The Amish Teacher's Dilemma and Healing Their Amish Hearts

by Patricia Davids

“Okay. I like stories. Do you have one about ponies? I sure wish Willis would put shoes on my pony.”

  “I thought I saw him shoeing a pony last evening.”

  “It wasn’t mine. Harley brought it over from his Englisch farmer friend. Would you ask Willis to shoe my pony? He likes you.”

  Eva hoped that was true. “I’ll remind him.”

  She saw he was watching them. She waved. He hesitated and then waved back. She entered the school with a light and carefree step.

  For the next hour she read to Maddie and occasionally to Bubble when she couldn’t be silent. Eva sighed when Willis came through the door to get his sister. She had enjoyed spending time with Maddie even more than she thought she would. The child had quickly wormed her way into Eva’s heart.

  “I was just about to teach your sister to write her name on the blackboard. Do you want to show her how it’s done?”

  He held up both hands. They were black with soot. “You don’t want me handling your clean chalk and erasers.”

  “Okay, Maddie is spelled with a capital M, lower case a, d, d, i, e.” She glanced at Willis. “Unless you spell it with a y or a single i?” She waited for him to clarify the spelling for her.

  He shrugged. “Spell it however you like.”

  His comment puzzled Eva. “I want to teach her the correct way.”

  There was a thump against the side of the building. She glanced toward the windows. “What was that?”

  Willis shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe a bird flew into the side of the school.”

  She frowned. “Do they do that?”

  “Sometimes a bird will fly into a window by mistake. The first way you said. That’s the right way to spell Maddie’s name.”

  “Okay.” She wrote the letters out and handed a piece of chalk to the child. “Your turn. All you have to do is copy what I’ve written.”

  Shattering glass caused Eva to jump and Maddie to shriek. They all turned to look at the broken window. A fist-size rock lay on the floor amid the shards of glass. Eva and Willis stepped to the opening. She saw at once who was responsible. Otto stood a few dozen yards away with a bat in his hands. His eyes were wide with fear or shock. He dropped the bat and ran up the road.

  “I can’t believe he just did that.” Willis scowled.

  “It must’ve been an accident,” Eva reassured him.

  “Who did it?” Maddie came over to look out the broken window, avoiding the glass on the floor.

  “Your brother, Otto. I’ll bring him back to clean up this mess.” Willis left the school and headed down the road with purposeful strides. Eva followed him as far as the front porch.

  Out on the road a woman had stopped her buggy. She leaned out the door. “I saw the Gingrich boy break the window. He was deliberately hitting rocks toward the school,” she called out loudly.

  Eva’s heart sank. She had assumed it was an accident. “Are you sure you aren’t mistaken?”

  The woman scowled, apparently offended by Eva’s suggestion. “I am not. The bishop and the school board will hear what has happened.”

  “They will be informed, of course, but it would be best if the confession comes from Otto. He needs to face the consequence of his actions.”

  “Then he shouldn’t have run off.” She slapped the reins against her horse’s rump and drove away.

  Maddie came out to stand beside Eva. The child planted her hands on her hips. “Otto makes Willis want to tear his hair out every day. He’s not sure what he’s going to do with him.”

  “I’m sorry Otto and Willis aren’t getting along. Otto shouldn’t have run away, but I can imagine he was frightened.”

  Maddie looked up. “He could have said Bubble did it.”

  “That would be a lie, wouldn’t it? You don’t blame something on Bubble if she didn’t do it.”

  “I did when she knocked over my glass of milk last week.”

  “Were her feelings hurt? If you said I did something but I didn’t do it, my feelings would be hurt.”

  Maddie scrunched her face and then beckoned Eva to lean down. She cupped her hands around her mouth near Eva’s ear. “She’s not real so she doesn’t have feelings,” she whispered.

  “Willis will be delighted to hear that.” Eva walked down to the lawn. “I think it would be best if you went home now, Maddie.”

