She rushed to the door, and when she opened it, a gust of chilly air blew in, sending shivers up her spine. To her surprise, no student waited on the porch. It was Ernie Snyder, and he stood beside a perfectly shaped pine tree that was nearly as tall as him. “I was on my way home from work and saw this growin’ along one section of the canal. Thought you’d like it for the Christmas program,” he mumbled, looking down at his snow-covered boots.
“Oh Ernie, this is so nice. I wasn’t sure if we would even have a tree, and it will certainly make the room look more festive.”
He only nodded in reply.
“Are Grace and Andy with you?” Judith glanced into the schoolyard, thinking the children might be playing in the snow.
He shook his head. “Naw, they’re at home.”
She opened the door wider. “Please, bring it inside and come warm yourself by the woodstove.”
Ernie brushed the snow off his jacket—the same threadbare one he’d been wearing since the canal closed for the winter. “I ain’t so cold.” He bounced the tree up and down and gave it a good shake before stepping inside. “Didn’t wanna track too much snow into the schoolhouse.”
Judith laughed and shut the door behind him. “This floor has gotten snow, mud, and all sorts of other things on it. I don’t think a little bit more will hurt.”
“Where do ya want the tree?” Ernie questioned.
“How about there?” Judith pointed to the far corner of the room. “We don’t want it too close to the stove.”
“No, that wouldn’t be good.” Ernie lifted the tree like it weighed no more than a baby and hauled it across the room. “Have ya got a bucket?”
“A bucket?” Judith placed both hands against her flushed cheeks. She didn’t know why she felt so flustered whenever she was around Ernie, but being alone with him made her insides feel all quivery.
“Got to have somethin’ to hold the tree upright,” Ernie said. “It’ll need some water so’s it don’t dry out.”
“I—I suppose we could use the mop bucket I keep in the back room. I think it’s big enough to do the job.” Judith headed in that direction and returned a few minutes later. She handed Ernie the large metal bucket.
He set the tree inside, but when he let go, it teetered and almost fell over. He grabbed it before it hit the floor. “Guess I’m not thinkin’ straight. We’re gonna need some rocks in the bucket to hold the tree in place.”
“There are plenty of rocks in the schoolyard, but they’re buried under the snow,” Judith said with a frown.
“That’s no problem.” Ernie leaned the tree against the wall. Then he grabbed the bucket and headed out the door. Several minutes later, he returned. His face and hands were bright red, and Judith realized he wasn’t wearing any gloves.
Ernie dumped the rocks onto the floor, picked up the tree, and positioned it in the middle of the bucket. “Would ya mind holdin’ onto the tree, while I put the rocks in place?”
“No … no, not at all.” Judith held the tree steady as, one by one, he dropped the rocks into the bucket.
“There, that oughta do it. You can let go now.”
Judith eased her fingers off the trunk and stepped slowly away. Ernie was right—the tree stayed in place. “It looks good.” She moved to one side and appraised their efforts. “Tomorrow the students can decorate it with paper chains and strings of popcorn.”
Ernie added water to the bucket, then pointed to the floor where he’d dumped the rocks. “Sorry ’bout the mess. If you’ll tell me where ya keep the mop, I’ll clean it up.”
“Oh, that’s all right. I was in the process of cleaning anyhow.”
He glanced around the room. “Looks like you’re purty well done.”
She reached up to push aside a wayward strand of hair that had escaped her bun and nodded. “Yes, I was almost done, but I’ll just mop up the mess and be on my way home.”
Ernie opened his mouth, like he might argue with her, but then he clamped it shut and moved toward the door. Instead of opening it, however, he dragged the toe of his boot across the floor, making a scraping sound.
“Will you be free to come to the school program tomorrow evening?” she asked.
He nodded. “I’m aimin’ to.”
“I’m sure your children will be glad. Andy is one of the shepherds, and Grace has the part of an angel.”
“So I heard.”
Judith was tempted to open the door and order the man out so she could finish cleaning and have a chance to calm down before heading to the Jacobses’, but she knew that would be rude. Instead, she stood off to one side with her arms folded, waiting to see what he would do or say next.
Ernie finally grabbed hold of the doorknob. “Guess I’d best be gettin’ home. The kids will start to worry if I ain’t there soon.” After a long pause, he added, “I’ll be makin’ Andy’s favorite meal—fried potatoes and ham. Don’t make it nearly as well as my wife used to, but it fills the hole.” With that, he stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and ambled out the door.
“Thanks for the tree,” Judith called to his retreating form.
His only response was a backward wave.
She closed the door and leaned against it with a sigh. “That man is so hard to figure out. One thing I do know is he cares about his children.”
“You need to calm yourselves down some,” Ernie said to his kids as they headed to the schoolhouse the following night for the program. “You two have been jumpin’ around like a couple of squirrels ever since we left home.”
