Return to Huckleberry Hill

by Jennifer Beckstrand

  “But you would have to pick the girls. I don’t know anybody in Bonduel but you, Reuben, and the Schmuckers.”

  Anna’s eyes seemed even more lively than usual. “It’s what I do best. We’ll find a girl for Reuben yet.” She grabbed a notebook and pencil from the kitchen drawer and sat down at the table next to Fern. “No knitting group of this kind would be complete without Dorothy Miller. She knits almost as well as I do, and she can help me help the beginners.”

  “Gute. Is she someone who might catch Reuben’s eye?”

  Anna scrunched her cheeks until her eyes nearly disappeared. “Ach, vell, she’s well into her thirties, but Reuben won’t believe it’s a real knitting group unless he sees that at least one of the members knows how to knit.”

  Fern wasn’t sure about that, but Anna knew a lot more about knitting groups than she did. “Who else should we invite?”

  “Lorene Zook might suit,” Anna said, jotting down the name in her notebook. “She’s on the downhill side of twenty-three.”

  “Not too old.”

  “Nae. And she has very nice teeth. They’re on the large side, but Reuben isn’t so shallow that he would reject a girl because of her teeth. Or her mole.”

  Fern pressed her lips together. She wasn’t so sure about that either.

  Anna nibbled on the pencil eraser. “You say Linda Sue is quiet. Maybe Reuben would like someone like Eva Raber. She’s as quiet as a bowl of potatoes. And of course we should invite Clara and Carolyn Yutzy. They’re twins, and I have never been able to tell them apart. But don’t tell them I said that. I don’t want to hurt their feelings.”

  “How old are they?”

  “Ach, twenty or so. Young enough, but not too young.”

  Fern wanted to ask if they were pretty, but since Anna didn’t want to believe that Reuben was shallow, she decided she better not burst his mammi’s bubble. “That’s five girls. Anyone else you think we should invite?” Someone really pretty. Preferably a minister’s daughter with lots of money.

  “Sadie Yoder is the bishop’s daughter. She’s got beautiful golden hair and a very nice dimple, and she knitted a scarf for the auction last September.”

  “Sounds perfect.”

  Anna’s pen was working furiously now. “But we can’t invite Sadie without inviting Esther Shirk. They’re always together, those two, even though I don’t think Esther has ever picked up a pair of knitting needles.”

  “What better place to learn than the knitting group?” Fern glanced over Anna’s list. “Do you think they’ll come?”

  Anna’s eyes sparkled. “They all got a gute look at Reuben yesterday. They’ll come.”

  Fern raised a teasing eyebrow. “Are you saying they’re shallow enough to notice how handsome he is?”

  Anna nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m not beneath using Reuben’s good looks to our advantage, especially if it will help him find a wife.”

  “I only want him to be happy.”

  “Me too, dear. Even someone as proud and self-centered as my Reuben deserves to be happy.” Anna wrote down directions to the new knitting group members’ houses and tore the page out of her notebook. Fern took the paper and stuffed it into her pocket. Hopefully her bike would live long enough to get her around town to recruit members for the knitting group.

  She bit her bottom lip. She’d have to tell them at least part of why they were being invited to join the knitting group, or they might wonder why a girl from Sugarcreek, Ohio, was asking them to come to Huckleberry Hill and knit. But Anna was right. If they knew it was Reuben, they’d come. Cheerfully. Reuben was handsome enough to attract lightning.

  But he wasn’t just handsome. The girls would soon find out that there was no more exciting person to be around, plus he was the best volleyball player in Ohio. If he had his way, they would also find out that he was rich, devout, and very likable. And quite proud of himself.

  Fern felt sort of heavy as she said good-bye to Anna and ambled down the porch steps. It was unlikely the girls in the knitting group would ever truly see the real Reuben. He was arrogant, to be sure, but he would also wrestle a porcupine for the people he loved. He’d secretly give his best friend money so he could fix the roof and feed the horse. He’d make an annoying kid sister feel special, even when she didn’t deserve it—even when he had a thousand better things to do. His smile was like sunshine reflecting off the lake on a summer day.

