by Linda Byler
“Sure. We’ll go along over. Come on, Debbie, we’ll walk home with you,” Lizzie said, feeling all kind and softhearted. She loved Debbie, she decided, and would gladly do anything she could to help her.
So they walked together through the soft, dark night, the snow falling around them in jeweled whispers. Snow was so magical, and Lizzie told Debbie so. Debbie lifted her head and stuck out her tongue, letting the soft flakes melt on it.
“Yeah, Lizzie, I love snow, too. But you know what is just as good as snow? Hot chocolate after you’re done playing in it. I wish my mom would make hot chocolate, but she never does, because I make a mess. Does your mom?”
“We make our own,” Lizzie said.
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm. Hot chocolate is just milk, sugar, and Nestlé Quik, or syrup.”
“Pancake syrup?”
“No! Chocolate syrup!”
They both kept slipping and sliding, talking about snow and hot chocolate, until Mandy said she was so cold there were icicles on her nose. Then they had a serious conversation about icicles, because Debbie said an icicle fell on a man’s head once and he died. Lizzie gasped in amazement, which started Debbie on the subject of skull fractures and concussions.
Before they knew it, they were at Debbie’s door, and she was ringing the doorbell. It rang and rang. Debbie looked worriedly at Lizzie, saying, “See?”
The door was soon opened and Debbie’s mother stuck her tousled head out the door. “You home? Come on in—take your boots off first,” she said. So Debbie sat on the porch and pulled on her boots, as Lizzie said good-bye, dashing home as fast as she could through the slippery snow. She did not feel comfortable around Marlene, because she was so particular and big and black-haired. English people made Lizzie feel shy, so she was glad to be running through the slippery snow with Mandy, home to Mam and Dat and the cozy gas lamp in their basement home.
chapter 3
Christmas
The snow lay thick and deep, like a wondrous sparkling blanket over the cold landscape. The ridge on one side of the basement house looked like a picture book, because the whole side of it was covered with pine trees. The huge mountain about a mile away was covered with dark trees etched against white snow, which made an interesting pattern.
It was all so beautiful that Lizzie would often stand and stare, awed by the hills and trees.
Christmas was in the air. The neighbors were stringing lights around their bushes and shrubs. Lizzie had a poem to learn for the Christmas program at school, and Mam had gone to Marion, their new town, to buy gifts for the family. Actually, she had gone more than once, because they had some money left over from the sale of the harness shop. Mam was so eager about Christmas this year because she had more money to spend.
Lizzie desperately wanted ice skates. Her cousins all went skating, they told her, as soon as the ponds were frozen. Her uncles and aunts at Grandpa Glicks had all gone ice skating in the wintertime, so Lizzie was used to watching. Her one aunt, Miriam, could jump over barrels or sleds. She would skate as fast as she could, with long, low strides, until she hurled herself over the sleds. Uncle Samuel could do it even better and it thrilled Lizzie to watch them. Someday, she vowed, she would do everything they did, including skating backward.
She didn’t know how much ice skates cost, but Mam said the good leather ones were very expensive. Lizzie told her she didn’t want one other thing—not even a candy cane or Hershey’s Kisses, if she could only have a pair of white figure skates.
Oh, how her heart thrilled to think of wearing white knee socks with white skates. Amish girls always wore black shoes and socks, which she never thought about very much. That’s just how things were. But for some reason, girls were allowed to wear white knee socks to skate, and it was Lizzie’s dream to glide across a pond as gracefully as Miriam did.
Mam was wrapping gifts in the bedroom when the girls came home from school. The door was tightly closed, but Mam stuck her head out to tell them where she was. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkled as she told them to stay out, trying to be stern.
“Am I getting ice skates, Mam?” Lizzie pleaded, knowing full well Mam would never tell her.
“Now hush, Lizzie. I can’t tell you. Now you girls get the house cleaned up and unpack your lunches, then Emma, you may peel potatoes while Lizzie and Mandy fill the woodbox.”
