Allison's Journey (11 page)

“I was, but I’m here now.”

“What happened? Did one of the mules’ straps break?”

“Nope. I came to see Papa. Mom wanted me to tell him that she’ll be taking Emma into Seymour to see the doctor.”

Aaron frowned. “Is our little sister still feeling poorly?”

“Afraid so. That bellyache she’s had for the last couple of days doesn’t seem to be going away.”

“I thought it was just the flu.”

“If it is, it’s lasting longer than most flu bugs do.” Joseph glanced around the room. “Where is Papa, anyway?”

Aaron motioned toward the back of the shop. “Paul’s in the supply room.”

“I’ll give him Mom’s message. Then I need to get back to the house and grab something cold to drink for me, Zachary, and Davey.” Joseph started to walk away but turned back around. “Say, I’ve been wondering about something.”

“What’s that?”

“Why have you started calling our daed by his first name?”

“Paul’s not our real daed, Joseph. Have you forgotten that?”

“Of course not, but we’ve been calling him Papa ever since he married Mom.”

Aaron shrugged.

Joseph’s eyebrows drew together, and he took a step closer to Aaron. “What’s Papa think of you calling him Paul?”

“He hasn’t said anything, so he probably doesn’t care.” Aaron squinted at Joseph. “You were so little when our real daed died, you probably don’t remember him.”

“You’re right, I don’t, but what’s that got to do with—”

“Paul’s been our stepfather so long, you probably think of him as your real daed.”

“That’s right. He’s always treated us like he’s our real daed, too.” Joseph nudged Aaron’s arm. “Don’t you think Paul acts like a real daed to us?”

“What I think is that he favors you and the younger kinner.”

Joseph’s mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Well, if you think that, then your thinking is just plain
lecherich
.” Joseph headed for the back room.

Aaron resumed work on the bridle he was making for Gabe. “A lot you know, Joseph,” he mumbled under his breath. “My thinking is not ridiculous!”

When Joseph entered the supply room, he spotted his step-father down on his knees, rummaging through a box of old harnesses.

“Joseph, what are you doing here?” Papa asked when Joseph cleared his throat.

“I came up to the house to get something and saw Mom hitching one of the horses to a buggy. She asked me to let you know she’s taking Emma into Seymour to see the doctor. I guess whatever’s been ailing her has gotten worse.”

Papa’s forehead wrinkled as he rose to his feet. “Emma’s been feeling poorly ever since she ate too much candy the day we went to Springfield. If it’s the flu, it’s lasted a lot longer than normal.”

“That’s what Mom thinks, too, which is why she decided it was time to take Emma to see the doctor.”

Papa rubbed his back. “Does she want me to go with her?”

Joseph shook his head. “I don’t think so. She just asked if I’d let you know where she was going so you wouldn’t worry.”

“Danki for delivering the message.” Papa moved toward the door leading to the main part of the shop. “I guess I should see how Aaron’s doing, and you’d better get back out to the fields to check on your brothers.”

“Jah. No telling what those two are up to.” Joseph hesitated, wondering if he should say something about the conversation he’d just had with Aaron.

“Is there something else?” Papa asked.

“Uh, well. . .I’ve been wondering about something.”

“What’s that?”

“I was wondering how you feel about Aaron calling you Paul here of late.”

Papa pulled his fingers through the ends of his beard. “To be perfectly honest, it kind of hurts.”

“Then how come you let him get away with it?”

“Aaron’s a grown man now, and there’s not much I can do if he’s made up his mind to call me Paul. After all, I’m not his real daed.”

“Maybe not by blood, but you’ve been like a real daed to us ever since you married Mom,” Joseph was quick to say. “I think Aaron’s being disrespectful by calling you Paul.”

Papa shrugged as he gave his left earlobe a quick tug. “That may be, but I won’t try to force Aaron to call me Papa. So unless he changes his mind, I’ve decided to just accept it and try to be Aaron’s friend.”

Joseph wanted to say more, but he figured his daed had made up his mind. And since it really wasn’t his business, the best thing to do was to drop the subject and get on back to work.

“Is this the way the doll’s hair is supposed to attach to its head?” Allison asked as she lifted a brown piece of material for her aunt’s inspection.

Aunt Mary nodded. “You’ve got it pinned in exactly the right place. Now stitch that section of hair to the top of the head, and you’ll be ready to put the rest of the body together.”

Pumping her legs up and down and guiding the wheel of the treadle machine with one hand, Allison carefully sewed the hair in place.

“I thought I might go to the farmers’ market this Saturday to sell some of my quilted pillows and our garden produce,” Aunt Mary said. “If you finish with the doll by then, maybe you’d like to go along and try to sell it. That would give you an idea of whether there’s a market for more.”

Allison finished the seam and cut the thread before she looked up. “I. . .I don’t think I’m quite ready for anything like that yet.”

Aunt Mary gave Allison’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Maybe some other time—when you have more than one doll made.”

“Maybe so. I’ll have to wait and see how well my sewing goes.”

“Are you ready to take a break? I thought a glass of your uncle Ben’s homemade root beer might taste good about now.”

