What a Pair! (4 page)

Mattie looked down at Mark and gasped when she saw him sitting in the middle of the manure pile.
“Oh Mark, are you okay?” she hollered.

“No, I’m not okay! I just landed in manure!”

“Are you hurt?”

“I—I don’t think so.” As Mark stepped out of the manure pile, lifting one foot, and then the other, it made a squishy sound. “Nothin’ seems to be broken. But I’m sure a big mess. And,
phew
!—this malodorous stuff really stinks!”

Mattie plugged her nose. She might not know what
malodorous
meant, but even from up here on the roof of the chicken coop she could smell the stench. “I’ll be right there!” she shouted down to Mark.

Mattie scurried down the ladder, and raced around to the other side of the coop. Poor Mark stood there, slowly shaking his head. He really was a mess. Globs of gooey manure clung to his shirt and pants, and some of it was stuck between his bare toes.

“You look
baremlich
,” she said, trying not to laugh.

“I know I look terrible, and I feel just as bad. Guess I’d better get in the house and take a shower right away, before Mom gets home and Dad and Ike come in from the fields,” Mark said.

“Huh-uh! No way! You’ll track manure into the house. Better let me wet you down with the hose first.”

Before Mark had a chance to respond, Mattie raced across the yard and turned on the hose. Then she dragged it back through the grass and aimed it right at Mark, blasting his shirt, pants, and bare feet with plenty of water.

“Hey, that’s really cold!” Mark jumped up and down.

“Of course it’s cold. It’s water from the hose, so what did you expect?” Mattie shot another stream of water at her brother while trying to stifle a giggle. “If you don’t hold still, I’ll never get all that manure washed off!”

Mark continued to hop up and down as she pelted him with more water. “Ye-ow! Think I’m gonna freeze to death!” he hollered.

“Oh, don’t be such a
boppli
.“

“I’m not a baby, and I bet you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“‘Course not.”
Well, maybe a little
, Mattie thought. “Just hold still!”

Mark rushed toward Mattie, grabbed the hose from her hand, and turned the water on her.

“Absatz! Absatz! That’s really, really cold!”

“I’ll stop when you promise not to spray me with any more water.” Mark looked down at his clothes. “Most of the manure’s off anyways, and I’m sick of bein’ cold. Thanks to you, I have goose bumps on top of goose bumps!”

“You’d better get in the house and take a shower now,” Mattie said, smiling. “You’ll warm up then.”

Mark shook his head. “I ain’t gonna drip water on Mom’s clean floors, so I’d better stay out here in the sun and dry off first, before I go in the house to take a shower.”

“Aren’t, Mark.”

He tipped his head to the right. “Aren’t Mark, what?”

She tipped her head to the left. “Huh?”

“I don’t know. You said, ‘aren’t Mark,’ and I just asked, ‘aren’t Mark, what?’ ”

She shook her finger at him, the way Mom often did when she was scolding one of her seven children. “Stop trying to confuse me. The reason I said ‘aren’t’ is because you said ‘ain’t,’ and
ain’t
isn’t good English.”

Mark grunted. “Now you’re confusing me.”

“No, I’m the one who’s confused, and I think—”

Mattie’s words were halted by the
clip-clop
sound of horses’ hooves approaching in the distance. She glanced at the road, then back at Mark. “Uh-oh. You’re in big trouble now. Mom’s home.”

The wind had calmed down to just a breeze, and as the horse and buggy got closer, Mattie watched Mom push a strand of auburn hair back under her black outer bonnet that had blown loose.

Mark raced for the house. Mattie was right beside him. They’d only made it halfway there when Mom, who had just pulled her horse and buggy up to the hitching rail near the barn, hollered, “Absatz!”

Mark screeched to a stop, and when Mattie bumped into his back she plugged her nose. “Phew! You sure do
schtinke
!”

“I wouldn’t stink if that gust of wind hadn’t pushed me to the wrong side of the chicken coop.”

“I know, and when it lifted you into the air, I was really scared.”

“Not me. I wasn’t scared till I landed in that pile of manure.”

“Phew! What’s that awful smell?” Mom asked as she approached the twins. Three-year-old Ada and five-year-old Perry held on to her hands. Mom looked at Mark’s clothes, where a few blobs of manure still clung, and frowned. “What have you been doing? Have you two been up to mischief again?”

“Not me,” said Mattie. “Mark sort of—well, he landed in the manure pile when he was seeing if he could …”

Mom’s eyebrows shot up as she stared at Mark. “What on earth is your sister talking about? Why would you be playing in a pile of smelly manure?”

“I wasn’t playing in it, Mom. I was trying to show Mattie how to use Dad’s big umbrella as a parachute, so we climbed onto the roof of the chicken coop, and—”

“The wind came up and pushed Mark backward,” Mattie said, finishing Mark’s sentence. “Then another gust of wind lifted him into the air, and when he came down, he landed in the pile of manure.”

Perry started to laugh, but Mom’s mouth dropped open, and her blue eyes widened in disbelief. “You—you did what?”

“Well, I thought I could fly, and since there was hay on the ground where I was gonna jump, I didn’t think I’d get hurt.” Mark paused and gulped in some air. “I—I sure didn’t think the wind would push me over to the other side of the roof, or that I’d end up landing where the pile of manure was.”

Mom’s frown deepened, and she let go of Perry and Ada’s hands so she could shake her finger at Mark. “You ought to know better than to do something so foolish and dangerous. Why, you could have been seriously hurt!”

