Emma
"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for well-being and not for trouble, to give you a future and hope.”
-Jeremiah 29:11
Emma rolled over in bed and pulled the quilt up over her head just as she heard her mamm call from the bottom of the stairs.
“Emma! You’ll be late for school if you don’t get up right this minute.”
“Okay, okay, I’m getting up,” she yelled back, gritting her teeth.
Emma hated the long winter months and dreaded walking to school in the cold. Spring couldn’t come fast enough. She was already looking forward to warmer days when she could dig her hands in the soft soil and plant a garden.
Hearing the sharpness in her mamm’s voice, Emma knew she needed to face the cold and get out of bed. From under her favorite quilt she tried to focus on the wind-up clock on the nightstand. It was seven o’clock, past time to get up. With a deep sigh, she threw her quilt off and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. Determined to shake off the winter blues, she stretched and willed herself to get moving.
The floor was cold, and she shivered while looking for her stockings. Finding them folded on the hope chest at the foot of her bed, she quickly pulled them on and walked to the window. There wasn’t any heat in her upstairs bedroom, and she had forgotten to open her door before climbing in bed last night. It wasn’t the first time she hadn’t let the warmth of the coal stove downstairs warm her room at night. She couldn’t blame anyone except herself for her room being cold. Using the warmth of her hand to melt the frosty pane, she rubbed a spot big enough to look out. The sun was starting to light the horizon enough to see there wasn’t a cloud in the sky to protect her from the bitter chill of a Pennsylvania winter morning. Rubbing her arms through her cotton nightgown, she thought even her blue headscarf and heavy brown bonnet wouldn’t do much to make the mile and a half walk to school enjoyable.
Once again, she heard her mamm call from the kitchen. Calling back that she would be down in a minute, Emma changed from her nightgown into her burgundy work dress and white apron, quickly made her bed and headed downstairs.
Holding the banister so her stocking feet wouldn’t slip on the polished wooden stairs, Emma could hear her sisters, Rebecca and Anna, cheerfully talking about their plans for the day. Judging by the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen, she knew her cookie baking marathon last night had been successful. Her sisters were marveling at her meticulously frosted cookies, gently stacking them in the cookie tin she had left on the table. She couldn’t help but notice the familiar twinge of envy she felt when she saw how close her older twin sisters were, but she quickly pushed it away. She did not need to add to her blue mood. She was sure they didn’t intentionally leave her out of their plans, but she never felt they went out of their way to include her either. Standing at the bottom of the stairs, she closed her eyes and said a little prayer asking Gott to take her sour mood away.
“Well, good morning sleepyhead,” Rebecca said, a river of sarcasm in her voice.
Knowing better than to respond to her snippy comment, Emma instantly thanked Rebecca for adding the cookies to the tin. Not only was today Valentine’s Day, it was her last year of school, and she wanted to take something extra special to share with her class. Her best friend, Katie Yoder, loved her frosted cutout cookies, and Emma made them just for her. Katie had been talking lately about how she wanted to run a bakery someday and how Emma’s sugar cookies would be on the menu. The frosting needed to dry overnight so they could be stacked and carried to school in the tin. She didn’t want to seem too prideful, but she had to agree with her sisters: they were the prettiest frosted cookies she had made in a long time. Taking the extra time to make sure each heart shape cookie looked picture-perfect paid off. She hoped her classmates would enjoy the pretty pink and white frosting she piped on making sure no were two exactly the same. Putting the lid on the tin and the wax paper Rebecca used to separate the layers away, Emma told her mamm she would feed the chickens before breakfast.
“Bundle up before you go outside,” Mamm reminded her from behind the pot of oatmeal she was stirring. “Don’t forget to latch the chicken house door good before you come back.”
Pulling her coat and bonnet from the peg in the mudroom and grabbing the egg basket, Emma headed out the door. She pulled her bonnet over her eyes and tromped through the snow to the hen house from memory. The winter wind was stinging her face as she reached the hen house door. Tied to the handle was a yellow ribbon with its tails whipping in the wind and showing signs of frost. It looked like it had been there for hours. Emma couldn’t imagine who would have done such a thing. As she untied the ribbon to open the door, she put it in her pocket to show Mamm when she went back.
She didn’t waste any time gathering eggs, breaking the ice from the chicken waterer and adding scratch to the feeders. Eggs in the winter were far and few between, but she found a few scattered in the nest boxes and added them to her basket. Making her way back to the house, she noticed wagon tracks in the snow in front of the hen house. Who on earth would be pulling a wagon in this kind of weather? By the looks of the footprints and wagon marks, whoever did it tied the door shut with the ribbon. Good thing her datt kept the driveway plowed for his English customers or whoever was pulling that wagon would have had a hard time through the snow.
