Huckleberry Hill

by Jennifer Beckstrand

  “Especially not then. It seems like it’s the only thing I’m good for—reaching bottles—because Mamm can’t be bothered to pull out the step stool.”

  “I love being tall.”

  “You’re not a girl.”

  Moses’s voice rose with his enthusiasm. “But I love tall girls.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t mean love—”

  “I know. You don’t want to marry me.”

  “I mean, I get tired of looking at scalps all day. I’ve seen dandruff that would make your toes curl in disgust.”

  “And shiny bald heads.”

  “Folks get sore necks looking up at me for a simple conversation, but I can talk to you without straining my neck or yours. You are one of the few people who doesn’t have an unflattering view up my nostrils.”

  Lia cracked a smile before pressing her lips into a tight line. “But most people don’t consider my height a blessing.”

  “You let other people determine your happiness?”

  She furrowed her brow. “Not usually. I’ve been told so often that I am too tall. . . .” She studied his face. “I suppose I have always believed that my height is an affliction, just as sure as I know the sun will rise every morning. Dat says I am naturally prideful because I tower over other girls.”

  “As if you had any control over that! God made you the way you are. ‘I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.’”

  Lia sprouted an exasperated half smile. “My fater quotes that scripture to me often when he admonishes me to be content that I will never marry.”

  At that moment, Moses wished Lia’s fater were standing next to him so he could chastise her dat for saying such an unkind thing to his daughter. But he let his indignation pass like a summer thunderstorm and raised his eyebrows mischievously. “The only thing that will keep you from marrying is that you reject perfectly good marriage proposals.”

  Her face popped into a full smile. She had brilliantly white teeth. “You didn’t propose.”

  “Of course not. You said you wouldn’t have me.”

  “I won’t marry someone arrogant enough to assume I want him to propose.”

  “I can’t help being arrogant. Who wouldn’t be proud to be this tall?” He looked at the peach trees and propped his hands on his hips. “I’ll fetch the ladder if you want to pretend you need it. Will that make you feel better? Less proud?”

  A laugh bubbled up from her throat and could not be stopped. “My one comfort is that I am not as proud as you are.”

  “Not until you grow about six inches. Then you could look down your nose at me all you want. Until then, I get to look down my nose at you—nostrils and all.”

  “Have you ever considered trimming your nose hairs?”

  Moses laughed until tears sprang to his eyes. “That bad?”

  “Nae. I am just trying to pull your pride down a notch or two.”

  “Do anything but joke about my facial hair. I’m very sensitive.”

  Chapter Five

  By the middle of June, spring gave way to summer. Old sugar maples were thick with young leaves, wildflowers blanketed the field behind the house, and a hundred varieties of birds kept up a lively conversation as they tended to their nests.

  Lia helped Anna put on her sweater as they stood on the front porch.

  Anna thanked her with a motherly pat on the arm. “You’ve taken such good care of us since you’ve been here. I can see why you want to be a midwife. You have a talent for seeing a need and filling it.”

  “I don’t think I’ll ever be a midwife. My dat thinks it’s a waste of time.” Lia deftly fastened the last of Anna’s sweater hooks. The azure yarn accented her twinkly blue eyes.

  “I knitted this sweater last spring,” Anna said. “A new pattern.”

  “It’s beautiful.”

  “My hair is so white, my head looks like a cloud floating in the sky of my sweater.”

  Anna wore her lavender dress and black bonnet. Lia had on the spinach green dress that she’d worn the day she met Moses. A boy at a singeon once told her the green made her eyes look like black-eyed Susans. She didn’t know if he meant to be flattering, but he had an unexpected look of admiration on his face, so she decided to take it as a compliment.

  They heard Moses’s buggy rolling up the lane before it appeared from behind the leafy trees. The ancient, secondhand buggy he used to drive had finally busted an axle two weeks ago. In its place, Moses had purchased what Felty called “a newfangled contraption” a far sight too fancy for Felty. But some of the families in the settlement had such buggies, and the bishop consented to the improvements. Three chickens scooted out of the way of the wheels.

