A Surprise for Lily

by Mary Ann Kinsinger

  “I can’t imagine petting that horse or letting him eat grass or oats from my hand the way I do with Jim. He was never jumpy like that new horse.”

  “It did seem as if Jim always wanted to please us. I think he genuinely loves you children.” Mama handed Lily a carrot scraper and the carrots.

  Lily went to the kitchen sink and peeled the carrots so that Mama could grate them into the cabbage. Carrot peels were splattered all over the sink. Lily handed the peeled carrots to Mama.

  “Lily, did I ever tell you about how Jim gave me a scare when you were a baby?”

  Lily grinned. She loved being in the kitchen alone with Mama, hearing her stories. “I don’t think I ever heard that story.”

  “It was in the fall and a killing frost was due in that night,” Mama said, grating the carrots with a fast motion. “I was trying to gather the last of the tomatoes in the garden. I had spread a blanket on the grass beside the garden and you were sitting on it as I worked. We still didn’t have a real fence for Jim’s pasture. Papa had strung wire that Jim probably could have easily jumped out of, but Jim seemed to know he needed to stay inside. He had never tried to jump the fence.” She finished grating carrots and handed a big spoon to Lily so she could stir.

  Mama went to the refrigerator and came back with a large jar of mayonnaise and a second spoon. She added large spoonfuls of dressing into the coleslaw as Lily mixed it all together. Mixing was Lily’s favorite thing.

  “On that day, I hadn’t been in the garden for more than a few minutes when Jim started acting funny. He pranced nervously and pawed the ground and snorted. He grew more and more agitated. I stopped to see what could be bothering him. He reared up on his hind legs and tossed his head angrily. The next thing I knew, he jumped right over the fence and galloped toward you on the blanket!

  “I was so scared. I was sure he was going to crush you. I ran to stop him but I couldn’t get there in time. It was terrible! Suddenly, Jim stopped at the edge of the blanket and pawed the ground. He snorted some more, but he didn’t step on the blanket. Then I realized what had caused the problem: There was a snake on the ground and Jim had killed it with his hoof. I think he had seen it slither close to you and wanted to protect you. He calmed down right away and I led him back to his pasture.”

  Lily felt a warm, happy feeling rise from the bottom of her toes all the way to her head. Jim was a fine, fine horse. She would never love another horse. “Did he ever jump over the fence again?” Lily asked.

  “No, he never did,” Mama said.

  “Maybe it’s good that Jim can take a rest now and then from the buggy rides, if Papa can ever gentle that ugly horse. But I’ll still want my buggy rides with Jim.”

  Mama opened her mouth, then snapped it shut, as if she was going to say something but thought twice about it. Lily was about to ask her what she was going to say when Joseph and Dannie burst into the kitchen. Their noisy voices woke up baby Paul from his nap and he started to howl. Papa came upstairs from his workshop and soon the kitchen was filled with happy, noisy chaos.

  But to Lily, those special times in the kitchen with Mama were always the best.

  After considering all kinds of names for the new horse, including many outlandish suggestions from Joseph and Dannie, Papa decided to name him Bob. He worked with Bob every single day. His first goal in training, he told Lily, was to teach Bob not to be afraid of things. Lily and Joseph liked to watch the training sessions. Today, Papa held an umbrella and walked up and down the barn aisle in front of Bob’s stall. Bob pawed the ground, watching nervously. Papa put the umbrella down and closed it. He talked to Bob and stroked his neck.

  Jim looked over his stall door with mild interest, as if he thought it was all quite amusing.

  Papa reached down, picked up the umbrella, and opened it in front of Bob’s face. It surprised Bob and he jumped, backing up, trying to get away from it. “Whoa, Bob,” Papa said soothingly. He took hold of his halter and coaxed him to step forward again. He talked and petted Bob a little more, and then he closed the umbrella. Bob jumped and tossed his head.

  Patiently, Papa kept on opening and closing the umbrella in front of Bob until he learned that it wouldn’t hurt him. After a while, instead of jumping back, tossing his head, and pawing at the ground, Bob munched on the hay in his manger, bored as could be. Papa grinned at Lily and Joseph.