Back in the kitchen, Emma saw her mamm had already packed her lunch pail with the leftover stew from last night. The round red tin of cookies was on top so she wouldn’t forget them. Anna and Rebecca had set the table for breakfast, and both were leaning on the counter, looking at a yarn magazine. Placing the egg basket on the counter and shaking the snow from her bonnet, Emma hung her coat on the peg and headed to the stove to warm her hands over the steaming teapot. It had just started to whistle when her bruder Matthew and her datt came in the back door. Taking the hot water to the table to fill her mamm’s teacup, she started to tell them about the yellow ribbon, but Rebecca pushed a magazine in front of her face, chattering about how she wanted to dye her alpaca fiber the same color as the blue yarn on the page.
When her datt cleared his throat, signaling morning prayer was over, it only took Rebecca a second before she was back monopolizing the conversation, leaving no chance for Emma to tell her family about what she had found tied to the hen house. Discouraged, she mumbled a goodbye and shut the door a little too forcefully when she left for school.
Turning left at the end of the driveway, she pulled the yellow ribbon from her pocket. She hadn’t noticed before, but there was writing on it. It looked like someone had taken a black Sharpie and written words on one end of the ribbon. She stopped alongside the road, put her lunch box down, and pulled the ribbon straight out so she could read what it said. Clearly written in perfect penmanship were the words, “It’s too soon.” She shook her head, trying to make sense of the words and the ribbon. Putting it back in her pocket, Emma picked up her lunch box and started walking faster toward Katie’s house.
As she crested the hill that separated her parents’ house from Katie’s, she saw her friend waiting beside the Yoder’s Strawberry Acres sign at the end of her driveway.
“What took you so long? I didn’t think you’d ever get here,” Katie said, hopping up and down to keep the blood circulating. “It’s cold and we need to get to school where it’s warm!”
As they walked side by side, Emma excitedly told her about making her favorite cookies and the yellow ribbon she had found tied to the door of the hen house. They both tried to figure out what the words meant and who would do such a thing.
They were almost to school when Emma stopped suddenly. “Where’s Samuel?”
Samuel was Katie’s older brother. He always walked them to school on his way to work at the Mast Lumber Mill. Emma was so caught up in the yellow ribbon she didn’t even think to ask about him earlier.
Katie shook her head and shrugged. “He was up and out the door before sunrise this morning. He said he had something to take care of and wouldn’t be able to walk us to school.”
~~
“Looks like they are planning for a game of Fox and Geese today,” Katie said as they walked through the schoolyard. The neatly shoveled shape of a spoked wheel made a deep path in the snow just waiting for the fox to chase the geese.
“No games for us at lunch today, we have the mystery of the yellow ribbon to solve,” Emma replied.
Everyone was already in their seats as the girls made their way through the schoolhouse doors. Miss Graber was just about ready to start the day. Trying not to be disruptive with their tardiness, they quickly hung up their coats and found their desks. As Miss Graber began to recite their morning scripture verse, Emma opened the top of her desk to retrieve her pad and pencil. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Someone had placed a bag of chocolate kisses, tied with the same yellow ribbon in the top of her desk. She looked around the room to see if anyone was looking her way and when she noticed no one was, she quietly pulled the bag out of her desk and placed it on her lap. Keeping one eye on the teacher and one eye on the chocolates, she untied the ribbon and stretched it so she could read the message written on it. In the same perfect penmanship, she read, “But someday.”
Emma was more confused than ever. She couldn’t wait for lunch so she could talk to Katie.
Taking a break in the middle of their English lesson, Miss Graber excused the children long enough to heat anything in their lunch pails on the stove before lunch. Carrying her container to the front of the room, Emma passed Katie’s desk.
“I found another yellow ribbon in my desk,” she whispered, leaning down to her friend’s desk.
“What could it mean?” Katie whispered back.
“I have no idea, but hopefully we can figure it out at lunch.”
The thirty minutes before lunch dragged on, and Emma spent more time watching the clock than concentrating on her lessons. When the teacher finally dismissed them, it was all she could do to get her lunch from the stove and find a quiet spot where she and Katie could talk. Most of the students were anxious to eat and get outside, even in the cold, so no one paid any mind to two girls who wanted to be by themselves. Sitting at the back of the room on a bench reserved for disruptive students, they started comparing the ribbons as they ate.
“Someone is trying to tell you something, but what?” Katie asked.
“I don’t know! I keep looking around the room to see if anyone is looking my way but nothing,” Emma replied. “There has to be a meaning, but it beats me to figure it out.”