  Moses leaped from his buggy with a grin as wide as a country mile. “Is everybody ready?”

  Lia ignored the little flip her heart did when Moses smiled. She’d been here two weeks and already seen him three times at Huckleberry Hill and once at gmay. Anna finagled choring so that they often worked on a project together. Moses was a pleasant man to be with. He might even consider her a friend. Her heart shouldn’t do a somersault when seeing a friend.

  Lia ducked into the kitchen and picked up the two pies she made for bakery.

  Moses followed close behind looking as handsome as ever but doing his best to avoid her eyes. “Mammi says there’s a box of pot holders to bring.”

  “On the table.”

  Moses stuffed the shoe box full of Anna’s knitted creations under his arm. “I am to fetch Dawdi too.”

  As if waiting for an introduction, Felty ambled down the hall with hat in hand, singing softly. “Life is like a canyon railroad with an engineer that’s brave—”

  “Ready, Dawdi?”

  Dawdi gave Moses a quick embrace. “Are we riding in that newfangled contraption?”

  Moses’s dimple appeared. “As sure as you’re born, Dawdi.”

  Dawdi raised an eyebrow. “Does it come with seat belts? You might lose your head and get to going along too fast.”

  Moses helped Dawdi on with his jacket. “We’ll take it nice and slow for you.”

  “Not too slow,” insisted Felty. “I’d like to make it to the auction before nightfall.”

  They paraded out the door, and Moses took Anna’s arm to help her down the steps. Anna patted Moses reassuringly. “No need, dear. I can do stairs just fine.”

  With his box still under one arm, Moses released his independent grandma and took hold of Lia’s elbow. “I’ll help Lia. She is lugging two pies, and if she falls, it’s a long way down.”

  Lia’s heart skipped around her chest like a skater bug. How did Moses make a teasing comment sound like admiration? She huffed in mock indignation and nudged Moses away from her. “If you fall, you’ll take me with you.”

  “I want to protect the pies,” Moses said. “We might as well leave them here because I plan on buying both of them.”

  More heart somersaults. “My pies are plenty expensive, Moses Zimmerman. How much are you prepared to pay?”

  Anna insisted Felty sit in front with Moses while she and Lia sat in the backseat. Lia had never seen such a spiffy buggy. The wheel spokes glistened with black paint and shiny lacquer, and the seats were upholstered in deep midnight blue.

  Once they and the pies were securely settled, Moses took up the reins and guided the horse down the hill. “Look at this electric control panel, Dawdi. I can turn on the battery-powered headlights and the signals from here.”

  “It sure is fancy,” Felty said. “The bishop has got strange notions about what’s plain and what’s not.”

  “We’re less likely to be hit by a car,” Moses said, not the least bit ruffled by Felty’s reproof.

  “It wonders me what the bishop would say if I came to gmay in my skivvies next Sunday.”

  Anna leaned back and pushed her glasses in place. “Now, Felty. Remember what the good Lord said, ‘Some folks choke on a gnat and swallow a camel.’ Moses is a godly man who takes fine care of his grandparents
. He is not on the road to hell in this buggy.”

  Felty, not apt to be grumpy, threw up his hands in resignation. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but I don’t know what vehicle people take to get there.”

  Moses threw a sideways grin to Lia. “I think they walk.”

  Once down the hill, Moses eased the buggy onto the paved country road. The trees formed a canopy of green so thick, it looked as if they were in a tunnel. A car inched up behind them and slowly passed when the way was clear.

  Felty’s eyes lit up like a propane lantern at midnight. “Texas. I don’t have that one yet.”

  Anna patted Lia’s hand. “Felty plays the license plate game with himself every year.”

  “The license plate game?”

  Felty took out a small spiral notebook and a stubby pencil from his shirt pocket. “I start in January and try to find all fifty state plates before the end of December.”

  Lia saw him write “Texas” below the names of seven other states.

  “Not many out-of-state cars come through here. In summer I see more. Last year I got all but Alabama and, wouldn’t you know it, on Christmas Eve I spied an Alabama coming out of the parking lot at Lark Country Store. The best Christmas present I ever got.”