  Papa went to his shop and brought back a big blue plastic tarp. Then he snapped it open and waved it in the air. Bob was frightened, jumping and snorting, and settled down only as Papa petted him and talked to him in a calm, gentle voice. He had a fine voice, Papa did.

  Papa asked Lily and Joseph to hold the edges of the tarp and run through the barn in front of Bob. “Try to flap it as much as you can so it will make noise.”

  Sure enough, Bob tried to jump away. His ears were pointed back and the whites of his eyes showed his fear. That was when Lily thought Bob was at his most ugliest. Papa kept on talking to him in a quiet voice. It wasn’t long before the flapping tarp didn’t even faze Bob. “It’s important for Bob to be very comfortable with unexpected things when he pulls a buggy. Anything could blow or flap or make loud noises on the road. I want to make him used to all kinds of situations so he will act calm and relaxed on the road, too.”

  Lily was glad Papa was taking time to train Bob so that he would be a nice, safe horse. She remembered a time when someone’s buggy horse had been frightened of an umbrella and had bolted away from the schoolhouse. Mama had to go rescue the girl who was driving the buggy.

  A week later, after many training sessions, Papa was able to put a harness on Bob and walk alongside him, holding the reins and teaching him to turn left and right and giddyup and whoa. He even let Dozer run beside them, barking and jumping like he usually did. Bob didn’t flinch.

  Lily was so proud of Papa. He was doing a fine job with Bob. She still didn’t like that horse, but she could see there might be some hope for him.

  The next week, Papa decided Bob was ready for something more challenging. “I think Bob understands everything I have tried to teach him so far. Now it’s time to take him out on the road.”

  Papa hitched Jim to the little open buggy and fastened Bob to the side of the buggy shafts. Bob would not be pulling the buggy today. First, he would have to learn what to do on a road by going alongside an older, well-trained horse like Jim.

  When Papa returned, he said Bob did very well. “A big dump truck passed us on the road. Its tarp was flapping in the wind, but you would never even have guessed that Bob noticed it. He kept trotting along, just the way Jim did. Bob didn’t react to it at all.”

  Lily was happy to hear that. Soon Bob could pull the buggy by himself and Jim could take a day off now and then.

  It was a beautiful April afternoon with a gentle balmy breeze. Lily and Joseph dawdled as they made their way home from school. The ditch beside the road was filled with water from last night’s rain. They took turns finding worms and dropping them in the water to see how far they would float.

  They jumped up at the familiar sound of a horse and buggy coming around the bend. Lily dried her hands on her apron and picked up her lunch box.

  “It’s Mama,” Joseph said. Jim was trotting toward them with Mama and Dannie in the front seat of the buggy. Baby Paul was in Mama’s lap.

  Uh-oh. Lily and Joseph had been having so much fun playing that Mama had to come looking for them.

  Mama slowed Jim down to a walk. “Whoa,” she said as she drew up next to them. “Do you want a ride?”

  Lily hopped into the front seat beside Mama while Danny and Joseph climbed into the backseat. “Someone is coming to get Jim tonight,” Mama said. “I wanted to drive him one last time, so that’s why I came to pick you up.”

  “Is someone going to borrow Jim?” Lily said.

  Mama gave Lily a sad look. “They won’t be bringing him back. Jim is getting old. We’ve had him for a long time and he’s been a wonderful horse for us, but now it’s time to le
t him relax and enjoy the rest of his life without having to work.”

  Jim was leaving them for good? Tears sprang into Lily’s eyes.

  Joseph leaned over the buggy seat. “We could let him relax in our barn.”

  “I wish we could,” Mama said. “I truly do. But it’s too crowded in the barn with two horses. It worked while Papa was training Bob, but now Bob is ready to pull the buggy for us. Horses like nice roomy stalls where they can move around. The stall is too small for Jim to stay in if he’s not pulling the buggy each day.”

  Lily felt a heavy sadness cover her heart. The lovely spring afternoon was gone. This was their last buggy ride with Jim. She tried not to cry but first one tear, then another, slipped down her cheeks. She heard sniffing from Joseph and Dannie in the backseat. Even Mama was biting her lip, as if she was trying not to cry. They rode the rest of the way home in silence.