She closed the bedroom door firmly, while Lizzie and Mandy hopped up and down in excitement. Lizzie took off her bonnet and twirled it across the living room, followed by her gloves and scarf. Mandy hopped on one foot and banged her lunch on the countertop. Emma frowned as she hung up her clothes in the laundry room.
“Pick them up, Lizzie!” she said scowling.
“It’s Christmas, Emma! Wheee!” and Lizzie spun herself around the living room.
Emma smiled. Lizzie’s joy was infectious, and she started singing, “We three kings of Orient are,” and Mandy promptly joined in. “Oh, star of wonder, star of light,” they all belted out, until Mam opened the bedroom door, shooing Jason out to the singing girls. He held his head sideways as if to inspect them more closely, then burst into song, way off key and without the proper words.
This was a happy season for the Glick family. The basement house was much warmer than their previous, rattly old house, and Dat and Mam were more relaxed. Mam was happy every day, because she loved living here in Jefferson County. Dat was so busy getting his pallet shop built, so he was almost never at home. When he was, he seemed a bit preoccupied, thinking and planning ahead about the machinery and the huge diesel engines it would take to run the equipment to cut boards and nail them into pallets.
The girls finished their song in a fit of giggles, because Jason did not know the words. He just stood in the middle of the living room floor and pushed out his stomach, lifted his head, and with his mouth wide open and his head of curls bouncing in rhythm, sang as loud as he possibly could.
Mandy wiped her eyes, while Emma and Lizzie sat on the sofa, weak from laughing. He looked like a little bandleader, putting his heart into every note, quite unaware of the girls’ laughter.
“Oh, Jase,” Lizzie gasped.
“I can sing,” he announced proudly.
“You sure can,” Emma agreed, which started them laughing again. Then Emma got up briskly and told Lizzie to get started carrying wood.
“I’m hungry. I’m going to eat something first,” Lizzie told Emma.
“Supper will soon be ready. You can wait.”
So because it was Christmas, and because Lizzie knew she should not eat Ritz crackers and cheese before supper, she didn’t say anything, even if she would have loved to put two pieces of cheese between Ritz crackers. That was the trouble with white American cheese. It was sliced too thin; that was why you had to put on a half piece, broke in half again. Lizzie always wanted to put a whole slice on, which would actually be four slices on a cracker, but Mam didn’t let her—it was too expensive and too fattening.
So she thought about crackers and cheese as she and Mandy filled the woodbox. She wished they had so much money that Mam would buy Pepsi, like Debbie’s mom. But she never did, because it was too expensive. Besides, they didn’t have ice cubes here, so what was the use buying Pepsi? Lizzie always thought it was so English to drink soda out of a fancy glass with ice clinking around in it. If she ever got married, she would buy pretty glasses and Pepsi.
After the woodbox was filled, Dat came home for supper. Mam was finished wrapping gifts for the evening, so they all sat around the kitchen table and talked. Lizzie told Dat he had better come to the Christmas program at school, even if he was so busy, because he should hear their poems.
Dat smiled tiredly, running his hands through his beard. “When is it, Lizzie?”
“The day before Christmas.”
“Which is?”
“Tomorrow!” Mandy squealed. Mam smiled knowingly at Mandy.
After supper, the girls all helped do dishes, because Mam was going
to make cookies that were put through a press. She had mixed the dough earlier in the day, and put it in a tight container. She set the container of cookie dough on a bench on the front porch to chill it, which made it easier to handle. Not everyone’s Mam could make cookies that were put through a cookie press. Mam had a special talent to cook and bake, so everything she made tasted wonderful to Lizzie.
When Mam brought in the dough and lit the wick under the oven of the kerosene stove, the girls all scrambled around the kitchen table to watch. First, she spooned in some of the firm golden cookie dough into a shiny oblong tube. She screwed on the top, which had a round plunger-type handle that pushed down on the dough. The most wonderful part of all were the little plates Mam screwed on the bottom of the tube. There were stars, moons, crescents, or holly leaves. There were flowers or little bursts that looked like a pineapple.