  “Why folks from Alabama would want to be in Wisconsin at wintertime is a mystery to me,” Moses said.

  Felty nodded solemnly. “A Christmas miracle.”

  True to his word, Moses took the trip nice and slow, but fast enough to get them to the auction before dinnertime.

  They found a spot to park the buggy down the road from Bontragers’ farm where the auction took place. A massive green-and-white-striped tent stood where an empty field used to be, and the auctioneer busily chanted prices for farm implements and sewing machines. There looked to be two or three hundred people milling around, bidding on items and buying food from the tent that housed bakery. Englisch and Amish alike mingled in the yard.

  Moses carried Anna’s colorful pot holders to the roomy toolshed where handicrafts and household items were being sold. Lia deposited her pies on the long table under the tent where at least thirty other pies stood waiting to be cut and sold by the slice. Her two measly offerings seemed insignificant next to the sheer volume of food. Next time she would make more pies.

  But every little bit helped. Auctions such as these helped raise money for medical bills and home repairs in the community. People came from all over Wisconsin to experience an Amish auction.

  Four coolers marked “Zimmerman Cheese Factory” were full of baby swiss cheese. Some customers bought an entire wax-covered wheel while other wheels were sliced for sandwiches also being sold.

  Felty came up behind Lia. “I know it ain’t proper to be proud, but I do love seeing Moses’s name on that cheese. He works mighty hard and gives a passel of money to the Amish Aid Fund.” Felty leaned closer and cupped his hand over his mouth. “That is a great secret, and there’s not nobody knows that I know.”

  Lia curled up the corners of her mouth. “I won’t tell a soul.”

  Moses and Anna joined them in the kitchen tent. Moses put an arm around each of his grandparents. “So, what would you like to buy today?”

  Felty looked around at the tents and people and items on the lawn up for sale. “I’m not aiming to buy anything. I come to be with Anna. Anna is the spender in the family.”

  “Now, Felty,” Anna said. She pointed to a smaller tent. “I want to see what kitchen utensils are for sale.”

  Felty shook his head. “Oh, Annie girl, we don’t need no more utensils. We got plenty of gadgets to home.”

  “I want to buy some cheese,” Lia announced.

  Moses stifled a smile and pretended he didn’t know what cheese she was talking about. “I want a piece of pie.”

  Felty offered Anna his arm. “Come on, Banannie, I’ll take you to see the gadgets. But we are only going for a visit.”

  Anna gave Lia a pointed look and raised her eyebrows. “You two enjoy some time alone together.”

  Lia and Moses studied each other before bursting into laughter at Anna’s reminder that they were supposed to be falling in love. “I’m not looking for a wife,” Moses said.

  “I won’t have you,” Lia replied, her heart bouncing around like a rubber ball.

  Lia pulled some money from her pocket, but Moses shook his head. “I’ll buy. That way if you don’t like it, you won’t feel like you wasted your money.”

  “Nae, nae,” said Lia. “I can pay.” She held out her money to one of the girls helping customers at the front table. “I would like a wheel of Zimmerman cheese.”

  Moses gently nudged Lia with his shoulder until he stood directly in front of the girl. “Don’t take her money.”

  The girl, about eighteen years old, batted her eyes and smiled at Moses. Lia wasn’t surprised. Moses’s good looks could have melted snow in the dead of winter.

  Moses leaned toward the girl. “I’m paying for the cheese and two pies.”

  “Do you want two slices or two whole pies?”

  “I want to buy the pies that this girl baked.”

  “Okay, which pies are they?”

  Moses motioned to the table laden with pastries. Lia’s pies were nowhere to be seen. Lia watched as another Amish girl dunked her pie tins into a washtub overflowing with soapy water. She pointed them out to Moses. “I guess they sold already.”

  Moses groaned and slumped his shoulders. “What kind were they?”

  “Butterscotch.”

  Moses groaned louder and bowed his head. “My favorite.”

  “Do you want a different kind?” said the girl.