  Papa came out of the shop when Mama drove up to the barn. He started to unhitch Jim from the buggy. Mama got out of the buggy and walked up to Jim and stood there stroking his face. Lily was surprised to see tears streaming down Mama’s cheeks. Lily couldn’t stop her own tears from coming. She cried as she stroked Jim’s velvety nose and told him what a good horse he had been. “I’ll miss you every day,” she said. “You’ll always be my special horse.” She gave him one last pat and followed Mama into the house.

  Mama got a bowl and filled it with potatoes. She set them into the sink and let cold water run over them before she started to peel them. “It’s sad to say goodbye to an animal that was like a member of the family,” was all she said. Mama finished cutting up the potatoes and put them on the stove to boil.

  Lily started to set the table with silverware. “Mama, do you remember the day Jim backed the buggy into a ditch and the buggy dumped over?”

  Mama turned from the stove. “I’d forgotten about that! Poor Jim. I know he didn’t do that on purpose, and he did a good job holding still until Grandpa Miller unhitched him from the buggy.”

  Papa and the boys came in from the barn, and Mama started to dish food into bowls while Lily filled the water glasses. The evening meal was very quiet.

  Before they had finished supper, a truck pulling a trailer drove into the driveway. Papa got up from the table. “Does anyone want to come outside with me and say their last goodbyes to Jim before he leaves?”

  Joseph and Dannie jumped up from the table to join Papa. Mama gave Paul another bite of potato. She didn’t look up at Papa. “I said goodbye to him when I came home today. I don’t want to watch him leave.”

  Papa understood. “What about you, Lily?”

  She shook her head. “I’ll stay in the house with Mama.”

  Lily wished she didn’t hear the clank of the trailer door as it opened and shut, then the sound of the truck engine as it drove away. Jim was no longer their horse. She had lost her appetite and pushed her plate away. She folded her arms on the table and buried her face to hide her tears.

  Mama rubbed her back with circles. “Feeling sad at times like this is normal, Lily. But it helps to know Jim will be happy in his new home.”

  “But how can we be sure he will be happy and won’t miss us?”

  “He might miss us a little,” Mama said. “But he can make new horse friends. He will get lots of good care where he is going. Papa made sure of that.”

  As Papa and the boys came back inside, Lily felt a little better. At least she wasn’t dreading that final goodbye anymore. But she would never forget Jim. And she would never like Bob.

  When Effie Kauffman heard that Jim had been taken away, she told Lily that when horses got old, they were sent off to a glue factory to be turned into glue. “That’s not true!” Lily said. “My papa said Jim was going off to a nice farm to rest.”

  “Oh Lily,” Effie sighed, as if she were the parent and Lily were the child. “He just didn’t want you to worry.”

  That afternoon, Lily went down to the workshop and told Papa what Effie had said. Papa stopped varnishing a table and looked up. “Lily, have Mama or I ever lied to you?”

  No. Of course not. Effie, though, lied all the time. Lily felt much better.

  Weeks passed. Papa was right: Bob had turned into a good buggy horse after all. He hardly ever pointed his ears back now and rarely showed the whites of his eyes anymore. Lily still didn’t like him, but she didn’t dislike him quite as much. She didn’t think she could ever love a horse like she loved Jim.

  One Saturday afternoon, Joseph ran down to meet the mailman. Lily used to try to race him to the mailbox, but he was faster than her now and it wasn’t fun anymore. Lily watched him from the kitchen window and heard him yell a big “Yahoo!” He ran back to the house waving a big white envelope. “We got a letter from Jim!”

  “Don’t be silly,” Lily said. “Horses can’t write.”

  “Well, Jim probably can, because it’s from him.” Joseph pointed to the return address: From Jim. “You don’t know everything, Lily.”

  “I know more than you and I know that horses can’t write.”

  Mama came over to see what the fuss was about so Joseph handed the envelope to her. She smiled when she saw the return address. “I guess we’ll have to open it to see what this is about.” She pulled out a pin from her apron belt and slit the envelope open. She drew out several photographs and looked at them before handing them to Lily and Joseph so they could see them.