They all took turns picking a design, and Mam used an entire tube of cookie dough for one pattern. Then Emma painted the top of the dough with beaten egg, using a small pastry brush. Only Emma was allowed to do that because she was the oldest, which actually irked Lizzie quite a bit. But because it was Christmas, she bit her tongue and didn’t say a word. She knew she could paint the cookies as well as Emma. After all, she was only one year and a month younger. Mam had told her last year she was too “shooslich,” meaning she went too fast, dribbling the egg beside the cookie. That made Lizzie feel bad, but she didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything for a long time. This year she just didn’t mention anything about wanting to paint beaten egg on the cookies.
They put red and green sprinkles on top of one cookie sheet, and tiny silver balls on another. Sometimes they put brown sugar and ground walnuts on top, or just sugar and cinnamon.
Mam’s cheeks were flushed and her stomach was covered with flour. She always wore her “bake” apron, which was actually a tea towel with a band sewed along one side, which Mam tied in the back. Her sleeves were rolled up and her plump arms worked the cookie press, producing one perfect cookie after another. She pressed down on the press with the palm of one hand, holding the tube with the other, moving quite rapidly along the cookie sheet.
The kitchen was warm and cozy, with lamplight reflecting in the glossy varnish of the kitchen cabinets. The floor had little dots on the linoleum pattern, green and light brown mixed together, which matched the window curtains. There was a long braided rug on the floor in front of the sink, and one just inside the door. Lizzie loved their basement home, especially the kitchen, because it was so warm in cold weather.
After their Christmas program at school the following day, Dat and Mam talked quietly in the living room. Mam kept glancing to the kitchen table, where Lizzie and Mandy were using their new box of crayons their teacher had given them for Christmas. Emma was sweeping the wood chips away from the stove in the laundry room, getting the house all cleaned up for Christmas.
When Emma was finished, Dat said if they all came into the living room, he would read the Bible story about Baby Jesus.
Lizzie looked up, bewildered. “Why now?” she asked. He always read the Christmas story on Christmas morning, after breakfast, and then they were allowed to have their presents.
“Oh, just because; Mam thinks we should have the Christmas this evening,” he said seriously, but Lizzie could tell his eyes weren’t very serious.
“You mean, then we may have our presents tomorrow morning as soon as we get up? Before breakfast?” Mandy asked.
“Or tonight? Tonight! Right now!” Lizzie said, because she was catching on to Mam’s surprise.
“Okay. Everyone quiet now,” Dat said, as he cleared his throat and began to read. He read about Mary and Joseph, the trip to Bethlehem, and the tiny Baby Jesus being born in a stable. Lizzie loved this story. There was nothing to be afraid of and nothing in the story that gave her the blues. Lizzie was often afraid of God and fierce Bible characters, so she never enjoyed certain stories very much. But the Christmas story was different. Everyone was so glad that Baby Jesus was born; even the angels were so full of joy that they came down to the shepherds and sang to them. Lizzie thought it was no wonder these shepherds were scared, if the sky turned all bright like that and it was dark, during the night. They probably thought the end of the world was coming; but then, maybe the shepherds so long ago didn’t know anything about the world coming to an end someday.
Lizzie hoped God would wait for a long time yet. She loved her life here in Jefferson County, because there were so many things to do. She was growing up now, and she wasn’t quite as worried about things that could happen anymore. She and Emma hardly ever quarreled, since Emma helped Mam do her work, because that is what she enjoyed. So Mandy and Lizzie became best of companions, being close in age and so much alike.
Dat read about the three wise men coming to see Baby Jesus, with their strange gifts of perfumes and spices. Lizzie always thought they actually should have given Him diapers and baby clothes, because He didn’t have any. She hoped Mary and Joseph could sell those expensive perfumes to buy baby things for Jesus.
Dat closed the Bible story, and Mam’s eyes twinkled as she got up and hurried into the bedroom. She returned, carrying a brightly wrapped package and set it on Jason’s lap. Jason looked surprised, looking first at the package, then at Mam, before he squealed excitedly.
Lizzie was so surprised. She thought this was one of the nicest gifts she had ever received. They were allowed to have their gifts on Christmas Eve, and did not have to wait till the next morning! It was unbelievable.
