by Mary Ellis
When she arrived at the white clapboard schoolhouse, she saw no stragglers lingering on the teeter-totter. No cluster of little girls whispered behind upraised mittens at the swings. Inside the double doors, Meghan found no one on the benches in the outer hallway. On the left side the boys’ black jackets and felt hats had been hung on the row of wooden pegs, while the girls’ navy blue coats and bonnets were neatly lined up on the right. Not a bonnet string dangled askew. With no pegs left, Meghan hooked her coat and outer bonnet atop another and quietly pulled open the inner door.
But not quite quietly enough. Thirty-five pairs of curious eyes turned in her direction, while the thirty-sixth pair appeared more impatient than curious. Joanna Kauffman’s eyes scanned Meghan from the bottom of her soiled skirt to her reddened nose, which unfortunately had begun to run.
“Meghan Yost, I presume?” Joanna stepped away from the chalkboard as boys in the back row began to chatter. The teacher clapped her hands and the chatter ceased. “Please leave your boots in the outer hallway. You’ll find a box of tissues on the windowsill. You may take a seat in the last row. Today, you’ll just observe. Children, this is Meghan. She may be your new teacher, but for now let’s return to what we were doing.” Joanna turned back to the chalkboard.
Meghan would have preferred blowing her nose before her official introduction, but it was too late to worry about that. Some of the older boys smirked, while several girls giggled. One girl—an eighth grader, judging by her size—stared at her skirt as though she’d never seen mud before. But at least she scooted over on the bench when Meghan approached, bootless and clutching a wad of tissues.
“What happened to you?” the girl whispered, not looking up from her paper.
“I slipped and fell on my way here,” Meghan answered. The girl refocused on her assignment, leaving Meghan to sit and peruse her surroundings.
The first graders occupied the first rows on either side, the still kappless girls looking tiny, fresh, and innocent compared with the older scholars in the back. Joanna was instructing at the blackboard with a group of mid-range children who clustered alongside her like ducklings. The rest of the pupils appeared to be working on math problems, except for three boys who seemed to be doing nothing at all except stare out the window.
“How could you become our teacher?” asked the girl on Meghan’s left. “You’re not even as big as me.” She had taken a break from copying multiplication problems from a textbook to compare Meghan’s size with her own.
“I plan to grow taller before I assume full responsibility of the class.”
To Meghan’s horror, the girl broke into loud peals of laughter.
Joanna rapped a ruler on her desktop. “Annabeth, don’t distract the class with your foolishness.” Unfortunately, the teacher aimed her glare at the short person on Annabeth’s right.
Meghan felt her cheeks blush as she swallowed hard. She turned away from the easily distracted Annabeth to admire the artwork around the room. Sets of mimeographed pictures with various levels of coloring ability hung in seasonal clusters on the walls. In the fall grouping, leaves blazed on an oak tree next to an Englischer’s red barn, while a horse and buggy trotted by on the road. All of the horses were brown, and all autumn leaves had been colored gold. Plain kinner were taught uniformity and conformity—no one was prettier, smarter, or more gifted than the next person in the eyes of the community or the Lord. The final grouping, a summer scene, depicted green fields of gold-tasseled corn beneath a cloudless aqua sky.
She then studied the teacher’s domain—a raised platform in the front of the room. Joanna sat at a carved desk that held a rack of teacher manuals, grade and attendance books, a bowl with a dozen sharpened pencils, and a tray of papers to be graded. Her chair rolled on little wheels to two bookcases of textbooks. The classroom was arranged in six rows, six desks per row. The fold-top desks had wrought iron legs and long wooden benches. As her daed had warned, two-thirds of the pupils were male, creating a center aisle decidedly off-center. Most of the little boys were hard at work, same as the girls. The three eighth graders continued to steal glances at her and then smirk whenever the great outdoors failed to hold their attention. The biggest of the three kept staring at Meghan with unusual boldness.
