19
Frozen Dannie

Lily looked longingly out the kitchen window. Snow swirled in thin, dancing ribbons through the trees. A light layer dusted the ground. The first snowfall of the year, and it was only the first week of December. She was aching to run out and play in the snow. Joseph and Dannie were already making little paths in it. Then they would pretend the paths were roads and run along them.

If only Saturday cleaning didn’t have to be done every week. Then Lily could be out playing with them instead of dusting the furniture.

Upstairs, Mama was rocking baby Paul to sleep. Lily knew that as soon as Mama came back downstairs, she would have more chores in mind. She quickly whisked the dusting cloth over the front of Papa’s big rolltop desk, dropped the cloth on his chair, and tiptoed quietly down the basement stairs.

She slipped into her coat and boots and ran outside. Joseph and Dannie were delighted to see her. After making a few more paths in the snow they decided to play horse. Dannie was youngest, so he would be the first to be a horse. Lily found her jumping rope on the porch and put it across Dannie’s shoulders and under his arms. Joseph held the end of the rope and clucked “giddyup,” and they trotted down one of the paths. Lily waited patiently for her turn, watching under the pine tree until they came back. The pine tree was the pretend barn. Its branches almost touched the ground on three sides. On the other side was the big air tank. The hook on the end made a nice place to tie their pretend horse.

When the boys came back, Joseph looped the rope through the hook. Dannie neighed and tried to paw his feet like a real horse. “The snow on the tank will be our pretend hay,” Lily said.

Dannie licked a little. “It’s good!” He licked some more.

Lily was getting ready to harness up Joseph when she heard a weird noise. Dannie had licked a patch of snow all the way down to the air tank. His tongue was stuck to it!

“Hold still while I get Mama,” Lily said. She ran as fast as she could to the house, quickly kicked off her boots, and ran up the basement stairs. “Mama, Mama! Dannie needs you.”

Mama had been mopping the floor and quickly put the mop back into the pail of water. “What’s wrong with Dannie?”

“His tongue is stuck to the air tank,” Lily said.

Mama quickly filled a pitcher with water. “Stay in the house in case Paul wakes up.”

From the living room window, Lily watched Mama run to the air tank to rescue Dannie. Before she could reach him, Dannie fell to the ground with a howl. He cried so loud she was sure baby Paul would wake up and start to wail.

Mama scooped Dannie up in her arms and carried him back to the house. As soon as they got inside, Lily asked if she could see Dannie’s tongue.

Dannie stuck it out, in between sobs, and Lily gasped. She squeezed her eyes shut. Dannie’s tongue was skinned and raw. Joseph examined the tongue. “He’ll never be able to eat again,” he said confidently, which made Dannie cry louder.

“Yes, Joseph, he will,” Mama said.

“How could Dannie ever taste anything with his taste buds torn off?” Lily asked.

“His tongue will heal,” Mama said. “It will hurt for a while, but after it’s healed he should be able to taste and eat just fine.”

At lunchtime, Papa put all of Dannie’s food through Paul’s baby food grinder. He would have to eat baby food until his tongue had healed enough to eat real food.

Lily felt a tiny bit responsible for Dannie’s tongue accident. If she had stayed inside instead of sneaking out to play, Joseph and Dannie might not have thought of playing horse. If she hadn’t said that the snow on the tank could be pretend hay, Dannie might not have thought to lick the snow off the air tank. But then she decided not to feel too badly. One thing she had learned about brothers—they were always thinking up things they shouldn’t be doing.