When Strawberries Bloom Read Free

covering before she nervously wiped a few fuzzies from her apron. She could think of nothing, absolutely nothing to say. For some reason it felt as if they were there to spank her, like she was still a little girl who had done something mischievous in school, and the stern-faced school board had come to tell her what her punishment was going to be.
    Her knees hardly supported her as she went slowly down the stairs, clutching the sides of her covering, checking that it covered part of her ears. Who knew? They might change their minds if she didn’t look too fancy.
    In the kitchen, Dat and Mam sat at the kitchen table with three men. Lizzie recognized Jonas Beiler from his conversation with Dat at church. The other two men, Elam Glick and Elmer Esh, had lived in the community much longer, and Lizzie knew them well. In one glance, Lizzie could see that Mam was nervous because her hands were closed with her thumbs tucked under her fingers. That’s what Mam always did when she was worried about something.
    “H … Hello!” Lizzie said in what she hoped was a sweet and humble way.
    “Good evening, Lizzie,” they all said, looking at her closely.
    “How are you?” Jonas Beiler asked.
    “Good,” was all Lizzie could think of before she swallowed fitfully.
    He looked at Dat before he asked how old she was. For all the world I feel like I’m a young cow or horse being taken to an auction, Lizzie thought.
    They all talked about the weather, the price of milk, the price of the farm that had been sold recently, until Lizzie felt like screaming. Why didn’t they say what they wanted? She began chewing on the inside of her thumbnail until Mam looked at her with lowered eyebrows. Lizzie quickly put her hands under the table and pressed them together as tightly as she could.
    Finally, Jonas Beiler looked at Lizzie and cleared his throat.
    “So your father says you’d like to try teaching school?”
    Lizzie’s heart jumped to her throat. But she looked steadily at him, meeting his clear gaze.
    “I’d like to,” she said.
    “Well, that’s good. We are going to need a teacher this fall because the Mennonite girl, I forget her name, is getting married. So …”
    He left that sentence hanging in the air, and Lizzie felt as if she had been holding a balloon which the wind had suddenly whipped away, completely out of her grasp. He had only mentioned the fact that they needed a teacher; he hadn’t really asked her to teach the school.
    Just as suddenly, the departing balloon drifted back firmly into Lizzie’s hands when Jonas said, “Would you consider being the new teacher in the fall then?”
    “Yes!” Lizzie breathed, her eyes shining.
    “That’s good,” Elam Glick said, smiling.
    “Yes, we’re glad you want to,” Elmer Esh added.
    “You’ll need these,” Jonas said, handing her a small orange booklet and a few other papers.
    Lizzie flipped through the pages as the men talked about the date school would be opening, the book order, the rules of conduct for a teacher, and many other things that Lizzie hadn’t considered before. But nothing deterred her. Not one thing they talked about gave her the blues. She was so thrilled about sitting right there in the kitchen, reveling in the delightful knowledge that the school board had really honest-to-goodness asked her to be a teacher.
    Before the men left they each wished der saya for her, or God’s blessing, which brought tears to Lizzie’s eyes. Wasn’t that the nicest thing in the whole world for a school board to say? She didn’t feel worthy, but their words made her feel as if she could conquer anything. She would do her very, very, absolute best to become the teacher they expected her to be.
    After saying good-night to them, Lizzie turned to Mam and clasped her hands to her chest. “Ma-am!”
    “Looks like you’re a teacher, Lizzie!”
    Emma and Mandy clattered down the stairs, congratulating her as she twirled joyously around the kitchen. Jason thought she