“Let’s get to work on the math, Owen,” ordered Joanna. The rap on the desktop had been unnecessary because her voice alone caused Owen and Meghan to jump in their seats. The former focused on his math, while the latter felt a little light-headed. She should have eaten some cereal as mamm had suggested.
For the rest of the morning, the teacher called various groups to her desk or the chalkboard for specific instruction at their level. Afterward, older kinner would sit next to younger ones for additional one-on-one help. Joanna enunciated two different sets of spelling words from the board. The students knew which words to recite and then copy down to practice, depending on their grade. Meghan marveled at how fluidly Joanna moved from one task to the next, never consulting a list or daily plan. The classroom operated like a well-oiled clock. Even students who needed to use the outdoor facilities did so without interruption, always one at a time.
Before long Joanna rang a small brass bell. “Lunch and recess,” she announced. In an orderly fashion, first the girls and then the boys went row-by-row to wash their hands. Then they retrieved their lunch boxes from the back table and returned to their desks to eat.
“Meghan, you may join me up here.”
Annabeth offered a shy smile as Meghan scrambled to her feet and walked to the front of the room. Joanna carried a folding chair from the corner and set it beside her desk. “We eat outdoors during nice weather, but today is much too cold and windy,” she explained, pulling a sandwich, apple, bag of chips, and bottle of water from her cloth tote bag.
“Jah, but at least the sun is shining.” A very loud stomach grumble nearly drowned out Meghan’s comment.
“Was that you?” Joanna laughed as she spread waxed paper out as a placemat. “You had better eat something. That growl sounded serious.”
Meghan felt herself blush for the third time. “No, danki. I’m perfectly fine.”
“Didn’t you bring a lunch?” Joanna seemed shocked. “Were you expecting a cafeteria with plenty of choices like in a big-city English school?” This time her laughter drew amused glances from the front row.
“No, I just left in a rush. I wasn’t thinking at all.” Meghan spoke close to Joanna’s ear. “Then I ran into the woman I used to babysit for, and she needed my help. That’s why I was late.”
“And your muddy clothes? What’s the story behind them?” One blond eyebrow arched over Joanna’s crystal blue eyes.
Meghan exhaled slowly. “Because I was hurrying, I slipped in the driveway.”
“Of course,” Joanna said with a warm smile. “That’s what always happens when we try to make a good first impression.”
Meghan didn’t dare ask what kind of impression she’d made so far. Instead, she folded her hands primly in her lap.
Joanna placed half of her sandwich on a napkin and pushed it across the desk, along with the bag of chips. “Here. No one goes hungry in my classroom.”
“Oh, no. I couldn’t take your meal. Not considering the condition you’re in.” As soon as she spoke the words, Meghan knew she’d made a horrible error. Pregnancies were seldom mentioned even among sisters. Certainly, two virtual strangers would never discuss them.
“And what condition would that be?” asked Joanna slyly, cocking her head.
Meghan’s brain stretched to its limit. “Considering the challenge you’ll face this afternoon motivating those three boys to finish their work. They seemed determined to stare out the window and do nothing else.”
Joanna’s smile bloomed across her face. “That will be an undertaking, but I intend to enlist your help. So eat up, young lady. You’ll need your strength if you want to become the teacher of these students.” She pointed at the napkin with the sandwich. “Especially if you plan to gr
ow taller by the time you take charge.” She rested a hand on her slightly rounded belly.
“You heard that?” Meghan gasped. “You were all the way in the front of the room.”
“Exceptionally acute hearing is a helpful ability for a teacher to develop. With it, you’d be surprised how often you can nip trouble in the bud.”
Meghan stared at the amazing woman while they ate lunch and later as they monitored the students in the schoolyard. Some of the boys tried to throw a football around, but they were slipping and sliding too much to catch the ball. During the afternoon lessons, Joanna continued to impress the novice with her smooth handling of both students and subject matters. Per Joanna’s suggestion, Meghan moved closer to the boys’ benches whenever they began daydreaming. And it actually worked to a certain extent. At the end of the day, Joanna dismissed the children by rows to the outer hallway to get their hats and coats. Then the two women stood smiling in the doorway as the children filed out.
