Huckleberry Summer (Huckleberry Hill)

by Jennifer Beckstrand

  She moved and spoke and gestured with a simple grace that captivated Aden so he couldn’t think on anything else. With a knot in his stomach, he watched as Tyler slowly, cleverly edged close to her and asked her something. She nodded with a half smile on her lips, and they walked out of the yard together. Tyler had offered to drive Lily home, that much was plain.

  The uncomfortable, heavy feeling took Aden by surprise. Why should he be jealous? He already knew he wasn’t going to marry Lily. She was a short, little thing who didn’t like his dog.

  In his mind, he saw Lily, as she had looked earlier today, when she threw her arms around Pilot and hugged him tight.

  Aden shook his head to clear it. That didn’t mean she liked his dog, and it certainly didn’t mean he was ever going to marry her.

  When Aden got home, Mammi sat knitting in her rocker while Dawdi dozed in his overstuffed recliner. Aden thought they would have gone to bed by now.

  “How was the gathering?” Mammi said as Aden came through the door.

  “Fine.”

  Mammi held up her knitting needles looped with green yarn. “I am making Pilot a sweater. He and Sparky will match.”

  Aden smiled wearily. “He’ll like that.”

  “Did you make more friends tonight?” Mammi asked.

  Aden hung his hat on a hook. “I told them the story of chaining myself to the tree. They liked it.”

  “That one always busts me up laughing,” said Dawdi without opening his eyes.

  “Did you see Lily?”

  “Jah, she was there.”

  “Did you ask to drive her home, like I told you?” Aden sat on the sofa and propped his forearms on his knees. That way he could look Mammi straight in the eye, and she would know he was serious. “Mammi, you have been so gute to me, and I can’t begin to thank you for letting me stay here. You’ve even taken on the chore of finding me a wife. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but could you find me a wife who doesn’t already have a boyfriend?”

  Closing her eyes, Lily let the cool breeze tease wisps of hair around her face. She loved being in a courting buggy. Riding in the open air at night always made her feel like she could reach to heaven and touch the stars with her fingers.

  Tyler kept the horse at a nice steady speed. He knew Lily didn’t like to go fast. She feared she might fall out or the buggy would overturn if the pace were too hurried.

  Lily glanced at Tyler out of the corner of her eye. He seemed content to ride in silence. Guilt tugged at her. Her interest in Tyler had waned in the last few weeks. Maybe she shouldn’t have agreed to let him drive her home. He was nice enough and so steady—a gute candidate for a husband—but lately, she hadn’t found him all that interesting.

  But Dat encouraged the relationship. He thought the world of Tyler, and who was Lily to disagree? She trusted her father’s judgment more than her own. It was a painful lesson the last time she had disregarded his warnings.

  So she would persist. Falling in love didn’t always come with bells and whistles. Sometimes it sneaked up on you, like a sunrise. Neither she nor Tyler needed to force anything. Marriage was not in her plans this year. One wedding in the family would be quite enough.

  Tyler broke the silence. “Are you feeling better?”

  “Oh, of course. Aden did not mean to insult my dat. He has some strange ideas, that’s all.”

  “He is passionate about the treatment of God’s creatures, as we all should be. God does not look kindly on a man who makes animals suffer.”

  “My dat would never purposely be cruel to an animal. He wants to protect our chickens.”

  “Of course. I’m sure Aden knows that. But Aden is the kind of person who has the courage to speak up for what he feels is right, even at the risk of offending everybody.”

  “Or getting arrested,” Lily said.

  “Jah, although our way is not to meddle in other men’s affairs. God will make all things right. Aden will learn.”

  “I know he was mad tonight, but I also know he wouldn’t hurt a fly. He has a gentle spirit.”

  “No doubt,” Tyler said.

  They turned up Lily’s lane and the gravel crunched under the buggy wheels as they slowly rolled to a stop. Tyler jumped down and helped Lily from the buggy.

  “Denki, Tyler, for the lovely ride.”

  “Will I see you at the singeon on Sunday?”

  “Lord willing.”

  A wall of heat accosted Lily as she walked into her house. In the summertime, Mama kept the windows open as wide as they would go, but the house always felt stifling hot until late into the evening.

  Lily made her way into the kitchen where Mama and Dat sat looking at a pile of receipts.