  “Nae, just the cheese.” He nudged Lia farther away from the girl at the counter. “Which I am paying for.”

  The girl retrieved a wheel of cheese from one of the coolers. Moses handed it to Lia, who examined the label. White with blue and red letters that read “Zimmerman Cheese Factory.”

  The girl gave Moses his change without taking her eyes from him. “You’re both so tall.”

  Lia offered no reply. She’d heard it too many times already.

  Moses flashed those white teeth. “Thank you.” And he meant it. He had been telling Lia the truth. When someone mentioned his height, he took it as a compliment.

  Moses produced a pocketknife and handed it to Lia. “Don’t eat the wax.”

  Lia laughed and took his knife while Moses turned his gaze to the ground. Lia understood the look. Humility warred against the longing inside him. It was the same for Lia when somebody ate one of her pies. She wanted people to like her baking but didn’t want their praise to make her prideful.

  She peeled back the wax, cut herself a thick slice, and took a bite. Moses glued his eyes to her face.

  Milder than regular swiss, the cheese blanketed her taste buds with a distinctive tang and a buttery flavor Lia found irresistible. “Oh, Moses! This is delicious. I’ve never eaten cheese that seems to melt in my mouth.”

  Moses stuffed his hands in his pockets and moved some dirt around with his foot. “It took me two years to get it right.” He glanced at her. “But I give all the glory to God. I know where my blessings come from.”

  “Of course you do. It is natural to feel pleased that your cheese brings people so much happiness.”

  Moses relaxed his shoulders. “I’m glad you like it. I am sorry I did not get to taste your pie.”

  “I will make you another one.”

  “I’ve been wishing for one of your pies ever since Mammi told me they taste like a slice of heaven.”

  “She only says that in hopes you’ll be interested enough to marry me.”

  “I don’t need a wife for that. I can hire a cook,” Moses said.

  “You will need to. I don’t know what woman would have you. You’re too tall.”

  “Girls like tall boys.”

  Two older women with chocolate brown skin marched up to Moses and Lia. The woman with ample curves wore a pair of tight blue jeans
, a red sweater, and an impressive collection of chunky bracelets on both arms. The other, thinner, with an irresistible smile, wore a bright purple sundress with matching sweater and a straw hat tied with a yellow ribbon. They were definitely not local.

  The first woman got right to the point. “Y’all are the cutest Amish couple I’ve ever seen.”

  She spoke with a Southern drawl that Lia found charming. Definitely not from around here.

  Moses’s lips twitched in annoyance. “We’re not a couple.”

  The woman in purple put a hand on Lia’s elbow. “Honey, if you weren’t Amish, you could definitely have a career in modeling. You’re so tall and beautiful, those magazine people would eat you up.”

  Brightening considerably, Moses wagged his finger at Lia. “I told you so.”

  Lia grabbed his hand and pushed it away and then turned her attention to the visitors. “Thank you.”

  “It’s too bad you don’t allow folks to take pictures. I’d love one of you.”

  “No, we don’t allow it,” Moses said, “but I understand why you want a picture of Lia.”

  Lia’s heart started doing flips again. Why did she let him get to her like that?

  The woman in purple stuck out her hand. “My name’s Miss Ernestina and this is Miss Gloria. We’re from Mississippi.”

  Moses was naturally friendly, but it amazed Lia at how easily he conversed with two complete strangers. “People from Mississippi don’t usually make their way up this far north.”

  “Gloria’s son lives in Green Bay. He works for the Packers. We drove all the way up here for a visit. When we got here he said, ‘Auntie Ernestina, you gotta see the Amish.’ So we come out this way to see what all the fuss is about.”

  “I hope you like the auction,” Moses said.

  “You should try the baby swiss cheese,” Lia said. “It is the best thing you ever tasted.”

  Ernestina’s smile revealed a gold-capped tooth. “We will, thank you very kindly.”

  “Wait,” Moses said. “Did you drive all the way from Mississippi?”

  “Sure enough,” said Miss Gloria.

  “In your car?”

  “Sure enough, again.”

  “Does it have a Mississippi license plate?”