  Once outside, Fern paused and looked toward the barn for any sign of Reuben. Not that he’d want to see her, but it might cheer him up if she smiled at him one more time. Nope. He was probably locked in the barn nursing his wounds and pouting about how unfairly he’d been treated. It was just as well she left him alone today.

  Fern dragged her feet to her bike and glanced down at her four Band-Aids. Lord willing, she’d be able to ride all over town without any more mishaps.

  Strange. She thought she’d parked her bike pointing the other way.

  Gingerly, she nudged the kickstand with her foot. Instead of giving her the usual screaming protest, it folded up noiselessly as if it didn’t mind being shoved. She decided to walk the thing down the hill. The tire was likely to fall off, and she’d rather not break her leg today. Or her neck.

  She grabbed the handlebars and pushed the bike forward, only to stop in her tracks. Her bike no longer squeaked, rattled, or wobbled. She could have sneaked up on an unsuspecting boy with this bike. The chain links had been brushed and oiled, the shaft of her handlebars lubricated, and her basket wiped clean. Leaning over, she took a better look at the back tire. She tried to wiggle it back and forth, but it stayed solidly in the hub. She got even closer. This wasn’t the same bolt she’d fiddled with this morning.

  With her heart beating inexplicably fast, Fern glanced up, half expecting to see Reuben standing over her with a self-satisfied smile on his lips and that attractive tease in his blue eyes. There was no doubt in her mind that he had fixed her bike. He’d heard her clattering up the hill earlier and seen the blood dripping from her cut. He had decided to take matters into his own hands.

  Fern smiled to herself. Reuben might have hated her brother, but this probably meant he didn’t hate her. Either that or he couldn’t in good conscience let his best friend’s sister ride a bike in such poor condition.

  Reuben came around the side of the barn, glanced in her direction, and then made as if he hadn’t seen her.

  She wasn’t going to let him get away with that. She waved her arm as if she were flagging down a car. “Denki for fixing my bike.”

  He frowned before turning away and swinging the barn door open. “I don’t want you to kill yourself on your way out of town,” he called back.

  “Don’t worry,” Fern said, unable to keep the mischief out of her voice. “I’m not leaving anytime soon.”

  Reuben pretended not to hear.

  Chapter Six

  Fern considered herself a poor knitter, but when she saw Esther holding her knitting needles like a pair of hammers, she decided that maybe she had underestimated her abilities.

  Nine of them, plus Anna, congregated in Anna’s great room, crammed onto the sofa and sitting on the hard kitchen chairs they’d dragged from under the table. Anna sat in her rocker, and Fern had made herself comfortable on the floor on Anna’s rag rug.

  “Dangle the tail over your thumb,” Dorothy said, looking slightly exasperated that Esther couldn’t even cast on.

  “I don’t especially like knitting,” Esther said, although she was making a valiant attempt. Some people just weren’t cut out to be knitters.

  “You’re doing a wonderful-gute job, dear,” Anna said. “The baby who gets your blanket will jump for joy.”

  Anna was trying to be encouraging, but not even Esther could possibly believe that babies could jump.

  They were each knitting a baby blanket for the hospital in Shawano. Some new mothers didn’t even have blankets to take their babies home in after delivery. Anna was making her blanke
t with bright yellow yarn, already miles ahead of the rest of the knitters. Dorothy hadn’t even started a blanket because Esther’s difficulties took all her attention. Esther’s attempted blanket was a soft pink, as was her best friend Sadie’s. Lorene Zook and Carolyn and Clara Yutzy were working in various shades of light blue, and Eva Raber’s blanket was black. Fern wasn’t sure why Eva chose to make a black baby blanket, but at least she had agreed to join their knitting group. Fern had never met anyone who had so little to say for herself.

  Fern’s blanket was green, suitable for either a boy or a girl. She had found some yarn that was as soft as a bunny rabbit. It had been a little expensive, but every baby deserved something soft to be cuddled in, even if Fern was almost out of money.

  “Esther,” Sadie said, holding up her needles and showing off three whole inches of knitted stitches, “you’re too slow. Have you got ten thumbs?”