  “How was the gathering?” Mama asked.

  “Fun. They had root beer. We played volleyball. Aden Helmuth told everybody how he got the scar on his eyebrow. Tyler’s mamm made pretzels.”

  Dat wrinkled his forehead and regarded Lily with a stern countenance. “Aden Helmuth was there?”

  “There is no good reason for him to stay away.”

  “I suppose not.”

  “How did Aden get that scar on his eyebrow? Did it happen in prison?” Mama asked.

  “He was trying to protect a tree, and somebody cracked him with the butt of a rifle.”

  Dat grunted his disapproval. “What kind of odd boy tries to protect a tree? Trees can take care of themselves.”

  Lily didn’t attempt to explain. Dat would never understand Aden’s passion for living things like Lily did. “We had pretzels.”

  Dat stroked his beard. “Lily, I know I told you we must show Aden Helmuth Christian kindness and Tyler reassured me that Aden is a gute boy, but take care. Don’t get caught in any of his schemes. It is too easy for young people to get caught in schemes.”

  “As far as I know, he doesn’t have any schemes.”

  “That’s what I thought about Zeke’s friends. When I learned the truth, it was too late.” Hurt flashed in Dat’s eyes as it always did when he spoke of Onkel Zeke. He didn’t need to say more.

  “Is Estee with you?” Mama said.

  “Nae. Floyd drove her home.”

  Mama grinned. “And who drove you home?”

  Lily cracked a smile, amused with her mama’s delight. Mama and Dat liked Tyler Yoder. “Who do you think, Mama?”

  Mama clapped her hands. Dat looked at her as if he knew everything and waited for her to spill the beans.

  “A certain bishop’s son?” Mama said, gushing with glee.

  Lily nodded.

  Dat shook his finger at Lily. “Stick with Tyler Yoder. He will make a fine husband, and he doesn’t have any schemes.”

  “Okay, Dat.”

  Lily sat next to her parents and watched as Mama wrote numbers in the family budget notebook. She nibbled on her bottom lip as she formulated her request. Leaning close so Dat would know she was serious, she said, “Dat, do you think we could throw away our steel traps?”

  Chapter Nine

  Lily hadn’t laid eyes on Aden all morning. If he’d wanted to see her, he could have easily breezed into the house and said hello. But no, for two weeks the incorrigible Aden Helmuth had made himself as scarce as hen’s teeth, when all Lily wanted to do was practice her Christian charity on him.

  And catch a glimpse of those irresistible eyes.

  But mostly practice charity.

  Her gaze strayed to the window more than once. Maybe he was still mad at her for using steel traps. Well, maybe she was still mad at him for being mad at her.

  She wanted to see him, but she couldn’t very well abandon the chicken or the nasty tofu frying in the skillet. The coleslaw and biscuits were done and as soon as the chicken cooked, they were off to Cobbler Pond for a picnic.

  Lily glanced at the small pile of stockings near the door. Pilot collected socks like other dogs collected bones. He often presented her with a dirty sock as a going-away present after work. She hadn’t seen him today. Even though she always tried to
resist that wet tongue, she was getting used to his daily attacks.

  Anna and Felty ambled into the great room with Felty singing one of his many melodies. He never sang the same lyrics twice. “I need no mansions here below, for Jesus said that I will grow, a happy tree in the sky not made with hands.”

  Felty carried a pile of blankets, and Anna held the picnic basket. “Almost ready for our picnic?” Anna asked, as if she’d never done anything quite so exciting in her entire life.

  Lily turned a piece of chicken in the frying pan. “We could go out here on the grass, Anna, if you don’t want to lug everything to Cobbler Pond. It’s a half-hour drive.”

  “Oh, we must go to Cobbler Pond,” Anna said. “The trees are lovely.”

  Felty laid his bundle of blankets on the sofa and walked to the cookstove to inspect the chicken. “We ain’t seen any progress for weeks. Anna is redoubling her efforts,” he said.

  Lily had no idea what that meant.

  “Cobbler Pond is quite a romantic spot,” Anna said. “The sunsets are beautiful.”

  Lily decided not to mention that their picnic would be long done before the sun even thought about setting over Cobbler Pond. “The chicken is almost cooked, but I’m not sure I did this tofu right.”