  “Okay, see you tomorrow, Teacher. I’ll practice writing my name tonight.”

  “That’s an excellent idea. Have your brother help you.”

  “I’ll have Harley do it. He’s a right helpful fellow. Even Bubble says so.”

  As the child crossed the road, Eva turned her attention back to the broken window. It would need to be boarded up until it could be replaced. Poor Otto was off to a rough start at his new school.

  Chapter Five

  Willis found his brother sitting behind his smithy on a small, rickety bench that came with the property when Willis purchased it. He stopped beside Otto. The boy wouldn’t look up. Willis gently kicked the bench leg with the toe of his boot. “I always meant to burn this in the forge. I just never got around to pulling the nails out. Besides, I like having a place to sit where no one can see what I’m doing. Do you know what I mean?”

  Otto looked up. “Sure.”

  Willis shoved his hands in his pockets, leaned back against the wall and crossed one boot over the other. He stared up into the bright blue sky. “Do you ever feel like hiding out?”

  “If you mean like right after I break someone’s window?”

  “I’m going to assume that today was an accident. Accidents happen when we are knocking rocks into the air with a baseball bat. Want to tell me why you were hitting rocks toward the school?”

  “Because I hate school, but I wasn’t trying to break a window. Honest. I just hit one too hard.”

  “I see.”

  Otto cast a sidelong glance at Willis. “How come you aren’t mad?”

  “What makes you assume I’m not?”

  “Because when Daed was angry he yelled, a lot.”

  Willis shared a wry smile with his little brother who was still so much a stranger. “I remember that about him. It seemed he was always upset about something. Maybe I should say it seemed that he was always upset with me.”

  “After you left I became his headache. Harley could do no wrong and Maddie was always with our mamm.”

  Willis raised one fist to the sky. “‘If I had a nickel for every mistake you made, boy, I would be the richest man in the county,’” he quoted in his best imitation of his father’s deep, disgusted voice.

  Otto chuckled softly. “He changed it to ‘the richest man in the state’ for me.”

  Willis slipped his hand back in his pocket. “I miss him. I should’ve come to visit more often. A week every Christmas wasn’t enough to get to know you kinder.”

  “He talked about you a lot.”

  “Did he? That surprises me.”

  “He said you didn’t have book smarts but you knew metal inside and out the way his brother did and you could make anything you wanted.”

  “He never told me that. It would’ve been nice to hear him say something good about me.”

  “Yeah, it would’ve been nice,” Otto muttered softly as if he was lost in his own thoughts. He took a deep breath and sat up straighter. “Mamm said that he loved us. He just didn’t know how to show it. Did you move away because he married her? Because she took your mother’s place? That’s what some people said.”

  “Nee, my mother died when I was a baby. I have no memory of her. I was happy my father found someone new. A few folks thought it was strange that he married someone so much younger but I didn’t see that it made any difference. She loved him. I could see that. I moved away for other reasons that don’t matter anymore.”

  “I reckon I gave the new teacher
a reason not to like me today. Teachers always think the worst of a fellow.”

  “I don’t believe Eva Coblentz is that kind of teacher.”

  “We’ll see.” Otto didn’t bother to disguise his doubt.

  “If you start at a new school with that kind of attitude, she may be forced to think unkindly of you. You need to give her the benefit of the doubt. She strikes me as a fair woman. I get it that you don’t like school. I heard your mamm mention it often enough when I visited. I sure didn’t like school.”

  That seemed to catch Otto’s attention. “You didn’t?”

  “Nee. Like Daed said, I wasn’t book smart.” It was the closest Willis could get to admitting he couldn’t read or write. He didn’t want Otto to be ashamed of his big brother. He was the one the boys should look up to even if he was a poor substitute for their father. “I reckon you should board up the window and clean up the floor before going to tell the bishop what happened. I’ll help you cover the window.”

  “Is the teacher going to punish me?”

  “For what? For breaking the window or for running away instead of facing what you did?”