“That does sound refreshing.” Allison stood and arched her back. “I think after all that pumping on the treadle machine I worked up a thirst.”

Aunt Mary chuckled. “Let’s round up the kinner and have
our snack out on the front porch. I’m sure they need a break from their garden chores, too.”

A short time later, Allison, Aunt Mary, Sarah, and Dan sat in chairs on the front porch, enjoying tall glasses of root beer and some peanut butter cookies.

“This is real good.” Dan made a slurping sound and swiped his tongue across his upper lip where some foamy root beer had gathered. “It would be even better if we had a batch of vanilla ice cream so we could make frosty floats.”

“We’ll see about making some homemade ice cream soon,” his mother said.

“How about this Saturday night?” Sarah suggested. “We can invite Grandpa and Grandma King over. What do you think about that, Mama?”

“That sounds like a fine idea, but you and I will be at the farmers’ market all day Saturday. We could do it on Friday evening, though.” Aunt Mary glanced over at Allison and smiled. “Maybe we can have an outdoor barbecue and invite some of our friends and family. It would be a nice way of giving everyone a chance to get to know you better.”

“A barbecue sounds real nice,” Allison said.

“Can we invite the Hiltys?” Sarah asked. “I’d like my friend Bessie to be here.”

“Jah, maybe so. And we can ask Gabe and Melinda Swartz.” Aunt Mary looked over at Allison. “Melinda’s about your age, but she wasn’t at our last preaching service because she was feeling sick.” She eased out of her chair. “I’ll pick up the ingredients we need for the ice cream sometime before Friday, but for now, I think I’d better see about making some corn bread and beans for supper.”

Allison started to get up, but her aunt motioned her to sit back down. “Take your time and finish your root beer. When you’re done, you can make the coleslaw while Sarah sets the table.”

A
llison had never made coleslaw before, but she’d seen Aunt Catherine do it and figured it couldn’t be that hard. Just chop up some cabbage, add a little mayonnaise, some vinegar, salt, and pepper. She watched with anticipation as Uncle Ben forked some of her coleslaw into his mouth. After the first bite, he puckered his lips and quickly reached for his glass of water. “Whew! How come there’s so much vinegar in this?”

“I don’t think there’s that much.” Aunt Mary spooned some onto her plate and took a bite. Her eyes widened, but she swallowed it down.

Dan grimaced when he ate some. “Papa’s right. This stuff is awful!” He jumped up from the table, ran over to the garbage can, and spit out the coleslaw.

“Dan, you’re being rude,” Uncle Ben said sternly. “And I never said the coleslaw was awful.”

Allison’s face burned with embarrassment. She couldn’t even make a simple thing like coleslaw without ruining it. “I–I’m so sorry,” she stammered. “I should have asked how much vinegar to use.”

“You mean
you
made the coleslaw?” Walter pointed at Allison as his eyebrows lifted high on his forehead.

She nodded and tears sprang to her eyes. “I thought it would be easy, but I. . .I guess I was wrong.”

“What were you tryin’ to do, make us all sick?” Walter wrapped his fingers around his throat and coughed several times.

“There’s too much pepper in it, too,” Sarah sputtered. She grabbed her glass of water and gulped half of it down.

“That will be enough about the coleslaw,” Uncle Ben admonished. “I’m sure Allison didn’t ruin it on purpose. Too much vinegar probably spilled from the bottle before she realized what had happened.”

“I tried pouring some of that stuff onto a piece of cotton when I got a nosebleed a couple weeks ago,” Harvey put in. “It ran out all over the counter.”

Allison was sure everyone was just trying to make her feel better, but their comments hadn’t helped. “No wonder Aunt Catherine never let me do much in the kitchen,” she mumbled. “She was probably afraid I’d make everyone sick.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” Aunt Mary said kindly. “All you need is a little more practice. By the end of the summer, you’ll probably be able to cook so well that your aunt Catherine will be happy to let you take over her kitchen when you return home.”

“I doubt she’d let anyone take her place in the kitchen.” Allison sniffed. “Besides, it’s not just cooking I can’t do well.”

“With my
fraa
as your teacher,” Uncle Ben said, looking over
at Aunt Mary and giving her a wink, “I can almost guarantee that you’ll be ready to get married and run a house of your own by the end of summer.”

Sarah’s head bobbed up and down. “Now we just need to find Allison a husband.”

The telephone on Paul’s desk rang sharply, and Aaron reached for it since Paul was outside talking to a customer. “Zook’s Harness Shop,” he said. At least Paul hadn’t insisted on changing the name of their business to Hilty after he’d married Aaron’s mother. He’d been the one to suggest they put a phone in the shop, too, since it wasn’t allowed inside their home.

“Aaron, is that you?”

Aaron knew by the tone of his mother’s voice that she was upset about something. “Jah, Mom, it’s me. What’s wrong?”

“Would you please put Paul on the phone?”

“He’s outside talking to Noah Hertzler right now. Can I give him a message?”

“The doctor thinks Emma’s problem is her appendix. He wants us to take her to the hospital right away.”

Aaron gripped the receiver tightly. “If it bursts open, she could be in big trouble. Isn’t that right?”