  Anna bustled to the cookstove and joined Felty in gazing into Lily’s pan of fried white mush. “If you made it, Aden will love it,” Anna said, patting her on the arm. “You are becoming an expert vegetarian cook.”

  Expert? Peanut butter and jelly and tofu hardly constituted mastery.

  She heard Aden stomping up the porch steps, and her heart somersaulted in her chest. Would he be happy to see her or give her a lecture on the evils of eating bacon?

  The door opened, and Aden’s dog bounded into the great room wearing a bright green sweater with a lovely blue stripe around the middle. Pilot saw Lily and barreled toward her like a runaway freight train. Lily stood her ground and held up her hand in warning. “Stop, Pilot.” Pilot obediently halted and cocked his head to look at Lily the way he always did. “Just because you saved Amanda’s life doesn’t mean you have permission to jump all over me.”

  She knew Aden stared at her, but when she met his eye, he looked away. But he was smiling.

  Aden didn’t say much as he drove the buggy to Cobbler Pond. Pilot and Felty sat up front with him, and Anna and Lily sat in back. Pilot took up more than his share of the front seat sitting between Aden and Felty, but neither of them seemed to mind. Felty scratched Pilot’s head almost the entire trip and periodically gave the dog a hearty pat.

  In the backseat, Anna wanted to talk about Aden and her latest knitting projects. “Aden has built us a compost bin,” she said. “It’s a very clever design. We put apple and cucumber peelings and such inside and then a lever lets us turn it around and around to stir it. Aden says it will turn into gute soil for the garden.”

  “Would you look at that,” Felty exclaimed as a truck and camper passed the buggy. “New York.”

  Barely a hundred yards wide and probably ten feet deep at its deepest point, Cobbler Pond sat off the road in a nice little hollow east of Bonduel. Lily didn’t come here often because she didn’t know how to swim and didn’t particularly enjoy the water, but the trees were lovely and wildflowers grew in thick clumps amidst the grass surrounding the pond. The water looked murky, and patches of algae floated on the surface near the far bank.

  With a firm grip and a strong arm, Aden helped Anna from the back of the buggy as easy as you please. He took Lily’s hand as she descended and sent a tingling sensation traveling up her arm, but he released her as soon as she had alighted.

  Lily reached into the backseat and retrieved the picnic basket.

  “I’ll carry it,” Aden said, taking it from her hand and gracing her with a half smile. He reached around her and snatched up the blankets too.

  His reaching brought him heart-stoppingly close to Lily, and he surprised her when he whispered, “It’s been exactly fifteen days, seventeen hours, and twenty minutes. Are you still mad at me?”

  The whispering knocked her off-kilter. Why did he get even more handsome when he lowered his voice?

  He bent his head toward her so she had a perfect view of his mouth. It was a very nice mouth.

  Mustn’t stare at the mouth.

  Couldn’t he sense that this closeness made her nervous? Lily stepped back and away from him but the buggy stood behind her, and she couldn’t go far. “I’m . . . are you still mad at me?”

  He didn’t pull away. “I’m not mad. You didn’t do anything wrong. I, on the other hand, have been wondering how long I should give it before you forget the whole incident. Do you need a few more days to mull it over?”

  “I . . . I am fine.” With her heart pounding a wild cadence, she scooted around him and put herself at a more comfortable distance.

  Aden slumped his shoulders. “I can’t see you getting mad at anybody. It’s not in your nature to fight back. I bulldozed you, and I’m sorry.”

  The dog barreled toward Lily, and it was Aden’s fault that she didn’t completely have her wits about her. She turned as Pilot, who had been playing in the water, jumped and planted his wet paws on her shoulders. Aden dropped the blankets and the picnic basket and caught her from behind so she didn’t tumble to the ground. “Pilot, get off,” she commanded.

  Pilot, ever the innocent bystander, got down, backed away, and whined contritely.

  Lily was acutely aware when Aden released his firm grip on her. She took a tissue from her pocket and made a futile attempt to wipe the mud from her apron. “You did hurt my feelings,” she said, “but you didn’t mean any harm. Tyler thinks you are brave to speak up.”

  A shadow passed across Aden’s face.

  Lily didn’t like his cloudy expression. “I will overlook your transgression this once because your dog is a hero.”

