27
Levi Up a Tree

It was a rainy, blustery day and the children had to play indoors at recess in the basement. Lily and her friends jumped rope but the boys couldn’t decide on anything. They were tossing around ideas. “If it wasn’t raining it would be good weather to fly a kite,” Levi said.

“But it is raining,” Aaron Yoder pointed out with a sneer. “Hey, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we build kites that we could fly once it stops raining?”

The boys rallied behind that idea. Ezra Yoder started to give out instructions. He took some of the kindling and made wooden strips. He told two boys to run upstairs to ask Teacher Rhoda for some plastic shopping bags and needle and thread.

“Hold on!” Levi said. “I don’t sew. That’s girl work.”

“Come on, Levi,” Ezra said. “We always sew our own kites at home.”

“Not me,” Levi said. He turned to his sister. “Hannah, we need you and the other girls to sew our kites.”

Hannah immediately dropped her end of the jump rope and it tangled up around Lily’s feet. She bent down to untangle it while the other girls hurried over to start sewing kites for the boys.

How ridiculous! Just because the boys snapped their fingers, the silly girls jumped. Lily was disappointed. She hated to sew by hand, and she especially did not want to sew for any boy. Maybe she would help Joseph. But no other boys, not even Cousin Levi.

But jumping rope alone wasn’t much fun. Finally, she moseyed over to where the girls were gathered. Ezra had tied kindling strips firmly together with baling twine and the girls set to work to try to sew the plastic bags over them. It was frustrating work for Lily. She tried to make the plastic bag taut around the tied kindling strips but it kept slipping out of place when she jabbed her needle into it. Even the older girls seemed to be having a hard time doing it, but they didn’t seem to mind like Lily did. They talked and giggled at dumb things the boys said. Lily was disgusted. She thought the boys should make their own stupid kites. They were the ones who wanted them in the first place.

When Teacher Rhoda rang the bell, Lily dropped the kite she had been working on, happy to go to her desk and face math. Even studying percentages in arithmetic was better than hand sewing a plastic bag.

The next day was perfect kite weather. The sun shone and the wind whipped through the trees. The boys were eager to try out their new kites. They spent the first recess putting finishing touches on them, including tails made from an old sheet. By lunchtime, they were ready to try them out.

“I have the best kite,” Levi said in his loud, look-at-me voice.

Aaron rolled his eyes. “We haven’t even tried them out yet. We won’t know who has the best until we see how they fly.”

The girls watched as the boys held their kites and started to run, then let them go. Most of them nosedived into the ground behind them instead of lifting in the air and flying like a kite was supposed to do. Levi’s kite, though, picked up the wind and started to drift higher and higher. Levi ran along under it, carefully releasing more and more string. The kite rose up and up, only to tangle in the branches of an oak tree at the edge of the school yard.

Levi ran to the tree, grabbed a low branch and hitched himself up on it. Then he started to climb, branch by branch.

Ezra cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted up to him. “Levi, you can’t get that kite down. It’s too high.”

Levi looked down at Ezra and the other children who were gathering at the base of the tree, watching him. “Maybe for you, but I can easily get to it. I’m the best tree climber in the school.”

Lily just knew this was a bad idea. She held her breath as she watched Levi climb higher and higher. He loved an audience and now he had one. He would never come down until he got that kite. All the other children stood with heads craned back, watching him with bated breath, waiting to see if he might fall. No one cared about the kites anymore. They wanted to see if Levi could climb to the top of the tree.

From the steps of the schoolhouse, Teacher Rhoda called out, “Levi! I want you to come down right away. That kite isn’t worth breaking your neck!”

But did Levi listen to her? No. He kept on climbing. The higher he climbed, the smaller the branches. Finally, Levi reached the top of the tree, close to the kite. It was caught on the tip of one of the branches. He inched his way out toward it. Nobody moved, nobody spoke, nobody breathed. Lily thought she heard a creaking sound. Levi reached his hand out to grab the kite and SNAP! The little branch he was hanging onto broke loose.

It seemed as if Levi fell in slow motion. His arms and legs flailed and he began to scream—a sound Lily would never forget. She squeezed her eyes shut and held her hands over her ears. She couldn’t bear to watch. Then there was an awful thud as he hit the ground—so awful that even her hands over her ears couldn’t muffle the sound. She opened her eyes to see Levi crumpled in a heap on the ground.

“He’s dead!” Effie screamed. Then Hannah started to wail and all the other girls started crying with her. Sympathy criers.