Mark hung his head, feeling really foolish. Mom was right, he could have gotten hurt. “Sorry, Mom,” he mumbled. “I know it was dumm and I’ll never do it again.”

“I should say not,” Mom said with a click of her tongue. She pointed to the house. “Now get inside and take a shower. Oh, and put your smelly clothes in a plastic bag. I don’t want them stinking up the other clothes in the laundry basket.”

“What about the umbrella?” Mark asked. “It’s still in the manure pile, and I—I think it’s broken.”

“Just leave it there for now. I’ll have your
daed
take care of it,” Mom said. “But of course, if it is broken, you’ll need to buy a new one.”

“But Mom, I don’t have enough money to buy another umbrella,” Mark argued.

“Then I’m sure your daed will find some extra chores for you to do so you can earn the money,” Mom added as she took Ada and Perry’s hands again and moved toward the house. “In fact, if he doesn’t find some chores for you, then I certainly will!” she called over her shoulder.

Mark shot Mattie a quick glance, wondering if she was glad he’d been the one to get yelled at this time, and then he hurried into the house behind Mom. He was lucky she hadn’t given him a worse punishment. And he definitely wanted to get cleaned up before Dad came in from the fields and saw what he’d gotten into.

During supper that evening, Mattie looked over at Mark and noticed a strange expression on his face. He hadn’t said a word since they’d started eating their meal. Was he dreading the extra chores Dad had given him to do because of all the mischief, or was there something else on her twin brother’s mind? Maybe she would let Mark off the hook and not make him wash the dishes for her tonight.

“Won’t be long now and you’ll be going back to school,” Dad said, touching Mattie’s arm. “Are you ready to begin the third grade?”

“Wish I didn’t have to go back to school,” Mattie said. “I can’t wait till I graduate from eighth grade and get to stay home with Mom all day.”

“Staying home with your
mamm
won’t be as easy as you think,” Dad said, handing Mattie the basket of homemade bread.

“That’s right,” Mom said with a nod. “Learning how to be a good homemaker will mean a lot more chores, as well as learning to do many things you haven’t done before.”

“Like what?” Mattie wanted to know.

“Like sewing, quilting, baking, and cooking meals.” Dad handed Mattie the bowl of mashed potatoes. “You’ll need to know how to do those things before you get married.”

Mattie scrunched up her nose. “Don’t see why I’d have to learn all that, ‘cause I’m never gettin’ married. Boys are weird, and they do dumm things.”

Dad chuckled and gave Mattie’s shoulder a pat. “You’ll change your mind about that someday.”

Mattie didn’t think so, but she decided not to say anything more about it, because graduating from school was still a ways off, and it would be several years before she was even old enough to think about marriage.

Mattie glanced across the table at her oldest brother, Ike. She had learned that when Ike was her age, his hair used to be bright red like hers and Mark’s. But since then his hair had grown darker and turned a deep auburn color like Mom’s. Ike had recently started going out with a girl named Catherine. Mattie had never heard him say anything about wanting to get married though. Of course, Ike was only sixteen, so he probably wouldn’t think about getting married for a few more years. Then there was Russell, who’d turned thirteen in April, and Calvin, who was eleven. It was obvious who they took after. Their hair was as blond as Dad’s. And as far as Mattie knew they had no interest in girls, other than to tease them, the way Mark often did.

Mattie looked over at Mark. He still hadn’t said anything, and she couldn’t figure it out. It wasn’t like him to be so quiet.

She gave his arm a little nudge with her elbow. “How come you’re not saying anything?”

“Can’t think of anything to say,” he mumbled around a piece of Mom’s juicy fried chicken. “Besides, can’t you see that I’m eatin’ my supper?”

“We’re all eating, but we’re all talkin’, too,” Mattie said.

Mark grabbed the meat platter and forked another piece of chicken onto his plate.

Mattie continued to eat her meal as she listened to Mom and Dad talk about some things that had been going on in their community lately. When she got bored with their conversation she turned her attention to her little brother, Perry, whose hair was so blond it was the color of the palomino horse down the road from where they lived. She watched as Perry fed Ada his green beans. Mattie knew Perry didn’t like green beans, but apparently Ada did, for she was chomping away and smacking her lips as if the beans tasted like candy.

Mattie giggled to herself, seeing the green beans stuck in Ada’s red hair. It looked almost as funny as the time Ada had dumped a bowl of macaroni on her head.

Mom and Dad didn’t seem to notice what was going on, because they were talking about Dad’s woodworking business, and how many orders he’d recently gotten for new tables and chairs. Mattie thought about interrupting their conversation to tell them what Perry was doing, but figured she’d probably be accused of being a tattletale if she did, so she decided it would be best to keep quiet.

As Mattie ate, she wondered if there was a way she could get out of going to school. She liked their teacher, Anna Ruth Stutzman, well enough, and she enjoyed playing with her best friend, Stella Schrock, during recess. What she didn’t like about school was learning her multiplication tables and trying to spell difficult words. Mark didn’t have a problem with either of those. In fact he could spell words that Mattie couldn’t even pronounce. It was funny how one minute Mark would use some big word, and the next minute he’d say “ain’t,” which even Mattie knew wasn’t proper English.

He probably just does that to irritate me
, Mattie thought.

Mark reached over just then and tickled Ada under her chin. Ada giggled and started waving her hands, like she always did when she got overly excited.

“Not now,” Mom scolded, looking over at Mark. “This isn’t the time or place to be fooling around. If Ada gets too excited she might knock something over. And how’d those beans get in her hair?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Mark stopped tickling Ada and reached for another piece of chicken. Mattie couldn’t believe he could eat so much food.