“I’m scared I’ll mess up my part,” Andy told his father.
“Well, there’s nothin’ to be nervous about,” Ernie asserted. “You’ve been practicin’ your lines for weeks, and not once have ya messed up.”
“Didn’t have no audience at home,” the boy muttered.
“You’ll do fine, just wait and see.”
“I ain’t nervous,” Grace put in. “But I am excited ’bout the candy Miss King is gonna give everyone after the play.”
Ernie smiled. Judith certainly liked her pupils, and from what he could tell, they liked her, too.
By the time they got to the schoolhouse, Andy and Grace had calmed down. The room was full of parents—some who’d crammed into their children’s desks—others who stood at the back of the room, prepared to watch the play.
“Where’s all the kids?” Ernie asked his son.
“Must be in the coatroom. That’s where Miss King said we was supposed to put our costumes on over our clothes.”
“Guess you’d better get in there.” Ernie found a place at the back of the room, and his children disappeared into the coatroom.
A short time later, Judith appeared wearing a long red skirt and a white blouse with lace around the cuffs. Ernie thought she’d never looked more beautiful, and he couldn’t help but stare.
Judith welcomed everyone and introduced each child who had a speaking part. Next came the pageant, complete with Nativity scene.
Ernie felt a sense of pride when his kids said their parts without missing a word. They might not be as smart or be dressed as well as some of the other students, but at least they hadn’t done or said anything to make them look stupid.
All the parents seemed to enjoy the program, and afterward, during a time of refreshments, Ernie poured a glass of punch and handed it to his son. “Give this to your teacher, would ya?”
Andy’s forehead wrinkled. “Why don’t ya take it to her yourself, Papa?”
Ernie shook his head. “Naw. It’d be better comin’ from you.”
Andy shrugged, took the glass, and started across the room.
Ernie stood beside the Christmas tree, now decorated from top to bottom, and watched as the boy handed his teacher the punch. Judith smiled, said something to Andy, and then looked Ernie’s way. He felt the heat of a blush creep up his neck and sweep onto his cheeks, so he quickly averted his gaze. Had Andy told his teacher the punch was his dad’s idea? Naw. My boy knows better tha
n to say somethin’ like that.
CHAPTER 9
As the weeks moved on, Judith was pleased that the letter box continued to work well and that the children asked more questions about things pertaining to their education. However, she was troubled by some of the unsigned letters she had received. She suspected that one of her students might have a crush on her. She’d taken it lightly at first, answering each of those letters with some comment about her being glad the student liked her. The letter she’d gotten this morning, however, was a bit harder to answer. It read:
Dear Teacher:
My heart beats like a hammer and my hands get all sweaty whenever you’re near. If it were possible, I’d ask ya to marry me some day.
Judith squinted at the letters on the page. She hadn’t been able to match the handwriting to any of her students, but she figured whoever wrote the letter was probably not using the hand he normally wrote with. She’d thought for a while it could be Andy, since his arm had been in a sling for a few days. But Andy was better now and had been using his right hand for several weeks.
She needed to call a halt to this before it went any further, so she picked up her pencil and wrote the following reply:
Dear Student:
I’m flattered that you wish you could marry me. However, I’m too old for you, and I’m your teacher, not your girlfriend. I think it would be best if you only wrote letters with questions about things we are learning in class.
Miss King
The splat of a snowball hit the front window, and Judith knew it was time for the students to come in from their morning recess. She left her desk to open the front door, and a blast of frigid air hit her full in the face. How could the children stand to play in such cold weather?
Judith rang the bell, and her pupils filed into the room, talking, laughing, and shaking snow off their coats, hats, and mittens. After putting their wraps inside the coatroom, they took their seats.
Judith scrutinized the desks and realized one child was missing. Where was Grace Snyder? Had she gone to the outhouse or not heard the bell?
She opened the front door and peered into the schoolyard. Several feet from the porch, Grace was sprawled in the snow, moving her arms and legs up and down.
“Recess is over and you need to come inside,” Judith called to the child.
Grace hopped up and raced over to another untouched snowy area. “In a minute, Teacher. I’m makin’ twin snow angels.”
“You can do that at noon or during afternoon recess.”
Grace folded her arms and pouted. “I wanna do it now.”
The child had never carried on like this before, and Judith was taken by surprise. “I’m only going to say this once more. Come inside.”
Grace shook her head. “Not till the snow angels are done.”
Unmindful of her long skirt or the fact that she had no wrap on, Judith trudged through the snow and took hold of Grace’s arm. “Since you disobeyed, you’ll have to stay after school and clean the blackboard.”
Grace burst into tears. “I don’t wanna do that!”
“Then you should have come inside when I asked you to.”