  They were all of Jim. In one picture he was running in a nice green pasture with a white board fence and a long red barn in the distance. In another one, he was eating hay in a big roomy stall in the barn. The next one showed him standing next to some other horses. It reminded Lily of how the men gathered before church, talking about the weather and crops.

  Something lifted inside of Lily. She felt so much better now that she knew that Jim was happy. It was very kind of the new owner to send pictures of Jim. Whenever she missed Jim, she could always go look at his pictures again and realize he was happy in his new home.

  And she couldn’t wait to show those pictures to Effie Kauffman.

  22

  Aaron Yoder Up to Bat

  Spring meant softball games. It was Lily’s least favorite game to play during recess. Today was the first day it hadn’t rained in a while and the boys were eager to get the game started. Aaron Yoder and Harvey Hershberger chose the teams. Lily was the first player Harvey chose for his team, which even struck Lily as very strange. Usually, she was chosen last because she was a terrible batter. A terrible catcher of balls, too.

  Each time Lily was up at bat, she struck out. She tried so hard to hit the ball, but her bat never met anything but air. Harvey didn’t seem to mind at all. He was surprisingly encouraging and told her she made a great effort.

  The next day, the softball game continued on during recess. Joseph was up to bat when a buggy came clattering into the school yard. They always had to stop the game when a horse was in the school yard and find something less risky to play. They didn’t want a foul ball to hit a horse.

  Harvey’s father, Abe Hershberger, eased out of the buggy and marched up to Teacher Judith. “What’s the idea of having the children pick teams to play softball? Don’t you know how that starts a competitive streak in children?”

  Teacher Judith looked bewildered. Abe Hershberger kept on scolding her until she finally held up a hand to stop him. She whispered something to him and they walked into the schoolhouse to finish the conversation. All the children gathered around the steps of the schoolhouse, trying to figure out what was going on. Abe marched back outside, untied his horse from the hitching rack, jumped into his buggy, and drove out of the school yard without a smile or a wave to his children. Teacher Judith rang the bell early and everyone hurried inside.

  The next morning at recess, Harvey said, “I’m not going to play softball today. Dad said no one else is allowed to play, either. He said he would whip anyone who didn’t obey that rule.”

  Aaron Yoder was not so easily fobbed off. “So
that’s where you get your particular brand of craziness, Harvey,” Aaron said, speaking with the authority of one who managed the school yard—and in a way, he did. “No way. We’ve always played softball and we always will, as long as I go to this school. It’s my favorite game.” He picked up a bat and ball and walked out on the playground.

  Effie Kauffman ran after him. “Aaron, you and I can be team captains, if Harvey doesn’t want to play.”

  “No one is supposed to play softball,” Harvey said. Then a light went on in his eyes. “But we can still play ball if we only have one team. The four youngest can be batters and everyone else gets a number. Whoever is number one will be on first base. Number two will be on second. Number three will be on third. Everyone else can be outfielders. When a batter makes an out, he goes to the outfield and everyone moves up one position.”

  Aaron Yoder rolled his eyes but agreed to the new rules. “If that’s how we’re going to play, I’ll end up being a batter for the rest of this school year. No one will ever get me out.”

  Aaron’s arrogance was insufferable, but Lily knew he was probably right. Aaron would be batting every inning and she would be stuck in the outfield for the rest of the school term.

  Recesses were extra fun on the days when Mama was teaching English. Mama liked to come out and pitch the softball to the batters.

  This afternoon, Aaron was up at bat. He hit the ball far to the outfield. Then it was Beth’s turn. She swung and missed. Once, then twice. On the third try, she hit a fly ball right to Sam Stoltzfus, who easily caught it and Beth was out. The children all rotated a position and Harvey stepped up to bat. Everybody scattered to the outfield. Harvey always hit the ball hard.

  Mama pitched the ball to Harvey. Lily heard a loud crack as Harvey’s bat met the ball. It flew right at Mama and knocked her down! Aaron bolted to the pitcher’s mound to help her up. Harvey dropped his bat and ran to join them. Aaron and Harvey held Mama’s arms and helped her into the schoolhouse.