Tying her bonnet strings beneath her chin, Joanna said, “You did fine for your first day, Meghan. I hope you’ll come back tomorrow for another go-round.” After a bright smile, she walked down the steps, heading home in the opposite direction. The woman didn’t even seem tired.
Meghan stood there transfixed, filled with anticipation and a sense of wonder…until she spotted Jacob Schultz’s buggy parked near the road. She marched toward him at a brisk pace.
“Hullo, Meg,” shouted Jacob while she was still thirty feet away. “How did your first day of school go?” His ruddy, clean-shaven face glowed from the brisk temperature.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded, tightening the scarf around her neck.
“Your daed told me where you’d be when I stopped by to sharpen his cutting blades today. Bet you’re glad to get this teaching job for a while.”
She silently wished her father wouldn’t sic Jacob on her like a watchdog going after a burglar. “But why did you come?”
“To drive you home, of course. With this changeable weather, there’s no reason you should walk when I was out doing errands. Climb up here. I have some warm bricks to rest your feet on.” He lifted the plaid lap robe so she could snuggle next to him on the bench seat.
Meghan glanced left and right. Joanna and the students had already hurried off. No one was around to witness her accept the ride and draw incorrect conclusions about their relationship. “All right, danki. That would be nice. I’m eager to get home and tell mamm how well things went. Joanna put me in charge of watching three problem boys on my very first day!” Pride rang out in her words.
“Good for you, but just let me know if those boys give you any trouble. I’ll be happy to meet them on their way home for a special little talking-to.” He winked one of his large green eyes knowingly.
“You’ll do no such thing, Jacob Shultz! This is my job, and I need to learn to how handle students just like Joanna. I didn’t notice her husband standing by the window with a switch in case someone gave his fraa any grief.”
He grinned with pleasure at her words, even as she wished she could bite her tongue in half. Why in the world had she made such an analogy? She didn’t want Jacob getting any wrong ideas about their future.
“Sure, I meant in case of an emergency,” he said. “You’ll be the best teacher in Wayne County before long.” He shook the reins over the horse’s back and the buggy rolled onto the road.
She settled back and tried to relax. With everything she had learned swimming through her head, she barely heard his small talk about weather forecasts, local gossip, and upcoming social events. Jacob was a nice enough boy—a man really, at twenty-one—and he was rather handsome. He lived on a nearby farm that he would someday take over when his daed retired, with a lucrative side business fixing farm equipment as a blacksmith. But Meghan happened to know he was in the market for a wife. And with her future opening up before her like a banquet buffet, marriage or even serious courting was the last thing on her mind.
Two
Catherine Yost clutched her stomach and closed her eyes as the van came to a skidding stop at the intersection. Did all Englischers drive like this even when the roads had a coating of snow? She thought surely the van would roll onto its side, considering how fast the driver had taken that last turn in the road.
“Is that your place on the right, Miss Yost?” the man asked, lifting one hand from the steering wheel to point at the sole house within eyesight.
“Yes, that’s the one. You’d better slow down so you don’t slide past the driveway.” She felt her breakfast churn in her stomach as he turned in.
Hearty laughter, as though she’d made a joke, was the man’s response.
Catherine had been living at her sister’s for only nine months, and yet the Graber farm already felt more like home than her parents’ farm. Funny how love completely changed a woman’s perspective. Just when she thought her chances for meeting the right person to marry had come and gone, Isaiah Graber had filled her life with his quiet, gentle ways. He’d needed no spoken words to win her heart. When he’d ridden bareback across a summer meadow with his black hair flying in the wind and slid from the horse with more athletic grace than the Thoroughbred, her fate had been sealed.
She had been only too happy to care for Abby’s home and kinner during her sister’s absence. Even Abby’s husband, Daniel, had come to accept her way of running the household once he adjusted his expectations. She knew she was no match for her older sister in cooking, baking, and sewing. Only in teaching children did Catherine excel, and now that she and Isaiah were officially courting, having children of her own had become a distinct possibility.
