fast as they could go.
“Come back here,” Aaron called.
The little boy didn’t stop. He was scared out of his wits for sure and certain, even though Suvie couldn’t see that he’d done anything wrong.
“Toby Byler, I know where you live,” Aaron yelled. “Would you rather I come to your house and talk to your dat?”
Toby stumbled to a stop, slumped his shoulders, and turned around. He shoved his hands in his pockets and started back toward them.
Suvie drew her brows together. “Is he in trouble?”
Aaron surprised her by grinning. At least he wasn’t angry. “A boy running away that fast has been up to some sort of mischief. A guilty conscience puts wings on your feet.”
Toby Byler couldn’t have been more than seven years old. His dat trained horses and kept goats. His mamm had been just a year ahead of Suvie in school, and their family was in Suvie’s district. She saw them every other Sunday at gmay.
“Cum, Toby,” Aaron said, when Toby seemed content to keep about twenty feet back.
Toby gritted his teeth, hung his head, and took the last few brave and dreaded steps toward Aaron. He had adorable, chubby cheeks, long, dark eyelashes, and a tooth missing on top.
Aaron laid a hand on Toby’s shoulder and got down on one knee to look the little boy in the eye. “Toby,” he said, so gently it made Suvie’s heart melt. “Why were you hiding in the bushes?”
That was all it took to reduce Toby to crying. He screwed up his face as plump tears rolled down his cheeks. “They left me, and then I got scared and couldn’t run.”
“Who left you?”
Toby pressed his palm over his eye to rub the tears away. “Johnny and them. We was waiting for Reuben Schmucker.” Toby became more upset with every word. His nose began to run furiously.
Aaron pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to Toby. “Why were you waiting for Reuben Schmucker?”
Toby swiped the handkerchief across his face, leaving a very gooey trail of mucus along his cheek. Aaron took the handkerchief from Toby and wiped up the mess.
“Reuben always brags about his fancy bike. Me and Johnny and them dug a hole under the water so Reuben would fall in and get his bike dirty. Nobody can see how deep it is because the water covers it.”
“You dug a hole?”
Toby nodded and sniffed. “With buckets and shovels and stuff. We finished right before you came. I didn’t mean for Suvie to get hurt.”
Suvie knelt beside Aaron and took Toby’s hand. “I know you didn’t. Don’t cry. I’m okay.”
Her compassion seemed to make Toby feel worse. He sobbed and pressed his fists to his eyes. “Johnny said Reuben was coming right now and nobody else. I didn’t want your horse to break his leg.”
“My horse is okay,” Aaron said, “but he might have been seriously hurt.”
Toby cried even louder. “But Reuben made me eat a worm,” he said, as if that explained everything.
Aaron gave Suvie a quick smile. She lost the ability to breathe.
Four other boys came tromping across the pasture. Johnny and them, as Toby had described his friends. They must have gathered up enough courage to own up to their own sins. Either that or they wanted to be sure Toby wasn’t tattling on them.
All of the boys were in Suvie’s gmayna. Johnny Wengerd and his brother Perry were Aaron’s closest neighbors. Max Zook had to be about the same age as Toby, and Jethro Glick was probably the oldest of the five, though no more than eleven or twelve. He lived with his grandparents and made deliveries in his pony cart for the Englischer at the gas station.
Aaron focused his gaze squarely on Johnny. “So you were trying to sink Reuben Schmucker’s bike?”
Johnny puckered his lips as if he’d just sucked on a lemon. “I told you Toby was a tattletale.”
“Reuben made Toby eat a worm,” Max said.
“And he lit a whole row of firecrackers on our porch,” Perry said.
“He brags about his bike when everybody knows he found it in the park and took it home without asking.”
Aaron held up his hand to stop the protests. “It doesn’t matter what Reuben has done. What does Jesus say about it?” When his question was met with silence, he tilted his head and looked Toby in the eye. “Toby, how does Jesus say we should treat those who despitefully use us?”
“To turn the other cheek,” Toby mumbled.
“That’s right,” Aaron said. “And what else, Johnny?”
“We have to forgive people.”
Toby started crying all over again. “But he made me eat a worm.” Forgiveness seemed a tall order when compared to something as terrible as worms.
“He threw eggs at my sister.”
Reuben’s list of sins was getting longer and longer.
Aaron stood up. His height lent him a great deal of authority. “It doesn’t matter what Reuben did. Do you know what could have happened? An Englischer driving down this road in a car might have gotten in an accident. My horse could have broken her
leg or Suvie could have drowned. Look what you did to her.” He motioned toward Suvie, who stood up and let them see her in all her drenched glory. Jethro bit his bottom lip. Perry averted his eyes and blinked rapidly. Was he fighting tears? She must truly look a sight.