When Mam set a big square package on Lizzie’s lap, she whispered, “Thank you!” She was much too nervous to say anything else, because she was so terribly afraid it was not a pair of ice skates. She ripped the paper greedily and in one second she saw the words “Canadian Flyer.” She jumped up, scattering paper, and held the box of skates to her chest. She had really, truly, received her very own pair of figure skates! Quickly, she sat down again, struggling to open the heavy cardboard box. After she had the lid open, she didn’t know if she would laugh or cry. Inside the box was a brand new pair of woolly knee socks! They were white! She stroked them lovingly, speechless with surprise. Surely this was the best gift she had ever received.
There was a squeal of delight from Mandy, who had received the very same Christmas gift. There was also a pair for Emma, but she had a smaller package besides her ice skates. It was a diary, to write in before she went to bed. Emma was twelve years old now, so she was actually becoming a young girl; she was no longer a child.
Jason ran in circles, yelling hoarsely, holding a box filled with plastic horses. He had a barn, so for his gift Mam had bought lots of horses and their babies. He also had a package containing a trailer to put his horses in, which he promptly hitched to his old pickup truck.
Dat beamed, smiling at the children’s joy. Mam sat beside him on the couch, laughing at Jason’s excitement. Then she gave a package to Dat, which contained a soft corduroy vest, lined with sheepskin. Dat said it was the perfect garment to wear in the pallet shop, because that way his arms were free to run the nailer. He tried it on, and Mam patted his stomach when she saw the vest was snug around it. He pulled in his stomach, standing as tall as he could, to show Mam he was not putting on weight. But he really was, Lizzie thought, laughing happily with everyone else.
Then Mam gave Dat a large glass jar filled with hot sausages. He just loved them, and he always bought one when he went away with a driver. She told him he was only allowed one or two every day, until they were all gone, but he was already on his way to the kitchen to open his jar of sausages. Mam shook her head, but she was smiling because it was Christmas.
Lizzie was putting the long, wide strings in her skates. She didn’t understand why there were only hooks and no holes to put the strings through along the top of the skates, until Dat showed her how to do it.
“Here, put your foot out,” he said. So Lizzie stuck out one foot, and Dat helped her put on her skates. They pinche
d horribly, because they were so narrow.
“Ow! Ouch!” she winced. “They’re too tight.”
“I doubt it, Lizzie. Stand up on them.”
So Lizzie stood up and, much to her delight, they weren’t tight on her foot, just hard and firm around her heel and ankle.
“Now, when you lace them, this is what these hooks are for,” Dat said, as he firmly laced her skates around her leg, criss-crossing the strings around the hooks.
“O-hh,” said Lizzie. “Now I understand.”
“Now put on your other one.”
So Lizzie put on her other skate, as Dat helped Emma. Mandy watched carefully, then sat on the sofa and did her own.
Lizzie stood up, and her ankles wobbled, because she was standing on one thin silver blade. For a moment, despair coursed through her. How in the world would she ever learn to glide across a frozen pond? It was hard just standing on the wooden floor with the back of her knees propped against the sofa.
“This is going to be impossible,” she groaned.
“Oh, no,” Dat said. “Skating isn’t hard at all. You’ll take a few tumbles, don’t you worry, but you’ll be fine. All you do is put on your skates and put one foot in front of the other, and you’ll learn.”
“Are you going to teach us?” Emma asked.
“Maybe. If I have time.”
Then they all went out to the kitchen and Mam made hot cocoa. They ate all the Christmas cookies they could hold, and salted peanuts and Hershey’s Kisses wrapped in red and green foil. They even had a large cut-glass bowl filled with sweet, cold grapes, purple and green. There was another pretty bowl with tangerines and bananas, and they were allowed to eat anything they wanted.
Lizzie unwrapped her chocolate candy and popped it into her mouth. The sweetness melted on her tongue, and she washed it down with a sip of hot chocolate. Then she tasted a green grape, which puckered her mouth because it was so sour.
Emma said you should eat fruit with crackers or peanuts, not chocolate candy. So Lizzie ate a handful of salted peanuts and tried a purple grape, which was absolutely delicious.