  “Both, I guess.” Otto rose to his feet. “Teachers can be mean. Do you think she’ll believe that Bubble broke it?”

  “She might, but I won’t. Maddie may not be old enough to know the difference between truth and imagination, but you are.”

  “I was just kidding. I know I shouldn’t have taken off without saying I was sorry. I guess I got scared. I’ll have to pay for the new window, won’t I?”

  “That is only right.”

  “Okay, I’m ready to apologize.”

  “You will feel better after you do.”

  The sidelong glance Otto shot Willis showed he didn’t believe his brother.

  The two of them selected several pieces of plywood that Willis had stored in the horse barn. They carried the pieces to the school along with the ladder and were almost finished nailing the boards in place when Samuel drove up in his buggy. Eva came out of her house and crossed the lawn.

  Otto glanced at Willis up on the ladder and then walked over to speak to Eva. “I’m sorry that I broke the window, Teacher. I didn’t mean to knock that rock so hard.”

  “I thought as much.” Her smile seemed to ease Otto’s fear of her.

  “Were you deliberately hitting stones toward the school?” Samuel demanded as he approached the boy. “Why would you do that?”

  Otto shrugged but couldn’t look the man in the face. “I don’t know.” He glanced at Willis as he descended the ladder and then straightened his small shoulders. “I guess I was mad because I don’t want to go to school here and I miss my friends back home. I didn’t mean to break the window. I am sorry. I’ll clean up the broken glass. Don’t worry about that.”

  Samuel’s stern face relaxed. “I appreciate your honesty and I accept your apology, but you chose to do a foolish thing without thinking of others. Agnes Martin told me both your sister and your teacher were inside the building. What if that rock had struck your teacher or the broken glass had fallen on your sister? I know the loss of your parents must weigh heavily on your mind, Otto. Your move to our community was not your choice but one made for you by your brother. In all things joyful and sorrowful we must accept the will of Gott without question.”

  Otto stared at the ground and didn’t reply.

  “I spoke with the bishop and Leroy Lapp,” Samuel said. “We will meet with you tomorrow morning at eight o’clock to decide your punishment.”

  A worried frown drew Otto’s eyebrows together as he looked up. “Is that necessary? I said I was sorry.”

  “Our actions have consequences. It is important you learn that.” Samuel nodded toward Eva and Willis and then returned to his buggy and drove off.

  Eva laid a hand on Otto’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Devouring wayward children is against the law. I’ll be there to make sure they remember that.”

  Otto didn’t smile. Neither did Willis. It had been years since Willis had been called before the school board to explain his actions, but he still remembered the sick feeling in his stomach. As much as he wanted to spare Otto the humiliation, he knew he couldn’t.

  * * *

  Eva entered the school the next morning and found the broken glass had been picked up and the floor swept clean as Otto had promised. It wasn’t long before Bishop Schultz, Leroy Lapp and Samuel Yoder came in. They examined the window without speaking to her, muttering amongst themselves. She hadn’t been invited to sit in on the meeting but none of them objected to her presence. Finally, they moved a table to the front of the room, lined their chairs up behind it and sat down to wait. It was very reminiscent of her interview only days before. She wondered if poor Otto was as nervous as she had been that day.

  She clasped her hands together. “I have a suggestion to make regarding Otto’s punishment if you are willing to hear it.”

  “We’re listening,” the bishop said.

  Eva explained her plan. The men listened in silence. When she was finished she sat on the bench under the unbroken window and waited.

  Willis and Otto walked in at eight o’clock. Willis took a seat beside her. Otto walked over to stand in front of the school board with his straw hat in his hands. The men spoke to him in low voices. Willis leaned toward Eva. “Any idea what this outcome will be?”

  “I did make a suggestion, but I don’t know if they will follow it. I don’t believe Otto meant any harm but destruction of school property is a serious matter.”

