shuddering.
âWhat was that, Maddie?â my mom asked.
âNothing,â I said.
Chapter Three
âAnna will be excited to meet you,â Ruth said, passing me a jar of homemade plum jam.
We were having a âbiteâ in the farmhouse kitchen. The Friesensâ idea of a bite was an all-you-can-eat deluxe spread. Iâd never seen anything like it. Their huge table was covered in pitchers of milk and juice, loaves of bread and buns, jars of jam and honey, a bowl of hard-boiled eggs, and plates of cheese, meat, tomatoes and pickles. I had loaded up my plate and was about to dig into a bun filled with Swiss cheese and ham.
âAnna?â my mom and I said in unison.
âOur daughter,â Ruth said. âSheâs about your age, Maddie. Fifteen.â
âSheâs at a meeting right now,â Klaus said. âThe summer fair is coming up.â
Fifteen. The same age as me. Thoughts flew around in my mind. What did Anna look like? Would we get along?
âThatâs great that Maddie will have someone her own age here,â my mom said, cracking open a hard-boiled egg. Usually on our adventures there were never any other kids around, just adults. Ha, I thought. Not this time, Mom.
Klaus offered my mom a plate of sausages.
âOh, no thank you,â said my mom. âIâm a vegetarian.â
Ruth and Klaus exchanged looks. I thought I saw Klaus roll his eyes. I took the plate from Klaus and helped myself to four sausages. They looked delicious.
It didnât take my mom long to launch into dumb-question mode.
âWhy did you become farmers? When do you harvest your wheat? How many chickens do you have?â
Klaus said something about being a fifth-generation farmer. I tuned out the rest. Farming wasnât the most exciting topic.
While my mom grilled the farmers, I looked around. The house looked about a hundred years old. The walls were white, with plain yellow curtains on the windows. The only picture on the wall was an old black-and-white family photo where no one was smiling. I couldnât see a TV or computer anywhere.
âDo you wake up every day and notice the smell of manure, or do you become immune to it after a while?â Mom asked.
I sank down in my chair. Ruth and Klaus smiled. My mom kept yakking.
After we ate, the Friesens showed us to our room. A four-poster iron bed stood in the center of the room, covered in a colorful quilt. Great. Sharing a bed with my mother made a bad situation even worse.
âOooh!â my mom exclaimed, clapping her hands as she looked around the room. âVery Little House on the Prairie . And look, Maddie, we get to share a bed. Itâll be like a sleepover!â
Shut up, Mom, I thought for the hundredth time that day. I wasnât sure I could handle a whole week of constant embarrassment. Hopefully I could find somewhere to hide out and draw for the Canvas art contest.
After showing us our room, Ruth and Klaus led us out to the front yard to give us the âgrand tour.â Just then, a teenage girl turned into the driveway on a red bike.
âHereâs our girl,â Klaus said. The girl skidded neatly to a stop, a small cloud of dust billowing from beneath her back tire. âAnna, these are our volunteers for the next week, Lynn and Maddie Turner.â
âHey,â Anna said with a small smile. She had braces and wore her red hair in a long braid.
âHow was the 4-H meeting?â Ruth asked.
Anna shrugged. âPretty good.â
âI just checked Frida,â Klaus said. âIâm certain that she will calve in the next few days.â
Anna nodded and turned to us. âIâve got a cow thatâs about to pop.â
I wondered how many other farm volunteers Anna had had to greet so far that summer. She didnât seem too excited by us.
âYou and Maddie are the same age, dear,â Klaus said. âMaybe you two would like to spend some time