  Lorene laughed hysterically. And loudly. When they had made up their list of knitting group members, Anna had failed to mention that Lorene’s laugh could have frightened the hide off an old horse. She laughed like a duck in fear of its life, her hornlike blasts giving everybody a shock when they first heard her. Fern was pretty sure Reuben wouldn’t take much interest in Lorene. Big teeth and a mole in the middle of her chin were minor compared to that horn of a laugh. Lorene was a gute girl, loud and friendly, but unless she learned to tone it down, no boy would volunteer to marry her. Perhaps she’d find someone hard of hearing to share her love.

  Esther gave Sadie the stink eye. Fern wasn’t sure why Sadie and Esther were friends. They seemed not to like each other very much. “I’m trying,” Esther said, sniffing in Sadie’s direction. “Don’t distract me. Every time I try to release my thumb from the loop, I get tangled in the yarn. This is a waste of time. When do we get to see Reuben?”

  Fern slumped her shoulders. The knitting group had already met twice this week, and Reuben might as well have been in Ohio. When the knitters came over, he disappeared as if he knew exactly what they were doing there and exactly who had asked them to come. She had expected more effort from him. It was very important to Reuben to be liked. Fern would have thought he’d jump at the chance to meet the girls in the knitting group.

  A frown tugged at Fern’s mouth. Reuben was just being stubborn—wearing his imaginary shame like a badge of honor. He would not be coaxed into being friendly if he didn’t want to be friendly. Fern would have to use force.

  Lorene’s smile was so wide, Fern could see all her fillings. “I’d like a chance to flirt with Reuben. Isn’t that our reason for being here?”

  Carolyn shushed Lorene almost before the words were out of her mouth. “Don’t you remember, Lorene? It’s a secret. What do you think Reuben would do if he knew Fern had asked us to come and try to cheer him up?”

  Fern hadn’t told anyone in the knitting group that Anna wanted Reuben to marry one of them. That information might have kept some of them away—Eva Raber specifically—or might have made some of them too eager. They thought they were here to cheer Reuben up, which was completely true. If one of them caught Reuben’s fancy, it would definitely make him happy.

  Fern frowned to herself. It was a gute idea, even if she was having doubts.

  “If Reuben knew Fern asked us to cheer him up, it might put him in a worse mood yet,” Carolyn’s sister Clara said.

  Fern had liked Clara and Carolyn the minute she’d met them. They were sturdy brunettes, on the tall side, with sensible faces and intelligent eyes. Fern couldn’t tell them apart, but when they came into the house today, they had announced that Clara was wearing blue, and Carolyn was in burgundy. They were thoughtful that way, not expecting Fern to be able to tell them apart and not putting her in the awkward position of having to ask who was who. Clara was older than Carolyn by ten minutes—they’d informed Fern of that first thing—but Carolyn was definitely the bossy one—bossy in a nice way. She simply saw how things were supposed to be done and gladly let everyone know what was required of them.

  “I’d like to get another look at Reuben,” Esther said, yanking her finger from a knot she’d tied herself into.

  Clara grinned. “When I saw him at gmay, I remember thinking he had a very gute face, even if it looked like he’d never smiled in his life.”

  “I pretended to trip when I walked by him after services,” Sadie said, before bursting into a fit of giggles.

  “Were you hoping he’d catch you?” Esther said, as if she thought it was the dumbest idea in the world.

  “Jah.” The giggling got louder. Sadie laid her knitting on the end table, stood up, and spread her arms out from her sides. “I sort of hopped like this and flew through the air like a bird.” She clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter. “I stole a glance at him, just to see if he was looking my way. He was studying his fingernails. Didn’t even notice. I huffed and walked away. He didn’t notice that either.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t actually fall,” Clara said. “But maybe he would have noticed that.”

  “I could have done a cartwheel, and Reuben Helmuth would have pulled out his clippers and trimmed his toenails.” Sadie looked at Anna. “No offense to your grandson, Anna. Like as not, he had other things on his mind.”

  Anna smiled that serene smile she got whenever she talked about Reuben. “He’s such a dear boy. Always very careful with his toenails.”

  “But we can’t cheer him up if he won’t come in the house,” Lorene said.

  Fern dropped a stitch in her blanket. It was worthless to bring potential wives to Huckleberry Hill if Reuben refused to show his face when they came.