Teacher Rhoda ran over to Levi. He wasn’t moving. His eyes were closed. His legs were twisted at odd angles. Maybe Effie was right. He did seem surely dead. Teacher Rhoda looked up at Ezra. “Go to Ben Stoltzfus across the road and tell him we need to take Levi to the hospital right away.”

Ezra Yoder ran to get help. Teacher Rhoda sat on the ground and spoke in a gentle voice to Levi. Lily patted Hannah’s back. She didn’t know what to say or to do about poor, dead Levi. Then Levi started to moan, which was a great relief. He wasn’t quite as dead as everyone had thought.

Minutes that seemed like hours went by before Ezra returned with Ben Stoltzfus. “Try to hold still, Levi,” Ben said when Levi’s eyes flickered open. “I called one of your neighbors to bring your parents to school. They should be here soon.”

A big station wagon drove into the school yard and Uncle Elmer jumped out of the passenger side. Uncle Elmer ran over to Levi and asked him where it hurt.

“Everywhere,” Levi said to his father. “But my legs hurt the worst.”

“I think we need to call an ambulance. I don’t want to risk lifting you and hurting you even more.” Uncle Elmer went over to speak to Mr. Beal, the neighbor who’d driven the station wagon.

Mr. Beal drove Ben Stoltzfus to the phone shanty to call an ambulance while Uncle Elmer stayed with Levi.

Teacher Rhoda let the children stay outside until the ambulance came. Then she shooed everyone out of the way. Two men in uniforms gently slipped a stretcher under Levi and lifted him into the back of the ambulance. Uncle Elmer climbed in and they headed to the hospital.

The students couldn’t concentrate on their lessons for the rest of the day so Teacher Rhoda let everyone read silently at their desk. She seemed worried, too. Poor Levi.

Both of Levi’s legs had been broken, badly. He was in a wheelchair and wouldn’t be able to return to school for quite some time. Each evening, Teacher Rhoda packed up schoolwork and sent it home with Hannah so Levi could keep up.

Recess seemed strange without Levi and his endless bragging. Actually, it was nice! Whenever Lily thought about the difference Levi’s absence made on the school yard, she felt little pinches of guilt. She should be feeling sad for his broken legs, not glad he wasn’t at school. She should—but sometimes it was hard to tell your feelings to behave.

On Friday afternoon, Teacher Rhoda handed out blank sheets of sturdy paper. “I want each one of you to make a scrapbook sheet for Levi. You can draw pictures, write poems or riddles, stories, or anything you think he might enjoy seeing. Next week, we’ll walk over to visit him and bring him the scrapbook.”

Lily set right to work. She liked to draw flowers, but Levi was a boy. He wouldn’t appreciate her flowers. She thought of riddles, but he had heard most of them. Finally, she drew a few trees. At their base, she drew a little pile of logs with flames on them. Levi liked campfires.

When the students had finished, Teacher Rhoda made a cover to hold all the pages together, like a real book. On the front, she wrote “Get Well Soon” in her beautiful cursive handwriting.

On Monday afternoon, as soon as lunch was over, Teacher Rhoda announced that it was time to visit Levi. She asked Ezra Yoder to lead the way. She had the children walk single file behind Ezra, lined up by age, and then she followed at the end of the line. Lily thought it looked like the Canada geese in Uncle Elmer’s pond. They walked single file with the Papa Goose in front and the Mama Goose at the end and all the baby goslings safely in between. Lily felt like quacking loudly but with Effie right in front of her, she decided not to. She would be scolded for not acting ladylike.

Levi was happy to have company. Aunt Mary hurried to prepare cookies and milk for everyone. Teacher Rhoda lined the students up on the front yard. They were going to sing two songs, Levi’s favorites.

After they sang and ate their snack, it was time to present the scrapbook to Levi. Teacher Rhoda handed it to him and said, “We all miss you in school.”

That was very nice of Teacher Rhoda to say, even though no one really did miss him. Ouch! Lily felt another prick of guilt, as real as a pin jab.

Levi looked through the book, pleased. Then Teacher Rhoda herded everyone together to walk back to school.

“Time to pretend we’re baby geese again,” Lily muttered to Hannah.

Lavina Schrock, a second grader, overheard her. She told her friends and soon the younger children started quacking. “Quack, quack!” More and more children joined in. “Quack, quack, quack!” Lily helped too and soon everyone was walking and quacking all the way back to school, even the big boys. Teacher Rhoda couldn’t stop grinning.

For Levi’s sake, Lily did hope that his legs would mend soon so that he could return to school. But that would mean he’d be back to the school yard with his tiresome one-upmanship.

Ouch! Another prick.

Still, the quacking line had been fun. It had been the best part of the day.