  “He already dislikes school. This isn’t going to make it any easier on him. The families in this area are excited to have their own school. They’re not going to like that a newcomer broke out a window before the first day of class.”

  “People will understand that such things happen,” she whispered.

  “I hope so.”

  The bishop gestured to Eva and Willis. They came and stood on either side of the boy. Willis laid his arm across Otto’s shoulders.

  Samuel Yoder put his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers together. “The window must be paid for. We don’t feel it is right to penalize you, Willis, for something your brother did.”

  Willis gave a half smile. “I’ll be happy to provide the labor to put a new one in.”

  “That is acceptable. The school board has enough funds in the treasury to replace the window, but that money should’ve gone toward schoolbooks and supplies for everyone, Otto. Some children may go without because of your carelessness.”

  “I can get a job and pay you back.”

  “Where? There are not many jobs around here for a boy your age. Your teacher has come up with a plan we agree with.”

  Eva smiled at Otto. “When school starts you will stay after each day for two months to sweep up, clean the blackboards, dust the erasers and take out the trash. At the end of two months we will consider the debt paid as long as you do a good job.”

  She glanced at Willis. He nodded his approval.

  “Are we settled, then?” Willis asked. “I’m behind in my work and I must get back to it.”

  “Eva has an additional task for Otto today, but you may go, Willis.” The bishop stood up. “We all have to get back to our work. Let this be the last time we meet this way, Otto Gingrich.”

  Otto nodded without speaking. The men filed out, leaving Eva alone with the boy. She squeezed his shoulder. “That wasn’t so bad.”

  “I guess not. The bishop said you had something else for me to do.”

  “When my teacher wanted to make sure I remembered something important she made me write it on the blackboard one hundred times. I want you to write, ‘I will respect school property’ one hundred times.”

  “Now? Willis needs me to help in the forge today. I have to get going.”

  He started to turn away but she clapped a hand on his
shoulder. “I want it today. The sooner you get started, the sooner you will finish and then you may go help Willis.”

  Otto shuffled toward the blackboard. She returned the chairs to their places and sat down at her desk and began to read through the first grade primer to see what she would be teaching.

  “There’s no chalk. Guess I’ll have to do this later.” Otto headed toward the door.

  “I have some chalk here.” She opened the top drawer and pulled out a box of chalk sticks. She held it toward him.

  He took one from the box as gingerly as if it were a snake.

  She didn’t know why he was stalling. “Hurry up so you can help your brother.”

  He faced the board and wrote a lowercase i. He hesitated and pulled at his lower lip with one hand.

  “Is something wrong? Is there a word you don’t know how to spell? That should be a capitalized I.”

  “This is stupid.” He threw the chalk into the corner and ran out of the room.

  “Otto, come back here!” She sat stunned for a moment then rose and followed him out the door but he had already gone out of sight.

  She crossed the street to the smithy. The sound of hammering told her Willis was hard at work. She stepped through the door but didn’t see Otto. “Willis, did you see where Otto went?”

  He held a red-hot horseshoe in a pair of tongs. He plunged it into a barrel of liquid. Steam hissed and splattered his leather apron. “I thought he was with you.”

  “He became upset and ran out of the schoolroom.”

  Willis pulled the shoe out of the liquid and examined it before looking at her. “Upset about what?”

  Eva shook her head. “I’m not sure. I asked him to write that he would respect school property on the blackboard one hundred times.”

  “He refused?”

  “He just ran out of the room without doing it. Do you know where he is?”

  Willis carried another horseshoe to the forge and plunged it into the glowing coals. “I don’t. Try looking behind this shop. He goes back there sometimes. Why would he run off? Did he say anything?”

  “He said it was stupid.” Eva wished Willis would show more concern but perhaps she was overreacting. Willis was Otto’s parent for all practical purposes. She wasn’t sure where her duty as a teacher lay. “I’m not going to let him get by with this kind of behavior. He will have to finish this assignment sooner rather than later.”