  Anna’s fingers seemed to fly off her hands, she was knitting so fast. “Lorene is right.” She paused to glance at Fern. “It was a very gute plan, Fern, but we need to make some improvements to it. I hope you’re not offended.”

  “I want Reuben to be happy.” She’d like to see his smile again.

  Carolyn set her needles in her lap. “We’ll have to take the knitting group out to him.”

  “That would be a gute idea in June,” Anna said. “But I can’t knit in the cold. My fingers stiffen up.”

  Carolyn nudged Clara with her elbow. “What I mean is, one of us will have to put down our knitting, go outside, and trick Reuben into talking to us.”

  “Okay,” said Clara. “We could take turns every time we have knitting group. One of us goes out to be with Reuben instead of knitting, and then we swap. That way we could each get a shot at cheering him up.”

  Anna’s eyebrows rose so high, they almost disappeared under her kapp. “What a wunderbarr idea, Clara. It would be like rotating the milk so it doesn’t go sour.”

  “I . . . I’d rather not,” Eva Raber said.

  Everyone paused to look at her. She hadn’t uttered a word since she had come into the house.

  Dorothy glanced up from the knot she was trying to untangle. “I’d rather not either.”

  “Don’t worry, Dorothy,” Anna said. “We invited you for the knitting.”

  “I’d rather not,” Eva said again.

  Anna patted Eva on the leg. “No one has to do anything she doesn’t want to do. We are content to enjoy your company inside the house. We’ll let the other girls have the adventure.”

  Fern hid a smile. Trying to crack Reuben’s crusty shell would indeed be an adventure. He was determined to stay in a bad mood. “Who wants the first turn?”

  “We’ve only got ten minutes left,” Esther said. “It wouldn’t be fair.”

  Carolyn let out some slack in her ball of yarn. “You go, Sadie.”

  Sadie scrunched her lips together. “You heard Esther. It’s not fair if I only get ten minutes.”

  “You could go out next time too,” Carolyn said. “Introduce yourself now and spend the whole time with him on Friday.”

  “That’s not fair either,” Lorene said.

  “We could set a timer,” Clara offered.

  “Now, girls,” Anna said. “Y
ou’ll all get your chance with Reuben. Let Sadie go out and talk to him. Maybe she’ll catch him off guard and get him to smile.”

  Sadie giggled behind her hand. “I’m sure I can do it.”

  Esther put down her sorry attempt at knitting and folded her arms. “Well, I hope you don’t think I’m petty, but if Sadie gets an extra ten minutes, then I think I deserve an extra ten minutes too.”

  Sadie pursed her lips and blinked rapidly. “We all think you’re petty, Esther.”

  Fern did not laugh, even though she wanted to. Reuben was too good-looking for his own good. “Esther,” she said, “I’ll see to it that you get your extra ten minutes in the rotation. Is that fair?”

  Esther didn’t look convinced. “How are you going to do that?”

  “We could set a timer,” Clara said.

  Fern reached over and patted Esther’s foot. “I’ll keep careful track of the time. Once we’ve been through a complete rotation, you’ll get your extra ten minutes.”

  “I suppose that will work.”

  Sadie practically jumped to her feet and deposited her knitting on the sofa where she’d been sitting. “I’d better make hay while the sun shines.”

  “He’s in the garden digging a hole,” Anna said.

  Grinning from ear to ear, Sadie donned her black sweater and strutted out the door. Fern felt a twinge of something unpleasant in the area of her liver. Sadie was very pretty. Did Reuben like dimples? What about golden yellow hair? Linda Sue’s hair was plain brown, but maybe Reuben would have liked her that much better if she had been a blonde.

  Sadie only had ten minutes. She couldn’t solidify a relationship in ten minutes. She certainly couldn’t ever be a friend like Fern was to Reuben. Fern and Reuben were like brother and sister. Not even a girlfriend could get closer than that, could she?

  Ten minutes felt like a month of Sundays. What were they talking about? Would Sadie be taken in by Reuben’s handsome face and not even care that he was proud and self-centered? Reuben didn’t need an admirer. He needed someone to scold him and keep him humble and teach him not to take himself so seriously. Would Sadie be able to do that?