  Aden’s mouth quirked into a grin, and he tousled the fur on Pilot’s head. “Then I hope Pilot stays in your good graces.”

  Lily gave up wiping her apron. “He won’t.”

  “Lily!”

  Lily turned to see Treva Schrock and her parents trudging up the shore to Helmuths’ buggy. Lily threw her arms wide, and Treva catapulted herself into Lily’s embrace.

  “What are you doing here?” Lily asked.

  Few people could understand Treva when she spoke, even when she formed her words with great care. But Lily spent enough time around her to always know what she was trying to say. “Came eat lunch,” Treva said, keeping her grip tightly around Lily’s waist.

  “We’re having a picnic today too,” Lily said.

  Treva’s father, a thick, sturdy man with unruly eyebrows, followed his daughter up to the buggy and shook Aden’s hand. “Hello. I am Nathan Schrock,” he said. “This is my wife Margaret. Lily is Treva’s best friend.”

  “It’s lovely to see you,” Anna said.

  “I saw squirrel,” Treva said.

  “A squirrel? Did he want to eat your food?”

  Treva wanted to tell Lily all about her picnic, and Lily listened enthusiastically while the others waited. She tried to ignore the tenderness that gathered around Aden’s eyes the longer they stood there. He was becoming a large distraction.

  “Treva, tell Lily good-bye,” said her dat. “There is laundry to do at home yet.”

  Treva reached up and gave Lily a loud kiss on the cheek. “Bye, Lily. See at gmay.”

  Holding onto her mother’s hand, Treva looked over her shoulder and waved until she ducked into her buggy and her dat drove away.

  “I’ve never seen that girl without a smile,” Anna said. “What a treasure.”

  Aden stared at Lily until she thought she might burst with giddy agitation. “Aden,” she finally said, “will you stop that?”

  “Stop what?”

  “Oh . . . just stop.”

  He shrugged and flashed her a cocky grin. “How can I know what to stop if I don’t know I’m doing it?”

  “Yo
u know well enough.”

  His eyes glowed as he studied her face. “You have a gute heart, Lily.”

  “Nae. None is gute but God.”

  Anna and Felty, arm in arm, were already halfway to the pond. Aden picked up the basket and the blankets and shrugged Lily’s hand away when she tried to take something from him. “There is a nice spot under that tree where we can lay a blanket.”

  Anna pointed to a weathered wooden jetty that stretched ten feet into the water. “That is where Aden’s dat asked Aden’s mamm to marry him. Isn’t that romantic, Lily?”

  “It doesn’t look safe to walk on,” Lily said, “with no railing like that.”

  Did Aden suppress a smile? “I’m sure my dat held tight to my mamm so she wouldn’t fall.” Without warning, he laid his armful on the ground and sprinted to the jetty.

  Lily caught her breath as he jogged to the end of the jetty. With each step, the ancient wood creaked under his feet. She thought he might jump into the water. Instead, he shot Lily a mischievous grin and did a cartwheel that took the length of the small dock. He was quite limber for someone so tall.

  Lily almost couldn’t watch. “Aden Helmuth! You’re going to fall in.”

  “Such a fine young man,” Anna said.

  “But thick in the head,” Felty added.

  “Now, Felty. Lily doesn’t think he’s thick. Do you, Lily?”

  Still showing off, Aden did a little jig backward and stood at the edge of the jetty with his back to the water. He raised his arms in victory as Lily’s nerves pulled taut. “Look at me, Lily. Not falling,” he called, taunting her with that irresistible grin. “Perfectly safe.”

  Pilot, who never wanted to be left out of the frolicking, stampeded up the jetty at full speed. The look of surprise on Aden’s face was priceless right before Pilot crashed into him. They both flew into the water with a giant splash.

  Lily let out a cry of dismay, and her heart stopped until Aden’s head bobbed to the surface. He spat out a stream of water and burst into infectious laughter.

  “It’s gute he knows how to swim,” Felty said.

  Pilot paddled around Aden as they both splashed and made an extravagant fuss. Aden pointed to his hat that floated out of his reach, and Pilot swam to it, captured it in his teeth, and made his way toward shore. Aden followed him with long, steady strokes, and soon they emerged from the water, bringing a good portion of the pond with them.