Well, gute. It was for a greater cause.
“I’m sorry,” Max said.
Toby’s sobs got louder. “I’m sorry too.”
“Me too,” said Perry and Jethro together.
“What about you, Johnny?” Aaron asked.
Johnny lifted his chin and pressed his lips into a hard line. “I suppose I’m sorry too, about Suvie. But Reuben isn’t sorry about making Toby eat a worm.”
Toby nodded vigorously. “I threw up.”
“The important thing is that you forgive Reuben in your hearts.” Aaron patted Toby on top of his head. “Even if you threw up.”
Toby looked up at Aaron and wiped his eyes. “Are you gonna give me the willow switch?”
Surprise, then pity, then compassion traveled across Aaron’s face. He got on one knee and lifted Toby to sit on his bent leg. “I would never give a fine boy like you the switch. Or any boy, even Reuben Schmucker.”
“But Suvie almost drowned.”
Aaron took out a second handkerchief and held it to Toby’s nose. Toby obediently blew. “Gotte doesn’t like it when we sin, but Jesus loves us so much that he took the switch for us. Our job is to make things right and ask Gotte to forgive us.”
Toby’s bottom lip quivered, and he gave Aaron a tentative smile. Not getting the switch was gute news indeed.
Aaron nudged Toby off his leg and stood. He folded his arms and looked at the boys as if he were having a man-to-man conversation. “So what do you need to do now?”
Jethro let out a long sigh and pushed his lips to one side of his face. “It wonders me if we shouldn’t fill in the hole.”
Aaron nodded and gave them a manly look of approval. Suvie did her best to hide a grin. “You got shovels?”
Johnny poked his thumb in the direction of the tall weeds. “Over there. It’s where we put all the dirt too.”
Aaron, Suvie, and the boys walked over to the weeds. There were three shovels, four plastic buckets, and a whole pile of garden trowels, plus a rather substantial hill of mud. They’d gone to a lot of work for Reuben Schmucker, even though he’d never truly appreciate it.
“Okay, then,” Aaron said. “Let’s fill up that hole.”
Suvie grabbed a large plastic bucket, filled it with mud, and starting dragging it to the puddle. Aaron, with a shovel in his hand, took the bucket from her. “Mud is wonderful heavy,” he said, grinning from ear to ear and turning her knees to pudding. Butterscotch chocolate pudding, which was why she had trouble keeping up with his long strides as he carried the bucket the rest of the way to the puddle.
“I can carry my own bucket,” she said, making no attempt to take it from him. She liked seeing the muscles flex beneath his shirt. “You forget I keep a greenhouse and move dirt around all the time.”
He set the bucket at the edge of the puddle. “You nearly drowned. You shouldn’t exert yourself.”
“I didn’t nearly drown.”
Her knees almost gave out altogether when he leaned close to her ear and whispered. “These boys think you did. They’ve got to understand that foolish actions have serious consequences.”
“Okay. You’re right,” she said, hoping he wouldn’t hear how loud her heart was beating. If he would quit looking at her that way, she could at least try for some composure. “But I can still carry my own bucket.”
His intense gaze stayed locked on her face, and he seemed to loom closer without even moving. “I know you can.” He reached out and brushed his thumb across her cheek. “You have a spot of mud right there,” he said, his voice as low and silky as chocolate milk.
“I . . . I’ve got spots everywhere,” she mumbled.
“I like them.”
Her pulse might have broken some sort of speed record. “I need a bath.”
“Jah. You smell.” He pulled a third handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. “You can use this for the spots.”
Suvie sighed even as a giggle tripped from her lips. Leave it to Aaron to send her to the moon with one look and then pull her down to earth with one word.
He shook his head. “I’d get a lot more done if you stopped doing that.”
“Stopped doing what?”
He shrugged and tapped his shovel into the dirt. “That smiling thing. It’s distracting.”
“You like when I smile?”
“Jah. You have gute teeth.”
She arched an eyebrow and tried not to take it as a compliment. She shouldn’t get her hopes up like that. “Well, what about you and that handkerchief trick? How many have you got in that pocket?”
Aaron’s eyes quit dancing. “Mary liked me to carry extras. She pressed three for me every morning. It’s a way to keep her close to me every day.”
Suvie smiled and touched his arm. “Of course it is. They really come in handy. Mary was always so thoughtful like that.”