The child sniffled all the way to the schoolhouse and even after she had removed her coat, hat, and mittens.
Judith knew she couldn’t allow any of her students to talk back or defy the rules. Hopefully by tomorrow, Grace would realize that her teacher was also her friend.
“You’ve gotta go to the schoolhouse with me tomorrow mornin’, Papa!” Grace shouted when Ernie arrived home from work and found his children huddled in front of the woodstove.
He bent over and scooped the little girl into his arms. “What’s all this about me needin’ to go to the schoolhouse?”
“I want ya to talk with Teacher. She’s mean, and I don’t like her no more.”
Ernie lifted his brows. “What’s the problem?”
“Aw, she’s just mad ’cause Miss King made her stay after school and clean the blackboard,” Andy said, stepping up to his father.
Ernie was puzzled. Grace had never been in trouble with the teacher before. In fact, ever since she’d received the sack of candy from Judith after the Christmas program, all Grace could talk about was how sweet her teacher was. “Tell me what happened, daughter.”
Tears pooled in the girl’s brown eyes. “She said I couldn’t make snow angels.”
Ernie clenched his teeth. Why would anyone deny a child the right to make an angel in the snow? This didn’t sound like something Judith would do, but he needed to find out.
He placed Grace on the floor. “I’ll take you and your brother to school tomorrow, and we’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Judith was surprised when she saw Ernie walk up the snowy path toward the schoolhouse with Grace and Andy at his side. He hadn’t accompanied them in quite a while, and she wondered if he’d come today because it was snowing hard again and he felt concern for their safety.
She lifted her hand in a friendly wave. “Good morning, Ernie. Good morning, children.”
“‘Mornin’,” Ernie mumbled as Grace and Andy clomped up the steps and slipped past Judith. “Can I … uh … have a word with ya?”
“Certainly. Would you like to step inside where it’s warmer?”
He shuffled his boots across the frozen snow, and it crunched beneath his weight. “Guess it wouldn’t be good to keep ya out here in the cold, but what I got to say probably shouldn’t be said in front of the kids.”
“Why don’t we talk inside the coatroom?” she suggested.
“That’s fine.”
Judith stepped into the schoolhouse and led the way to the coatroom, near the back of the building. “I need to ask one of the older students to keep an eye on the class,” she told Ernie. “If you’d like to wait inside, I’ll only be a minute.”
Ernie shrugged and offered a quick nod.
Judith leaned over Beth’s desk and asked the girl to read a story to the children.
“Sure, Miss King.”
“Thank you, Beth.” She smiled and hurried to the coatroom, where she found Ernie pacing between the coatrack and the shelves where the letter boxes sat.
“What did you wish to speak with me about?” she asked.
He twisted his stocking cap between his fingers and cleared his throat. “Grace told me ya kept her after school yesterday. Said it was ’cause she wanted to make snow angels.”
“That’s true.”
“You got somethin’ against snow angels, Miss King?”
Judith frowned. Miss King? Why had Ernie reverted to calling her Miss King?
“I have nothing against snow angels, Mr. Snyder,” she said, emphasizing his last name. “However, your daughter wanted to make them after recess was over.”
He stared at the floor. “She was wrong to disobey, but she’s only a little girl. Don’t ya think ya could have been a bit easier on her? I mean, forcin’ her to stay after school to clean the blackboard made her think ya don’t like her.”
Judith folded her arms and released a sigh. “I care about all my students, but I can’t make exceptions for anyone who disobeys the rules.”
Ernie looked up again, and the intensity of his gaze sent chills down her back. “It’s been hard for my kids to grow up without a mother. Can’t ya see that?”
She nodded, as tears filled her eyes and memories from the past flooded her mind. “I understand better than you know, for my own mother died when I was ten years old.”
His forehead wrinkled, and he reached up to rub the bridge of his nose. “Sorry. I didn’t know.”
Judith took a few steps forward, bringing herself close enough to the man that she could feel the warmth of his breath. She shivered.
“Ya cold?”
“No, no. I’m fine.” She rubbed her hands briskly over her arms. “Ernie, I’m sure you love your children.”
“Ya got that right.”
“But you can’t baby them. They need to know there are consequences when they
do something wrong.”
“I discipline my kids when they do somethin’ bad.” He lifted his chin. “But I don’t think playin’ in the snow a few minutes longer’n you would’ve liked was such a terrible thing. You was wrong, Miss King!”
Judith’s defenses rose higher. Was this man questioning her ability to teach the students right from wrong? He had said he was a Christian and had taught his children memory verses. He’d been going to church fairly regularly, too. So why was he talking to her this way? Maybe Ernie Snyder wasn’t the man she’d thought him to be.
Love Finds a Home (Anthologies) Page 12