But it was her ability to handle children that had landed her in her present predicament. She wanted nothing more than to stay at Abby and Daniel’s while Isaiah received training at the school for the deaf. She could cook on the nights Abby left to deliver a baby and put her niece and nephew to bed on time. She could walk Isaiah’s dog, Boots, so the poor thing didn’t die of a broken heart. And she could plan and direct improvements to Isaiah’s woodland cabin, including a road to connect them to the Graber farmhouse and the township road. Because Catherine had never mastered bareback horsemanship, she would prefer to drive a proper buggy like other Amish wives.
Isaiah’s wife. Didn’t she also have a wedding to plan, along with quilts to make and linens to embroider? And shouldn’t she help Abby dry the herbs and can the produce that might line her own pantry shelves someday? Instead, her daed wanted her to spend the next five months training her little sister on how to be a teacher. Meghan—who had once locked her own teacher in the girls’ outhouse. Five months wouldn’t be enough time to file down that girl’s rough edges.
“Thank you for the ride,” said Catherine, handing the driver his fare.
“You’re welcome, ma’am. I’ll set your suitcase on the steps.”
He hurried up the salted walkway while she trudged behind like a condemned felon bound for the gallows. Suddenly, the door swept open and out popped her mamm’s head.
“There you are! I thought you would never get here. Or maybe you decided to leave your family high and dry?” Ruth’s focus landed on her solitary suitcase. “That’s it? Where’s the rest of your stuff? You took more than that when you left for Abigail’s.”
Catherine stepped past her into the warm, sweet-smelling kitchen. Someone had stoked the woodstove to capacity. “No sense moving everything back home—especially not my summer-weight clothes. This relocation will only be temporary, although it is good to see you.” She hugged her mother tightly and kissed her cheek.
“Jah, jah. You’re not hitched yet, so don’t go counting your chickens.” Ruth accepted the embrace and then squirmed away. “Your daed’s in the front room, wearing a hole through the carpet from pacing back and forth. Go in before he exhausts himself.”
Catherine set her suitcase by the stairs and entered the living room, feeling like a child from years ago. Her father turned a weary, anxious
face toward her. “There you are! Why did you pay a driver? James would have come for you. I’ll have John carry your bag up to your old room. Have you eaten?” Finally he paused, crossing his arms over his white shirt. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
“Because I’ve never heard you ask that many questions in a row in my life.” She chuckled and walked to the woodstove. “How is Meghan doing? She’s had a few days now with Joanna. Maybe she won’t need me after all.” Catherine moved near enough to the heat to singe her skirt.
Unexpectedly her father laughed. “That’s a good one, but no, I believe you are still needed. That teacher hasn’t let your schwester do much more than observe even after a full week in the classroom. That doesn’t sound promising. Except for on the playground. Meghan monitors the outdoor recess activities.”
Catherine closed her eyes to contemplate. “That’s not a good sign.”
“So, you’ll accept the position? You’ll take over for Joanna Kauffman and finish out the school year? That way Meghan can learn from you.” Her father sounded and looked desperate.
“Hold on. I said I would talk to the teacher and have a look-see. Thirty-five students are a handful. Remember, my experience has been with two or three kinner at a time. Maybe I wouldn’t fare any better than Meghan.”
Gideon slumped into a chair. “I know my girls. You’re better equipped to handle several things happening at once. And that’s what someone who instructs eight different grade levels must be able to do. Plus, you show stiff backbone when it’s called for. And you have your head firmly on your shoulders. Meghan can walk to the henhouse, become distracted by John in the lunging ring, and then return to the house without wondering why she carried an empty basket.”
“Daed!” Catherine admonished, but they both chuckled.
“And don’t you ever repeat that.” He settled back and sighed wearily. “The other ministerial brethren have questioned my choice of Meghan. The senior minister even brought up the outhouse incident after all these years. I assured them I would send for you to help out.”