Aaron studied her face, and the light behind his eyes grew brighter. “Whatever you do, don’t start crying, because I’m out of handkerchiefs.”
“I can use Toby’s old one.”
He made a face. “If you really want to.”
Toby muscled his way between Suvie and Aaron with a garden trowel full of dirt. About half a cup or so. At this rate, they’d be fortunate to fill the hole before school started in the fall. “Are you going to help us or what?”
Suvie grinned at Aaron, picked up her bucket, and dumped it into the puddle.
He smiled back and nearly blinded her, and she thought there was no better way to spend a bright June day.
Unless it was in dry clothes.
With no sand in her ears.
Chapter 4
Suvie and Aaron walked out of Weaver’s greenhouse together.
“Ach, vell,” Suvie said, hopping into the buggy and settling in. “I know what I’m going to grow more of next year. I had no idea petunias were so popular.”
She was wearing a lavender dress today, and it was just as pretty as the baby-blue one. Everything seemed to accent her deep blue eyes.
“Maybe Mary’s garden won’t get petunias this year,” Aaron said, though it wasn’t the end of the world. That had already happened. Mary’s garden didn’t have petunias last year either. They’d already been to three other places. It appeared that petunias were as rare as hen’s teeth.
Still, he’d be disappointed to have to cut their trip short and go home. Aaron was sort of enjoying searching for petunias with Suvie. She liked to laugh and she liked to boss him around, and he didn’t mind being bossed. She always had something interesting up her sleeve.
Suvie unwound the reins and handed them to Aaron. “Let’s go. I’m not giving up yet. There’s a greenhouse in Wautoma that might have some petunias.”
“Wautoma is an hour away by car.”
She grinned. “It might be a fun adventure.”
It just might be with Suvie. She even made shoveling mud seem fun.
After they’d filled that hole in the puddle last week, they had both decided that Suvie was too soggy for a petunia-hunting trip, so he’d reluctantly taken her home with a promise to return. This morning, Aaron had popped out of bed an hour earlier than usual and scrubbed his stainless steel sink for good measure. His bran flakes had seemed crunchier, and he’d put an extra spoonful of sugar in his kaffee.
Mary would never have let herself fall into a mud puddle like that. She didn’t like mud, and she couldn’t stand being dirty. If she had fallen in, she would have gone straight home, showered, and done three batches of laundry.
But Aaron didn’t mind the sight of Suvie slogging around in her filthy dress, bailing water out of the puddle and bringing fresh dirt to fill the hole. It was nice to have a friend to do things with. It had been her suggestion to buy the boys ice cre
am. Aaron had bought her a cone too, though she ate it out behind the store so she wouldn’t shock passersby.
“Much as I’d like an adventure, I don’t think Coke could make it all the way to Wautoma and back today,” Aaron said.
Suvie slowly expelled all the air from her lungs. “You’re right.” A light turned on behind her eyes, and she sat up straight. “I’m giving up.”
“You just said you’d never give up.”
There was so much enthusiasm behind her smile that he couldn’t help but smile back. “Ach, we’ll find petunias somewhere, but I’m going to have to go to the bishop’s dairy and make some calls.” She snatched the reins from his hands and jiggled them to get the horse moving. “Enough of this lollygagging. I know exactly where I want to take you.”
He gave her a look of righteous indignation and took back his reins. “My buggy. I drive.”
“The last time you drove, I ended up in a mud puddle.”
“The last time you drove, you ended up in a ditch.”
She huffed in protest as if he’d insulted her entire family. “That was a year ago, I’ll have you know, smarty-pants.”
“Let’s not take our chances.” Aaron guided Coke to the main road. “Which way?”
“Go left, then left, then straight, then right.”
He chuckled. “Do you think you could give those directions one at a time?”
They rolled down the main road for two miles, then turned left and then right onto a road Aaron knew well. “Why are we going to my cousin Moses’s place?”
Suvie nibbled on her fingernail. “You need to have some of his cheese.”
“I’ve had his cheese before.”
Suvie leaned over and nudged him with her elbow. “That loaf of bread sitting on your table is the only thing waiting for you at home. I’ve got to fatten you up.”
When Suvie had come this morning, she had brought a loaf of Mammi’s famous jalapeño banana bread, and it was famous for a reason. Aaron shuddered. Moses’s cheese would taste wonderful-gute.
Moses owned a cheese factory where he and four or five of Aaron’s cousins made cheddar and baby Swiss cheese. Moses and his wife, Lia, ran a small store at the side of the factory where they sold their cheese and some of Lia’s baked goods.
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