On a Friday afternoon, Teacher Rhoda told the students to put away their books for recess. It was the first warm day of spring, and the sunshine was beckoning for the students to come play in it. Lily couldn’t wait to run outside.
Instead, Teacher Rhoda made a terrible announcement. “It’s time for some serious cleaning of the schoolhouse,” she said cheerfully. Aaron Yoder groaned out loud. Sam Stoltzfus clunked his head against his desk.
Teacher Rhoda drew a box from her bottom drawer. It held little pieces of paper with all the cleaning chores written on them. One by one, the children walked up to her desk and drew a slip of paper out of the box. Lily was very disappointed that recess would be spent cleaning, but she hoped at the very least that she would get to dust the erasers or wash the blackboard. Those were her two favorite chores. Her least favorite was to mop the floor and her very least favorite was to clean the basement. She shuddered. Too many spiders in the basement.
Oh no! Lily’s paper read “Clean the basement.” She would have to sweep it, shake the rugs, and then dump buckets of water on the floor and sweep it down the drain. Awful!
Then came even worse news. Aaron Yoder drew the same assignment. He and Lily would have to work together in the basement. The happiness she had felt about this beautiful sunny day plunged. It was turning into a terrible day.
As soon as everyone had their assigned chores, the children got right to work. Some children swept the schoolhouse, while others waited to mop until they were done. Some washed windows and scrubbed down the shelves that held the lunch boxes. Feeling sorry for herself, Lily trudged down the stairs to join horrible Aaron and sweep the basement.
Silently, Aaron and Lily set to work. Lily swept as fast as she could, sweeping up a dust cloud in the air. Aaron held the dustpan for her while she swept the big dirt pile into it. Next it was time to wash the floor. They filled several buckets with water and swooshed it over the floor. They swished their brooms back and forth, back and forth, scrubbing as they went. It was a blur of motion, and they didn’t talk to each other, didn’t even look at each other. So far, so good.
As usual, Aaron had to ruin everything. “I’m going to make you topple right over.” He started swishing the broom toward Lily’s feet.
Lily did the best she could to try to ignore him. She kept moving her feet away from Aaron’s broom, but then he hit her feet hard. She slipped on the wet floor and fell down hard, hitting her head as she fell. Lily lay flat on the floor, trying to catch her breath.
“Uh-oh. Are you dead?” Aaron peered down at her, looking scared. He dropped his broom and bolted up the basement stairs and out to the school yard.
She hated Aaron Yoder. He was the meanest person on this earth. She would never speak to him again. Never.
Teacher Rhoda came down to the basement and saw Lily, splayed out on the floor. “What happened?” she asked as she helped Lily to her feet. The back of Lily’s dress was soaking wet.
In a teary, angry voice, Lily told Teacher Rhoda that Aaron had made her fall on purpose.
Aaron was peeping in at them through the window. When he saw that they noticed him, he ran away. Teacher Rhoda went to the door and opened it. “Aaron! Come in here.” She turned to Lily. “You can go upstairs.”
As Lily went upstairs, she hoped Teacher Rhoda would let Aaron have it. She hoped his parents would be called in and told that their son couldn’t be in school anymore. He would be expelled. He deserved it!
Soon—too soon—Teacher Rhoda came up the stairs. She went to Lily and said in a low voice, “Go down to the basement. Aaron has something he wants to say to you.”
No! Lily didn’t want to hear anything from Aaron. She only wanted him to get in trouble. But it wouldn’t be right to say such a thing to Teacher Rhoda. She walked back down to the basement—but slowly. Aaron sat next to the sandbox, scooping sand in his hand and letting it go. When he saw Lily, he rose to his feet. “I’m sorry I made you fall over.” Then a tight look came over his face as he choked out the words, “And I’ll try to be nicer to you from now on.”
Lily wasn’t sure how to respond. She didn’t want to say that she forgave him because that would be a lie. She would never forgive the worst person on earth. She whispered a quiet and hostile “Fine!” and hurried back up the stairs to safety.
It was a good thing that her thoughts could stay private. What she was really thinking was, I’ll believe that when I see it, you awful, horrible boy.