Talking about what the ribbons could mean and how someone could get into her desk without anyone seeing them was a mystery they couldn’t figure out. They spent their whole lunch break trying to solve the case of the yellow ribbons.
As Miss Graber rang the bell for the students to come in, Emma neatly folded the ribbons, placed them inside her lunch pail, and took her seat back at her desk. For now, the mystery of the chocolate kisses and the yellow ribbon messages would have to wait.
With both ribbons tucked away, Emma tried to concentrate on her schoolwork. Toward the end of the day, Miss Graber gave them permission to pass out their Valentine’s Day treats and exchange cards. It was always a fun time of the year. By February winter had long set in and the cold, dreary days meant everyone could use something fun to look forward to. Valentine’s Day was all the class had been talking about all week. As each of them compared their cards and enjoyed their cookies and chocolates, Miss Graber told them she was dismissing them early so they could go home and play outside before it got dark. The whole class erupted in a loud cheer, then busily gathered their treats and raced to the pegs at the back of the room to put on their coats and leave.
Snow began falling lightly as Emma and Katie made their way home. They excitedly talked about going ice skating on Duck Pond after they got their chores done. At the end of Katie’s driveway, the girls said goodbye and decided where to meet in an hour. When Emma got home, her datt’s buggy was gone, and her mamm and schwesters were nowhere to be found. A note on the kitchen table said they had gone to the Mercantile and would be back shortly. Mamm had instructed her to peel potatoes for supper and set the table. Emma realized she would need to go out to the Furniture Shop and ask her datt for permission to go skating after she finished her chores. Just as she was about to go down to the basement to get a basket of potatoes, she heard a strange noise coming from the mudroom.
When she opened the door, she saw a big wicker picnic basket with a big yellow ribbon tied to the handle. The noise was coming from the basket. Emma knelt down and carefully peeked inside. As she opened the lid, a little chocolate lab came barreling out and jumped into her lap. Emma fell backward, the puppy covering her face with licks and kisses. She wrapped her arms around the puppy, holding it close. Right away, she noticed the puppy was wearing a yellow collar, from which dangled a tag with the name “SOMEDAY” engraved on it. The yellow ribbon and the bag of chocolate kisses had been leading to this Valentine’s Day surprise, she was sure of it. But who could have given her such a gift?
She crossed her legs and let the puppy sit on her lap as she smiled at the events of the day. For a day that had started cold and dreary, it sure was ending up full of mystery and excitement. Whoever left her this beautiful gift must have known she needed something to brighten this cold winter day and ‘Someday’ was just what she needed to warm her heart — truly a Valentine’s Day to remember.
Grabbing her coat and running across the yard to the Furniture Shop, she let Someday chase her heels as his little brown nose and short brown legs fought to maneuver the snow. She had to find out if Datt had any idea who left this surprise in the mudroom. Pushing the shop door open and keeping it open long enough for her little friend to follow, she stomped the snow off her boots and headed to the back of the shop.
Hearing the commotion, Jacob looked up from the table he was sanding and saw Emma and the little ball of brown snow moving toward him.
“What do we have here?” Datt wore a puzzled smile.
“He was in a basket in the mudroom when I got home from school. I came out to see if you had any idea who could have left him.”
“I’ve been pretty busy today and haven’t left the shop all day. Your mamm and schwesters have been gone most of the day helping Mary Kaufman get her house ready for church on Sunday, for sure and certain I have no idea.”
Talking a mile a minute, she explained how she found a ribbon on the henhouse door that morning and another one in her desk at school.
“What could it mean?” Emma stopped to take a breath.
“I have no idea other than it sounds like you have a secret admirer. I’m not sure what your mamm is going to say about our newest family member. You better make a place for him in the barn, I’m sure he won’t be welcomed in the haus.
“But, it’s so cold in the barn, couldn’t he just stay in the mudroom?”
“I’ll let your mamm have the final word on that.”
Emma’s mind clicked into another gear. “I almost forgot. Can I go ice skating after I get my chores done? Katie is going to meet me at Duck Pond, I’ll take Someday with me. Maybe Katie can help me figure out who my secret admirer is.”
“It sounds like whoever left you encrypted messages today doesn’t feel it’s the right time to reveal themselves to you just yet,” Datt said. “Sometimes you have to wait on Gott for the answers you’re seeking. He will reveal them to you in His own time, not yours.”
Emma thought for a bit, then nodded. She’d heard Datt and Mamm say that before. “You’re right; I’ll just trust that Gott will give me the answers when He sees fit.”
She rushed through her chores and then grabbed her skates, taking Someday with her to meet Katie.
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